Health hazards associated with windsurfing on polluted water.

We documented the risks associated with windsurfing on sewage polluted water. Seventy-nine windsurfers and 41 controls were studied over a nine-day period for occurrence of symptoms of gastroenteritis, otitis, conjunctivitis, and skin infection. Relative risks were 2.9 for occurrence of one or more of these symptoms and 5.5 for symptoms of gastroenteritis. Relative risk increased with the reported number of falls into the water.     

Pigmentary type of orthochromatic leukodystrophy (OLD): a new case with ultrastructural and biochemical study

A 34-year-old woman with no family history of orthochromatic leukodystrophy (OLD) developed progressive intellectual deterioration, a frontal syndrome and spastic tetraparesis. She died four years after the onset of the clinical illness. Neuropathological studies included light and electron microscopy of cerebral and nerve biopsies, and a complete postmortem examination. Light microscopy demonstrated OLD with pigmented macrophages and glial cells. Electron microscopy showed electron-dense, membrane-bound intracytoplasmic lamellar inclusions with curved or straight parallel arrangement, or fingerprint pattern, in white matter macrophages, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. Cortical cells contained lipofuscin which was normal in type and amount. This suggests that the material in white matter glial cells and macrophages is ceroid pigment, however, the distribution is not that seen in ceroid-lipofuscinosis. Similar inclusions have been found in oligodendrocytes in other forms of OLD. Biochemical study did not show evidence of demyelination. Galactolipids were normal. Polyunsaturated fatty acids were decreased. The most striking feature was an increase in plasmalogens.     

Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease: Medical or surgical treatment? Report of an interactive workshop

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is the most common disease of the upper gastrointestinal tract. With the introduction of proton pump inhibitors medical treatment of GERD has been significantly improved. However, the development of laparoscopic antireflux surgery resulted in an increasing interest of surgeons in this disease. An interactive meeting was organized in order to develop an agreement between gastoenterologists and surgeons regarding therapeutic decisions and this is the main topic of this paper.     

Diethylnitrosamine administration in vivo increases hepatic poly(ADP-ribose) levels in rats: results of a modified technique for poly(ADP-ribose) measurement

Poly(ADP-ribose) (polymer) is enzymatically synthesized on nuclearproteins in response to DNA strand breaks. NAD⁺ is the substratefor this reaction, which is catalyzed by Poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase.This post-translational modification occurs in response to DNAstrand breaks and is thought to play an important role in DNArepair. Polymer synthesis resulting from DNA damage has beendescribed in cultured cells, but measurement is more difficultin animal tissues. In this study, modifications were made toan earlier method to measure carcinogen-induced increases inpolymer levels in vivo. RNase I was added to the enzyme mixtureused to digest polymer to ribosyladenosine (RAdo). This preventedthe inhibition of snake venom phosphodiesterase by RNA. TheHPLC analysis was improved, allowing elimination of the secondboronate affinity chromatography step traditionally used topurify