Sarcoidosis manifesting as uveitis and menometrorrhagia

PURPOSE: To report a rare systemic manifestation of sarcoidosis identified in a 47-year-old white woman while she was undergoing evaluation for bilateral recurrent uveitis. METHODS: The patient underwent clinical and laboratory evaluation for bilateral recurrent uveitis including serologic and radiologic testing, a gallium scan, and an endometrial biopsy. RESULTS: Although the serologic tests and chest x-ray were normal, the gallium scan was consistent with sarcoidosis, and the endometrial biopsy provided a tissue diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Sarcoidosis involving the female reproductive tract is rare. A thorough review of systems is crucial in the evaluation of any patient with recurrent uveitis.     

Dursban revisited: birth defects, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Centers for Disease Control

A previously fit 37-year-old woman was admitted with acute left ventricular failure, atrial fibrillation and a left-sided thromboembolic stroke. Her ventricular rate progressively increased despite full digitalisation. She had a cardiac arrest and was successfully resuscitated. Investigations revealed evidence of hyperthyroidism and she was treated for thyrotoxic crisis. She has made a complete recovery from the hemiparesis and is now in sinus rhythm. She denied any symptoms of hyperthyroidism. This patient had apathetic thyroid crisis, which is exceedingly rare in the young.     

Corrosion of a stainless steel handrail

AISI 304 and 304L stainless steels are “workhores” grades of austenitic stainless steel frequently used in architectural applications, as well as in cookware, appliances, and numerous other applications where resistance to corrosion is required. This paper examines a corrosion failure (the appearance of rustlike stains on the surface) of a 304 stainless steel handrail that appears to have occurred as a result of contamination during the fabrication process.     

Hole Doping and Inhomogeneous Charge Distribution in High Tc Cuprates Investigated from First Principles

To understand the link between doping and electronic properties in the high-temperature superconductors, we have performed first-principles calculations for several representatives of high T _c compounds. In the single-layer cuprate HgBa₂CuO₄ the excess oxygen attracts electrons from the CuO₂ plane leading to an increase of the hole concentration in this building block, where the maximum amount of holes is reached when the dopant oxygen shell is closed. The usage of supercells allows to study the inhomogeneous charge distribution as a function of doping, i.e. from the underdoped up to the overdoped regime. Comparison is made with other compounds like Ba-doped La₂CuO₄ and oxygen-deficient YBa₂Cu₃O_7–x . The effects of our findings on superconductivity are discussed.     

HPV-16 E7 protein bypasses keratinocyte growth inhibition by serum and calcium

The E6 and E7 genes of HPV-16 or HPV-18 both are necessary for effective immortalization of primary human genital keratinocytes. To analyse the individual role of E6 and E7 genes in dysregulating cell growth, we cloned the HPV-16 E6, E7 and E6/E7 genes into retroviruses. Primary human keratinocytes (PHK) were then infected with these retroviruses and selected in differentiation-inducing medium (high calcium and serum). The E6/E7 retroviruses were the most effective at inducing differentiation-resistant colonies. Intermediate numbers of colonies were induced by E6 and low numbers by E7. Interestingly, only cultures infected with E7 and E6/E7 retroviruses showed a significant proportion of cells progressing into the S phase, consistent with our earlier studies showing that E7 is required for the efficient immortalization of genital keratinocytes. Accompanying this entry into S phase, the E7 or E6/E7 transduced cells expressed high levels of cyclins A, B and E, but lower levels of cyclin D. In addition, cdc-2, cdk-2 and cdk-4 were also increased. No significant differences were detected in the expression of c-myc and c-fos between the vector and any of the transduced cells. Keratinocytes infected with the E7 retrovirus exhibited decreased levels of Rb protein and increased levels of p53, whereas cells infected with E6-expressing retroviruses displayed normal levels of Rb protein and decreased levels of p53. Finally, E7 induced a three-fold increase in bcl-2 expression. Our results indicate that the HPV-16 E7 gene alone is sufficient to bypass keratinoctye growth arrest induced by serum and calcium exposure and that the discordant expression of several cell regulatory proteins accompanies this unregulated proliferation.     

Percutaneous radiologic, surgical endoscopic, and percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy/gastrojejunostomy: comparative study and cost analysis

p27kip1 (p27) protein is an inhibitor of cyclin and cyclin-dependent kinase complexes and prevents progression of cells from G1 to the S phase of the cell cycle. p27 might have tumor suppressor activity, and decreased p27 expression is associated with aggressive tumor behavior in several human malignancies. The object of this study was to evaluate p27 expression in prostatic adenocarcinoma treated by radical prostatectomy and to assess its association with numerous morphologic and clinical features. One hundred thirty-eight prostatic adenocarcinomas were evaluated for p27 expression by quantifying nuclear immunohistochemical staining. p27 expression was tested for association with patient age, family history of prostate cancer, preoperative serum prostate-specific antigen level, Gleason score, extraprostatic extension, seminal vesicle involvement, lymph node metastases, tumor-node-metastasis stage, DNA ploidy by flow cytometric analysis, and subclinical biochemical failure. p27 expression was analyzed as a continuous variable, and we also classified the tumors as low expressors (< 50% of cells p27 positive) or high expressors (> 50% of cells p27 positive) for comparison. Patients with adenocarcinomas that exhibited low p27 expression had higher mean Gleason scores than did high expressors (7 vs. 6.2, respectively; P = .002). Low p27 expression correlated with positive surgical margins (P = .05), seminal vesicle involvement (P = .007), lymph node metastasis (P = .03), and aneuploid cancers (P = .003), but it did not correlate with subclinical biochemical failure. p27 expression correlated with a number of prognostic morphologic features in prostatic adenocarcinoma, and the evaluation of p27 expression might provide additional prognostic information.     

Elimination of the sidewall defects in selective epitaxial growth(SEG) of silicon for a dielectric isolation technology

Selective epitaxial growth (SEG) of silicon has not had widespread use as a dielectric isolation technology due to the near sidewall defects at the SiO₂/Si interface. These defects are located in the first 1-2 μm of the SEG/sidewall SiO₂ interface. Diode junctions intersecting the sidewall and 5 μm removed from the sidewall were fabricated in SEG material using thermally grown silicon dioxide (OX) and thermally nitrided thermal silicon dioxide (NOX) as the field insulating mask. Averaged over 16 devices of each type, diodes fabricated with NOX had much better low current I-V characteristics and minimum ideality factors (1.03) than diodes fabricated with OX field oxides (1.23). Junctions intersecting the NOX field insulator had nearly identical characteristics to bulk SEG     

Pentoxifylline inhibits hypoxia-induced upregulation of tumor cell tissue factor and vascular endothelial growth factor

The aim of this study was to compare the performance of CT and MRI in the diagnosis of longitudinal stress fracture of the tibia (LSFT). A retrospective study of imaging findings was performed in 15 patients with LSFT. The CT and MR images were compared for detection of fracture line, callus, bone marrow edema, and soft tissues changes. The CT and MRI techniques allowed the detection of the fracture line in 82 and 73 % of cases, respectively. The callus was always visualized with CT or MRI. The MRI technique had a markedly higher sensitivity than CT in the detection of bone marrow edema (73 vs 18 %) and soft tissue lesions (87 vs 9 %). This may cause a misleading aggressive appearance on MRI. Computed tomography remains the best imaging modality for diagnosis of LSFT. However, MRI findings should be known to obviate the performance of CT or bone biopsy.