Correlation between serum levels of alanine aminotransferase and ferritin in male blood donors with antibody to hepatitis C virus

Chronic hepatitis C has been demonstrated to be associated with hepatic iron overload, and the hypothesis that the disease activity of hepatitis C is associated with iron cytotoxicity was tested in male volunteer blood donors. Sera with either antibody to hepatitis C virus or hepatitis B surface antigen were selected for determination of ferritin concentration and alanine aminotransferase activity. A correlation between serum ferritin concentration (Y; microgram/l) and alanine aminotransferase activity (X; IU/l) was found in donors with antibody to hepatitis C (log Y = 0.65 x log X + 0.98, r = 0.53, and P < 0.01). The correlation was lower in donors with hepatitis B surface antigen (r = 0.37; P < 0.01). Hepatitis C virus infection probably induces time-dependent iron accumulation associated with the progression of disease activity, while hepatitis B virus infection results in a variety of iron loads with different clinical features. The high disease activity related to hyperferritinemia suggests the presence of iron-induced liver damage in donors with hepatitis C.     

Cervical lymph nodes metastases from a pituitary carcinoma

Ipratropium bromide is a synthetic derivative of atropine with little absorption when used in inhalation, and therefore little secondary effects. The authors review its pharmacological properties and therapeutic efficacy in the treatment of asthma in children. Combined nebulized inhalation of ipratropium bromide and beta 2 sympathomimetic results in a more efficient and more sustained bronchodilatation than beta 2 sympathicomimetic alone in the treatment of acute asthma in children. Ipratropium bromide should be usefully introduced in the therapeutic scheme of acute asthma in children. Further studies will be necessary in order to determine its efficacy and tolerance in infants.     

The evolution of custom microarray manufacture

Given the enormous size of the genome and that there are potentially many other types of measurements we need to do to understand it, it has become necessary to pick and choose one's targets to measure because it is still impossible to evaluate the entire genome all at once. What has emerged is a need to have rapidly customizable microarrays. There are two dominant methods to accomplish custom microarray synthesis, Affymetrix-like microarrays manufactured using light projection rather than semiconductor-like masks used by Affymetrix to mass manufacture their GeneChip/sup TM/ arrays now, or the ink-jet printing method employed by Agilent. The manufacture of these custom Affymetrix-like microarrays can now be done on a digital optical chemistry (DOC) machine developed at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and this method offers much higher feature numbers and feature density than is possible with ink-jet printed arrays. On a microarray, each feature contains a single genetic measurement. The initial DOC prototype has been described in several publications, but that has now led to a second-generation machine. This machine reliably produces a number of arrays daily, has been deployed against a number of biomedical questions, is being used in new ways and has also led to a number of spin-off technologies.     

Use of166mHo for calibration of gamma-ray spectrometers with semiconductor detectors

Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 67, No. 3, pp. 215–216, September, 1989.     

Interdisciplinary research: roles for self-organization

No generally accepted principles and guidelines currently exist to help engineers design local interaction mechanisms that result in a desired global behavior. However, several communities have developed ways of approaching this problem in the context of niched application areas. Because the ideas underlying these approaches are often obscured or underemphasized in technical papers, the authors review the role of self-organization in their work. They provide a better picture of the status of the emerging field of self-organizing systems or autonomic computing.