A secondary prevention trial of antioxidant vitamins and cardiovascular disease in women. Rationale, design, and methods. The WACS Research Group

The evidence for a potential benefit of antioxidant vitamins in the prevention and therapy of atherosclerotic disease is derived from laboratory, clinical, and observational epidemiologic studies but remains inconclusive. Data from randomized clinical trials are sparse, particularly for women. Therefore, it is both timely and important to conduct large-scale primary and secondary prevention trials of antioxidants and cardiovascular disease (CVD). The Women's Antioxidant and Cardiovascular Study (WACS) is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled secondary prevention trial of the balance of benefits and risks of antioxidant vitamins (vitamins E and C, and beta-carotene) among 8000 women with preexisting CVD. This secondary prevention trial will be conducted as a companion to the recently started Women's Health Study, a primary prevention trial of vitamin E and beta-carotene, as well as aspirin. In the WACS, US female health professionals aged 40 years and older with a history of myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, coronary revascularization, stroke, transient cerebral ischemia, carotid endarterectomy, or peripheral artery surgery will be randomly assigned, utilizing a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design, to receive vitamin E, vitamin C, beta-carotene, and/or placebo. Cardiovascular end points include nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, coronary revascularization procedures, and total CVD mortality. The present article describes the rationale, design, and methods of the trial.     

Rapid growth of an intracranial aneurysm causing apparent retrobulbar optic neuritis

We describe a 31-year-old man who developed sudden painful loss of vision in the right eye and was found to have a retrobulbar optic neuropathy. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging gave normal results, and a diagnosis of retrobulbar optic neuritis was made. The patient was treated with oral prednisone, but he continued to lose vision in the right eye and then began to lose vision in the left eye. Repeat MR imaging performed eight weeks after the initial study showed a giant intracranial aneurysm compressing the right and left optic nerves. Cerebral angiography revealed that the aneurysm arose from the origin of the right ophthalmic artery. Treatment of the aneurysm by a trapping procedure resulted in improvement in vision in the left eye but no change in vision in the right eye. This report emphasizes the difficulty in imaging intracranial aneurysms of various sizes, the rapidity with which intracranial aneurysms can enlarge, and the importance of continued follow-up examinations in patients thought to have idiopathic optic neuritis.     

Prospects for lithium imaging using annular bright field scanning transmission electron microscopy: a theoretical study

There is strong interest in lithium imaging, particularly because of its significance in battery materials. However, light atoms only scatter electrons weakly and atomic resolution direct imaging of lithium has proven difficult. This paper explores theoretically the conditions under which lithium columns can be expected to be directly visible using annular bright field scanning transmission electron microscopy. A detailed discussion is given of the controllable parameters and the conditions most favourable for lithium imaging.     

Mechanical effects of different localization of the point of entry in femoral nailing

Treatments of Chinese hamster V79 cells during one cell cycle with a new type of topoisomerase II inhibitor, ICRF-193, which does not accumulate cleavable topoisomerase-DNA complexes induced both chromosome- and chromatid-type aberrations with high frequencies. Furthermore, ICRF-193 synergistically enhanced the yield of UVB-induced chromatid-type aberrations, chromatid exchanges in particular. Treated with ICRF-193 for the last 3 h before harvest, cells showed frequent incidence of chromatid-type aberrations and synergistic enhancement of UVB-induced chromatid-type aberrations, chromatid exchanges in particular. These results suggest that spontaneous and UVB-induced lesions might be ultimately transformed into chromatid-type aberrations by topoisomerase II-dependent checkpoint process(es) in the G2 phase of the cell cycle.