Assessment of annihilation anxiety from projective tests

This report details procedures to measure annihilation anxiety, a concept derived from Freud's 1926 formulation of traumatic anxiety. A 25-item pencil-and-paper inventory administered to patient and to nonpatient samples is described, along with a brief summary of earlier findings. The delineation of nine interrelated experiential components of annihilation anxiety provides the background for the construction of Rorschach and TAT measures of the concept. Findings comparing the pencil-and-paper inventory and the projective test measures are presented as well as examples of responses judged to reflect annihilation anxiety from Rorschach and TAT protocols.     

Polymorphonuclear neutrophil granulocyte chemotactic hyperresponsiveness in a case of canine acromegaly

Growth hormone (GH) has recently been shown to affect polymorphonuclear neutrophil granulocyte (PMN) function and to be secreted by mononuclear cells, indicating that the hormone may be active in an immunophysiologic network, acting as an endo- or paracrine priming agent. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the chemotactic responsiveness of canine peripheral PMN in a dog with acromegaly, caused by spontaneous, progesterone-induced hypersecretion of GH and, secondary to this, a seven-fold increase in insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I). The chemotactic responsiveness towards zymosan-activated serum (ZAS) and leukotriene B4 (LTB4) was evaluated at a time when the dog suffered from acromegaly and again 57 days after corrective surgery (ovariohysterectomy). The experiments showed that PMN from the patient exhibited enhanced chemotactic migration that appeared to be associated with the hypersomatotropic condition as judged from the reversibility of the phenomenon. The glucose intolerance and elevated serum alkaline phosphatase that were observed in the acromegalic dog were also shown to be reversible following surgery.     

Potentiation of tumour necrosis factor-mediated cell killing by VP16 on human ovarian cancer cell lines. In vitro results and clinical implications

Synergism between recombinant human tumour necrosis factor (rHuTNF) and DNA topoisomerase II inhibitor VP16 during the killing of cells has been studied in six human ovarian cancer cell lines (A2774, A2780, SW626, IGROV-1, SKOV3, Pa1) and a cervical carcinoma cell line (Me180). Studies were performed using an assay of colony formation inhibition (drug treatment for 1 h) and a growth inhibition assay (continuous exposure for 20 h). Concomitant treatment of cells with VP16+rHuTNF enhanced cell killing in all the cell lines tested--an effect observed in both short- and long-term cytotoxicity assays. This study suggests that the activity of VP16 in ovarian cancer cell lines might be enhanced by rHuTNF in in vitro models.     

Effect of Freezer Programs on Real-Time Storage Results of Dissolution Profiles

Carstensen and Rhodes¹ have suggested that when, in stability programs, assays cannot be performed immediately after the protocol-designated storage time, then freezing them until such a time when assays can be performed would be a reasonable manner to retain the protocol schedule. They caution, however, that such a procedure may not be valid for dissolution data. The article to follow deals with real-time data showing that such a process is feasible for Nalidixic Acid tablets (and presumably for other tablets as well), and that, furthermore, the dissolution pattern would seem to be “frozen” as well.     

Influence of labour on epidermal growth factor receptor distribution of the human chorion at term gestation

Ten patients with biopsy verified chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection were treated with oral ribavirin at a dose of 1,000-1,200 mg per day in two divided doses for 12 weeks. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels and hepatitis C viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) levels in serum were followed prior to, during, and 12 weeks posttreatment. ALT levels decreased significantly in all patients during therapy from a mean level of 3.21 mukat/l (range 1.22 to 7.79) before, to 1.25 mukat/l (range 0.78 to 2.04) at the end of treatment (P < 0.005). Hereafter, relapse to pretreatment levels was seen within 12 weeks after treatment stop. The hepatitis C viral RNA levels decreased from a mean 10 log titer of 4.1 (range 1-6) before treatment to 3.4 (range 1-5) at treatment stop. Five patients did not change their HCV RNA titers during treatment. Twelve weeks posttreatment only 3 patients had lower titers than prior to treatment. We conclude that oral ribavirin seems to reduce the viral load, at least temporarily, in some patients with chronic viremic HCV infection. Further studies are needed to evaluate fully the effect of oral ribavirin on chronic HCV infection.     

Alteration of GABAA receptor alpha 1-subunit mRNA in mouse brain following continuous ethanol inhalation

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate what nursing home medical directors actually do, what they and other nursing home personnel believe would be desirable to do, and what problems and deficiencies are perceived. DESIGN: Mail survey with follow-up telephone interview when necessary. SETTING: Forty-five nursing facilities in upstate New York. PARTICIPANTS: The medical directors, administrators, and directors of nursing of the 45 facilities. MEASUREMENTS: Inventory of what medical directors reported as to their actual activities and time spent, and of what they, the administrators, and the directors of nursing felt should be their responsibilities and activities under ideal circumstances. RESULTS: For part-time medical directors, self-reported time spent on medical directorship activities averaged 12 hours per month; of all directors, 45% spent 8 hours or less per month. Proportion of time spent on various specific activities varied widely. There was general agreement that substantially more time should be spent, in particular, on evaluating and addressing problems of adequacy and quality of care, communicating with attending physicians about problems, and assisting with inservice training programs. CONCLUSIONS: To fill the role adequately, more time should be spent by many part-time medical directors, which will require greater financial commitment by facilities and reimbursement systems. Efforts need to made to better coordinate the expectations of medical directors and facility staff.     

Luminol and lucigenin amplified chemiluminescence and lipidperoxidation with brain microsomes from rats during ontogenetic development

During the 1980s, the ecologic association of conjugated estrogens with endometrial cancer changed from positive to negative in a prepaid health plan. During the same period, use of progestins increased dramatically. We investigated whether the latter increase could explain the reversal of the estrogen-cancer association. Endometrial cancer incidence was estimated from cases recorded in the health plan registry divided by the number of women over age 45 years. Conjugated estrogens usage was measured as milligrams prescribed per woman per year and progestin was measured as tablets per woman per year, both based upon pharmacy records. Graphical and regression methods were used to analyze the resulting ecologic data. In a log-linear regression of incidence on conjugated estrogens and medroxyprogesterone usage, estrogen usage had a strong positive association with incidence, while medroxyprogesterone had a strong negative association with incidence. The change in the direction of the ecologic association between estrogen and endometrial cancer that occurred in 1984 continued until 1993, suggesting that the decline in endometrial cancer incidence and concomitant increase in conjugated estrogens usage since 1984 is explained by the increasing use of progestins. The data are entirely consistent with the hypothesis that progestins can protect against most of the excess risk conferred by conjugated estrogens, although the ecologic nature of the data prohibits drawing further inferences.