Renal amyloidosis in a drug abuser

Drug abusers, particularly those who inject drugs s.c. ("skin popping"), may develop amyloidosis. Chronic infections are thought to play a pathogenetic role in this setting. A patient is presented who had a history of "skin popping" cocaine and heroin and developed nephrotic syndrome, with an elevated serum creatinine and a creatinine clearance of 61 mL/min. Renal biopsy demonstrated amyloidosis. Treatment with colchicine was initiated, and proteinuria decreased to near normal levels after 12 months. Concomitant with the decrease in proteinuria, creatinine clearance improved, although a repeat renal biopsy failed to show any significant improvement in amyloid burden. These observations suggest that colchicine may be a useful treatment in reversing the proteinuria of renal amyloidosis associated with drug abuse. Furthermore, clinical improvement may occur before any demonstrable regression in the amyloidosis.     

Room temperature ferromagnetism of Ni, (Ni, Li), (Ni, N)-doped ZnO thin films

Ni-doped ZnO thin films (Ni concentration up to 10 mol%) were generated on Si (100) substrates by a sol-gel technique. The films showed wurtzite structure and no other phase was found. The chemical state of Ni was found to be bivalent by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results of magnetic measurements at room temperature indicated that the films were ferromagnetic, and magnetic moment decreased with rise of Ni concentration. The magnetization of Ni (10 mol%)-doped ZnO film annealed in nitrogen was low...     

Titanium and bioactive glass-ceramic coated titanium as materials for keratoprosthesis

The current problem with keratoprosthesis is the ingrowth of corneal or conjunctival epithelium into the anterior chamber. This may lead to infections and extrusion of the prosthesis as well as to the development of retroprosthetic membrane and secondary glaucoma. Glass-ceramic coated and uncoated titanium has been tested as material for the keratoprosthesis to prevent epithelial ingrowth. Twenty-two Supra-Descemet's membrane keratoprostheses were inserted in the eyes of 22 rabbits for 1, 2, 4, 8, or 12 months. The prosthesis had an optic part made of polymethylmetacrylate (PMMA). The support for the optic part and the flange of the prosthesis were made of titanium. Eleven of the prostheses were coated with glass-ceramic. The histological sections of the enucleated eyes were prepared through the central part of the cornea and the prosthesis using a cutting-grinding method. The histological analysis was made on both halves of the implants separately giving two analysis areas in each eye. All 11 titanium prostheses were retained for the time period planned. Two glass-ceramic coated prostheses were lost at 2 and 4 weeks, respectively. This was caused by difficulties at surgery due to a thick coating. These eyes were excluded from the histological analysis. No significant ingrowth of epithelium was seen in 15/18 (83%) and in 16/22 (73%) of the analysed areas of the glass-ceramic coated and titanium prostheses, respectively. Titanium appears to be a suitable material for the keratoprosthesis. The ingrowth of the epithelium may be hindered further by coating the titanium with bioactive glass-ceramic.     

高强混凝土新型梁柱节点构造的抗震性能试验研究

针对低-中震害区构件有限延性的要求,提出了2种新型钢筋混凝土梁柱节点的构造形式:在节点区加配斜钢筋,或梁主钢筋在节点区弯起.它们既可满足有限延性的要求,又可避免节点区钢筋密集.通过对4个高强混凝土梁柱节点在低周反复荷载作用的试验表明:2种新型节点均可提高节点延性,将节点的位移延性系数分别从3提高到3.5和4.4;在节点区加配斜钢筋的试件可提高强度15%.因此,对于有限延性要求的节点,是最佳的节点构造形式.     

A comparison of category and letter fluency in Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's disease.

44 patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT), 44 elderly normal control (ENC) Ss demographically matched to the DAT group, 42 patients with Huntington's disease (HD), and 42 middle-aged normal control (MNC) Ss demographically matched to the HD group were administered letter and category fluency tasks. DAT patients showed an overproportional impairment on category than on letter fluency tasks, whereas HD patients were equally impaired. Analyses based on receiver operating characteristic curves revealed that category fluency correctly classified significantly more DAT and ENC Ss than did letter fluency, whereas the 2 fluency tasks did not differ in this respect for HD and MNC Ss. Results suggest that HD patients' failures on fluency tasks are caused by impaired initiation/retrieval capacities. In contrast, DAT patients' greater category than letter fluency deficits are primarily due to a breakdown in the structure of semantic knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender affects rats' central nervous system histaminergic responses to dietary manipulation

The histaminergic system (histamine and its H1-receptor) of the central nervous system has been implicated in control of food intake. The reported studies were designed to examine the effects of food restriction and very low (1%) protein diets on central nervous system H1-receptors in male and female rats. In a series of experiments, groups of rats were freely fed a 25% protein diet, a 1% protein diet, or fed the 25% protein diet at 4 g/100 g body weight for 14-20 d. When freely fed 25% protein diets, females had higher whole-brain H1-receptor binding than males on d 1 (female 122.36 +/- 4.53 and male 65.78 +/- 3.82 pmol/g protein; P < 0.001). Changing diets affected central H1-receptor binding in both males and females (P < 0.003). When rats were fed both restricted levels of food and 1% protein diets, the receptor binding of males increased by d 5 whereas that of females decreased by d 5 (P < 0.001). When fed 1% protein diets, females had decreased H1-receptor binding (98.4 +/- 2.38 pmol/g protein) and that in males increased to 119.81 +/- 5.09 pmol/g protein. After 15 d, females had eaten significantly more food than males: females 166 +/- 4.9 g, males 124 +/- 1.9 g (P< 0.0007). Males had a significantly greater weight loss than females: males -28.8 +/- 2.6 g, females -17.08 +/- 0.97 g (P < 0.0007). When fed restricted diets, females had decreased H1-receptor binding (93.81 +/- 5.58 pmol/g) whereas binding in males increased to 111.27 +/- 8.55 pmol/g. Preliminary saturation binding studies indicated that restricted food intake lowered receptor density (females consuming 25% protein: 715 +/- 30 pmol/g protein; female restricted: 467 +/- 28 pmol/g protein, P < 0.05), while 1% protein increased receptor sensitivity, i.e., lowered KD (males consuming 25% protein: 15.3 +/- 1.8 nmol; males fed low protein: 2.8 +/- 0.27 nmol). This study suggests that dietary manipulation affects central H1-receptor binding in a gender-specific manner, thereby modulating central histaminergic activity during food or protein deficit.     

Inflammatory pseudotumour of the trachea: report of a case in an eight-year-old child

A polypoid inflammatory pseudotumour was diagnosed in the trachea of an eight-year-old child who presented with asthmatic symptoms. The tumour showed 80 per cent blockage of the lower trachea and consisted of proliferating spindly fibroblastic cells admixed with a variable number of inflammatory cells. The literature on childhood inflammatory pseudotumours is reviewed together with the differential diagnosis of other polypoid mesenchymal tumours of the trachea.     

Humoral immune response to the Trypanosoma cruzi complement regulatory protein as an indicator of parasitologic clearance in human Chagas' disease

Immunoprecipitation of the purified 160-kDa complement regulatory protein of Trypanosoma cruzi by Chagas' disease patient sera was examined as a possible correlate of the complement-mediated lysis test and as an indicator of parasite clearance. The results presented demonstrate that assessment of the humoral response to this antigen is a useful indicator of parasite clearance and may be particularly helpful in the assessment of some patients for whom other serological tests produce ambiguous results.     

Immunological and virological analyses of persons infected by human immunodeficiency virus type 1 while participating in trials of recombinant gp120 subunit vaccines

We have studied 18 participants in phase I/II clinical trials of recombinant gp120 (rgp120) subunit vaccines (MN and SF-2) who became infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) during the course of the trials. Of the 18 individuals, 2 had received a placebo vaccine, 9 had been immunized with MN rgp120, and seven had been immunized with SF-2 rgp120. Thirteen of the 18 infected vaccinees had received three or four immunizations prior to becoming infected. Of these, two were placebo recipients, six had received MN rgp120, and five had received SF-2 rgp120. Only 1 of the 11 rgp120 recipients who had multiple immunizations failed to develop a strong immunoglobulin G antibody response to the immunogen. However, the antibody response to rgp120 was transient, typically having a half-life of 40 to 60 days. No significant neutralizing activity against the infecting strain was detected in any of the infected individuals at any time prior to infection. Antibody titers in subjects infected despite vaccination and in noninfected subjects were not significantly different. Envelope-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte responses measured after infection were infrequent and weak in the nine vaccinees who were tested. HIV-1 was isolated successfully from all 18 individuals. Sixteen of these strains had a non-syncytium-inducing (NSI) phenotype, while two had a syncytium-inducing (SI) phenotype. NSI strains used the CCR5 coreceptor to enter CD4+ cells, while an SI strain from one of the vaccinees also used CXCR4. Viruses isolated from the blood of rgp120 vaccinees were indistinguishable from viruses isolated from control individuals in terms of their inherent sensitivity to neutralization by specific monoclonal antibodies and their replication rates in vitro. Furthermore, genetic sequencing of the env genes of strains infecting the vaccinees did not reveal any features that clearly distinguished these viruses from contemporary clade B viruses circulating in the United States. Thus, despite rigorous genetic analyses, using various breakdowns of the data sets, we could find no evidence that rgp120 vaccination exerted selection pressure on the infecting HIV-1 strains. The viral burdens in the infected rgp120 vaccine recipients were also determined, and they were found to be not significantly different from those in cohorts of placebo-vaccinated and nonvaccinated individuals. In summary, we conclude that vaccination with rgp120 has had,to date, no obvious beneficial or adverse effects on the individuals we have studied.