Exfoliatio areata linguae et mucosae oris: a mucous membrane manifestation of psoriasis pustulosa?

Lesions of the oral mucosa are frequently described in association with psoriasis, particularly in the pustular type. Controversy surrounds the question whether mucosal lesions can be considered as oral manifestation of psoriasis. Two patients presented with concurrent pustular psoriasis and mucosal lesions with the characteristic picture of geographic tongue. Histopathology of the mucosa showed typical features of psoriasis such as marked acanthosis, clubbing of the rete ridges, focal parakeratosis and neutrophilic infiltrates. There was parallel improvement of the skin and the mucosal lesions with systemic retinoid treatment. On the basis of the histopathological features and the clinical course we favour the hypothesis that geographic tongue is an oral manifestation of pustular psoriasis.     

A STRATEGIC METAGAME PLAYER FOR GENERAL CHESS-LIKE GAMES

This paper introduces METAGAMER, the first program designed within the paradigm of Metagame-playing (Metagame). This program plays games in the class of symmetric chess-like games, which includes chess, Chinese chess, checkers, draughts, and Shogi. METAGAMER takes as input the rules of a specific game and analyzes those rules to construct an efficient representation and an evaluation function for that game; they are used by a generic search engine. The strategic analysis performed by METAGAMER relates a set of general knowledge sources to the details of the particular game. Among other properties, this analysis determines the relative value of the different pieces in a given game. Although METAGAMER does not learn from experience, the values resulting from its analysis are qualitatively similar to values used by experts on known games and are sufficient to produce competitive performance the first time METAGAMER plays a new game. Besides being the first Metagame-playing program, this is the first program to have derived useful piece values directly from analysis of the rules of different games. This paper describes the knowledge implemented in METAGAMER, illustrates the piece values METAGAMER derives for chess and checkers, and discusses experiments with METAGAMER on both existing and newly generated games.     

Partial duplication of 3q and distal deletion of 11q in a stillbirth with an omphalocele containing the liver, short limbs, and intrauterine growth retardation

We describe a female stillbirth with duplication of 3q21-->qter and deletion of 11q23-->qter resulting from an unbalanced segregation of a maternal t(3;11) reciprocal translocation. The proband had some of the clinical features consistent with those seen in patients with dup(3q) syndrome or distal del(11q) syndrome. Prenatal sonographic examination showed short limbs, intrauterine growth retardation, and an omphalocele containing the liver.     

Restenosis of peripheral stents and stent grafts as revealed by intravascular sonography: in vivo comparison with angiography

OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to compare intravascular sonography with digital subtraction angiography (DSA) in the assessment of luminal dimension and morphologic features of endovascular stents and stent grafts. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-seven pelvic and 24 femoral stents (12 Wall-stents; 27 covered and 22 uncovered nitinol stents) in 50 patients were evaluated 15 +/- 10 months after implantation by DSA and intravascular sonography. The degree of maximum instent restenosis as revealed by DSA and intravascular sonography was compared for each location. Morphologic features of the stents and stenoses were also assessed. RESULTS: Intravascular sonography and DSA correlated well (R2 = .96) in determining in-stent restenosis. In-stent restenosis was underestimated by 13% +/- 6% by DSA compared with intravascular sonography. Differences in determining in-stent restenosis with intravascular sonography and DSA were not associated with severity of stenosis or type of stent. Intravascular sonography revealed incomplete expansion of stents in 21 cases, whereas DSA revealed incomplete expansion of stents in seven cases. The intra- and interobserver variabilities in our study were 4% and 5%, respectively. CONCLUSION: In-stent restenoses are underestimated with DSA. Intravascular sonography is superior to DSA for detection of incomplete stent expansion.     

Quiescence versus apoptosis: Myc abundance determines pathway of exit from the cell cycle

When exposed to diverse growth conditions in vitro, cells can respond by entering states of proliferation, quiescence, differentiation or apoptosis. While the choices among these states can be influenced by proto-oncogene expression, how these disparate outcomes are achieved remains poorly understood. To address these issues, we have generated rodent fibroblast cell lines that harbor a human c-myc gene under the control of a tetracycline-regulated promoter. When Myc-induced cells are deprived of serum growth factors, they rapidly become apoptotic with the onset of apoptosis preceded by a large, transient increase in cdk2 kinase activity that is associated with the induction of cdc25A phosphatase and the later accumulation of p27Kip1 kinase inhibitor. Surprisingly, serum starvation in the absence of myc overexpression, (which leads to quiescence instead of apoptosis) also causes a marked transient elevation in cdk2 kinase activity, an induction of cdc25A and a delayed increase in p27Kip1. Transient elevations in cdk2 kinase activity and cdc25A abundance are required for cell cycle progression, but it is evident that these changes also precede entry to either apoptosis or quiescence in serum-starved cells. These findings suggest that the pathways to both quiescence and apoptosis share regulatory machinery with cell cycle control mechanisms. In addition, the abundance of Myc protein can be critical in the choices among these cellular states.