Personality disorders and psychiatric symptoms in psoriasis

Two groups of psoriatic outpatients (ns = 192 and 119) were given, respectively, the Million Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II and Foulds' Delusions-Symptoms-States Inventory. They were compared with dental (n = 192) and with general surgical (n = 190) patients. The psoriatic group presented clearly higher mean scores and frequencies on most of the personality disorder scales. On Foulds' inventory, psoriatic patients showed higher frequencies of neurotic and psychotic class allocations. A cluster analysis of personality scores provided evidence for 4 different personality clusters of patients with psoriasis: (a) Avoidant, Dependent, Schizoid, and Self-defeating (32.2%), (b) Compulsive, Narcissistic, and Aggressive (30.7%), (c) no personality disorder (18.2%), (d) Borderline, Paranoid, and Schizotypal, etc. (18.8%).     

Ki-1 large cell anaplastic lymphoma--a clinicopathological study

Ki-1 large cell anaplastic lymphoma is a recently described variant of malignant lymphoma. A retrospective study of 10 cases of Ki-1 lymphoma was carried out at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) Rawalpindi to document its clinical and morphological features. The morphological features were evaluated by a study of paraffin embedded sections stained with haematoxylin and eosin stains. Immunohistochemical stains for BER-H2 and leucocyte common antigen (LCA) were performed in all cases. The age of the patients ranged from 2 to 60 years and male to female ratio was 2.3:1. Cervical lymphadenopathy was the most common presentation. Histologically, there was a complete effacement of the lymph node architecture in 8 cases. The Reed-Sternberg like cells were seen in 2 and histiocyte like cells in 7 cases. Immunohistochemically all cases were positive for BER-H2. It is suggested that the possibility of Ki-1 lymphoma should be considered in all cases of lymphoma with pleomorphic morphology.     

Comparative analysis of semiotic shifts, established by LCS of blood plasma from random samples of studied subjects from the zone of the Chernobyl accident, "Ural Radiation Trace", and collaborators from St. Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences

The effects of an alternative chelation program in thalassemic patients with severe iron overload are investigated. The schedule of treatment, feasible at home, consists in the administration of deferoxamine intravenously (100 mg/kg/die 8 hours 10 days a month), followed by 50 mg/kg/die subcutaneously in the remaining 20 days of the month. The results in 34 patients who underwent this program over 8 months are reported. After intensive chelation therapy serum ferritin and transaminase levels were significantly lower, and daily urinary iron excretion values were significantly higher when compared to the levels observed before the treatment. After the period of study, echocardiography revealed an ejection fraction (EF) significantly higher in 15 out of 34 cardiopathic patients. In conclusion, the alternative chelation program is effective in reducing iron overload of thalassemic patients, protecting them also against cardiac disease.     

Cloning and characterization of cDNA for human adenylate kinase 2A

Considerable genomic microdiversity has been reported previously among Helicobacter pylori isolates. We have constructed genome maps of four unrelated H. pylori strains (NCTC11637, NCTC11639, UA802 and UA861) using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) with NotI and NruI, hybridization with extracted PFGE DNA fragments and probing with 17 gene probes. These strains of H. pylori were compared with a fifth unrelated H. pylori strain NCTC11638 mapped previously. Considerable diversity in gene arrangement was evident among the five H. pylori maps, and no consistent gene clustering was found. The association of only four genes, katA (catalase gene), vacA (vacuolating cytotoxin gene), hpaA (a putative adhesin gene), and pfr (bacterial ferritin gene) were generally conserved within approximately the same 25% of the genome; however, the order of these genes also varied. Our study demonstrates that macrodiversity, i.e. variability in gene order, in addition to microdiversity, is a characteristic of the H. pylori genome.