Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms after bone marrow transplantation for breast cancer

Hormonal treatments which have an androgenic effect have the potential to cause vocal changes. The changes in vocal fold structure and voice quality are considered to be irreversible. To date, studies have documented subjective vocal changes or documented single cases without detailed, baseline voice assessments. The impact on laryngeal function of women taking these androgenic treatments requires further detailed, objective assessment. The need for increased awareness of the actions of androgenic hormones on womens' voices, and the benefits of a thorough voice assessment are discussed.     

Effects of melengestrol acetate on onset of puberty, follicular growth, and patterns of luteinizing hormone secretion in beef heifers

Our objective was to test the hypothesis that short-term (8 days) treatment of prepubertal heifers with melengestrol acetate (MGA) and subsequent steroid withdrawal would stimulate LH secretion and follicular growth. Angus heifers were divided randomly into two groups; MGA-treated (n = 8) or control (CON; n = 9). Puberty was determined by monitoring circulating concentrations of progesterone and ovarian morphology during a 14-day period following MGA withdrawal. LH secretory patterns were assessed upon initiation of MGA (Day 0), during MGA (Day 7), and 1 day after withdrawal of MGA (Day 9). All MGA-treated heifers, versus four CON heifers, exhibited corpora lutea and luteal phase concentrations of progesterone within 10 days after treatment (p = 0.01). Mean LH and LH pulse frequency increased (p = 0.005 and 0.0001, respectively) between Days 0 and 9 in MGA-treated heifers. In CON heifers, mean LH concentrations and pulse frequencies did not change. During the same period, diameter of the largest follicle increased in MGA-treated animals (p = 0.003) but did not change in the CON heifers. On the basis of these results, we suggest that MGA withdrawal enhances onset of puberty by stimulating pulsatile LH secretion that accelerates follicle growth to the preovulatory stage.     

Colonic diverticulosis in Hong Kong: distribution pattern and clinical significance

This is a retrospective study on the prevalence of diverticulosis in Hong Kong Chinese adults. Eight-hundred and fifty-eight consecutive barium enema examinations over a period of 18 months (January 1995-June 1996) were analysed. Results show that the prevalence of diverticulosis in our community is 25.1% with no significant difference between male and female adults. The prevalence is lower than Western countries but higher than in Asia. Moreover, the peak prevalence is at the 50-79 years age group with lower prevalence in the older age groups. This may be explained by the rapid rise in prevalence in the younger age groups so that the age-related increase in prevalence become obscured. We postulate that this may be due to Western cultural influence in our diet and lifestyle. There is no significant difference in the symptomatology of patients with and without diverticulosis, supporting the idea that diverticulosis alone is usually asymptomatic. There is predominance of right hemicolon involvement in our subjects, in contrast to the left hemicolon predominance in the Caucasian population. Of patients with diverticulosis, 55.3% have only right-sided involvement and 32.6% have bilateral involvement. Only 12.1% of patients with diverticulosis have exclusively left hemicolon involvement. Caecal and ascending colon diverticula are found in 6.4% and 17.6% of all the adults under study, respectively. Clinicians caring for patients from our community should take note of this high frequency of caecal and ascending colon diverticulosis as caecal and ascending colon diverticulitis is notoriously difficult to diagnose clinically.     

Electrochemical and spectroscopic properties of the iron-sulfur flavoprotein from Methanosarcina thermophila

An iron-sulfur flavoprotein (Isf) from the methanoarchaeaon Methanosarcina thermophila, which participates in electron transfer reactions required for the fermentation of acetate to methane, was characterized by electrochemistry and EPR and M?ssbauer spectroscopy. The midpoint potential (Em) of the FMN/FMNH2 couple was -0.277 V. No flavin semiquinone was observed during potentiometric titrations; however, low amounts of the radical were observed when Isf was quickly frozen after reaction with CO and the CO dehydrogenase/acetyl-CoA synthase complex from M. thermophila. Isf contained a [4Fe-4S]2+/1+ cluster with g values of 2.06 and 1.93 and an unusual split signal with g values at 1.86 and 1.82. The unusual morphology was attributed to microheterogeneity among Isf molecules. The Em value for the 2+/1+ redox couple of the cluster was -0.394 V. Extracts from H2-CO2-grown Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum cells catalyzed either the H2- or CO-dependent reduction of M. thermophila Isf. In addition, Isf homologs were found in the genomic sequences of the CO2-reducing methanoarchaea M. thermoautotrophicum and Methanococcus jannaschii. These results support a general role for Isf in electron transfer reactions of both acetate-fermenting and CO2-reducing methanoarchaea. It is suggested that Isf functions to couple electron transfer from ferredoxin to membrane-bound electron carriers, such as methanophenazine and/or b-type cytochromes.     

Resource allocation during the rereading of scientific texts

Two experiments examined how cognitive resources are allocated to comprehension processes across two readings of the same scientific texts. In Experiment 1, readers read and later reread texts describing scientific topics. The results indicated that across readings, readers decreased resources allocated to proposition assembly, increased resources allocated to text-level integration, and expended a similar amount of resources to lexical access. Subjects who reread the texts after a week delay showed a similar pattern, except that they did not show the increase for text-level integration. Experiment 2 revealed a similar pattern of results with a moving window procedure, except that there was a significant decrease in resources allocated to lexical access across exposures. This experiment also indicated that the rereading speedup was greatest at sentence boundaries, suggesting that the prior exposure enabled readers to immediately process each word. Overall, the results are consistent with the claim that readers allocate proportionally more available resources to text-level integration during rereading because proposition assembly, which enables text-level integration, can be completed with fewer resources.     

N-(2-Benzoylphenyl)-L-tyrosine PPARgamma agonists. 3. Structure-activity relationship and optimization of the N-aryl substituent

3-?4-[2-(Benzoxazol-2-ylmethylamino)ethoxy]phenyl?-(2S)-((2- benzoylph enyl)amino)propionic acid (1) and (2S)-((2-benzoylphenyl)amino)-3-?4-[2-(5-methyl-2-phenyloxazol-4-y l)e thoxy]phenyl?propionic acid (2) are peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) agonists and have antidiabetic activity in rodent models of type 2 diabetes. As part of an effort to develop the SAR of the N-2-benzoylphenyl moiety of 1 and 2, a series of novel carboxylic acid analogues, 23-66, modified only in the N-2-benzoylphenyl moiety were synthesized from L-tyrosine and evaluated as PPARgamma agonists. In general, only modest changes in the N-2-benzoylphenyl moiety of 1 and 2 are tolerated. More specifically, the best changes involve bioisosteric replacement of one of the two phenyl rings of this moiety. Addition of substituents to this moiety generally produced compounds that are less active in the cell-based functional assays of PPARgamma activity although binding affinity to PPARgamma may be maintained. A particularly promising set of analogues is the anthranilic acid esters 63-66 in which the phenyl ring in the 2-benzoyl group of 1 and 2 has been replaced by an alkoxy group. In particular, (S)-2-(1-carboxy-2-?4-[2-(5-methyl-2-phenyloxazol-4-yl)ethoxy]phen yl? ethylamino)benzoic acid methyl ester (63) has a pKi of 8.43 in the binding assay using human PPARgamma ligand binding domain and a pEC50 of 9.21 in the in vitro murine lipogenesis functional assay of PPARgamma activity. Finally, 63 was found to normalize glycemia when dosed at 3 mg/kg bid po in the Zucker diabetic fatty rat model of type 2 diabetes.     

Primary chondrosarcoma of long bones and limb girdles

BACKGROUND: Chondrosarcomas are common solid malignant tumors of bone, second in incidence only to osteosarcomas. The biologic evolution of chondrosarcomas is slow, requiring long follow-up intervals for meaningful survival analysis. METHODS: This study describes the clinicopathologic profiles of 344 patients, 194 male and 150 female (M:F, 1.3:1.0), with primary chondrosarcoma of long bones and limb girdles seen at 1 institution over a period of 80 years. RESULTS: The average age at presentation was 46 years (range, 5-82 years). The pelvis was the most common location (1.7% of all patients). Local pain was the most frequently reported initial symptom (81.4%). Survival analysis was limited to 233 patients whose primary treatment was given at the Mayo Clinic. All 233 patients had potential follow-up of at least 5 years. The overall 5-year survival rate was 77% (the expected rate was 96%). Local recurrence developed in 19.7% of patients and metastatic lesions in 13.7%. The recurrence rate was higher for tumors of the shoulder and pelvis than for tumors of long bones. Radiographically, chondrosarcomas had a characteristic appearance, including a combination of bone expansion and cortical thickening. Entering the tumor at surgery increased the risk of local recurrence. Histologic tumor grade was an important predictor of local recurrence and metastasis. CONCLUSIONS: With adequate initial surgical intervention, chondrosarcoma is primarily a local disease with a low metastatic rate.     

Conserved regulatory element involved in the early onset of Hoxb6 gene expression

When administered before training to 23-day-old Long-Evans rats, scopolamine hydrobromide significantly impaired both contextual and auditory-cue fear conditioning in a dose-dependent manner. Methylscopolamine which does not cross the blood-brain barrier, however, had no effect on either form of conditioned fear. Scopolamine administered up to 3 h after training also impaired both forms of fear conditioning when administered following a single pairing of the auditory cue and shock. When rats received three pairings, however, a posttraining treatment with scopolamine only impaired contextual fear conditioning. These results suggest that central cholinergic systems are involved in the posttrial processes that establish the memory trace for the conditioning experience.     

Synthesis and biological evaluation of 4-chloro-3, 5-dinitrobenzotrifluoride analogues as antileishmanial agents

Desnitro analogues of 4-chloro-3,5-dinitrobenzotrifluoride (chloralin) (2), an in vitro microtubule inhibitor of several Leishmania species, have been synthesized from 2-halo-5-(trifluoromethyl)benzenesulfonyl chlorides 4 and 5. The analogues exhibited moderate to excellent activity when tested against Leishmania donovani amastigotes in vitro. Two representative compounds, 7f and 8, were tested against the Khartoum strain of L. donovani in a hamster model using chloralin (2) and Glucantime (one of the current therapeutics of choice in the treatment of Leishmania) as standards, the results of which will be discussed herein.     

Evaluation of a breast biopsy phantom for learning freehand ultrasound-guided biopsy of the liver

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: We evaluated whether a breast biopsy phantom device would aid in the development of skills in freehand ultrasound liver biopsy. METHODS: Three radiologists who were inexperienced in freehand biopsy of the liver were observed. Each radiologist was timed and scored during attempts to biopsy lesions created in a beef liver. The time required for biopsy and the success of each pass was recorded. A commercially available breast biopsy phantom was then used by each of these radiologists during two 20-min practice sessions. Posttraining testing on the beef liver was performed in the same manner as pretraining testing. RESULTS: Freehand biopsy practice using the breast biopsy phantom resulted in a reduction in the mean time required for biopsy from 32 to 17 sec. Each of the three subjects reduced the mean time required for successful biopsy after training using the breast biopsy phantom. The total number of lesions missed was reduced from 14 of 43 to 0 of 45. CONCLUSION: Practice using the ultrasound breast biopsy phantom improves performance in freehand ultrasound biopsy of the liver.