Increased levels of plasma cholesteryl ester hydroperoxides in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage

The pathophysiology of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) may involve free radical production and lipid peroxidation. We examined plasma levels of cholesteryl ester hydroperoxides (CEOOH) and antioxidants in 25 patients with SAH, and 10 neurologic controls with lacunar stroke. Patients with SAH had significantly increased plasma levels of CEOOH, which peaked on day 5 after the ictus. Concentrations of CEOOH were significantly increased, and ascorbic acid concentrations were significantly decreased in patients who developed vasospasm compared with patients without vasospasm. Increased levels of CEOOH were associated with increased mortality and correlated with clinical outcome scales. These results implicate oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of SAH and suggest that measurements of CEOOH in plasma may be useful both prognostically as well as in monitoring therapeutic interventions.     

Lesions of the tracheobronchial tree after the aspiration of a tablet of ferrous sulfate

Foreign body aspiration requires emergency bronchoscopic examination when the product is chemically active. We describe the case of a female patient who aspirated a ferrous sulfate tablet that, in spite of being extracted immediately, caused lesions that persisted in the bronchial tree for 6 weeks. We then discuss the potential of ferrous sulfate substance to cause damage to the tracheobronchial tree.     

Activation of cysteine proteases in cowpea plants during the hypersensitive response--a form of programmed cell death

The matrix metalloproteinases appear to play a key role in mammary tissue remodeling during involution. By immunoprecipitation and immunoblot using antibodies against 60K gelatinase which appears during involution a 90K polypeptide has been identified as its inactive proenzyme in the early involuting rat mammary gland. 90K polypeptide was isolated from the second day involuting rat mammary gland by immunoaffinity chromatography. On proteolytic digestion, the inactive 90K polypeptide was converted to active gelatinase. Primary cultures of mammary epithelial cells secreted the 90K polypeptide. These results indicated that the 60K inducible MMP involved in mammary gland involution and remodeling is produced as a 90K proenzyme which is activated by proteolysis in the extracellular sites.     

Psychological malaise and the sociodemographic and familial characteristics of the over-user of primary care

OBJECTIVES: To find the social, demographic and family characteristics, the psychological malaise and reasons for consultation of normal and hyper-attenders at a primary care practice. DESIGN: Crossover study with a control. SETTING: Primary care. PATIENTS: 127 hyper-attenders (they attended the practice as often as, or more often than, the mean number of visits, stratified by sex and age) and 120 normal attenders chosen by stratified random sampling. INTERVENTIONS: Questionnaire with characterisation data, family demography, psychological malaise (Goldberg general health questionnaire) and reasons for consultation. RESULTS: To be considered a hyper-attender, the number of attendances per year ranged from > or = 8 (in 15 to 44-year olds) to > or = 20 (in men over 65). Hyper-attenders were about 12% of almost all groups, except in men between 45 and 64 and women over 64, in whom it was around 18%. We found no relevant differences between normal and hyper-attenders as to demography or perception of family function. In almost 60% of hyper-attenders and 34% of normal attenders (p < 0.001), psychological malaise was detected. CONCLUSIONS: If the definition of hyper-attenders is stratified by age and sex, their social and demographic characteristics are very different from in other studies, even though there are a similar number of them. However, these demographic and/or family characteristics are similar in normal and hyper-attenders.     

Manual performance and laterality in twins of known chorion type

Manual performance, direction, and degree of laterality were tested in monozygotic (MZ) twins (8-12 years old) of known chorion type and dizygotic (DZ) twins. Three manual tasks rarely employed in twin studies were used; dot-filling, tapping, and peg-moving tasks. No chorion effect was observed: the monochorionic and dichorionic MZs differed neither for frequency of discordant pairs nor for handedness, laterality measurements, and manual performance. The pooled MZs and DZs were then compared in a classic twin design. The within-pair resemblance was not higher in MZs than in DZs for variables measuring level of manual performance. For laterality scores intraclass correlations were close to zero in MZ and DZ twin groups.