Screening of prostate cancer in males with prostatism

Genetic analysis of the population structure of the western blacklegged tick, Ixodes pacificus Cooley & Kohls, was conducted using allozymes. This vector tick transmits the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi Johnson, Schmid, Hyde, Steigerwalt & Brenner, in the far-western United States. It ranges from British Columbia to Baja California and disjunct populations are present in Oregon, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. Host-seeking adult ticks were collected from vegetation across the range of the species and were partially fed on rabbits prior to analysis. Twelve putative loci were resolved using starch gel electrophoresis. One locus, glucose-6-phosphate isomerase, formed an apparent north/south latitudinal cline and showed significant geographic structure. None of the remaining loci exhibited much genetic differentiation. Estimates of gene flow were high relative to other arthropods. Isolation-by-distance analysis suggests a recent and rapid range expansion. We conclude that the overall lack of differentiation is due high rates of gene flow.     

Subtle transchondral fractures of the talar dome: a radiological perspective

Radiographic findings associated with small talar dome fractures were analyzed in 21 patients. Representative cases are presented. The classification of talar dome fractures, and the role of the radiologist in their evaluation, are discussed.     

Reduction of nosocomial infection in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)

The aim of this study was to describe an outbreak of hepatitis A in a family group which extended to a day care center and to the families of the children attending the same and to determine the risk of acquiring the disease based on exposure to one or several sources of infection. The temporary distribution of the cases and the rate of hepatitis A in the population at risk were analyzed. The risk of acquiring hepatitis by exposure to one or more sources of infection was studied by logistic regression, calculating the odds ratio and the confidence interval of 95%. Initiation of the outbreak was in May 1996, in a 25-year-old male and finalized in November, having affected 63 people. The rate of global attack was of 12% and the risk of infection 18-fold greater (CI 95% = 5.4-61.8) in those exposed to more than one source of infection than in those exposed to only one source and 3.5-fold greater (CI 95% = 1.2-9.9) in the group from 15 to 29 years of age than in those under 14. The massive administration of immunoglobulin was useful to control the hepatitis in the day care center and in the school. The size of this epidemic of hepatitis A was due to its occurrence in a population little exposed to the virus. The greatest involvement was observed in young adults, with person to person transmission and the greater risk of acquiring hepatitis A on exposure to several sources of infection characterizing the outbreak. The possible usefulness of designing prevention strategies with the vaccine should be considered.     

Evaluation of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in house dust and residential soil

Two commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) for total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and carcinogenic PAH (C-PAH) were evaluated. The testing procedures were refined for application to screening PAH and C-PAH in house dust and soil samples for human exposure studies. The overall method precision expressed as percent relative standard deviation (%RSD) of triplicate real world dust and soil samples was within +/- 29% (12-29%) for PAH ELISA and +/- 21% (5.9-21%) for C-PAH ELISA. Spike recoveries from real world dust/soil samples were 114 +/- 30% for phenanthrene from PAH ELISA and 120 +/- 8.2% for benzo[a]pyrene from C-PAH ELISA. The overall method accuracy for PAH and C-PAH assays cannot be assessed for multiple PAH components in dust/soil samples (which represent real-world samples), because of the assays' cross reactivities with other PAH components. Over 100 dust/soil samples from 13 North Carolina homes and 22 Arizona homes were analyzed by PAH and C-PAH assays, as well as by the conventional gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) method. Statistical analysis showed that dust/soil PAH data from ELISA and GC/MS methods are significantly different. In general PAH ELISA responses were higher than PAH GC/MS responses. The regression analysis showed that the linear relationship between ELISA and GC/MS measurements is not strong in the combined data. The relationship became stronger for the data from the same type of dust/soil samples. The screening performance of ELISA was evaluated based on the frequency distribution of ELISA and GC/MS data. The results indicated that the ELISA PAH and C-PAH assays cannot be used as a quantitative analytical tool for determining PAH in real-world dust/soil samples. However, the ELISA is an effective screening tool for ranking PAH concentrations in similar types of real world dust/soil samples.