Effect of diuron on germ cells of mice

Diuron in both, acute (340 and 170 mg/kg body wt) and chronic (3400 ppm) doses induced dominant lethal mutations in male Swiss albino mice. The results suggest that diuron is mutagenic in dominant lethal test system.     

Chemotherapy for spinal cord astrocytoma

A combined retrospective and prospective study of 129 beta-thalassaemia major patients seen between 1965 and 1995 in Sabah Hospital, Kuwait has been carried out. The age range at diagnosis was 2 to 84 months, median 9 months. In approximately 80 per cent, the patients were outcomes of first- or second-cousin marriages. Nine (7 per cent) of the patients were HBsAg positive, while 42 (33 per cent) were hepatitis C seropositive. Eleven (9 per cent) patients had had bone marrow transplantation (BMT). There was no BMT-related mortality, but there were three graft rejections and two cases of chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD).     

Pitfalls and complications of colon interposition

Colon interposition is a complex operation that requires meticulous technique and attention to detail. In experienced hands, the colon is a valuable conduit for esophageal reconstruction, particularly in patients with benign disease.     

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.     

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.