Role of fever in infection: has induced fever any therapeutic potential in HIV infection?

Ancient societies had no rational understanding of fever. The Greeks were the first to recognise that it may be part of nature's method of effecting cure in some diseases. How best to assist nature went through many trials and errors. Appreciation of the prognostic value of fever and how it may be controlled was slow to appear. That there was a place in the therapeutic arsenal for induced fever came only with the 20th century. Finding a suitable, safe, and satisfactory means came slowly. The curative power of well controlled and reproducible levels of fever was proved by the arrest of one deadly and incurable complication of a sexually transmitted disease in the first half of this century. The purpose of this review is to promote discussion and, hopefully, well ordered laboratory and clinical trials aimed at learning whether or not induced fevers have a place in the care of patients with HIV/AIDS.     

Morphological criteria for the therapeutic effectiveness of antirheumatic drugs

Sixteen healthy adults had serial studies of delayed-type skin test reactivity and in vitro lymphocyte blastogenesis to several antigens over a period of 7 months. In many subjects blastogenesis varied broadly from month to month without apparent cause. Responses to all antigens usually increased or decreased together on sequential testing. Blastogenesis to coccidioidin appeared to result largely from cross-reaction with histoplasmin. Humoral factors were not demonstrably responsible for these changes. Blastogenesis rose consistently and non-specifically in subjects following revaccination to vaccinia virus. These studies reflect the lymphocyte blastogenesis reaction as a dynamic equilibrium, subject to spontaneous variation, and responding non-specifically to stimuli such as vaccination. Whatever the causes for these changes, it is clear that serial determinations of blastogenesis response to various antigens do not carry the apparent consistency of the skin test response to that antigen, and single tests must be cautiously interpreted.     

Cogan's syndrome with arthritis and aortic insufficiency

A young man with nonsyphilitic keratitis and vestibulo-auditory dysfunction (Cogan's syndrome) and a recurrent febrile illness has been observed over a 10 year period. The systemic manifestations have included a splenic abscess vasculitis, pericarditis, aortic valvulitis, and mono-articular inflammatory arthritis.     

Mitochondrial adenine nucleotide translocase is modified oxidatively during aging

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that elevation in protein oxidative damage during the aging process is a targeted rather than a stochastic phenomenon. Oxidative damage to proteins in mitochondrial membranes in the flight muscles of the housefly, manifested as carbonyl modifications, was detected immunochemically with anti-dinitrophenyl antibodies. Adenine nucleotide translocase (ANT) was found to be the only protein in the mitochondrial membranes exhibiting a detectable age-associated increase in carbonyls. The age-related elevation in ANT carbonyl content was correlated with a corresponding loss in its functional activity. Senescent flies that had lost the ability to fly exhibited a relatively higher degree of ANT oxidation and a greater loss of functional activity than their cohorts of the same age that were still able to fly. Exposure of flies to 100% oxygen resulted in an increase in the level of ANT carbonyl content and a loss in its activity. In vitro treatment of mitochondria with a system that generated hydroxyl free radicals caused an increase in ANT carbonyl level and a decrease in ANT exchange activity. ANT was also the only mitochondrial membrane protein exhibiting adducts of the lipid peroxidation product 4-hydroxynonenal. Results of this study indicate that proteins in mitochondrial membranes are modified selectively during aging.     

Traumatic rupture of duodenal diverticulum. Report of a case and literature review

Duodenal diverticulum is a common anatomic abnormality. Its inflammatory perforation is a rare complication, with less than 100 cases reported in the available literature. Traumatic perforation is exceedingly rare (only 3 cases reported). In this report one more case of traumatic perforation is presented, and the literature is reviewed focusing on the pathogenic, diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of this severe disease.     

Observation of improved confinement at the center of a FT-2 tokamak plasma with rapid current rise and lower-hybrid heating

The problem of optimizing the conditions for central lower-hybrid heating has stimulated experiments with improved confinement at the center of the discharge in analogy to discharges with an inverted shear of the q profile. To this end, a current pulse rising rapidly from 22 to 30 kA over 0.5 ms was used in the FT-2 tokamak during lower-hybrid heating. In these experiments a substantial increase in the lifetime of the energy in the ionic component was observed. A decrease of the fluxes of high-energy charge-exchange atoms and a suppression of the microoscillations of the plasma determined in the central regions of the discharge are observed. These and other data were used together with the computer simulation to clarify the mechanism leading to the improvement of energy and particle confinement at the center of the discharge. The influence of variations in both the q profile and the electric fields, which accompanied the rapid current rise, on the transport processes is studied. Pis’ma Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 23, 1–6 (September 26, 1997)