Heart transplantation in Chagas' disease. 10 years after the initial experience

BACKGROUND: Heart transplantation (HT) as a therapeutic option for end-stage chronic Chagas' heart disease (CCHD) is controversial. Reactivation of Trypanosoma cruzi infection and recurrence of the disease in the allograft are likely to occur. Furthermore, active myocarditis has been reported to predispose patients to an increased incidence and severity of rejection. METHODS AND RESULTS: We prospectively investigated the long-term follow-up of 10 patients with CCHD who underwent HT. Immunosuppression was based on cyclosporine A and azathioprine. T cruzi reactivation was prevented with benzonidazole. Besides allograft rejection surveillance, T cruzi infection was monitored through blood tests, myocardial biopsies, and serological tests. Over a mean follow-up period of 34 +/- 38 months (range, 73 to 124 months), 7 patients are alive and in NYHA functional class I. Life expectancy was 78% for the second year and 65% for 10 years. Rejection was less frequent in chagasic than in age- and sex-matched control patients (mean +/- SD, 1.60 +/- 1.26 versus 5.70 +/- 1.89 episodes per patient, respectively; P = .0001); decreased severity of rejection was also observed (P = .006). T cruzi parasitemias detected on three occasions were successfully treated with benzonidazole. There were no signs of recurrence of the disease in the allograft. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest an important role of HT in the treatment of CCHD. There was a low frequency of T cruzi infection reactivation and no signs of recurrence of the disease in the allograft. The surprisingly decreased rejection incidence and severity require further studies for elucidation.     

Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency combined with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus in a juvenile German shepherd dog

Canine juvenile-onset insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus is a rare disease. While pancreatic acinar atrophy is a well known picture in the dog, the simultaneous occurrence with an endocrine insufficiency has never been clearly established. The clinical, pathological and immunohistochemical findings of a three-month-old German shepherd dog with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus concurrent with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency are described.     

Impact of minority physicians on health care

BACKGROUND: The fact that few doctors have their own GP may help explain doctors' poor health outcomes. Barriers to the doctor as patient role may arise from problematic perceptions of the 'doctor' subject position and from its subjugation of 'other-than-doctor' positions. Medical culture appears to foster and construct inappropriate health seeking behaviour of doctors. OBJECTIVE: A behaviour model is proposed--delusion, denial and delay; self-investigation, self-diagnosis, self-treatment and self-referral. Application of a behaviour change model could facilitate the doctor as patient role. DISCUSSION: Literary theory and sociology critiques may help peel off the social construction of 'doctor'. The realisation of such myths may allow access to medical care enjoyed by the general community.     

In-Service Durability Performance of Water Tanks

With an alarmingly increased rate of deterioration in reinforced concrete structures due to durability performance, efforts are being made to quantify in situ performance. Performance is a function of time and it is related to degradation and the parameters influencing it. Although state-of-the-art modeling of various deterioration mechanisms is available in the literature, evaluation of the influence of various deterioration mechanisms that decrease performance with time is difficult. However, in situ condition documentation, survey, and assessment of deteriorated structures reflect the resultant deterioration process and also helps in validation of experimental and theoretical methods of performance evaluation. In this research, a systematic in situ condition documentation, survey, and assessment of water tank structures has been done based on an empirical damage scale similar to that suggested in the literature and a bilinear graphical deterioration model for such water retaining structures in a semitropical region like India is presented on the basis of case studies.     

The control mechanisms of the electrokinetic properties of human erythrocytes in emotional stress

A study was made of the influence of psycho-emotional strain, experienced by students when taking examinations, on the erythrocyte electrophoretic mobility (EPM). It has been shown that students under psycho-emotional strain the mean value of EPM remains the same, but changes were observed in the form of EPM distribution, while estimated by asymmetry and excession coefficients. Similar results were obtained when adrenalin was added to the blood.     

The effect of activated macrophage products on neurite growth in an organotypic culture of chick embryo sensory ganglia]

Murine peritoneal macrophages, activated by BCG vaccine, and human peripheral blood monocytes, activated by lipopolysaccharides, exerted neurite stimulating or neurite inhibiting effects in various periods of activation. The supernatants of these preparations were active in organotypic culture of chick embryo dorsal root ganglia. The inhibition of neurite growth on the 1st day of cultivation was followed by the neurite-stimulating effect. The fluctuation of neurite-inhibition and neurite-stimulation effect of macrophage supernatants suggest the availability of certain changes in cytokine composition in different periods of macrophage activation.     

Hox-type and non-Hox homeobox gene sequences in genomic DNA of the sea urchin Holopneustes purpurescens

As a preliminary step in an analysis of Hox gene expression and radial body plan specification in sea urchin development, we amplified partial homeobox sequences in H. purpurescens by PCR using degenerate primers. The primers, HoxE and HoxF (Pendleton et al., 1993), spanned a highly conserved region of 82 nucleotides encompassing amino acids 21-47 of the homeodomain. Seven Hox-type homeobox sequences and two non-Hox homeobox sequences were identified. The seven Hox-type sequences were placed provisionally in Hox paralogous groups, one in paralogous group 3, three in paralogous groups 6-8 and three in paralogous groups 9 13. The non-Hox sequences had similarities with Xlox and Gbx homeobox genes.