Biochemical markers of cerebral damage

We report a case of Aspergillus flavus endocarditis in a 6-year-old boy with stage IV neuroblastoma with no pre-existing cardiac disease. The infection was successfully treated with high-dose liposomal amphotericin (AmBisome) once daily. Recurrence was prevented with itraconazole oral solution once daily as maintenance therapy. Adjunctive surgery was not required. The patient's cardiac function was uncompromised, but subsequent death from progressive neuroblastoma prevented long-term follow-up.     

Induced hypotension may influence blood loss in orthognathic surgery, but it is not crucial

Numerous investigators have attempted to isolate the Rh antigens in a stable, immunologically reactive form since the discovery of the Rh system over 56 years ago. We report here a successful and reproducible approach to solubilizing and adsorbing the human Rh antigen(s) to a solid-phase matrix in an antigenically active form. Similar results were obtained with rabbit A/D/F red blood cell antigens. The antigen preparation was made by dissolution of the red blood cell membrane lipid followed by fragmentation of the residual cytoskeleton in an EDTA solution at low ionic strength. The antigenic activity of the soluble preparations was labile in standard buffers but was stable in zwitterionic buffers for extended periods of time. Further studies showed that the antigenic activity of these preparations was enhanced, as was their affinity for plastic surfaces, in the presence of acidic zwitterionic buffers. Adherence to plastic surfaces at low pH maintained antigenic reactivity and specificity for antibody was retained. The data show that this approach yields a stable form of antigenically active human Rh D antigen that could be used in a red blood cell-free assay for quantitative analysis of Rh D antibody and for Rh D antibody immunoadsorption and purification.     

Tractor-driving hours and their relation to self-reported low-back and hip symptoms

Tractor driving might be one causal risk factor in the incidence of low-back and hip symptoms among farmers. Information on the annual exposure to tractor driving and its distribution among different work operations is scarce. The purpose of this study was to quantify the total and the annual time driving tractors among Swedish farmers and its distribution into different work operations, and to investigate the risk of low-back and hip symptoms in relation to tractor driving within different work operations. The data were collected from a questionnaire study sent to all farms with acreage more than 10 ha in a county in Sweden. Farmers having farming and/or forestry as their main occupation in 1995 were included in the analysis. The annual tractor-driving time and the percentage distribution within different work operations were calculated for females, males, the total group and four production groups. The risk calculations for low-back and hip symptoms from the variables related to tractor driving were performed on the total group. The results showed that the mean annual tractor-driving time was 472 h. Ploughing was the single most time-consuming work operation but it had no influence on the risk for low-back or hip pain. The results showed that some of the variables investigated related to tractor driving influenced the risk for low-back and hip symptoms.     

Genetic counselling in psoriasis: empirical data on psoriasis among first-degree relatives of 3095 psoriatic probands

The risk of getting psoriasis dependent on the occurrence of psoriasis in the family has been determined empirically. Altogether 3717 families with one or both parents who had psoriasis have been analysed with regard to the number of children with or without psoriasis. The lifetime risk of getting psoriasis if no parent, one parent or both parents have psoriasis is 0.04, 0.28 and 0.65, respectively. If there is already one affected child in the family, the corresponding risks are 0.24, 0.51 and 0.83, respectively. The risk of getting psoriasis before the age of 32 years is dependent on the age-of-onset of psoriasis in one affected parent.     

Dosage of anesthetics--a tricky question

The optimal dosage of anaesthetic agents may be difficult. Not only does the intensity of surgical stimuli vary during a surgical procedure, but drug sensitivity varies between subjects exposed to comparable stimuli. Moreover, clinically monitored body reactions do not always reflect the balance between central nervous system effects of the surgical stimuli and of the anaesthetic agent. Therefore, the specialist in anaesthesiology requires access to additional methods of monitoring to enable dosage to be optimised for each patient, minute by minute, thus improving the chances of maintaining an appropriate depth of anaesthesia. Two electro-encephalographic techniques are presented in the article, and aspects of under- and over-dosage of anaesthetic agents are discussed.     

Anisotropic dry etching of boron doped single crystal CVD diamond

Semiconducting boron doped single-crystal CVD diamond has been patterned using aluminum masks and an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etch system. For comparison insulating HPHT diamond samples were also patterned using the same process. Diamond etch rates above 200 nm/min were obtained with an O₂/Ar discharge for a gas pressure of 2.5 mTorr using 600 W RF power. We have accomplished the fabrication of structures with a minimum feature size of 1 μm with vertical sidewalls in both CVD and HPHT diamond. The ICP etching produced smooth surfaces with a typical root-mean-square surface roughness of 3 nm. The dependence of etch rate on bias voltage was somewhat different for the two types of diamond. However, for all samples both the etch rate and anisotropy were found to improve with increasing bias voltage.     

Analysis of three suggested psoriasis susceptibility loci in a large Swedish set of families: confirmation of linkage to chromosome 6p (HLA region), and to 17q, but not to 4q

Angiogenesis is the growth of new blood vessels from existing ones and is critical for tumour development, invasion and metastasis. In bladder cancer the prognostic significance of mean vascular density, a surrogate for angiogenesis, has lead to study of the factors determining the angiogenic phenotype. The motivation for these studies has been the search for non-invasive prognostic or diagnostic markers for the disease and for new therapeutic strategies against bladder cancer recurrence and progression. Whilst a large number of factors are involved in the mediation of tumour angiogenesis, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is widely considered to be central to the process. This review highlights the information presently available regarding the role of VEGF in bladder cancer through observational studies of its expression in bladder tumours and within the urine. In addition the value of VEGF in determining the prognosis in bladder cancer and the future possibilities for anti-VEGF therapy are discussed.     

Parallel plate waveguide antenna for point-to-multipoint communication at millimetre-wave frequencies

Simulation and measurement results for a parallel plate waveguide antenna designed for a point-to-multipoint communication system at millimetre-wave frequencies is presented. The antenna consists of a waveguide feed, an H-plane horn, an enclosed parabolic reflector, a rectangular waveguide containing irises, and corrugated baffles. Half power beamwidths between 4.9/spl deg/-6.0/spl deg/ in elevation and 58/spl deg/-79/spl deg/ in azimuth are achieved for a bandwidth of 13%. The gain varies between 19 and 20 dBi for the frequency range between 21 and 25 GHz. The manufactured antenna is very compact with a size of 200/spl times/147/spl times/50 mm.