Structure, chromosomal location, and tissue-specific expression of the mouse opticin gene.

Purpose: To determine the structure, location, and tissue-specific expression of the mouse opticin gene (Optc) and to compare expression in the eye with that of Prelp, collagen II, and collagen IX.

Methods: Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) to mouse opticin were identified and the full-length sequence obtained after PCR reactions using a 15-day-postconception (dpc) whole-mouse embryo cDNA library. The mouse chromosomal localization of Optc was determined by radiation hybrid mapping and its genomic structure determined using an Optc-containing BAC clone.

Expression pattern and gene characterization of asporin. a newly discovered member of the leucine-rich repeat protein family.

We have discovered a new member of the class I small leucine-rich repeat proteoglycan (SLRP) family which is distinct from the other class I SLRPs since it possesses a unique stretch of aspartate residues at its N terminus. For this reason, we called the molecule asporin. The deduced amino acid sequence is about 50% identical (and 70% similar) to decorin and biglycan.

Chronic histiocytic intervillositis: a placental lesion associated with recurrent reproductive loss.

Chronic (histiocytic) intervillositis (CHIV), defined for the purposes of this study as diffuse histiocytic infiltration of the intervillous space without villitis, is an idiopathic lesion seen in the chorionic sacs of some spontaneous abortion specimens and placentas. In this retrospective study, we evaluated all patients diagnosed with CHIV from 2 hospitals between 1993 and 2000, plus 1 additional patient from 1977. Histopathology, phenotype of the leukocytic infiltrate, perinatal outcome, and other associated clinical features were assessed by review of clinical records and all available pathology specimens plus immunohistochemical staining.

Cholinergic modulation of neocortical long-term potentiation in the awake, freely moving rat.

The neocortex has proven resistant to LTP induction using standard in vitro and acute, in vivo preparations. Because the neocortex is widely thought to be involved in long-term information storage, this resistance raises questions about the validity of LTP as a memory model. Recently, we have shown that the neocortex of freely moving rats reliably supports LTP, provided that the stimulation is spaced and repeated over days.

Recurrent umbilical cord torsion leading to fetal death in 3 subsequent pregnancies: a case report and review of the literature.

During a span of 3.5 years, a 30-year-old, gravida 9, para 3 woman experienced 3 pregnancies complicated by umbilical cord torsion and constriction. In each case, the complication resulted in acute vascular compromise and intrauterine fetal demise.

Plasma line emission from short pulse laser interactions with dense plasmas.

Plasma line emission is observed in simulations of dense plasma irradiated by moderately intense light pulses of duration some tens of femtoseconds, and its scaling with density and with laser intensity is studied. Plasma emission is recorded both during the pulse where it is observed against the background spectrum of harmonics of the laser frequency as well as postpulse. Harmonics of the plasma line up to the fifth have been observed.

Measuring oral health: does your treatment really make a difference.

An understanding of a broader concept of health is increasingly important for all health professionals, including dentists, and has recently been incorporated as a key principle in the Government White Paper, The New NHS. This aims to deliver a dependable, high quality, egalitarian health service. In the past, performance measurements in the UK have often relied simply on those areas which are most easily quantified.

Stereotactic radiosurgery for brain metastases.

Worldwide, approximately 100,000 patients have undergone stereotactic radiosurgery for a variety of intracranial lesions, of which brain metastases represent the most common treatment indication. This article summarizes the major issues surrounding the management of brain metastases, and also analyzes 21 independent reports of Gamma Knife- or linear accelerator-based radiosurgery, representing over 1,700 patients and more than 2,700 lesions. Variable reporting in the studies precludes a definitive, rigorous analysis, but the composite data reveal an average local control rate of 83% and median survival of 9.

Reticulocyte hemoglobin content to diagnose iron deficiency in children.

Context: Early identification of iron deficiency in children is essential to prevent the damaging long-term consequences of this disease. However, it is not clear which indices should be included in a diagnostic panel for iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia in children.

Objective: To develop an effective approach for the diagnosis of iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia in young children.

Radiosurgery for brain metastases.

Brain metastases represent the most common intracranial neoplasm, and they have become the most common indication for radiosurgery. The authors present a review summarizing the major issues surrounding the management of brain metastases and an English-language literature review of 21 independent reports, using either Gamma Knife or linear accelerator-based radiosurgery, with over 1700 patients and more than 2700 lesions available for analysis.

Intraoperative blood salvage in excisional burn surgery: an analysis of yield, bacteriology, and inflammatory mediators.

The diminution of intraoperative hemorrhage remains a fundamental goal of the burn surgeon. We hypothesized that intraoperative blood salvage during burn excisions would be feasible if predicated on yield, bacteriology, and concentration of inflammatory mediators in the washed product. Reinfusion of culture-positive blood has a clear precedent in the trauma literature.

Planned postradiotherapy neck dissection in patients with advanced head and neck cancer.

Background: Metastatic neck nodes in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck are most commonly managed by surgery, radiotherapy, or combined-modality therapy. For combined-modality cases, the sequencing of surgery and radiotherapy is generally guided by which modality is considered preferable for treatment of the primary tumor. A postradiotherapy neck dissection is often considered for those patients with > N1 disease in which the primary is treated with radiotherapy alone.

Aminoguanidine prolongs survival in azotemic-induced diabetic rats.

Toxic effects of hyperglycemia-induced advanced glycosylated end products (AGEs) may explain some vasculopathic complications of diabetes. Aminoguanidine, a known inhibitor of AGE formation, was administered by gavage to Sprague-Dawley streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats made azotemic by surgical reduction of renal mass. All rats became hyperglycemic.

Pedal and knee loads using a multi-degree-of-freedom pedal platform in cycling.

To provide a scientific basis for the design of bicycle pedals which possibly alleviate over-use knee injuries, two hypotheses were tested in the present study. The two hypotheses were: (1) that the three-dimensional pedal constraint loads; and (2) that the three-dimensional intersegmental knee loads would be reduced more significantly by a foot/pedal platform allowing both adduction/abduction and inversion/eversion rotations simultaneously than by a platform which allowed either rotation individually. To test these hypotheses, pedal load and lower limb kinematic data were collected from 10 subjects who pedaled with four pedal platforms which allowed zero, one, and two degrees of freedom.

Pr:YLF, intracavity-pumped, room-temperature upconversion laser.

Cw room-temperature upconversion laser operation is reported in Pr:YLF at 640 and 607 nm. An intracavitypumping scheme that uses a Yb:YAG laser operating at 1030 nm to pump the weak (3)H(4) ? (1)G(4) ground-state transition of Pr:YLF is used to populate the intermediate metastable level. An excited-state absorption at 867 nm is then used to populate the (3)P(0) and (3)P(1) upper states.

An improved accuracy six-load component pedal dynamometer for cycling.

This paper describes a new six-load component pedal dynamometer designed for study of knee overuse injury in cycling. A unique capability of the dynamometer is the ability to interface with multiple pedal platforms of varying height while maintaining a desired elevation of the foot above the pedal spindle axis. The dynamometer was designed using a concept described in an earlier article by Quinn and Mote (1991, Exp.

Neonatal diagnosis of fetal alcohol syndrome: not necessarily a hopeless prognosis.

A neonatal examination for fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) should promote the guidance of parents, the planning of remediation for affected children, and the collection of prevalence data. A blinded examination of FAS characteristics conducted as part of a large prospective study of disadvantaged alcohol-exposed infants identified eight neonates who met the published criteria for FAS. These children were followed through the preschool years with a blinded assessment protocol.

Monozygotic twins concordant for congenital neuroblastoma: case report and review of the literature.

To date, five sets of monozygotic twins concordant for neuroblastoma have appeared in the literature. Review of the clinical information available for these cases suggests that they represent congenital, versus acquired, diseases in both twins from each twin pair. The question arises, then, whether some or all sets of twins represent simultaneous-onset malignancy of both twins within a twin pair or whether metastasis via placental anastomoses from one twin with congenital disease to the cotwin occurs.

Developmental changes in glutamate receptor stimulated inositol phospholipid metabolism and 45Ca(2+)-accumulation in posthatch chicken forebrain.

In chicken forebrain the two phases of synapse development, formation and maturation, are temporally well separated. We have used this model system to determine the developmental profile of glutaminergic activation of phosphoinositidase C. Stimulation of [3H]inositol-loaded forebrain prisms by quisqualic acid (QA; 30 microM), or the metabotropic agonist 1-aminocyclopentane-trans-1,3-dicarboxylic acid (trans-ACPD; 30 microM), significantly increased [3H]inositol phosphate production.

Nondysplastic fetal renal hypoplasia associated with severe oligohydramnios: clinical, pathologic, and morphometric findings.

Two fetuses with severe bilateral renal hypoplasia are described; both diagnoses were made following elective abortion for oligohydramnios and suspected renal dysplasia. A 20-week female fetus (46,XX) had pulmonary hypoplasia and very small kidneys (7% of expected weight) that were normally shaped and nondysplastic, with well-formed medullae and metanephric blastema and markedly diminished cortices with only rare glomeruli. A 23-week male fetus (46,XY) had small kidneys (13% of expected weight) that were nondysplastic, normally shaped, and histologically well organized with moderately decreased numbers of glomeruli.

Fetoplacental histology as a predictor of karyotype: a controlled study of spontaneous first trimester abortions.

It has been suggested that inferences about fetal karyotype can be made from examination of placental and decidual histology in early, spontaneous abortions (SABs). We assessed the reproducibility and predictive value of histologic features in 75 karyotyped, first trimester SABs; 32% (24 of 75) had normal male karyotypes (46,XY) and 68% (51 of 75) were cytogenetically abnormal (29 trisomy, 12 triploidy, eight monosomy X, and two tetraploidy). Three pathologists independently assessed 17 fetal, placental, and decidual histological findings and made predictions about the karyotype (normal, abnormal, or uncertain).

Type X collagen degradation in long-term serum-free culture of the embryonic chick tibia following production of active collagenase and gelatinase.

Type X collagen has a very limited distribution during skeletal development in regions of hypertrophic cartilage destined for degradation. In solution assay, type X collagen is degraded to a 32-kDa cleavage product which is resistant to further degradation, suggesting this product may have a function in skeletal development. In this study, we have identified the 32-kDa cleavage product of type X collagen present in the conditioned media (CM) during incubation of isolated 12-day chick tibiae in the absence of serum.

WISC-R IQ estimates from the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery.

Multiple regression equations predicting WISC-R IQs from Luria-Nebraska T scores and subjects' chronological age were developed and cross-validated on a total sample of 152 adolescent psychiatric patients. Data from a randomly drawn subsample of 100 subjects were entered into three stepwise multiple-regression analyses to derive equations predicting WISC-R IQs. These equations were applied to the remaining subsample (n = 52) as were the equations developed by McKay, et al.

Definitional issues and neurobiological foundations of selected severe neurodevelopmental disorders.

This article reviews current definitional issues, selected neuropsychological findings, and presumed neurobiological underpinnings of two of the more commonly identified severe neurodevelopmental disorders: mental retardation and autistic disorder. Although these disorders represent two of the more common severe neurodevelopmental disorders encountered by child neuropsychologists practicing in clinical and research settings, they have not received the amount of attention from the field of neuropsychology as other kinds of neurodevelopmental disorders. Although there are few definitional controversies surrounding these disorders, findings accrued to date reveal solid evidence for neurological processes underlying each of these disorders.

Epidural analgesia for labour using a continuous infusion of bupivacaine and alfentanil.

Seventy women who requested epidural pain relief in labour received a continuous epidural infusion at 8 ml h-1, which contained either 0.25% bupivacaine (n = 29), or a mixture of 0.125% bupivacaine and 0.