[Prognosis of neuroblastoma in childhood. Methods of assessment and clinical use].

Neuroblastoma and its benign counterpart, ganglioneuroma, are pediatric neuroblastic tumors arising in the sympathetic nervous system from neural-crest cells. Neuroblastoma, the most common extra-cranial solid tumour during childhood, is unique for its broad spectrum of clinical virulence from spontaneous remission to rapid and fatal progression despite intensive multimodality therapy. To a large extent, outcome could be predicted by the stage of disease and the age at diagnosis.

[Neonatal localized neuroblastoma: 52 cases treated from 1990 to 1999].

Unlabelled: Neuroblastoma is the most frequent tumor observed in the newborn. The aim of this study was to review clinical features, treatment and outcome of newborns diagnosed with a localized neuroblastoma.

Population And Methods: Data from 52 cases treated according to the NBL 90 and 94 protocols between 1990 and 1999 in 18 French centers of pediatric oncology were analyzed.

Rapidly progressive dementia due to Mycobacterium neoaurum meningoencephalitis.

Dementia developed in a patient with widespread neurologic manifestations; she died within 5 months. Pathologic findings showed granulomatous inflammation with caseation necrosis, foreign body-type giant cells, and proliferative endarteritis with vascular occlusions. Broad-range polymerase chain reaction identified Mycobacterium neoaurum as the possible pathogen.

Standards for the assay of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease specimens.

Assays for the agent of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) include measurement of infectivity in different animal systems, such as wild-type or transgenic mice, and detection of PrP(Sc) by different methods and formats. The various assays could be best calibrated against each other by use of uniform readily available materials, and samples of four human brains, two from sporadic CJD patients, one from a variant CJD patient and one from a non-CJD patient, have been prepared as 10% homogenates dispensed in 2000 vials each for this purpose. Results of in vitro methods, particularly immunoblot assays, were compared in the first collaborative study described here.

Sporadic case of dentatorubral pallidoluysian atrophy with no CAG repeat expansion and no intranuclear inclusions.

We present a patient with a 14-year course beginning at the age of 44 years with hemidystonia followed by generalized choreoathetosis, behavioral, and oculomotor disturbances. Family history and genetic testing were unrevealing. Neuropathological findings were identical to genetic dentatorubral pallidoluysian (DRPLA) except for the lack of intranuclear inclusions.

IL-9 in allergic inflammation.

Th2 type cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5, IL-9, and IL-13 are important mediators in allergic inflammation. The present review will focus on the role of IL-9 in allergic inflammation. The structure and genomic architecture of IL-9 and its receptor, the source of IL-9 and its regulation as well as its effects on different cell types will be reviewed.

[Penile intraepithelial neoplasia].

The increasing incidence of anogenital carcinoma in situ in young adults over the last twenty years is correlated with certain sexually transmissible diseases. This increased incidence of genital lesions requires a review of the clinicopathological classification of penile intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) to help the clinician differentiate the aetiology in order to propose the least mutilating treatment. Bowen-like or human papillomavirus (HPV)-induced PIN in young men present different clinical features and a different natural history from those of high-grade PIN of elderly men.

Histological analysis of the location of effective thalamic stimulation for tremor. Case report.

Chronic electrical stimulation of the thalamus is an effective treatment for essential and parkinsonian tremor. Although the preferred surgical target is generally accepted to lie within the ventral intermediate nucleus (Vim), the relationship between the surgically defined target and the true histologically defined target is addressed in only a few reports, due in large measure to the need for advanced cytoarchitectonic techniques to define the borders of the thalamic nuclei. The authors report on a patient who underwent effective thalamic deep brain stimulation (DBS) for tremor.

Evaluation of the efficiency of three different solvent systems to extract triterpene saponins from roots of Panax quinquefolius using high-performance liquid chromatography.

Despite the wide availability of liquid herbal extracts using mixtures of alcohol, glycerin, and water, or glycerin and water as solvents, no data on the chemical composition of such extracts is readily available. In this study, the amount and the stability of the major saponins in Panax quinquefolius root extracts, made either with 50% (v/v) aqueous ethanol, a mixture (v/v/v) of 20% ethanol, 40% glycerin, and 40% water, or with 65% (v/v) aqueous glycerin, were evaluated by HPLC-UV analysis. The amount of total saponins was highest in the 50% aqueous ethanol extract (61.

Primary cardiac Burkitt lymphoma in a child.

Primary cardiac lymphoma (PCL) is a rare and usually fatal malignancy, seldom reported in children. This report describes the case of a 10-year-old boy who presented with multiple intracardiac masses which, when biopsied, proved to be small non-cleaved cell (Burkitt's) lymphoma. The first two cycles of chemotherapy according to the LMB 96 protocol were given under close cardiological supervision, with good response.

Effects of defendant age on severity of punishment for different crimes.

After reading a murder or theft vignette in which the perpetrator was a 20-, 40-, or 60-year-old man, 95 undergraduates gave sentence and parole recommendations. Punishment was harsher for the murder than for the theft. For murder, participants treated the 20- and 60-year-old men less harshly than the 40-year-old man, which confirms previous archival findings.

The 2001 Bethesda system.

The Bethesda system is a system of terminology for reporting the results of cervical cytology. It was developed in 1988, and is now widely used in the United States. This system was updated in April 2001.

Phytochemical and biological analysis of skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora L.): a medicinal plant with anxiolytic properties.

The phytochemistry and biological activity of Scutellaria lateriflora L. (American skullcap) which has been traditionally used as a sedative and to treat various nervous disorders such as anxiety was studied. In vivo animal behaviour trials were performed to test anxiolytic effects in rats orally administered S.

Pure cerebello-olivary degeneration of Marie, Foix, and Alajouanine presenting with progressive cerebellar ataxia, cognitive decline, and chorea.

Parenchymatous cerebellar cortical atrophy (CCA) usually presents with a "pure" cerebellar ataxia. We describe a patient with a sporadic, late-onset progressive cerebellar ataxia plus cognitive decline and chorea who had CCA at post mortem. We discuss this unique case in the current context of classification of idiopathic cerebellar ataxia.

Delivery of herpes simplex thymidine kinase bystander effect by engineered human mesothelial cells for the treatment of ovarian cancer.

Background: Resistance to conventional chemotherapy is a major clinical problem for ovarian cancer, and long-term survival for patients with advanced-stage disease is rare. Other therapeutic strategies, such as gene therapy, have been explored but several limitations exist, which include low viral vector transduction efficiency, host immune response to the vector, and vector toxicity.

Methods: We developed a cell-based therapy that exploits human mesothelial cells to deliver anticancer modalities for treatment of ovarian cancer.

Localized cervical neuroblastoma: prevention of surgical complications.

Objectives: The purpose of this study focused on cervical neuroblastoma (NB) was to assess the prognosis, define the most suitable methods of investigation, and evaluate risk factors for complications following primary surgery.

Methods: Between 1990 and 1999, we conducted two consecutive prospective multicentric studies (NBL90 and NBL94) on localized NB. Because the first study (1990-1994) found surgery-related morbidity and mortality, several surgical risk factors (i.

Defendants' age and severity of punishment for two crimes in a mock scenario: further data.

95 undergraduates read a simulated crime vignette about either murder or theft in which the perpetrator was a 20-, 40-, or 60-yr.-old man, then gave recommendations about sentence and parole. Subsequently, they made a second set of recommendations for the other crime and another age.

Localised and unresectable neuroblastoma in infants: excellent outcome with low-dose primary chemotherapy.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of low-dose chemotherapy in infants with localised and unresectable neuroblastoma (NB). All consecutive infants with localised NB and no N-myc amplification were eligible in the SFOP-NBL 94 study. Primary tumour was deemed as unresectable according to imaging data showing any risk of immediate resection.

PS1 Alzheimer's disease family with spastic paraplegia: the search for a gene modifier.

PS1 mutations are associated with classic Alzheimer's disease (AD); however, some families develop AD and spastic paraplegia (SP) with brain pathology characterized by Abeta cotton wool plaques. The authors report a variant AD family with the E280Q PS1 mutation. The fact that the same PS1 mutation can be found in patients with either variant or classic AD argues in favor of the presence of a genetic modifier.

Performance of a new, liquid-based cervical screening technique in the clinical setting of a large French laboratory.

Objective: To compare the performance of liquid-based cytology with the CYTO-screen System (SEROA) with that of conventional smears through a secondary analysis of a large database covering the activity of an independent French laboratory during the period 1998-2002.

Study Design: The study was performed with a retrospective, comparative, historical design on 2 subgroups of women having been screened by gynecologists who switched from conventional smears to the CYTO-screen System in the period 1998-2002. The first cohort population consisted of women who had at least 4 subsequent screening tests over the period with half conventional and half with the CYTO-screen System.

Regulation of procollagen I (alpha1) by interleukin-4 in human bronchial fibroblasts: a possible role in airway remodelling in asthma.

Background: In bronchial mucosa, T cells are in close association with fibroblasts. This cell contact raises the possibility of cross-talk between the two cell types through cytokines, such as interleukin-4 (IL-4).

Objective: We postulated that IL-4 may modulate collagen synthesis and degradation in the fibroblasts of asthmatics.