Hyperacute lung rejection in the pig-to-human model 4: evidence for complement and antibody independent mechanisms.

Background: We assessed whether the combination of complement regulation and depletion of xenoreactive antibodies improves the outcome of pulmonary xenografts compared with either strategy alone.

Methods: Lungs from pigs heterozygous (hDAF(+/-)) or homozygous (hDAF(+/+)) for the human decay accelerating factor transgene (hDAF) or their nontransgenic litter mates (hDAF(-/-)) were perfused with heparinized whole human blood. In additional groups, xenoreactive natural antibodies (XNA) were depleted by pig lung perfusion (hDAF(-/-)/AbAbs, hDAF(+/-)/AbAbs) before the experiment.

Proximity of residence to trichloroethylene-emitting sites and increased risk of offspring congenital heart defects among older women.

Background: Previous studies suggest that trichloroethylene (TCE) is a selective cardiac teratogen. We tested the hypothesis that the odds of maternal residence close to TCE-emitting sites would be greater among infants with congenital heart defects (CHDs) than among infants without CHDs.

Methods: We conducted a case-control study of 4025 infants, identified from hospital and birth records, born from 1997 to 1999 to Milwaukee, Wisconsin mothers.

Compromised emotional competence: seeds of violence sown early?

The authors expected less secure preschoolers to be less emotionally competent when interacting with peers at age 3 and that these emotionally incompetent children, especially those who showed much unregulated anger, would be less socially competent in kindergarten. These directional hypotheses were examined in a sample of 91 preschoolers, and all were corroborated.

Maintenance treatment of schizophrenia with risperidone or haloperidol: 2-year outcomes.

Objective: Most controlled studies comparing second-generation and conventional antipsychotics have focused on the acute treatment of schizophrenia. The authors compared symptom outcomes, side effects, and social adjustment in stable schizophrenia outpatients who received 2 years of maintenance treatment with risperidone or haloperidol.

Method: This was a 2-year, randomized, double-blind comparison of 6 mg of risperidone versus haloperidol in 63 patients with stabilized DSM-IV schizophrenia.

Biophysical characterization of a large conductance anion channel in hypodermal membranes of the gastrointestinal nematode, Ascaris suum.

Patch-clamp recordings from muscle- and cuticle-facing hypodermal membranes of the gastrointestinal nematode Ascaris suum reveal a high-conductance, voltage- sensitive Ca(2+) -dependent Cl(-) channel. The hypodermal channel has a conductance of 195 pS in symmetrical 160 mM NaCl. The open probability of the channel is highly voltage-sensitive, and channel activity is not observed when Ca(2+) is reduced to <100 microM.

Cost of illness in the 1993 waterborne Cryptosporidium outbreak, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

To assess the total medical costs and productivity losses associated with the 1993 waterborne outbreak of cryptosporidiosis in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, including the average cost per person with mild, moderate, and severe illness, we conducted a retrospective cost-of-illness analysis using data from 11 hospitals in the greater Milwaukee area and epidemiologic data collected during the outbreak. The total cost of outbreak-associated illness was 96.2 million US dollars: 31.

Preschool emotional competence: pathway to social competence?

Preschoolers' (N = 143) patterns of emotional expressiveness, emotion regulation, and emotion knowledge were assessed. Their contributions to social competence, as evidenced by sociometric likability and teacher ratings, were evaluated via latent variable modeling, both concurrently and across time. Moderation of key results by age and sex was also explored.

Hyperacute lung rejection in the pig-to-human model. 2. Synergy between soluble and membrane complement inhibition.

Background: The role of complement in hyperacute lung xenograft rejection has not been elucidated. The present study evaluates the effect of complement (C) C3/C5 convertase inhibition on hyperacute rejection of pig lung by human blood.

Methods: In an established ex-vivo model, lungs from pigs heterozygous for human decay accelerating factor (hDAF), non-transgenic littermate control pigs, or farm-bred pigs were perfused with fresh human blood that was either unmodified or treated with soluble complement receptor type 1 (sCR1: TP10, 100 microg/ml).

Preschool understanding of emotions: contributions to classroom anger and aggression.

Background: We sought to identify patterns of social cognitive differences among preschoolers that were related to risk of stable aggressive behavior with peers. Following Lemerise and Arsenio (2000), we considered the emotional components of early social cognition, reasoning that young children's substrate of emotion knowledge serves them in decoding social encounters.

Method: One hundred and twenty-seven children from a longitudinal study from age 3 to 4 though to their kindergarten year were interviewed on their emotional knowledge initially using a puppet procedure and later with stories about mixed emotions and display rule.

In vivo amplified skills training: promoting generalization of independent living skills for clients with schizophrenia.

In Vivo Amplified Skills Training, IVAST, functions to bridge the gap between clinic-based skills training and use of social and independent living skills in everyday life for persons with schizophrenia and other serious and persistent mental illness. IVAST utilizes a specialist case manager who provides individualized, community-based teaching using behavioral techniques to promote clients' use of skills that were learned in classroom group sessions. The IVAST trainer also liaises with the client's psychiatrist and other clinic-based staff, family members, and community agencies to create opportunities, encouragement and reinforcement for the client's independent use of skills in the community.

Pharmacists' attitudes toward advanced practice nurses' prescriptive authority.

In an era of managed care, the new healthcare paradigm emphasizes a team approach to primary care health services. A team approach requires collaboration among healthcare providers. One model that has not been adequately explored is that of the advanced practice nurse (APN) and the pharmacist.

Heat wave morbidity and mortality, Milwaukee, Wis, 1999 vs 1995: an improved response?

Objectives: This study examined whether differences in heat alone, as opposed to public health interventions or other factors, accounted for the reduction in heat-related deaths and paramedic emergency medical service (EMS) runs between 1995 and 1999 during 2 heat waves occurring in Milwaukee, Wis.

Methods: Two previously described prediction models were adapted to compare expected and observed heat-related morbidity and mortality in 1999 based on the city's 1995 experience.

Results: Both models showed that heat-related deaths and EMS runs in 1999 were at least 49% lower than levels predicted by the 1995 relation between heat and heat-related deaths or EMS runs.

Supplementing clinic-based skills training with manual-based community support sessions: effects on social adjustment of patients with schizophrenia.

Objective: Although skills training is a validated psychosocial treatment for schizophrenia, generalization of the skills to everyday life has not been optimal. This study evaluated a behaviorally oriented method of augmenting clinic-based skills training in the community with the aim of improving opportunities, encouragement, and reinforcement for outpatients to use their skills in their natural environment.

Method: Sixty-three individuals with schizophrenia were randomly assigned to 60 weeks of clinic-based skills training alone or of clinic-based skills training supplemented with manual-based generalization sessions in the community.

Thromboxane mediates pulmonary hypertension and lung inflammation during hyperacute lung rejection.

The role of thromboxane (Tx) in hyperacute rejection of pig lung by human blood was studied in an ex vivo model, wherein lungs from juvenile piglets were perfused with fresh heparinized human blood. In this model, hyperacute lung rejection was characterized by an abrupt rise in pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR; >1 cmH2O x ml(-1) x min) and prolific Tx elaboration (>15 ng/ml) within 5 min and loss of function within 10 min. Although papaverine significantly blunted the rise in PVR (<0.

Effect of dopamine infusion on hemodynamics after hepatic denervation.

Background: . The effects of dopamine (DA) on systemic hemodynamics are better understood than its effects on hepatic hemodynamics, especially after liver denervation occurring during liver transplantation. Therefore, a porcine model was used to study DA's effects on hemodynamics after hepatic denervation.

Wisconsin, July 1999 heat wave: an epidemiologic assessment.

Objective: To assess the characteristics of heat-related deaths in Wisconsin during the summer of 1999.

Methods: Review of death certificates indicating heat as an underlying or contributing cause of death.

Results: Heat-related illness led to 21 deaths during the summer of 1999 in Wisconsin.

Immunohistologic evaluation of mechanisms mediating hyperacute lung rejection, and the effect of treatment with K76-COOH, FUT-175, and anti-Gal column immunoadsorption.

Although most investigators agree that lung dysfunction occurs rapidly in various pig-to-primate hyperacute lung rejection (HALR) models, the basic mechanisms mediating this phenomenon remain in question. Here we describe an immunohistochemical method for assessment of mechanisms driving HALR. Using an established model wherein piglet lungs are perfused ex vivo with human blood, six experimental groups (K76 COOH; FUT-175; K76 with FUT; anti-alpha-Gal column adsorption; column with FUT; and column with K76) and two control groups (unmodified human blood; autologous pig blood) were studied.

Effect of dopamine infusion (3-30 microg/kg/min) on hepatic hemodynamics.

Background: While dopamine produces well-characterized dose-dependent effects on systemic hemodynamics, there is a paucity of information regarding its effects on hepatic hemodynamics. Infusion rates above 10 microg/kg/min are reported to produce significant vasoconstriction and impair organ perfusion. Therefore, donors are sometimes considered unsuitable when higher doses of dopamine are in use.

Prolongation of primate cardiac allograft survival by treatment with ANTI-CD40 ligand (CD154) antibody.

Background: We evaluated whether a humanized anti-CD154 antibody (hu5c8) prolongs primate cardiac allograft survival.

Methods: Heterotopic cardiac allografts were performed between MHC class II-mismatched cynomolgus monkeys. Survival was compared between groups treated with a perioperative dosing of hu5c8 (group 1; n=6), sustained dosing with hu5c8 (group 2; n=3), and control regimens (n=4).

Surgical experience with hepatic colorectal metastasis.

The outcome of 134 patients undergoing hepatic resection for colorectal metastasis was studied. Current follow-up was available in 98 per cent of patients, for more than 5 years in 58 patients, and totaling 360 patient-years. Patients (52% male) had an average age of 62 +/- 1 years (standard error of the mean).

Effect of different microstructures of e-PTFE membranes on bone regeneration and soft tissue response: a histologic study in canine mandible.

The purpose of the present study was to compare the effect of 3 types of titanium reinforced e-PTFE membranes (GTRM #1, #2, and #3) on bone regeneration and tissue integration. GTRM #1 was a standard titanium reinforced membrane, GTRM #2 was a prototype characterized by a more open total surface microstructure and GTRM #3 was a prototype characterized by two extremely porous external layers separated by a totally occlusive internal layer. The membranes were used to cover saddle type ridge defects surgically created in the mandible of 6 dogs.

Comparison of arcuate-legged clipped versus sutured hepatic artery, portal vein, and bile duct anastomoses.

Attempts at improving anastomoses have included the development of stapling techniques. Our purpose was to evaluate arcuate-legged clipped versus standard sutured anastomoses of the hepatic artery (HA), portal vein (PV), and bile duct in a porcine liver transplantation model. Two groups of pigs were studied intraoperatively and 1 day after liver transplantation.