[The clinical case of the month. Malignant whooping cough in an infant].

Morbidity and mortality of whooping cough remain significant among infants despite vaccination. This article presents a case of whooping cough with complications in a 3 month old infant who had already received his first dose of anti-pertussis vaccine at 2 months and 3 weeks of age.

[How I investigate...difficult cases of tuberculous meningitis].

To formally document the presence of the bacillus of Koch in meninges still remains difficult and depends on many variables. We report two cases where the diagnosis proved difficult. The presentation of tuberculous meningitis can take several aspects.

Inactivation of alpha(2)-Macroglobulin by Activated Human Polymorphonuclear Leukocytes.

The proteolytic activity of trypsin releases the dye Remazol Brilliant Blue from its high molecular weight substrate, the skin powder (Hide Powder Azure, Sigma), with an increase in absorbance at 595 nm. Active alpha(2)- macroglobulin (80 mug/ml) totally inhibits the proteolytic activity of trypsin (14 mug/ml) by trapping this protease. But after a 20 min incubation of alpha(2)-macroglobulin at 37 degrees C with 2 x 10(6) human polymorphonuclear leukocytes activated by N-formyl-L-methionyl-L-leucyl-L-phenylalanine (10(-7) M) and cytochalasin B (10(-8) M), 100% of trypsin activity was recovered, indicating a total inactivation of alpha(2)-macroglobuHn.

Action of phenobarbital given to rats together with diethylnitrosamine on the O6-ethylguanine content of liver DNA.

When rats are fed diethylnitrosamine (10 mg/kg/day), no O6-ethylguanine is found in liver DNA after 2 weeks, but a considerable amount accumulates after 4 weeks. On the other hand, a 2-week feeding of diethylnitrosamine is not sufficient to induce liver cancers, whereas a 4-week treatment leads to hepatocarcinomas in 50% of the animals. Administration of phenobarbital (75 mg/kg/day) together with diethylnitrosamine during 4 weeks prevents the formation of liver cancers.