The role of daclizumab in balancing resources for inpatient and outpatient transplant services.

Transplant professionals have the dual responsibility of achieving acceptable clinical outcomes and controlling costs. One approach transplant centers have used to control transplant-related costs has been to decrease patients' length of stay, and thus it has decreased significantly in the last 6 years. This reduction in resource consumption has been accomplished by increased efficiency in providing transplantation services, expanding the number of outpatient services available, and integrating new technologies.

The effect of tumor necrosis factor binding protein and interleukin-1 receptor antagonist on the development of abdominal aortic aneurysms in a rat model.

Purpose: Tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin 1 (IL-1), and matrix metalloproteases have been noted to be elevated in human abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) as compared with normal and occlusive aortic disease. Because TNF and IL-1 have been shown to cause release of proteases that weaken the aortic matrix, it has been suggested that these cytokines may play a central role in the aortic dilatation process. To substantiate this hypothesis, we investigated the effects of TNF and IL-1 antagonists, tumor necrosis factor binding protein (TNF-BP) and interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA), on the development of AAAs in a well-described rat model.

Cerebrospinal fluid immunoglobulin abnormalities in neurosarcoidosis.

A retrospective chart review of neurosarcoidosis at the University of Texas Medical Branch (Galveston) between 1982 and 1987 revealed 99 patients with sarcoidosis. Six patients were diagnosed with neurosarcoidosis and had electrophoresis of serum and cerebrospinal fluid performed (one patient with a ventriculoperitoneal shunt was later excluded). Cerebrospinal fluid immunoglobulins and albumin levels were determined followed by calculation of an IgG index and synthesis rate for each patient.

Fetal intestinal transplants in syngeneic rats: a developmental model of intestinal immunity.

We conducted a longitudinal study of the development of lymphoid tissue in fetal small intestine transplanted to a subcutaneous site in adult syngeneic Fischer strain rats. Fetal jejunoileal segments obtained between 18 and 21 days of gestation were transplanted to a dorsal subcutaneous site on syngeneic adult rats. Three weeks later, intestinal segments greater than 2.