Erythromycin for chlamydiasis in pregnant women. Assessing adherence to a standard multiday, multidose course.

Objective: To assess patient adherence among pregnant women infected with Chlamydia trachomatis given a self-administered, 10-day course of erythromycin prescribed as 500-mg tablets to be taken four times a day for the full 10-day period of treatment.

Study Design: Study participants (n = 30) were given the standard, 10-day supply of 500-mg tablets of erythromycin and instructed to take one tablet four times daily for 10 days. Patients were blinded to the fact that the Medication Event Monitoring System was being used and that their adherence to this course of drug therapy was being monitored.

Infrared spectroscopy of human tissue. IV. Detection of dysplastic and neoplastic changes of human cervical tissue via infrared microscopy.

Infrared absorption spectra of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded human cervical tissue are reported for normal, dysplastic and neoplastic samples. The spectral differences found in this study between these states of the tissues are far less than those observed for single cells by us and others. Nevertheless, we find a direct correspondence between spectral data from tissue sections, obtained from biopsies, and individual exfoliated cells, typically obtained during a pap procedure.

Infrared spectroscopy of human tissue. II. A comparative study of spectra of biopsies of cervical squamous epithelium and of exfoliated cervical cells.

A comparison of infrared absorption spectra obtained from the different layers of squamous epithelium from the human cervix, and infrared spectra obtained from exfoliated cervical cells, is presented. Infrared spectroscopy has been shown (in part I of this series) to be a sensitive tool to monitor maturation and differentiation of human cervical cells; therefore, this spectroscopic technique provides new insights into the composition and state of health of exfoliated cells.

Infrared spectroscopy of human tissue. I. Differentiation and maturation of epithelial cells in the human cervix.

Infrared spectral results for the different epithelial layers of human cervical squamous tissue are reported. The layers, representing different cellular maturation stages, exhibit quite different spectral patterns. Thus, infrared spectroscopy presents a powerful tool to monitor cell maturation and differentiation.

First-trimester spontaneous abortions and the incidence of human immunodeficiency virus seropositivity.

Objective: To examine the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seropositivity rates and HIV risk factors in women with a confirmed diagnosis of first-trimester spontaneous abortion in a community hospital.

Study Design: Patients admitted with confirmed diagnoses of spontaneous incomplete first-trimester abortions at Lutheran Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, from September 1991 to September 1992, were asked to anonymously complete an epidemiologic questionnaire, which was used to study HIV risk factors in our study population. Routine blood work done on admission was used to ascertain the incidence of HIV infection.