Preventing and diagnosing sexual abuse in children.

Childhood sexual-abuse occurrences are life-altering events. Children are remarkably successful at keeping the facts of sustained abuse hidden. This results in delayed therapeutic intervention, or none at all.

Compression pain in a diver with intraosseous pneumatocysts.

A 30-yr-old diver experienced pain in the area of the sacroiliac joint during the descent phase of air diving to less than 10 ATA. Computed tomography of the pelvis demonstrated two gas-filled cysts within the ilium. The mechanism by which this lesion causes pain is discussed and reports of gas within bone are reviewed.

Pain-only decompression sickness affecting the orbicularis oculi.

A case is reported of a diver who experienced the onset of pain in the left orbicularis oculi muscle approximately 20 min after surfacing from an experimental dive. A careful neurologic examination disclosed no abnormality. The response of the orbicularis oculi muscle to stimulation of the facial nerve and the blink reflex were both normal as recorded with a clinical neurophysiologic recording system (Nicolet CA 1000).

Nitrogen gas exchange in the human knee.

Human decompression sickness is presumed to result from excess inert gas in the body when ambient pressure is reduced. Although the most common symptom is pain in the skeletal joints, no direct study of nitrogen exchange in this region has been undertaken. For this study, nitrogen tagged with radioactive 13N was prepared in a linear accelerator.

Respiratory mechanics in men following a deep air dive.

The mechanical properties of the lungs were measured in 10 men before and after a simulated air dive to 285 ft of seawater (87 m). The objective was to determine whether a dive likely to produce pulmonary bubble emboli would alter lung mechanics. Lung function was measured predive and at 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 23 h postdive.

Characteristics of cultivated adult human nevocellular nevus cells.

Nevus cells are of biologic interest because of their uncertain relationship to epidermal melanocytes and of clinical interest because of their statistical association with melanoma. We report a technique that allows reliable cultivation of nevus cells from small acquired and congenital nevi and permits in vitro characterization of this cell type. Morphologically, cultured nevus cells were found to closely resemble epidermal melanocytes from the same or comparably aged donors, manifesting marked dendricity and specific ultrastructural features characteristic of melanocytes; but could be distinguished by the presence of occasional large binucleate or trinucleate cells and by the frequent finding of grouped melanosomes in nevus cell cytoplasm.

In vivo microbubble detection in decompression sickness using a second harmonic resonant bubble detector.

A resonant bubble detection method based on a second harmonic technique has been used to monitor the femoral vascular system of dogs subjected to rapid decompression. For this study, the detector consisted of two acoustic transducers mounted at right angles to each other that were packaged in a perivascular cuff configuration. This detector responds selectively only to bubbles near resonant size (4.

Decompression outcome following saturation dives with multiple inert gases in rats.

This investigation examined the question of whether gas mixtures containing multiple inert gases provide a decompression advantage over mixtures containing a single inert gas. Unanesthetized male albino rats, Rattus norvegicus, were subjected to 2-h simulated dives at depths ranging from 145 to 220 fsw. At pressure, the rats breathed various He-N2-Ar-O2 mixtures (79.

Doppler bubble detection and decompression sickness: a prospective clinical trial.

Decompression sickness in human beings exposed to high ambient pressure is thought to follow from gas bubble formation and growth in the body during return to low pressure. Detection of Doppler-shifted ultrasonic reflections in major blood vessels has been promoted as a noninvasive and sensitive indicator of the imminence of decompression sickness. We have conducted a double-blind, prospective clinical trial of Doppler ultrasonic bubble detection in simulated diving using 83 men, of whom 8 were stricken and treated for the clinical disease.

Selective cultivation of human melanocytes from newborn and adult epidermis.

Development of adequate culture systems for the human epidermal melanocyte is critical to further advances in pigment cell biology. We now report selective growth and long-term maintenance of melanocytes derived from both newborn and adult skin specimens. Disaggregated epidermal cell suspensions were plated in a hormone-supplemented medium containing cholera toxin and a hypothalamic extract treated to remove keratinocyte growth-promoting activity.

On the likelihood of decompression sickness.

The occurrence of decompression sickness in animals and humans is characterized by the extreme variability of individual response. Nevertheless, models and analyses of decompression results have generally used a critical value approach to separate safe and unsafe decompression procedures. Application of the principle of maximum likelihood provides a formal and consistent way to quantify decompression risk and to apply models to data on decompression outcome.

Morphological and physiological responses of the lungs of dogs to acute decompression.

The lung's response to decompression was studied in dogs anesthetized with pentobarbital sodium. Arterial pressure, hematocrit, right ventricular pressure, left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP), dynamic compliance (CL), pulmonary resistance (RL), and arterial PO2, PCO2, and pH were measured prior to and for 3 h after a simulated air dive to 300 feet of seawater. Bronchoscopy was performed predive and at 3 h postdive.

Factors affecting plasma benzo[a]pyrene levels in environmental studies.

Benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) is a useful indicator of exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), airborne carcinogenic compounds. Radioimmunoassay was used to test for plasma BaP differences in 61 subjects divided into three groups based on geographic-demographic locale: urban-industrial, urban-residential, and outer suburban. The results showed that the urban-industrial area participants had a significantly higher mean plasma BaP level than did the outer suburban subjects.

Chronologic and actinically induced aging in human facial skin.

Clinical and histologic stigmata of aging are much more prominent in habitually sun-exposed skin than in sun-protected skin, but other possible manifestations of actinically induced aging are almost unexplored. We have examined the interrelation of chronologic and actinic aging using paired preauricular (sun-exposed) and postauricular (sun-protected) skin specimens. Keratinocyte cultures derived from sun-exposed skin consistently had a shorter in vitro lifespan but increased plating efficiency compared with cultures derived from adjacent sun-protected skin of the same individual, confirming a previous study of different paired body sites.

Chronologic and actinically induced aging in human facial skin.

Clinical and histologic stigmata of aging are much more prominent in habitually sun-exposed skin than in sun-protected skin, but other possible manifestations of actinically induced aging are almost unexplored. We have examined the interrelation of chronologic and actinic aging using paired preauricular (sun-exposed) and postauricular (sun-protected) skin specimens. Keratinocyte cultures derived from sun-exposed skin consistently had a shorter in vitro lifespan but increased plating efficiency compared with cultures derived from adjacent sun-protected skin of the same individual, confirming a previous study of different paired body sites.

Effect of estradiol on ultrastructure of granular ducts in submandibular glands of female rats.

The effects of estradiol on the granular ducts in submandibular glands of female albino rats were studied. Twenty-five-milligram pellets of 17 beta-estradiol were implanted subcutaneously in the experimental animals, and their glands, as well as controls, were examined after 2, 4, 7, and 10 wk using light and electron microscopy. During the course of the experiment an increasing proportion of the granules in the granular ducts appeared more lightly stained in the experimental animals.

Autophagocytosis of melanosomes in cultured embryonic retinal pigment cells.

Autophagocytosis not only accounts for the early pigment loss found in proliferating cultured retinal pigment cells, but also occurs in slowly growing and in non-proliferating cells. Both melanosome synthesis and destruction may take place concurrently in cells. Autophagosomes may contain both fully formed melanosomes and also premelanosomes in various stages of formation, are positive for lysosomal enzyme activity, and likely represent secondary lysosomes.

Homogeneous nucleation of gas bubbles in vivo.

Several current theories of decompression sickness (DCS) presume the preexistence of gas bubble nuclei in tissue, because the de novo nucleation of gas bubbles in the body is thought to be theoretically impossible. Reexamination of nucleation theory reveals the overwhelming importance of two parameters: gas supersaturation and tissue surface tension (gamma). For the high gamma of pure water nucleation theoretically requires more than 1,000 ATA supersaturation.