Using the health belief model to explain clinic appointment-keeping for the management of a chronic disease condition.

Broken appointments have untoward repercussions for patients' health and well-being. Although the literature on missed appointments has been largely atheoretical, several studies have tested the Health Belief Model (HBM) in this context. Those studies have found HBM dimensions are not predictive of keeping appointments for the management of a chronic condition.

Increased frequency of V beta 17-positive T cells in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: To identify the T lymphocytes that mediate disease in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: A panel of monoclonal antibodies reactive with T cell receptor (TCR) V beta gene products was used to analyze the RA T cell repertoire.

Results: Of 5 TCR V beta gene products studied, only V beta 17-positive T cells were increased in peripheral blood and synovial fluid (SF) from RA patients, compared with controls (P < 0.

Human B cell differentiation induced by microbial superantigens: unselected peripheral blood lymphocytes secrete polyclonal immunoglobulin in response to Mycoplasma arthritidis mitogen.

Microbial superantigens (SA) activate a significant portion of the T cell repertoire based on their dual avidity for MHC class II antigens and T cell receptor (TCR) epitopes common to products of one or several TCR beta chain variable gene families. While SA that induce massive T cell proliferation and cytokine secretion have been implicated in clinical syndromes characterized by shock and generalized immunosuppression, SA activation of a more restricted T cell response may also have significant, perhaps immunostimulatory, effects on the immune system. To investigate this issue, we measured 3H-thymidine incorporation and polyclonal IgM and IgG secretion by normal human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) cultured with a panel of microbial SA, including the Staphylococcus aureus-derived SA, SEA, SEB, SEC-1, SEC-2, SEC-3, SEE, TSST-1, and the Mycoplasma arthritidis-derived SA, MAM.

Activation of the neutrophil by calcium-mobilizing ligands. I. A chemotactic peptide and the lectin concanavalin A stimulate superoxide anion generation but elicit different calcium movements and phosphoinositide remodeling.

The relevance of phosphoinositide remodeling to calcium movements and to the physiological response of superoxide anion (O2-) generation was probed in neutrophils stimulated by the chemotactic peptide fMet-Leu-Phe and the lectin concanavalin A. fMet-Leu-Phe and concanavalin A triggered O2- generation but elicited different patterns of calcium mobilization and phosphoinositide remodeling. fMet-Leu-Phe (10(-7) M) triggered a rise in cytosolic calcium by mobilization of intracellular calcium (fura-2) and increased calcium permeability (45Ca uptake), while concanavalin A (100 micrograms/ml) elicited a rise in cytosolic calcium, primarily by uptake of extracellular calcium (45Ca uptake).