Automated four-color interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization approach for the simultaneous detection of specific aneuploidies of diagnostic and prognostic significance in high hyperdiploid acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

In high hyperdiploid acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the concurrence of specific trisomies confers a more favorable outcome than hyperdiploidy alone. Interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) complements conventional cytogenetics (CC) through its sensitivity and ability to detect chromosome aberrations in nondividing cells. To overcome the limits of manual I-FISH, we developed an automated four-color I-FISH approach and assessed its ability to detect concurrent aneuploidies in ALL.

A vaccine against nicotine for smoking cessation: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Tobacco dependence is the leading cause of preventable death and disabilities worldwide and nicotine is the main substance responsible for the addiction to tobacco. A vaccine against nicotine was tested in a 6-month randomized, double blind phase II smoking cessation study in 341 smokers with a subsequent 6-month follow-up period.

Methodology/principal Findings: 229 subjects were randomized to receive five intramuscular injections of the nicotine vaccine and 112 to receive placebo at monthly intervals.

Vestibulo-ocular reflex characteristics in patients with unilateral Ménière's disease.

Objective: The pathophysiologic concept of Ménière's disease assumes that endolymphatic hydrops is the cause of the symptoms via increased pressure in the endolymphatic space and/or ionic disorder due to ruptured membrane. The goal of this study was to assess whether the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) properties in patients with Ménière's disease were consistent with the classical theory.

Material And Methods: We studied 34 patients (19 women, 15 men) presenting with unilateral Ménière's disease divided into 2 groups according to the duration of the disease: 18 were in the early stage (< 12 mo), and 16 were in the late stage (> or = 12 mo).

Cumulative risk factors for adolescent alcohol misuse and its perceived consequences among 16 to 20 year old adolescents in Switzerland.

Aims: To assess the cumulative impact of environmental and individual factors associated with adolescent alcohol misuse and their correlation with self-reported consequences of drinking.

Method: Cross-sectional school-based survey of a nationally representative sample of 7548 post-mandatory school students and apprentices aged 16-20 years, Switzerland 2002. Alcohol misuse defined by frequency of alcohol use, episodes of drunkenness and driving while drunk.

Risk-adjusted rates for potentially avoidable reoperations were computed from routine hospital data.

Objectives: Reoperations may reflect a suboptimal initial surgical treatment. The study aimed to develop a screening algorithm for those potentially avoidable, using only routinely collected hospital data and a prediction model to adjust rates for case-mix.

Study Design And Setting: Data of a 3-year random sample of 7,370 therapeutic operations on inpatients, among which 833 were followed-up by a reoperation during the same stay.

Long-term outcome of preterm infants treated with nasal continuous positive airway pressure.

This study's aim was to assess neurodevelopmental and growth outcome until the age of 4 years of premature infants placed on early nCPAP, in the setting of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and follow-up program of the Division of Neonatology of the Department of Pediatrics of the University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland. All consecutive inborn infants weighing <1500 g or <32 weeks of gestational age admitted to the NICU during two periods of 12 months-7.1996-6.

Prediction of hip fracture risk by quantitative ultrasound in more than 7000 Swiss women > or =70 years of age: comparison of three technologically different bone ultrasound devices in the SEMOF study.

Unlabelled: To compare the prediction of hip fracture risk of several bone ultrasounds (QUS), 7062 Swiss women > or =70 years of age were measured with three QUSs (two of the heel, one of the phalanges). Heel QUSs were both predictive of hip fracture risk, whereas the phalanges QUS was not.

Introduction: As the number of hip fracture is expected to increase during these next decades, it is important to develop strategies to detect subjects at risk.

The INTERMED questionnaire for predicting return to work after a multidisciplinary rehabilitation program for chronic low back pain.

Objectives: To evaluate the performance of the INTERMED questionnaire score, alone or combined with other criteria, in predicting return to work after a multidisciplinary rehabilitation program in patients with non-specific chronic low back pain.

Methods: The INTERMED questionnaire is a biopsychosocial assessment and clinical classification tool that separates heterogeneous populations into subgroups according to case complexity. We studied 88 patients with chronic low back pain who followed an intensive multidisciplinary rehabilitation program on an outpatient basis.

Diagnostic value of vestibulo-ocular reflex parameters in the detection and characterization of labyrinthine lesions.

Objective: To evaluate the power of various parameters of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) in detecting unilateral peripheral vestibular dysfunction and in characterizing certain inner ear pathologies.

Study Design: Prospective study of consecutive ambulatory patients presenting with acute onset of peripheral vertigo and spontaneous nystagmus.

Setting: Tertiary referral center.

Complications of different ventilation strategies in endoscopic laryngeal surgery: a 10-year review.

Background: Spontaneous ventilation, mechanical controlled ventilation, apneic intermittent ventilation, and jet ventilation are commonly used during interventional suspension microlaryngoscopy. The aim of this study was to investigate specific complications of each technique, with special emphasis on transtracheal and transglottal jet ventilation.

Methods: The authors performed a retrospective single-institution analysis of a case series of 1,093 microlaryngoscopies performed in 661 patients between January 1994 and January 2004.

Arterial hypertension after surgical closure of omphalocele and gastroschisis.

Arterial hypertension has been reported as a complication of surgical closure of an abdominal wall defect. No report studying the incidence, the characteristics and the clinical significance of hypertension after surgical correction of an omphalocele or gastroschisis has been published so far. The medical records of all newborns with surgically corrected gastroschisis or omphalocele identified in two centers were retrospectively evaluated.

Polysomy 8 defines a clinico-cytogenetic entity representing a subset of myeloid hematologic malignancies associated with a poor prognosis: report on a cohort of 12 patients and review of 105 published cases.

Tetrasomy, pentasomy, and hexasomy 8 (polysomy 8) are relatively rare compared to trisomy 8. Here we report on a series of 12 patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), or myeloproliferative disorder (MPD) associated with polysomy 8 as detected by conventional cytogenetics and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). In an attempt to better characterize the clinical and hematological profile of this cytogenetic entity, our data were combined with those of 105 published patients.

After-hours paediatric telephone triage and advice: the Neuchâtel experience.

Unlabelled: Delivery of paediatric primary care by call centres has emerged as a satisfactory system. It has been reported in the literature in the United States and Australia. European public-funded paediatric emergency departments (ED) have little epidemiological data to rely on to match the demand in care.

Analysis of risk factors in 3901 patients with stroke.

Objective: To estimate the frequency of various risk factors for overall stroke and to identify risk factors for cerebral infarction (CI) versus intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) in a large hospital-based stroke registry.

Method: Data from a total of 3901 patients, consisting of 3525 patients with CI and 376 patients with ICH were prospectively coded and entered into a computerized data bank.

Results: Hypertension and smoking were the most prominent factors affecting overall stroke followed by mild internal carotid artery stenosis (< 50%), hypercholesterolemia, transient ischemic attacks (TIAs), diabetes mellitus, and cardiac ischemia.

Emotional behavior in acute stroke: the Lausanne emotion in stroke study.

Objective: To study emotional behaviors in an acute stroke population.

Background: Alterations in emotional behavior after stroke have been recently recognized, but little attention has been paid to these changes in the very acute phase of stroke.

Methods: Adult patients presenting with acute stroke were prospectively recruited and studied.

Self-reported health needs and use of primary health care services by adolescents enrolled in post-mandatory schools or vocational training programmes in Switzerland.

Background: The second Swiss Multicenter Adolescent Survey on Health (SMASH02) was conducted among a representative sample (n = 7428) of students and apprentices aged 16 to 20 from the three language areas of Switzerland during the year 2002. This paper reports on health needs expressed by adolescents and their use of health care services over the 12 months preceding the survey.

Methods: Nineteen cantons representing 80% of the resident population agreed to participate.

Evaluation of a multicomponent worksite health promotion program for cardiovascular risk factors-correcting for the regression towards the mean effect.

Background: We assessed the impact of a multicomponent worksite health promotion program for0 reducing cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) with short intervention, adjusting for regression towards the mean (RTM) affecting such nonexperimental study without control group.

Methods: A cohort of 4,198 workers (aged 42 +/- 10 years, range 16-76 years, 27% women) were analyzed at 3.7-year interval and stratified by each CVRF risk category (low/medium/high blood pressure [BP], total cholesterol [TC], body mass index [BMI], and smoking) with RTM and secular trend adjustments.

Molecular evidence of interhuman transmission of Pneumocystis pneumonia among renal transplant recipients hospitalized with HIV-infected patients.

Ten Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP) cases were diagnosed in renal transplant recipients (RTRs) during a 3-year period. Nosocomial transmission from HIV-positive patients with PCP was suspected because these patients shared the same hospital building, were not isolated, and were receiving suboptimal anti-PCP prophylaxis or none. P.

Stroke incidence and 30-day case-fatality in a suburb of Tbilisi: results of the first prospective population-based study in Georgia.

Background And Purpose: Although stroke is one of the main public health problems worldwide, no study of stroke incidence has been performed in Georgia, and therefore, a population-based registry was established to determine the incidence and case-fatality rates of first-ever stroke.

Methods: We identified all first-ever strokes between November 2000 and July 2003 in a defined population of 51,246 residents in the Sanzona suburb of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, using overlapping sources of information and standard diagnostic criteria.

Results: A total of 233 first-ever strokes occurred during the study period.

Altered decision-making in multiple sclerosis: a sign of impaired emotional reactivity?

We assessed decision-making capacity and emotional reactivity in 20 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and in 16 healthy subjects using the Gambling Task (GT), a model of real-life decision making, and the skin conductance response (SCR). Demographic, neurological, affective, and cognitive parameters were analyzed in MS patients for their effect on decision-making performance. MS patients persisted longer (slope, -3.

Relationship between brain perfusion computed tomography variables and cerebral perfusion pressure in severe head trauma patients.

Objective: To compare brain perfusion-computed tomography (CT) results with invasive cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) monitoring in severe head trauma patients.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Emergency room and surgical intensive care unit of our hospital.

Admission perfusion CT: prognostic value in patients with severe head trauma.

Purpose: To assess the prognostic value of admission perfusion computed tomography (CT) in patients with severe head trauma.

Materials And Methods: This prospective study included 130 patients with severe trauma, aged 19-86 years, admitted with a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 8 or less. They underwent perfusion CT as part of their admission CT survey.

Systematic screening at diagnosis of -5/del(5)(q31), -7, or chromosome 8 aneuploidy by interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization in 110 acute myelocytic leukemia and high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome patients: concordances and discrepancies with conventional cytogenetics.

To assess the contribution of interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization (I-FISH) toward the detection of recurring unbalanced chromosomal anomalies at diagnosis, a systematic screening of -5/del(5)(q31), -7, and chromosome 8 aneuploidy was performed on 110 patients with acute myelocytic leukemia or high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome. We searched for monosomy 5/del(5q) by one-color I-FISH with a probe specific for the 5q31 region and for -7/8 by dual-color I-FISH with centromeric probes for chromosomes 7 and 8. Discrepancies between conventional cytogenetics (CC) and I-FISH were observed in 8 of the 110 patients (7.

Brain perfusion in children: evolution with age assessed by quantitative perfusion computed tomography.

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the age-related variations of brain perfusion through quantitative cerebral perfusion computed tomography (CT) results in children without brain abnormality.

Methods: Brain perfusion CT examinations were performed in 77 children, aged 7 days to 18 years. These patients were admitted at our institution for both noncontrast and contrast-enhanced cerebral CT.

Clinical management of immunocompetent hospitalized patients with community-acquired pneumonia.

Background: Clinical practices and guidelines may differ regarding the management of inpatients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Methods: The management of 152 consecutive CAP inpatients (70+/-17 years) admitted to a teaching hospital was analyzed retrospectively and compared with published data and an evidence-based guideline developed at our institution. Results: Of the patients studied, 64% had a high prognostic score index (PSI), 14% were admitted to the ICU, and 4.