Outbreak of necrotising enterocolitis caused by Clostridium butyricum.

12 hospital-born babies had necrotising enterocolitis, of varying severity, within six weeks, 5 of them within ten days. The usually described predisposing causes were absent in most, though no baby was exclusively breast -fed. Evidence of the presence of Clostridium butyricum was found in the blood of 9 out of 10 babies examined.

Spinal cord vascular malformations with symptoms during menstruation. Report of two cases.

Two patients had the initial complaint of fluctuating paraparesis, which was most evident at menstruation. One patient had a semimonthly fluctuating deficit. Spinal cord compression and ischemia, secondary to the vascular mass, were considered the most likely mechanisms.

Structure of poly 8-bromoadenylic acid; conformational studies by CPF energy calculations.

Poly 8-bromoadenylic acid [poly(BBrA)] is the only known all-syn polynucleotide. It shows a helix-coil transition with a melting curve centred around 55 degrees C. Energy calculations based on classical potential functions have been used to explore the three-dimensional structure of this polymer in helix and random coil.

Area health education centers and health science library services.

A study to determine the impact that the Area Health Education Center type of programs may have on health science libraries was conducted by the Extramural Programs, National Library of Medicine, in conjunction with a contract awarded by the Bureau of Health Manpower, Health Resources Administration, to develop an inventory of the AHEC type of projects in the United States. Specific study tasks included a review of these programs as they relate to library and information activities, on-site surveys on the programs to define their needs for library services and information, and a categorization of library activities. A major finding was that health science libraries and information services are generally not included in AHEC program planning and development, although information and information exchange is a fundamental part of the AHEC type of programs.

Immune complexes (IgG and C3) at the motor end-plate in myasthenia gravis: ultrastructural and light microscopic localization and electrophysiologic correlations.

Although there is strong evidence that myasthenia gravis (MG) is caused by an autoimmune reaction to the nicotinic postsynaptic acetylcholine receptor (AChR) protein, immune complexes have never been directly demonstrated at the end-plate by immunocyto-chemistry or immunoelectron microscopy. Staphylococcal protein A (which binds to the Fc region of human IgG subclasses 1, 2, and 4) and rabbit anti-human C3 conjugated with peroxidase were used for the ultrastructural (5 patients) and light microscopic (12 patients) localization of IgG and C3, respectively, at MG end-plates. Both IgG and C3 were localized on segments of the postsynaptic membrance and fragments of degenerating junctional folds in the synaptic space.

Persistence of a pitch-segregating echoic memory.

Auditory stimuli were computer generated in order to measure the persistence of echoic memory. The stimuli consisted of 18 bursts (lasting 307 msec) of six equal-amplitued dichotic tones (frequencies: 392, 440, 494, 523, 587, and 659 Hz), each having a different interaural time disparity. For each stimulus a canonical distribution of interaural time disparities was defined.

The value of thymectomy in myasthenia gravis: a computer-assisted matched study.

In the absence of a prospective randomized study of patients treated conservatively or with thymectomy, a computer-assisted retrospective matches study was devised. Of 563 patients treated for myasthenia gravis without thymoma up to 1965, 104 had thymectomy. With computer assistance, each surgical patient was matched with a medical patient on the basis of age, sex, and severity and duration of disease.

Patient resistance and prognosis in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is usually considered a disease that will have a fatal termination in 1 to 3 years. A prospective study of 100 patients with this disorder revealed that 20 of them were living 5 years after the onset of their disorder. Review of other published series reveals that patients have been reported who lived for longer than 5 years and have then usually been reported as atypical cases, although the only way in which they are described as atypical is the duration of the disease.

Poly(2-aminoadenylic acid): interaction with poly(uridylic acid).

Poly(2-aminoadenylic acid) forms both double and triple helices with poly(uridylic acid) [poly(U)]. The 2-amino group forms a third hydrogen bond, elevating the 2 leads to 1 transition temperature by 33 degrees C. The third strand, however, has about the same stability as poly(A)-2poly(U), as measured by Tm 3 leads to 2.

Diflorasone diacetate: vasoconstrictor activity and clinical efficacy of a new topical corticosteroid.

Diflorasone diacetate, a new topical corticosteroid, was generally more potent than three high potency reference standards (fluocinonide, beta-methasone 17-valerate and fluocinolone acetonide) when the compounds were dissolved in 95% alcohol and applied in vasoconstrictor assays in healthy volunteers. On the basis of additional vasoconstrictor assay results, a 0-05% concentration of the steroid in a cream vehicle containing 15% propylene glycol was developed for therapeutic evaluation. In a double-blind comparison in 384 patients with dermatoses, 0-05% diflorasone diacetate cream was as effective as 0-05% fluocinonide cream in the therapy of lesions of psoriasis or atopic/neurodermatitis.

Alternate-day prednisone: preliminary report of a double-blind controlled study.

Thirteen patients with moderately severe myasthenia gravis participated in a double-blind study using either 100 mg of prednisone or an equivalen numbder of placebo tablets on alternate days. Anticholinesterase therapy was continued on a demand basis. At the end of 6 months the code was broken.

Rubella and rheumatoid arthritis: hyaluronic acid and susceptibility of cultured rheumatoid synovial cells to viruses.

Synovial cell lines were established from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and from normal human embryos. High levels of hyaluronic acid (HA) were produced by some RA cell lines, some of which were partially or completely resistant to infection with Newcastle disease virus (NDV), vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), and rubella virus (RV). Normal fetal synovial cells lines were susceptible to NDV, VSV, and RV.

Poly(8-bromoadenylic acid): synthesis and characterization of an all-syn polynucleotide.

Poly(8-bromoadenylic acid) (poly(8-BrA)) has been synthesized by polymerization of 8-BrADP with polynucleotide phosphorylase in the presence of oligonucleotide primers. In the absence of oligonucleotides, significant (i.e.