The effect of a single remote course versus weekly courses of antenatal corticosteroids on functional residual capacity in preterm infants: a randomized trial.

Objective: There are no randomized data on the effect of repeat courses of corticosteroids during pregnancy on newborn pulmonary function. Our objective was to compare the effect of a single remote course of antenatal steroids (AS) with weekly courses of AS on functional residual capacity (FRC) and respiratory compliance in preterm infants.

Study Design/methods: Pregnant women 25 to 33 weeks' gestation, who remained undelivered 1 week after their first course of antenatal corticosteroids (two 12-mg doses of betamethasone) were randomized to weekly courses of corticosteroids versus weekly placebo until delivery or 34 weeks' gestation.

Duplex scanning or arteriography for preoperative planning of lower limb revascularisation.

Objective: to compare the accuracy of duplex and angiography for the planning of lower limb revascularisation.

Patients And Methods: Sixty limbs (82% with critical limb ischaemia) were assessed by means of duplex by one surgeon and by angiography by another in terms of the optimum inflow and outflow sites for arterial bypass. These data were then compared with the final operation performed which was used as the gold standard.

Bupropion and sertraline enhance retrieval of recent and remote long-term memory in rats.

Wistar rats were trained in step-down inhibitory avoidance at the age of 3 months, and tested for retrieval either 1 day later or 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 19 months later, when the animals were 6, 9, 12, 15, 18 or 22 months old, respectively. Bupropion (20 or 60 mg/kg) and sertraline (3.3 or 10 mg/kg) given orally 6 or 3 h before retention testing, respectively, enhanced retrieval of this task at all training-test intervals, despite the fact that retrieval at the longest intervals was practically not seen in control animals.

Stress hormones enhance retrieval of fear conditioning acquired either one day or many months before.

It has been known for years that systemic administration of the stress hormones, adrenocorticotrophin (ACTH), lysine-vasopressin, adrenaline, or beta-endorphin, enhances retrieval of aversive behaviours acquired one or a few days before. Here we show that the pre-test i.p.

Abdominal aortic coarctation, renovascular, hypertension, and neurofibromatosis.

Abdominal aortic coarctation and renal artery stenosis associated with neurofibromatosis is an unusual cause of renovascular hypertension in children and young adults. Sustained hypertension despite pharmacological treatment carries significant end-organ deterioration, failure to thrive, and potentially lethal complications. Timely arterial reconstruction can render these children normotensive, allowing normal development and reducing long-term morbidity.

Conservative hemodynamic surgery for varicose veins.

Conservative hemodynamic surgery for varicose veins is a minimally invasive, nonablative technique that preserves the saphenous vein and helps avoid excision of varicosities. It represents a physiologic approach to the surgical treatment of varicose veins based on knowledge of the underlying venous pathophysiology gained through detailed duplex scanning. A change in venous hemodynamics is attained through fragmentation of the blood column by interruption of the refluxing saphenous trunks, closure of the origin of the refluxing varicose branches, and preservation of the communicating veins that drain the incompetent varicose veins into the deep venous system.

Surface keratopathy after penetrating keratoplasty.

Purpose: To determine the type and prevalence of epithelial abnormalities in the intermediate postoperative period after penetrating keratoplasty and to define the donor and recipient variables that influence the status of the graft epithelium.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Methods: We prospectively followed the clinical course of 80 patients after penetrating keratoplasty.

The MgtE Mg2+ transport protein is involved in Aeromonas hydrophila adherence.

Aeromonas hydrophila AH-3 strains carrying mutations in mgtE, which encodes a Mg2+ and Co2+ transport system, showed a 50% reduction of in vitro adherence to HEp-2 cells, a reduction in swarming in semisolid swarming agar, and decrease in biofilm formation of over 60% in comparison to the wild-type strain. The cloned A. hydrophila mgtE expressed from a plasmid complements a Salmonella typhimurium strain deleted for all Mg2+ transporters both phenotypically and by measurement of 57Co2+ uptake.

The cell division genes (ftsE and X) of Aeromonas hydrophila and their relationship with opsonophagocytosis.

A transposon mutant from Aeromonas hydrophila AH-3 was obtained which was highly resistant to opsonophagocytosis. The mutation was identified in the ftsE gene and we characterised the operon ftsY, E and X from this bacterium. These genes, as in enteric bacteria, are neighbours to rpoH.

Genetic characterization of the Klebsiella pneumoniae waa gene cluster, involved in core lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis.

A recombinant cosmid containing genes involved in Klebsiella pneumoniae C3 core lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis was identified by its ability to confer bacteriocin 28b resistance to Escherichia coli K-12. The recombinant cosmid contains 12 genes, the whole waa gene cluster, flanked by kbl and coaD genes, as was found in E. coli K-12.

Novelty enhances retrieval: molecular mechanisms involved in rat hippocampus.

Rats exposed to a novel environment just prior to or 1-2 h, but not 4 or 6 h, before retention testing exhibited an enhanced retrieval of a one-trial inhibitory avoidance training. The bilateral intrahippocampal infusion of PD098059, an inhibitor of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), the specific upstream activator of p42 and p44 MAPKs, given 10 min before the exposure to the novel environment, blocked the enhancing effect of novelty on memory retrieval. In addition, prenovelty infusion of DL-2-amino-5-phosphonovalerate (APV), an antagonist of glutamate NMDA receptors, produced similar effects.

Primary aorto-oesophageal fistula due to oesophageal carcinoma. Report of a successfully managed case.

Aorto-oesophageal fistula is a rare but often fatal entity causing upper gastrointestinal bleeding. Amongst the different aetiologies described, the commonest is rupture of a thoracic aortic aneurysm into the oesophagus. This entity was first reported in 1818, and only recently have successfully treated cases been published.

Pharmacological differences between memory consolidation of habituation to an open field and inhibitory avoidance learning.

Rats implanted bilaterally with cannulae in the CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus or the entorhinal cortex were submitted to either a one-trial inhibitory avoidance task, or to 5 min of habituation to an open field. Immediately after training, they received intrahippocampal or intraentorhinal 0.5-microl infusions of saline, of a vehicle (2% dimethylsulfoxide in saline), of the glutamatergic N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist 2-amino-5-phosphono pentanoic acid (AP5), of the protein kinase A inhibitor Rp-cAMPs (0.

Novelty enhances retrieval of one-trial avoidance learning in rats 1 or 31 days after training unless the hippocampus is inactivated by different receptor antagonists and enzyme inhibitors.

Rats were implanted bilaterally with cannulae in the CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus. The animals were trained in one-trial step-down inhibitory avoidance and tested either 1 or 31 days later. Some of the animals were exposed, 1 h prior to retention testing, to a novel environment.

Phosphorylated cAMP response element-binding protein as a molecular marker of memory processing in rat hippocampus: effect of novelty.

From mollusks to mammals the activation of cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) appears to be an important step in the formation of long-term memory (LTM). Here we show that a 5 min exposure to a novel environment (open field) 1 hr after acquisition of a one-trial inhibitory avoidance training hinders both the formation of LTM for the avoidance task and the increase in the phosphorylation state of hippocampal Ser 133 CREB [phosphorylated CREB (pCREB)] associated with the avoidance training. To determine whether this LTM deficit is attributable to the reduced pCREB level, rats were bilaterally cannulated to deliver Sp-adenosine 3', 5'-cyclic monophosphothioate (Sp-cAMPS), an activator of PKA.

[Loss of heterozygosity in the 9p21 region as an inactivation mechanism of the p16 suppressor gene].

Objective: To determine the loss of heterozygosity (LOH) on 9p21 (locus D9S1747) in patients with renal carcinoma by analysis of microsatellite polymorphisms.

Methods: 40 patients with sporadic renal cancer were studied. LOH on 9p21 was performed by analysis of microsatellite polymorphisms.

Short- and long-term memory: differential involvement of neurotransmitter systems and signal transduction cascades.

Since William James (1890) first distinguished primary from secondary memory, equivalent to short- and long-term memory, respectively, it has been assumed that short-term memory processes are in charge of cognition while long-term memory is being consolidated. From those days a major question has been whether short-term memory is merely a initial phase of long-term memory, or a separate phenomena. Recent experiments have shown that many treatments with specific molecular actions given into the hippocampus and related brain areas after one-trial avoidance learning can effectively cancel short-term memory without affecting long-term memory formation.

Molecular signalling pathways in the cerebral cortex are required for retrieval of one-trial avoidance learning in rats.

Rats were implanted bilaterally with cannulae in the CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus, the entorhinal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, posterior parietal cortex, or the basolateral complex of the amygdala. The animals were trained in one-trial step-down inhibitory avoidance and tested 24 h later. Prior (10 min) to the retention test, through the cannulae, they received 0.

Loss of heterozygosity on the short arm of chromosome 3 in renal cancer.

3% of human cancers are renal cell carcinomas (RCC). The most common chromosome abnormality found in this tumor is loss of heterozygosity (LOH) on the short arm of chromosome 3, which suggests that there must be one or more tumor suppressor genes between 3p14 and 3p21 near the VHL gene which play a relevant role in renal cancer development. DNA from normal and tumor tissue from 40 patients at various stages of RCC was analyzed for LOH at three microsatellites mapped to 3p (3p14.

Participation of hippocampal metabotropic glutamate receptors, protein kinase A and mitogen-activated protein kinases in memory retrieval.

The ability to recall past events is a major determinant of survival strategies in all species and is of paramount importance in determining our uniqueness as individuals. In contrast to memory formation, the information about the molecular mechanisms of memory retrieval is surprisingly scarce and fragmentary. Here we show that pretest inhibition of the specific upstream activator of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase, or of protein kinase A in the hippocampus, blocked retrieval of long-term memory for an inhibitory avoidance task, a hippocampal-dependent learning task.

Differential role of hippocampal cAMP-dependent protein kinase in short- and long-term memory.

One-trial step-down inhibitory (passive) avoidance training is followed by two peaks of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) activity in rat CA1: one immediately after training and the other 3 h later. The second peak relies on the first: Immediate posttraining infusion into CA1 of the inhibitor of the regulatory subunit of PKA, Rp-cAMPS, at a dose that reduces PKA activity during less than 90 min, cancelled both peaks. Long-term memory (LTM) of this task measured at 24 h depends on the two peaks: Rp-cAMPS given into CA1 0 or 175 min posttraining, but not between those times, blocked LTM.

Different hippocampal molecular requirements for short- and long-term retrieval of one-trial avoidance learning.

Rats were trained in one-trial step-down inhibitory avoidance and tested either 3 h or 31 days later. Ten minutes prior to the retention test, through indwelling cannulae placed in the CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus, they received 0.5 microl infusions of: saline, a vehicle (2% dimethylsulfoxide in saline), the glutamate NMDA receptor blocker, aminophosphonopentanoic acid (AP5) (5.

Penetrating keratoplasty for keratoconus.

Purpose: We performed a retrospective study of patients with keratoconus who underwent penetrating keratoplasty at the University of California, Davis, during the years 1983-1996 to analyze subsequent visual acuity and the need for optical correction.

Methods: We reviewed 123 eyes of 94 patients and collected data including best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA), type of correction (contact lens vs. spectacles), incidence of rejection, and other complications.