A man with culture sterile cavitating lung lesions: molecular techniques can provide the key to diagnosis.

A 20-year-old male presented to the Emergency Department with pyrexia, dyspnoea, chest pain and haemoptysis. Cavitating lung lesions were noted on chest X-ray and the patient was admitted to the intensive care unit where he was intubated and ventilated. Routine investigations including serial cultures did not provide an aetiological diagnosis.

Differential effects of doses and forms of dietary selenium on immune cell numbers in the skin of ultraviolet-irradiated and unirradiated mice.

The effect of three different doses of dietary L-selenomethionine (SM) and sodium selenite (SS) on skin selenium (Se) content, glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity, Langerhans cell (LC) and mast cell numbers in ultraviolet radiation-B (UVB)-irradiated and unirradiated C3H/HeN mice was determined. After weaning, groups of mice were given Se-deficient, Se-adequate, or Se-high diets. Six weeks later, some animals in each group were exposed to a single UVB dose (acute), while others were exposed three times weekly for the following 40 weeks (chronic).

Is the faculty of family planning and reproductive health care guidance on emergency contraception being followed in general practice? An audit in the West Midlands, UK.

Background And Methodology: In 2003, the Faculty of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care (FFPRHC) of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists published guidance on emergency contraception (EC). A literature search revealed no published work describing doctors' actions when prescribing EC. In order to assess the extent to which the FFPRHC Guidance is being followed in general practice, an audit of the medical notes of women requesting EC between January 2003 and December 2004 in six general practice surgeries located in the West Midlands, UK was conducted.

Exposure to multiple doses of UVB radiation reduces the numbers of epidermal Langerhans cells and lymph node dendritic cells in mice.

Immune suppression following UVB irradiation is partly attributed to the effects of the exposure on antigen-presenting cells. Following a single UVB irradiation, there is a decrease in epidermal Langerhans cell numbers; this is accompanied by an increase in the number of dendritic cells (DC) in lymph nodes draining the irradiated site. We investigated whether a similar effect occurred following multiple UVB exposures.

The effects of UV waveband and cis-urocanic acid on tumour outgrowth in mice.

Immunogenic murine tumours that are normally rejected upon transplantation into syngeneic hosts grow progressively if the hosts are UV-irradiated prior to tumour implantation. Using three sources of UV we investigated the most effective waveband and dose for increased outgrowth of injected fibrosarcoma (FSA) cells in mice, compared with unirradiated controls. The animals were exposed on their shaved dorsal skin twice a week for 3 weeks to either broad-band (TL12) or narrow-band (TL01) UVB, or UVA-I radiation; FSA cells were then injected subcutaneously into the UV-irradiated skin.