Predicting breast reduction weight using the mass of breast ptosis.

Background: The preoperative prediction of therapeutic breast reduction weights, to achieve both relief of breast weight symptoms and yet achieve excellent breast shape, remains a challenge.

Objectives: To design a simple clinical method to preoperatively predict and quantify therapeutic breast reduction weights.

Methods: In 31 women who underwent therapeutic bilateral reduction mammaplasty, the mass of the hypertrophic breast hanging below the inframammary fold was preoperatively weighed and then compared with the mass of the reduction specimen.

Does measuring BHR add to guideline derived clinical measures in determining treatment for patients with persistent asthma?

Rationale: Little is known about the use of biomarkers in guiding treatment decisions in routine asthma management. The objective of this study was to determine whether adding a LABA to an ICS would control bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) at an overall lower dose of ICS when titration of medication was based upon the assessment of routine clinical measures with or without the measurement of BHR.

Methods: After a 2-week run-in period, subjects (> or = 12 years) were randomized to one of three treatment groups.

Significant reduction in HIV prevalence according to male circumcision intervention in sub-Saharan Africa.

Background: Observations that reduced adult HIV prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa correlated with levels of male circumcision (MC), have suggested that MC could be used as a preventative measure against HIV infection. The exact benefits of this intervention are uncertain. Moreover if MC is not feasible for the whole male population, which groups should be targeted?

Methods: A mathematical model simulated observed levels of HIV prevalence under the complete range of current levels of circumcision.

Topological assessment of oatp1a1: a 12-transmembrane domain integral membrane protein with three N-linked carbohydrate chains.

Organic anion transport protein 1a1 (oatp1a1), a prototypical member of the oatp family of highly homologous transport proteins, is expressed on the basolateral (sinusoidal) surface of rat hepatocytes. The organization of oatp1a1 within the plasma membrane has not been well defined, and computer-based models have predicted possible 12- as well as 10-transmembrane domain structures. Which of oatp1a1's four potential N-linked glycosylation sites are actually glycosylated and their influence on transport function have not been investigated in a mammalian system.

Virologic determinants of success after structured treatment interruptions of antiretrovirals in acute HIV-1 infection.

Background: Latently infected resting memory CD4 T cells are thought to be the major reservoir that contributes to rebound viremia after cessation of antiretrovirals (ARVs). Commencing ARVs during primary HIV-1 infection (PHI) may limit the size of the latent pool and lead to improved control of viral replication during structured treatment interruption (STI).

Methods: Individuals with PHI (n = 59) were randomized to receive ARVs with or without hydroxyurea.

Single vesicle analysis of endocytic fission on microtubules in vitro.

Following endocytosis, internalized molecules are found within intracellular vesicles and tubules that move along the cytoskeleton and undergo fission, as demonstrated here using primary cultured rat hepatocytes. Although the use of depolymerizing drugs has shown that the cytoskeleton is not required to segregate endocytic protein, many studies suggest that the cytoskeleton is involved in the segregation of protein in normal cells. To investigate whether cytoskeletal-based movement results in the segregation of protein, we tracked the contents of vesicles during in vitro microscopy assays.

Will to live.

Review of David Rieff's Swimming in a sea of death: a son's memoir. Rieff is the son of writer Susan Sontag.

Large-bore gastrostomy feeding tube insertion by a pull technique using a snare.

We describe a series of three patients who had fluoroscopic-guided placement of a large-bore gastrostomy tube using a pull technique and a large snare placed via a nasogastric or orogastric tube.

Comparative analysis of embryonic cell lineage between Caenorhabditis briggsae and Caenorhabditis elegans.

Comparative genomic analysis of important signaling pathways in Caenorhabditis briggsae and Caenorhabditis elegans reveals both conserved features and also differences. To build a framework to address the significance of these features we determined the C. briggsae embryonic cell lineage, using the tools StarryNite and AceTree.

Antiretroviral therapy with the integrase inhibitor raltegravir alters decay kinetics of HIV, significantly reducing the second phase.

Objective: Raltegravir (MK-0518) belongs to the new class of HIV integrase inhibitors. To date, there have been no reports investigating the potential for differential effects on viral dynamics with integrase inhibitors relative to current antiretroviral drugs.

Methods: Patients in this phase II study (P004) were antiretroviral treatment naive.

Evaluating performance in three-dimensional fluorescence microscopy.

In biological fluorescence microscopy, image contrast is often degraded by a high background arising from out of focus regions of the specimen. This background can be greatly reduced or eliminated by several modes of thick specimen microscopy, including techniques such as 3-D deconvolution and confocal. There has been a great deal of interest and some confusion about which of these methods is 'better', in principle or in practice.

In vitro motility system to study the role of motor proteins in receptor-ligand sorting.

This chapter presents fluorescence microscope assays that can be used to study microtubule (MT)-based movement and receptor-ligand sorting in vitro. The strategy is to isolate endosomes in a concentrated active form and store them in frozen aliquots for single use. Glass microchambers are then constructed and coated with fluorescent MTs, and the endosomes are thawed and bound to the MTs.

Impaired intrahepatic hepatitis B virus productivity contributes to low viremia in most HBeAg-negative patients.

Background & Aims: Knowledge of factors regulating transcriptional activity of hepatitis B virus (HBV) covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) may help in understanding mechanisms of viral decay and how these processes are thwarted in chronically HBV-infected patients.

Methods: Liver biopsies from 119 treatment-naive chronically infected patients (42 HBeAg-positive and 77 HBeAg-negative) were determined for HBV transcriptional and replicative activity.

Results: Significantly lower median serum HBV DNA (-4 log), intrahepatic HBV DNA (-2 log), and cccDNA (-1 log) amounts were measured in HBeAg-negative versus HBeAg-positive patients.

Immediate and early postnatal care for mothers and newborns in rural Bangladesh.

The study evaluated the impact of essential newborn-care interventions at the household level in the Saving Newborn Lives project areas. Two household surveys were conducted following the 30-cluster sampling method using a structured questionnaire in 2002 (baseline) and 2004 (endline) respectively. In total, 3,325 mothers with children aged less than one year in baseline and 3,110 mothers in endline from 10 sub-districts were interviewed during each survey.

A revised nomenclature for the human and rodent alpha-tubulin gene family.

An essential component of microtubules, alpha-tubulin is also a multigene family in many species. An orthology-based nomenclature for this gene family has previously been difficult to assign due to incomplete genome builds and the high degree of sequence similarity between members of this family. Using the current genome builds, sequence analysis of human, mouse, and rat alpha-tubulin genes has enabled an updated nomenclature to be generated.

The lineaging of fluorescently-labeled Caenorhabditis elegans embryos with StarryNite and AceTree.

Lineage analysis of Caenorhabditis elegans is a powerful tool for characterizing developmental phenotypes and embryonic gene-expression patterns. We present a detailed protocol for the lineaging of embryos by computational analysis of 4D images of embryos that ubiquitously express histone-GFP (green fluorescent protein) fusion proteins through the 350 cell stage followed by manual editing. We describe how to optimize imaging settings for this purpose, the use of the lineage-extraction software, StarryNite, and the lineage-editing software, AceTree.

Kif5B and Kifc1 interact and are required for motility and fission of early endocytic vesicles in mouse liver.

Early endocytic vesicles loaded with Texas Red asialoorosomucoid were prepared from mouse liver. These vesicles bound to microtubules in vitro, and upon ATP addition, they moved bidirectionally, frequently undergoing fission into two daughter vesicles. There was no effect of vanadate (inhibitor of dynein) on motility, whereas 5'-adenylylimido-diphosphate (kinesin inhibitor) was highly inhibitory.

The safety and efficacy of infliximab in moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Rationale: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive, smoking-related, inflammatory lung disease in which tumor necrosis factor-alpha is overexpressed and has been suggested to play a pathogenic role.

Objectives: To determine if infliximab, an anti-TNF-alpha antibody, results in clinical benefit and has an acceptable safety profile in patients with moderate to severe COPD.

Methods: In a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, dose-finding study, subjects with moderate to severe COPD received infliximab (3 mg/kg [n = 78] or 5 mg/kg [n = 79]) or placebo (n = 77) at Weeks 0, 2, 6, 12, 18, and 24.

MR venography with true fast imaging with steady-state precession for suspected lower-limb deep vein thrombosis.

Purpose: To compare true fast imaging with steady-state precession (FISP) magnetic resonance (MR) venography for suspected deep vein thrombosis (DVT) with contrast agent-enhanced venography.

Materials And Methods: This was a prospective study of randomly selected patients with a clinical suspicion of DVT of the lower limb. Standard contrast venography was performed and compared with MR venography from the inferior vena cava to the feet in 24 patients with use of true FISP sequences (repetition time, 3.