Flow cytometry in the diagnosis of mediastinal tumors with emphasis on differentiating thymocytes from precursor T-lymphoblastic lymphoma/leukemia.

Flow cytometry (FC) has become the routine technique in the evaluation of hematopoietic neoplasms. Since the anterior mediastinum is a frequent site of involvement by both primary and secondary lymphoma/leukemia, flow cytometry plays an important role in the evaluation of mediastinal masses. The present study reviews 100 flow cytometry cases from patients presenting with mediastinal lesions.

Azithromycin monotherapy for patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia: a 31/2-year experience from a veterans affairs hospital.

Background: Current American Thoracic Society (ATS) community-acquired pneumonia treatment guidelines recommend azithromycin monotherapy for a limited subset of hospitalized patients. We evaluated the effectiveness of azithromycin monotherapy in a more generalized population of patients hospitalized with mild-to-moderate community-acquired pneumonia.

Methods: We reviewed medical records from a Veterans Affairs facility for patients admitted with community-acquired pneumonia between December 1, 1997, and June 30, 2001, comparing those receiving azithromycin monotherapy, other ATS-recommended antibiotics, and non-ATS-recommended antibiotics.

Neurochemical changes in dopamine D1, D3 and D1/D3 receptor knockout mice.

Neurochemical changes were examined in dopamine D1 receptor knockout (D1(-/-)), dopamine D3 receptor knockout (D3(-/-)) and dopamine D1/D3 receptor double knockout (D1(-/-)D3(-/-)) mice. The level of dopamine D1- and D2-like receptors and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA(A)) receptor was assessed by ligand autoradiography and dopamine D1- and D2 receptor, enkephalin, dynorphin and substance P transcripts measured by in situ hybridization. D1(-/-) mice had normal GABA(A) receptor levels, reduced dynorphin and substance P, and increased enkephalin mRNA and dopamine D2-like binding.

Essential conservation of D1 mutant phenotype at the level of individual topographies of behaviour in mice lacking both D1 and D3 dopamine receptors.

Rationale: In the absence of agonists and antagonists evidencing appropriate selectivities, individual and interactive properties of D(1) and D(3) dopamine receptors would be illuminated most powerfully by their co-deletion.

Objectives: To define and contrast the behavioural phenotype of D(1)/D(3) double knockout mice in comparison with wild types, and with individual D(1) and D(3 )mutants.

Methods: Behavioural phenotype was characterised using an ethologically based topographical technique.

Proconvulsant-induced seizures in alpha(4) nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit knockout mice.

The genetic basis of a number of epilepsy syndromes has been identified but the precise mechanism whereby these mutations produce seizures is unknown. Three mutations of the alpha(4) subunit of the neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) have been identified in autosomal dominant nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy. In vitro studies of two mutations suggest an alteration of receptor function resulting in decreased ion channel current flow.

An approach to diagnosis of T-cell lymphoproliferative disorders by flow cytometry.

T-cell lymphoproliferative disorders are among the most challenging diagnoses in hematopathology. Unlike the more common B-cell disorders, in which clonality is often readily discernible by surface immunoglobulin light chain restriction, there is no specific immunophenotypic signature that is diagnostic of a clonal T-cell population. Immunophenotypic criteria that are helpful in the diagnosis of T-cell neoplasms include T-cell subset antigen restriction, anomalous T-cell subset antigen expression, deletion or diminution of one of the pan T-cell antigens, a precursor T-cell phenotype, and expression of additional markers (e.