Rapid diagnosis of chronic myeloid leukaemia by linking PCR to capillary gel electrophoresis.

The move to the use of molecular diagnostics in medicine has gathered momentum in the last few years and new methodologies are being sought to reduce the labour component and hence the cost of these molecular diagnostics. A method is described which links PCR to capillary electrophoresis and this allows both a rapid and quantitative diagnosis. In the example provided, the diagnosis of chronic myeloid leukaemia, the method describes improvements in cost per test, greater sensitivity over traditional methods and an estimate of the level of product.

Enteral feeding in the home environment.

Nutritional status has a major influence on wound healing, immunity, and quality of life for home care patients. This article presents the rationale, guidelines, and troubleshooting strategies home care nurses can use in caring for patients receiving enteral nutrition.

Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation from a donor with severe active rheumatoid arthritis not resulting in adoptive transfer of disease to recipient.

We report a patient who underwent allogeneic bone marrow transplantation from a sibling with longstanding untreated severe active rheumatoid arthritis. After 4 years of follow-up there is no evidence of adoptive transfer of rheumatoid arthritis to the recipient. This case, along with another recently reported case, provides reassurance that haemopoietic stem cell transplantation from a donor with systemic autoimmune disease may not necessarily result in adoptive transfer of the disease.

A six-point condition for ordinal matrices.

Ordinal assertions in an evolutionary context are of the form "species s is more similar to species x than the species y" and can be deduced from a distance matrix M of interspecies dissimilarities (M[s, x] < M[s, y]). Given species x and y, the ordinal binary character cxy of M is defined by cxy(s) = 1 if and only if M[s,x] < M[s, y], for all species s. In this paper we present several results concerning the inference of evolutionary trees or phylogenies from ordinal assertions.

Prospective study of blunt aortic injury: Multicenter Trial of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma.

Background: Blunt aortic injury is a major cause of death from blunt trauma. Evolution of diagnostic techniques and methods of operative repair have altered the management and posed new questions in recent years.

Methods: This study was a prospectively conducted multi-center trial involving 50 trauma centers in North America under the direction of the Multi-institutional Trial Committee of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma.

Addison disease in patients treated with glucocorticoid therapy.

Acute adrenal crisis in patients with unrecognized chronic adrenocortical failure is difficult to diagnose and potentially fatal. We describe 2 patients with acute adrenal crisis whose diagnoses were hindered because of concomitant glucocorticoid treatment. Acute adrenal insufficiency is primarily a state of mineralocorticoid deficiency.

Penetrating injuries of the neck: selective management evolving.

Since 1990, a selective management algorithm has been used in our Trauma Center to treat 91 patients with penetrating neck injuries. Group A (n = 37) sustained zone I, zone III, or multiple-zone injuries; Group B (n = 54) sustained zone II injuries [most (55, 66.4%) from gunshot or shotgun wounds].

Characterisation of red and white thrombus by intravascular ultrasound using radiofrequency and videodensitometric data-based texture analysis.

Visual assessment of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) video images cannot reliably identify thrombus. We examined if texture analysis of radiofrequency (r.f.

Characterisation of atherosclerotic plaque by spectral analysis of intravascular ultrasound: an in vitro methodology.

Raw 30-MHz intravascular ultrasound data have been captured from postmortem coronary arteries (n = 4) to develop radio frequency analysis techniques for the characterisation of atherosclerotic plaque. Digitised data acquired from positions (n = 8) within diseased sections of artery were compared with the corresponding histology and radiology. Scan-converted images were used to locate regions of interest (ROI = 33) within areas of tissue composition: loose fibrotic tissue (LFT), dense fibrotic tissue (DFT) and calcium (CA).

A study of the quantitative and qualitative impact of catheter shaft angulation in a mechanical intravascular ultrasound system.

Nonuniform rotation of mechanical intravascular ultrasound transducers may give rise to a geometric distortion of the ultrasound image known as the rotation angle artefact. This investigation studied the influence of different degrees and combinations of catheter shaft angulation on image morphology and the quantitative impact of the artefact using a circular perspex phantom and 3.5 F, 30 MHz Boston Scientific "Sonicath" catheters connected to a Hewlett Packard Sonos intravascular scanner.

Analysis of reproducibility of reference lumen quantitation with intravascular ultrasound in stented coronary arteries.

Intravascular ultrasound is widely used to guide coronary stent implantation. The key quantitative criterion for successful implantation is the demonstration of adequate expansion of the stented lumen relative to that of the adjacent reference vessel segments. In this study we aimed to establish the reproducibility of intravascular ultrasound measurements of the reference segments in lesions undergoing coronary stenting.

Importance of calibration for diameter and area determination by intravascular ultrasound.

Background: Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) permits quantitative assessment of the lumen diameter and area of coronary arteries. The experimental study was performed to evaluate the accuracy of diameter and area measurements.

Methods And Results: Lumen quantitation (lumen diameter D and cross-sectional area A) in lucite tubes (lumen diameter 2.

Determinants of nicotinic receptor gating in natural and unnatural side chain structures at the M2 9' position.

A nonsense suppression method was employed to incorporate a total of four natural and six unnatural residues at the 9' position of the M2 region in the beta, gamma, and delta subunits of muscle nicotinic receptors. In 33 pairwise comparisons of functional properties as influenced by structural features including side chain length, branching, and substitution of oxygen for methylene carbons, it is concluded that increased polarity in the side chains at the 9' position consistently increases the sensitivity to acetylcholine. In addition, the stereochemistry of the side chain can have marked influences on the EC50, primarily because of changes in the single-channel open time.

Dose-response relations for unnatural amino acids at the agonist binding site of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor: tests with novel side chains and with several agonists.

Structure-function relations in the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor are probed using a recently developed method based on chemical synthesis of nonsense suppressor tRNAs with unnatural amino acid residues, site-directed incorporation at nonsense codons in Xenopus laevis oocytes, and electrophysiological measurements. A broad range of unnatural amino acids, as many as 14 at a given site, are incorporated at three sites, alpha 93, alpha 190, and alpha 198, all of which are tyrosine in the wild-type receptor and are thought to contribute to the agonist binding site. Confirming and expanding upon earlier studies using conventional mutagenesis, the three tyrosines are shown to be in substantially different structural microenvironments.

An engineered Tetrahymena tRNAGln for in vivo incorporation of unnatural amino acids into proteins by nonsense suppression.

A new tRNA, THG73, has been designed and evaluated as a vehicle for incorporating unnatural amino acids site-specifically into proteins expressed in vivo using the stop codon suppression technique. The construct is a modification of tRNAGln(CUA) from Tetrahymena thermophila, which naturally recognizes the stop codon UAG. Using electrophysiological studies of mutations at several sites of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, it is established that THG73 represents a major improvement over previous nonsense suppressors both in terms of efficiency and fidelity of unnatural amino acid incorporation.

Survey of Ti-, B-, and Y-based soft x-ray-extreme ultraviolet multilayer mirrors for the 2- to 12-nm wavelength region.

We have performed an experimental investigation of Ti-, B(4)C-, B-, and Y-based multilayer mirrors for the soft x-ray¿extreme ultraviolet (XUV) wavelength region between 2.0 and 12.0 nm.

Intravascular ultrasound detected classification of coronary lesions as a predictor of dissections after balloon angioplasty.

Dissection after balloon angioplasty of coronary arteries may give rise to an unfavourable early outcome. Compared with coronary angiography, intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) allows more detailed characterisation of dissections. We investigated the incidence and type of dissections after balloon angioplasty in calcified coronary lesions.

The traditional and emerging role of nuts in healthful diets.

Throughout history, nuts have been a staple food providing energy, protein, essential fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals. Today, nuts are classified as part of the USDA Food Guide Pyramid's Meat/ Meat Alternate Group. Foods in this group contribute protein as well as important vitamins and minerals to the diet.

Percutaneous dilational tracheostomy: report of 356 cases.

Objective: To evaluate the procedure time, complications, and percutaneous dilational tracheostomy (PDT) charges.

Design: Operative data were prospectively collected for 356 PDTs including the initial series of 141 PDTs reported in 1994. Short- and long-term complications were retrospectively identified by review of medical records and patient telephone interviews.

The influence of some perinatal variables on neonatal blood pressure.

Adult hypertension has been linked to fetal growth. This study investigates whether this link is evident in the newborn. We measured blood pressure by oscillometry in 248 healthy neonates on day 3/4 of life.

Value of intracoronary ultrasound and Doppler in the differentiation of angiographically normal coronary arteries: a prospective study in patients with angina pectoris.

Background: A substantial proportion of patients undergoing heart catheterization for suspected coronary artery disease have normal angiograms. Coronary morphology and blood flow velocity can be assessed very accurately with intracoronary ultrasound and Doppler. The purpose of this study was to use both methods to classify further patients with suspected coronary artery disease but with coronary angiograms adjudged normal at the time.

Differences in the morphology of unstable and stable coronary lesions and their impact on the mechanisms of angioplasty. An in vivo study with intravascular ultrasound.

The aim of this study was to compare the morphology of stable and unstable coronary lesions using intravascular ultrasound in patients undergoing coronary balloon angioplasty and to determine whether lesion morphology had any influence on the mechanism of balloon angioplasty. Thirty three (15 stable and 18 unstable) patients undergoing single lesion percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty were studied with intravascular ultrasound before and after intervention. All examinations, recorded on S-VHS video tape, were studied off-line and matched sites from the point of minimum lumen area after the procedure and the corresponding site prior to intervention were compared.