Enough is not enough: Medical students' knowledge of early warning signs of childhood cancer.

Background: The reported incidence of childhood cancer in upper-middle-income South Africa (SA) is much lower than in high-income countries, partly due to under-diagnosis and under-reporting. Documented survival rates are disturbingly low, prompting an analysis of potential factors that may be responsible.

Objectives: To determine final-year medical students' level of knowledge of early warning signs of childhood cancer and whether a correlation existed between test scores and participants' age, gender and previous exposure to a person with cancer.

Pituitary adenomas: an overview.

Prolactinomas and nonfunctioning adenomas are the most common types of pituitary adenomas. Patients with pituitary adenomas may present initially with symptoms of endocrine dysfunction such as infertility, decreased libido, and galactorrhea, or with neurologic symptoms such as headache and visual changes. The diagnosis may also be made following imaging done for an unrelated issue in an asymptomatic patient; this is termed a pituitary incidentaloma.

Shedding of chlamydiae in relation to titers of serum chlamydiae-specific antibodies and serum concentrations of two acute-phase proteins in cats without conjunctivitis.

Objective: To investigate shedding of chlamydiae from conjunctiva and genital tracts of cats without clinical signs of conjunctivitis or other infectious disease in relation to their titers of serum antibodies against chlamydiae and to serum amyloid A (SAA) and serum α(1)-acid glycoprotein (AGP) concentrations.

Animals: 62 healthy cats.

Procedures: Serum from each cat was analyzed for antibodies against chlamydiae and for SAA and AGP concentrations.

Nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism in the animal kingdom: report of two cases.

This report describes two cases of marked bone loss (osteopenia) occurring in a 9-week-old German shepherd puppy and in a 6-month-old tiger. In both cases the animals were fed a diet which was exclusively boneless meat. The diets in both cases contained approximately 40 mg of calcium and 1000 mg of phosphorus per pound resulting in both calcium deficiency and phosphorus excess, resulting in a phosphorus-to-calcium ratio of 25:1, well beyond the amounts known to cause marked loss of bone experimentally.

Symptomatic hyponatremia in association with a low-iodine diet and levothyroxine withdrawal prior to I131 in patients with metastatic thyroid carcinoma.

Background: Strategies to improve I131 uptake in thyroid carcinoma include levothyroxine (LT4) withdrawal or thyrotropin (TSH) administration along with a low-iodine diet. We report five patients with papillary or follicular thyroid carcinoma who developed symptomatic hyponatremia during LT4 withdrawal and low-iodine diet.

Results: Four patients had pulmonary and/or brain metastases.

Nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism in free-living fledgling American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos).

From June 1994 to June 1996, 18 fledgling American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos) from multiple locations on Long Island, New York, were presented with signs of metabolic bone disease characterized by folding fractures of the proximal tibiotarsus. Plasma alkaline phosphatase levels were elevated, and the calcium/phosphorus ratio and 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (25-(OH)D3) levels were decreased. The histopathologic diagnosis was parathyroid hyperplasia and generalized osteodystrophia fibrosa.

Pigs fed cholesterol neonatally have increased cerebrum cholesterol as young adults.

Sixty-eight female neonatal pigs selected for seven (Experiment 1) or eight (Experiment 2) generations for high (HG) or low (LG) plasma cholesterol were used to test the hypothesis that neonatal dietary cholesterol fed during the first 4 or 8 wk of postnatal life increases the cholesterol content of the cerebrum in young adulthood following free access to a high-fat (15%), high-cholesterol (0.5%) diet from 8 to 20 or 24 wk of age. Pigs were removed from their dams at 1 d of age and given free access to a sow-milk replacer diet containing 9.

Clinical signs and diagnosis of osteogenesis imperfecta in three dogs.

When a young dog is evaluated for multiple fractures with minimal to no accompanying trauma, the primary differential diagnoses are metabolic disease, physical abuse, and osteogenesis imperfecta (OI). Of these, secondary hyperparathyroidism is most common, but if serum concentrations of ionized calcium, phosphorus, vitamin D, and parathormone are within reference ranges, OI must be considered. Osteogenesis imperfecta is a heritable disease characterized by brittle bones.

Obese pigs fed a high cholesterol diet from birth to 2 months are less susceptible than lean pigs to atherosclerosis.

Dietary cholesterol in infancy may alter cholesterol metabolism and the propensity to develop atherosclerosis. This study examined the effects of a 1% cholesterol diet (HC) vs. a no-cholesterol diet (NC) during the first 2 mo of life on pigs selectively bred for leanness or obesity.

Severe protein deficiency and repletion alter body and brain composition and organ weights in infant pigs.

Three-wk-old genetically lean or obese pigs were used in two experiments to determine the changes in body composition, visceral organs and brain in response to severe protein deficiency. In Experiment 1, 16 obese pigs were fed an adequate (A, 21% protein, 3% fat) or a protein-deficient (D, 5% protein, 23% fat) diet for 7 wk. One-half of each group was killed at 7 wk, and the remainder of each group was fed the A diet for an additional 8 wk.

Response to dietary fat and cholesterol in young adult boars genetically selected for high or low plasma cholesterol.

Twenty-eight young adult boars (age 7 to 8 mo) genetically selected for four generations for high (HG) or low (LG) plasma cholesterol were studied to assess dietary and genetic effects and their interactions on cholesterol metabolism. Boars within a genetic group were paired according to their plasma cholesterol concentration at 8 wk of age and were fed for 15 wk (2.7 kg/d) one of two diets (16.

Effects of exercise and polysulfated glycosaminoglycan on repair of articular cartilage defects in the equine carpus.

Our aim was to determine if mild to moderate postoperative exercise and intra-articular polysulfated glycosaminoglycan result in improved repair of large, experimentally induced osteochondral defects in a weight-bearing surface of equine joints. Arthroscopic debridement was used to produce full-thickness defects in a weight-bearing area of the radial carpal bones in 18 ponies. The ponies were randomly assigned to two groups balanced for age: nine animals in the exercise and nine in the no exercise group.

Humeral skeletal development and plasma constituent changes in fetuses of ewes maintained on a low calcium diet from 60 days of gestation.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of a long-term, low-calcium diet on fetal calcium metabolism and fetal skeleton development in ewes. Eleven pregnant sheep were assigned to two groups, fed either a diet low in calcium (0.26% total dry matter) or normal in calcium (0.

Tissue-specific regulation of shell gland calbindin D28K biosynthesis by estradiol in precociously matured, vitamin D-depleted chicks.

Provision of Ca2+ for egg shell calcification in the avian uterus [egg shell gland (ESG)] derives mostly from vitamin D-dependent intestinal Ca2+ absorption from the diet. Ca2+ absorption is strongly linked to the intestinal vitamin D-dependent calbindin D28K (D28K) concentration. The laying hen ESG also contains D28K, and again, Ca2+ transport into the shell appeared to be linked to the ESG D28K concentration.

Studies of collagen in bone and dentin matrix of a Columbian mammoth (late Pleistocene) of central Utah.

A Columbian mammoth, Mammuthus columbi, was excavated at an elevation of 9000 feet in Huntington Canyon, Emery County, Utah. Radiocarbon dates on the skeleton indicated death approximately 11,200 years ago. The skeleton was removed from postglacial, Late Quaternary, lake sediments deposited as glacial runoff approximately 9500 years ago.

Prolonged gestation in a Holstein cow: adenohypophyseal aplasia and skeletal pathology in the offspring.

A Holstein fetus was delivered by Caesarean section at a gestational age of 441 days. The pituitary pars distalis was aplastic and the adrenal and thyroid glands were severely hypoplastic. Arrested or retarded cartilage cell maturation resulted in absence or minimal development of epiphyseal ossification centers, delayed ossification of carpal bones, and arrest of longitudinal growth of bones.

Effects of sodium hyaluronate on tendon healing and adhesion formation in horses.

Sodium hyaluronate reduces adhesions after tendon repair in rodents and dogs, and has been used in limited clinical trials in people. To evaluate its effect on tendon healing and adhesion formation in horses and to compare these effects with those of a compound of similar visco-elastic properties, a study was performed in horses, using a model of collagenase injection in the flexor tendons within the digital sheath. Eight clinically normal horses were randomly allotted to 2 groups.

Pulsed carbon dioxide laser for cartilage vaporization and subchondral bone perforation in horses. Part II: Morphologic and histochemical reactions.

A pulsed carbon dioxide laser was used to vaporize articular cartilage in four horses, and perforate the cartilage and subchondral bone in four horses. Both intercarpal joints were examined arthroscopically and either a 1 cm cartilage crater or a series of holes was created in the third carpal bone of one joint. The contralateral carpus served as a control.

Osteochondrosis in fetuses of ewes overfed calcium.

Ewes were fed ad libitum (up to maximum of 2.5 kg/day) a complete feed containing either 1.52% calcium (High Ca) or 0.

Immunohistochemical localization of a calcium pump and calbindin-D28k in the oviduct of the laying hen.

The localization of a plasma membrane calcium pump in the oviduct of the laying hen was investigated by immunohistochemical techniques, utilizing a monoclonal antibody (5F10) produced against the human erythrocyte calcium pump. This antibody was shown to react with an epitope of the pump in oviductal tissue, and prominent staining was observed on the microvilli of the tubular gland cells of the hen shell gland (uterus) and the isthmus. The Ca2+ pump was not detectable in the infundibulum or the magnum.

The effects of phenylbutazone on the morphology and prostaglandin concentrations of the pyloric mucosa of the equine stomach.

Phenylbutazone, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug known to produce gastric ulcers, was administered intravenously (13.46 mg/kg body weight) daily to 12 horses. Horses were euthanatized daily after 24, 48, 72, and 96 hours following the initial injection.

The effects of phenylbutazone on the intestinal mucosa of the horse: a morphological, ultrastructural and biochemical study.

Phenylbutazone, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug known to produce intestinal erosions, was administered intravenously (13.46 mg/kg bodyweight) to 12 horses which were killed after 24, 48, 72 and 96 h. Eight untreated horses served as controls.