[Toxoplasma infections in early pregnancy: consequences and management].

Objective: To assess the consequences for the fetus of maternal toxoplasma infection acquired during the first 8 weeks of gestation and to set guidelines on how to manage these maternal infections.

Methods: Data were prospectively analyzed on 360 pregnancies followed-up in our department due to a toxoplasma infection during the 8 first weeks of pregnancy. Estimates of the risk of fetal infection were based on all cases, including those which could not be followed up until infection was ruled out or confirmed.

[Congenital toxoplasmosis. Transitory negative serology].

Objectives: Toxoplasmosis serology may become temporarily negative in children with congenital toxoplasmosis, leading to a risk of misdiagnosis and inadequate surveillance. The purpose of our work was to better understand the time course of toxoplasmosis serology which has not been studied specifically and to propose practical recommendations.

Patients And Methods: We conducted a prospective study in 217 children born with congenital toxoplasmosis between January 1988 and December 1997.

A switch towards Th2 during serological rebound in children with congenital toxoplasmosis.

Serological rebounds occur frequently in patients with congenital toxoplasmosis, but remain poorly understood. A link between Th1 and Th2 cytokines and the pathophysiology of infectious diseases has been reported. Production of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and IL-4 in supernatants of whole blood after in vitro specific Toxoplasma gondii stimulation and serum-specific IgE levels were studied in 31 congenitally infected children.

A colposcopic and histological study of experimental chlamydial cervicitis in marmosets.

A total of 14 marmosets were inoculated intra-vaginally with Chlamydia trachomatis and the development of genital tract disease was assessed microbiologically, by colposcopic examination of the cervical and vaginal mucosa and by cytological and histological examination of biopsy and autopsy specimens. Eight animals had infections which persisted microbiologically for 2-5 weeks, and six animals, three of which had been inoculated on multiple occasions in a previous study, apparently eliminated their infection within 1 week of inoculation. Colposcopic examination showed that four of the eight infected animals developed acute cervicitis characterized by erythema, occasional slight oedema, and the presence of cloudy or purulent cervical mucus.

Women's recollection of pain during and after carbon dioxide laser treatment to the uterine cervix.

By use of postal questionnaires women who had undergone laser treatment to the uterine cervix without analgesia or anaesthesia were asked to comment retrospectively on their recollections of the pain that this caused. One hundred (42%) of 239 who replied had found the pain 'moderate' or 'severe', 102 (43%) thought it 'very slight' or 'mild', and 37 (15%) said they felt no pain at all. No greater sensation of pain was reported with higher intensity treatment.

Thirty-two years experience in management of primary tumours of the vagina.

A retrospective study is presented of 99 patients with a diagnosis of primary tumour of the vagina who were managed at the Gynaecological Oncology Department, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead, between the years 1947 and 1979. The lesions have been staged according to the FIGO system. The corrected five year survival rates for patients given definitive treatment were: stage I, 71% (10 of 14), stage II, 29% (10 of 34), stage III, 25% (2 of 8), stage IV, 22% (2 of 9).