19F magnetic resonance spectroscopy investigation in vivo of acute and steady-state brain fluvoxamine levels in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the pharmacokinetics of fluvoxamine in the human brain by using fluorine-19 magnetic resonance spectroscopy (19F MRS) and to assess the relationships among fluvoxamine brain levels, fluvoxamine plasma levels, and clinical efficacy.

Method: Eight subjects with DSM-IV obsessive-compulsive disorder were entered into a prospective, open-label treatment trial of fluvoxamine. 19F MRS measurements of whole brain drug and metabolite concentrations and spin-lattice (T1) relaxation times were performed serially in seven subjects for up to 5 months.

Metabolic correction of triose phosphate isomerase deficiency in vitro by complementation.

Inherited deficiency of triose phosphate isomerase (TPI), the enzyme that catalyses the interconversion of dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP) and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate, is characterised by an accumulation of intracellular DHAP and markedly reduced enzyme activity in cells and tissues, resulting in progressive, usually fatal neuromuscular dysfunction. Since specific enzyme replacement for TPI deficiency is not currently available, the secretion and recapture of the missing enzyme was investigated in a co-culture model comprising K562 human erythroleukaemia cells and lymphoblastoid cells taken from a TPI deficient patient. A sevenfold reduction in intracellular DHAP with concomitant increase in intracellular TPI activity from 7.

A mixed foodborne outbreak with Salmonella heidelberg and Campylobacter jejuni in a nursing home.

Objective: To investigate a mixed Salmonella heidelberg and Campylobacter jejuni foodborne outbreak in a nursing home.

Design: Retrospective cohort study with a nested case-control design. Cases were defined by positive stool-culture results.

Ischemia/reperfusion alters uric acid and ascorbic acid levels in liver.

Tissue damage in ischemia/reperfusion injury may be mediated by oxidative stress caused by reactive oxidant species. Since such reactive species are difficult to measure directly, changes in antioxidant concentrations are often used as an indication of oxidative stress. In this study, microdialysis membranes were inserted into the livers of anesthetized rats to determine the effects of ischemia/reperfusion on the extra-cellular concentrations of two antioxidants, uric acid and ascorbic acid.

Severe perinatal thrombosis in double and triple heterozygous offspring of a family segregating two independent protein S mutations and a protein C mutation.

Molecular genetic and phenotypic analyses were performed in a highly unusual case of combined protein S and protein C deficiency manifesting in a family in which a child had died perinatally from renal vein thrombosis. Antenatal diagnosis in a second pregnancy was initially performed by indirect restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) tracking using a neutral dimorphism within the PROS gene and served to exclude severe protein S deficiency. Am umbilical vein blood sample at 22 weeks gestation showed isolated protein C deficiency.

Feeder position and food and fluid consumed by nursing home residents.

In many cultures, eating has both nutritional and social functions. To the elderly it can be a symbolic experience embedded in lifelong patterns and cultural preferences (Kolodny & Malek, 1991). The environment during the mealtime goes beyond the physical into the social arena.

Molecular basis of the soluble and membrane-bound forms of the murine leukemia inhibitory factor receptor alpha-chain. Expression in normal, gestating, and leukemia inhibitory factor nullizygous mice.

The murine leukemia inhibitory factor receptor alpha-chain (mLIFR) exists in a membrane-bound and a soluble form. The two major classes of mRNA transcript correspond to either the soluble or membrane-bound form of the mLIFR. In this study we have identified a complex and heterogeneous pattern of expression of mRNA transcripts for this receptor in normal mouse tissues and cell lines.

Neuroimaging Findings in Anxiety Disorders.

Individuals with severe anxiety have long sought a physical basis for their symptoms. There is increasing evidence to suggest brain abnormalities as the primary mechanism responsible for pathological anxiety, particularly panic disorder. However, older-generation brain imaging techniques, capable of assessing brain structure, have not identified consistent anatomical differences or structural abnormalities by which to explain the symptoms.

Tuberculosis screening among homeless persons with AIDS living in single-room-occupancy hotels.

Congregate facilities for homeless persons with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) are often endemic for tuberculosis. We evaluated tuberculosis screening methods at single-room-occupancy hotels housing persons with AIDS. Residents were screened by cross matching the New York City Tuberculosis Registry, interviewing for tuberculosis history, skin testing, and chest radiography.

Mosquito-transmitted malaria in New York City, 1993.

In August, 1993, 3 cases of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in people without recent travel histories or bloodborne exposure were reported in New York City. An epidemiological investigation confirmed the absence of risk factors for acquisition of malaria in two cases. The third case could not be definitively classified as locally acquired malaria because the patient had travelled to Thailand two years before malaria was diagnosed.

Induced tolerance and chimaerism in human fetuses using coelocentesis: a medical opportunity to avert genetic disease?

Coelocentesis offers a new opportunity for gaining access to the coelomic cavity of human embryos from 28 days post-fertilization (42 days menstrual age). With this technique, cells can be extracted from the cavity for the genetic typing of embryos in early pregnancy. Coelocentesis may also offer a unique opportunity of inducing tolerance to foreign grafts and chimaerism in these human embryos by replacing donor cells into the coelomic cavity.

Detection of sickle gene by coelocentesis in early pregnancy: a new approach to prenatal diagnosis of single gene disorders.

Coelomic fluid, placental tissue and maternal blood were collected at 7-10 weeks gestation from each of 58 women undergoing elective termination of pregnancy for psychological indications. In all samples, a 364 bp fragment of the human beta-globin gene spanning positions -23 to 341 was amplified. The restriction endonuclease Ddel was used to detect the sickle mutation which abolishes its restriction site.

Paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria and Budd-Chiari syndrome.

An 11 year old boy developed pancytopenia, haemolysis, and Budd-Chiari syndrome. The venous thrombosis extended to involve other intra-abdominal vessels before paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria was recognised as the underlying haematological abnormality. Earlier diagnosis would have made curative bone marrow transplantation a possibility.

The evolving epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus at a university hospital.

Objective: To describe the epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) at a university hospital during a 14-month period.

Design: Prospective laboratory-based surveillance for MRSA with descriptive epidemiology based on medical chart review and characterization of strains by DNA typing, using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE).

Setting: An 850-bed tertiary care university hospital.

Conversion of the biological specificity of murine to human leukemia inhibitory factor by replacing 6 amino acid residues.

Mouse and human leukemia inhibitory factor (mLIF and hLIF) have approximately 80% amino acid identity, but mLIF cannot bind to the hLIF receptor (hLIF-R), while hLIF binds to the alpha-chain of the mLIF receptor (mLIF-R) with a much higher affinity than does mLIF. We have previously shown that the same regions confer both these properties of hLIF and map to an area within the predicted third alpha-helix and two of the loops of hLIF (Owczarek, C. M.

Homology modelling and 1H NMR studies of human leukaemia inhibitory factor.

Human leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is a glycoprotein with a diverse range of activities on many cell types. A molecular model of LIF has been constructed based mainly on the structure of the related cytokine granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, and refined using simulated annealing and molecular dynamics in water. The model was stable during molecular dynamics refinement and is consistent with known stereochemical data on proteins.

Complex binding of leukemia inhibitory factor to its membrane-expressed and soluble receptors.

The complex interaction of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) with its specific receptor present on the cell surface, in isolated membranes and in solution, has been examined in detail. Several aspects of this complexity have been highlighted, including the presence of high- and low-affinity murine LIF receptors, biphasic dissociation of human LIF from apparently homogeneous high- or low-affinity human LIF receptors, and unusual species cross-reactivity. The unusual species cross-reactivity observed between murine and human LIF has also been exploited to map an important receptor binding epitope on human LIF.

Mupirocin resistance among consecutive isolates of oxacillin-resistant and borderline oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus at a university hospital.

Mupirocin resistance was determined in consecutive oxacillin-resistant and borderline oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus clinical isolates collected over 14 months at a university hospital during 1991 and 1992. Twenty of 86 (23%) oxacillin-resistant and borderline oxacillin-resistant S. aureus isolates were mupirocin resistant; 80% were high-level resistant.

Cross-species receptor binding characteristics of human and mouse leukemia inhibitory factor suggest a complex binding interaction.

Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is a pleiotropic cytokine whose activities appear to be mediated through a single heterodimeric receptor complex. Human LIF (hLIF) can bind to and activate mouse LIF (mLIF) receptors but mLIF is unable to bind to hLIF receptors. Cross-species competition of mLIF and hLIF for binding to the mLIF receptor was found to be dependent on which ligand was used as the radioactive tracer (Layton, M.

NMR studies of a murine-human chimera of leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF). Comparison with human LIF.

Leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is a polyfunctional cytokine active on many cell types. We present here 1H NMR studies on the solution properties and stability of MH35, a chimera of murine and human LIF which can be expressed at high levels in Escherichia coli, thus enabling efficient labelling of the protein with the stable isotopes 13C and 15N. MH35 has 85% sequence identity with human LIF and similar activity in biological assays.

Inter-species chimeras of leukaemia inhibitory factor define a major human receptor-binding determinant.

Human leukaemia inhibitory factor (hLIF) binds to both human and mouse LIF receptors (LIF-R), while mouse LIF (mLIF) binds only to mouse LIF-R. Moreover, hLIF binds with higher affinity to the mLIF-R than does mLIF. In order to define the regions of the hLIF molecule responsible for species-specific interaction with the hLIF-R and for the unusual high-affinity binding to the mLIF-R, a series of 15 mouse/human LIF hybrids has been generated.

An outbreak of mupirocin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus on a dermatology ward associated with an environmental reservoir.

Objective: To investigate a cluster of mupirocin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus on a dermatology ward.

Design: An outbreak of mupirocin-resistant S aureus was noted on the dermatology ward during a prospective epidemiologic study of methicillin-resistant S aureus (MRSA) and borderline methicillin-susceptible S aureus (BMSSA). Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) of whole-cell DNA digested with Sma I was used as a marker of strain identity.