Retrospective study of survival and treatment pattern in a cohort of patients with oral and oropharyngeal tongue cancers from 1987 to 2004.

This is a retrospective study of patients with oral and oropharyngeal tongue cancers who presented to the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) from 1987 to 2004. The aims of this study were to determine sociodemographic and tumour characteristics, treatment patterns and five-year disease-specific survival of the disease. All cases of tongue cancers, including untreated and palliative cases, were identified through the Royal Adelaide Hospital Cancer Registry and were included in statistical analysis.

Prognostic importance of palpability as a feature of screen-detected breast cancers.

Objectives: To determine epidemiological characteristics of palpability as a feature of asymptomatic invasive breast cancers detected through screening mammography, and to determine whether palpability is predictive of case survival after adjusting for conventional prognostic indicators such as diameter, grade and nodal status.

Setting: The University of Adelaide, South Australian Department of Health, and The Cancer Council South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia.

Methods: Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of 2108 screen-detected invasive breast cancers were compared by tumour palpability using univariate and multiple logistic regression analysis.

Effects of bevacizumab on retinal function in isolated vertebrate retina.

Background: Bevacizumab (Avastin) is a recombinant protein that targets vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). In vitro, bevacizumab inhibits VEGF induced cell proliferation and tissue factor production. Abnormal angiogenesis involving VEGF is a central event during the development of choroidal neovascularisation (CNV).

Sleep and circadian phase in a ship's crew.

Numerous factors influence the increased health risks of seamen. This study investigated sleep (by actigraphy) and the adaptation of the internal clock in watch-keeping crew compared to day workers, as possible contributory factors. Fourteen watch keepers, 4 h on, 8 h off (0800-1200/2000-2400 h, 1200-1600/2400-0400 h, 1600-2000/0400-0800 h) (fixed schedule, n = 6; rotating by delay weekly, n = 8), and 12 day workers participated during a voyage from the United Kingdom to Antarctica.

Epidemiological analysis of tongue cancer in South Australia for the 24-year period, 1977-2001.

Background: Tongue cancer (141 ICD-9) is the most common intra-oral malignancy in Western countries. In recent decades, reported tongue cancer incidence and mortality rates have increased both in Europe and in the United States, whilst survival has not improved. This study aimed to determine the epidemiology and survival trends of tongue cancer in South Australia over the 24-year period from 1977 to 2001.

Changes in incidence of in situ and invasive breast cancer by histology type following mammography screening.

Objective: To investigate secular trends and correlates of incidence of breast cancer by histology type following the introduction of population-based mammography screening.

Methods: Analysis of age-standardised incidence rates for 1,423 in situ and 16,157 invasive carcinomas recorded on the South Australian population-based cancer registry for the 1985-2004 diagnostic period. Multiple logistic regression was undertaken to compare socio-demographic characteristics by histology.

Experimental pulmonary embolism: effects of the thrombus and attenuation of pulmonary artery injury by low-molecular-weight heparin.

Background: Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a life-threatening condition that is associated with the long-term sequelae of chronic pulmonary hypertension. Prior experimental work has suggested that post-PE inflammation is accompanied by pulmonary artery intimal hyperplasia. This study evaluated the effect of the thrombus and tested the hypothesis that thrombolytic, antiplatelet, and anticoagulant agents would decrease pulmonary injury.

The Caenorhabditis elegans muscle specific serpin, SRP-3, neutralizes chymotrypsin-like serine peptidases.

Members of the intracellular serpin family may help regulate apoptosis, tumor progression, and metastasis. However, their in vivo functions in the context of a whole organism have not been easily defined. To better understand the biology of these serpins, we initiated a comparative genomics study using Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism.

[Early postoperative spikes of the intraocular pressure (IOP) following phacoemulsification in late-stage glaucoma].

Background: Modern cataract surgery with use of viscoelastics can induce remarkable early spikes of the intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients with glaucoma.

Patients And Methods: The purpose of this prospective study was to investigate risk factors for an early increase of the IOP following cataract surgery in eyes with end-stage glaucoma. Clear cornea phacoemulsification with implantation of a foldable acrylic lens was performed in 25 eyes with end-stage glaucoma (primary open-angle glaucoma including normal tension glaucoma or exfoliative glaucoma) either under topical anesthesia or under general anesthesia.

Clinical and pathological factors predictive of lymph node status in women with screen-detected breast cancer.

Two thousand one hundred and thirty five asymptomatic invasive breast cancers detected through screening mammography were analysed to identify predictors of lymph node involvement. Multivariable analysis indicated that predictors included larger tumour diameter, an infiltrating ductal or lobular histological type, multifocal disease, a palpable lesion, and a younger age at diagnosis. An association also was found between nodal involvement and the presence of an extensive in situ component (EIC).

Vaccines for pandemic influenza.

Recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Asia and associated human infections have led to a heightened level of awareness and preparation for a possible influenza pandemic. Vaccination is the best option by which spread of a pandemic virus could be prevented and severity of disease reduced. Production of live attenuated and inactivated vaccine seed viruses against avian influenza viruses, which have the potential to cause pandemics, and their testing in preclinical studies and clinical trials will establish the principles and ensure manufacturing experience that will be critical in the event of the emergence of such a virus into the human population.

Effects of patent blue on human retinal function.

Background: Dye solutions for intraoperative staining of epiretinal membranes and the internal limiting membrane improve the visualisation of these thin structures and facilitate their removal. Lately, the application of patent blue for staining of the internal limiting membrane has been proposed as an alternative to the standard procedures during macular hole surgery. In the present study we investigated the effects of patent blue 0.

Effects of the protein tyrosine kinase inhibitor genistein and taurine on retinal function in isolated superfused retina.

Background: Genistein has the potential to act as an intraocular antiangiogenic agent. Its therapeutical use, however, is limited by toxic side effects on the retina. This study was designed to evaluate the simultaneous use of taurine as a neuroprotective drug.

[Diagnosis and therapy of gestational diabetes--comparison of two surveys of established gynecologists in Berlin and Saxonia-Anhalt ].

Purpose: The diagnosis and treatment of gestational diabetes mellitus is controversial. We undertook a survey of obstetricians/gynaecologists to identify current screening practices and differences between Saxonia-Anhalt and Berlin.

Methods: A questionnaire was sent to 267 practicing obstetricians/gynaecologists in Saxonia-Anhalt and 441 in Berlin.

Animal abuse in Massachusetts: a summary of case reports at the MSPCA and attitudes of Massachusetts veterinarians.

This article reports information abstracted from 200 randomly sampled animal abuse complaints that the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals received in 1996, along with the results of 1 10 surveys that Massachusetts veterinarians completed concerning their experience with and attitudes and perceptions of animal mistreatment. In 1996, there were a total of 4,942 complaints of animal mistreatment, or 2.2 complaints per 1,000 households in Massachusetts.

The isolated perfused bovine retina--a sensitive tool for pharmacological research on retinal function.

The electroretinogram (ERG) of the isolated bovine retina serves as a proven criterion of retinal activity. It is used as a sensitive pharmacological tool for testing effects of applied drugs and toxins on photoreceptors, and higher order neurons that contribute to the generation of the b-wave. Following isolation and detachment from the underlying pigment epithelium, part of the retina was mounted into a closed chamber and perfused by a nutrient solution.

Selective conservation of the RSL-encoding, proteinase inhibitory-type, clade L serpins in Caenorhabditis species.

Serpins are a highly conserved superfamily of serine and papain-like cysteine proteinase inhibitors that are divided phylogenetically into clades. Serpins also can be divided anatomically into those that reside predominately outside or inside cells. While the activities of the extracellular serpins are well understood, the biological functions, as well as the overall distribution of the intracellular (serpinIC) serpins is less well defined.

Effects of phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor sildenafil on retinal function in isolated superfused retina.

After the oral ingestion of sildenafil, visual abnormalities have been reported constantly. The mechanism of these adverse events has been presumed to be a result of the interaction of sildenafil with the retinal phosphodiesterase (PDE) type 6. To investigate the physiological basis of the effects of sildenafil on retinal function, bovine retinas were isolated and perfused with an oxygen pre-equilibrated standard solution.

Retinal tolerance to dyes.

Background: Dye solutions for intraoperative staining of epiretinal membranes and the internal limiting membrane improve the visualisation of these thin structures and facilitate their removal. In the present study the authors investigated the effects of indocyanine green 0.05%, trypan blue 0.

Treatment and survival from colorectal cancer: the experience of patients at South Australian teaching hospitals between 1980 and 2002.

Aims: To evaluate trends in colorectal cancer survival and treatment at South Australian teaching hospitals and degree of adherence to treatment guidelines which recommend adjuvant chemotherapy for Dukes' C colon cancers and combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy for high-risk rectal cancers.

Materials And Methods: Trends in disease specific survival and primary treatment were analysed, and comparisons drawn between diagnostic epochs, using cancer registry data from South Australian teaching hospitals. Statistical methods included univariate and multivariable disease specific survival analyses.

Multiple primary cancers of separate organ sites: implications for research and cancer control (Australia).

Objective: To identify cancers which occur as second primaries following the diagnosis of cancers of other sites, as a basis for formulating causal hypotheses and planning medical surveillance.

Methods: Analyses of fifteen common cancer sites were undertaken to examine the occurrence of multiple primaries. These cancers were notified to the South Australian Cancer Registry during 1977-2001.

Signal quality of biometry in silicone oil-filled eyes using partial coherence laser interferometry.

Purpose: To assess the practical feasibility and signal quality of axial length measurements by partial coherence laser interferometry in silicone oil-filled eyes with previous complicated vitreoretinal surgery.

Settings: Department of Ophthalmology, University Cologne, Cologne, Germany.

Methods: Using a Zeiss IOLMaster, axial length measurements and signal-to-noise ratios of optical biometry in silicone oil-filled eyes (n=45) and contralateral eyes without tamponade (n=41) were analyzed.

Effects of daunorubicin and CD95L on retinal function in superfused vertebrate retina.

Alternative treatments of proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) are needed. The intravitreal application of daunorubicin combined with CD95 ligand (CD95L) could provide a new therapeutic strategy. The effects of this application on bovine retinal function were investigated.

Effects of nightlife activilty on health.

This article aims to increase understanding of nightlife health and the potential for nurses to reduce some of the negative health consequences associated with nightlife activity.