The influence of economic interests on alcohol control policy: a case study from Finland.

Finland's participation in the European Union has meant that Finnish markets have been opened to international competition and that the traditional alcohol policy decision-making that revolved around Alko, the state alcohol monopoly company, has become impossible. The influence of private commercial interests increased in the 1990s but not in a straightforward manner. They had their biggest influence in the mid-1990s when the 1994 Alcohol Act was drafted and accepted.

Lymphocytic gastritis and Helicobacter pylori infection in gastric lymphoma.

Lymphocytic gastritis and primary gastric lymphoma are rare conditions with unknown aetiology. It has recently been suggested that Helicobacter pylori has a role in the pathogenesis of both of them. The occurrence of lymphocytic gastritis and H pylori was studied in a series of patients with primary gastric lymphoma.

Loss of heterozygosity for chromosome 11 in primary human breast tumors is associated with poor survival after metastasis.

A common feature of the malignant progression of human tumors is loss of heterozygosity (LOH) for various regions of their genomes. Such events encompassing chromosomes 11p15 and 11q23 are frequent in human breast tumors. Here, we have analyzed genetic and clinical characteristics of a series of primary breast tumors in order to determine: (a) a more finely mapped estimate of the involved regions; (b) whether there is a relationship in the presentation of LOH between the two regions; and (c) whether a correlation exists between such LOH and any of the clinical parameters pertaining to each patient.

[Apoptosis in Hodgkin's disease].

Previous studies have concentrated on the proliferative behaviour of the neoplastic cell compartment in Hodgkin's disease (HD). The aim of the current investigation was to analyse the frequency of programmed cell deaths in Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg (HRS) cells in the different subtypes of HD and to correlate this phenomenon with the expression of the bcl-2 oncogene. For this purpose, we investigated paraffin-embedded material from 63 cases of HD.

Nonparasitic splenic cysts. Ultrasonographic features and follow-up.

Sixty-three patients with splenic cysts, multiple in 7 cases, were reviewed. Only 3 patients had a history of previous abdominal trauma. The cysts ranged in size from less than 1 cm to 15 cm.