Parapharyngeal abscess: a rare complication of elective tonsillectomy.

We report a case of parapharyngeal abscess complicating an elective tonsillectomy in a healthy thirty-three-year-old woman. The clinical features and management of this very rare complication are discussed. In addition, we review the possible aetiology and pathogenesis of this potentially life-threatening condition.

Evidence for both in vivo and in vitro interaction between vigabatrin and alanine transaminase.

Aims: Decreases in plasma alanine transaminase (ALA-T) activity of 20-100% have been reported following the use of vigabatrin (Sabril) in patients with uncontrolled epilepsy. This effect has a potential clinical significance as it may mask signs of early, underlying hepatic disease. It is particularly significant in a patient population known to have a higher than average risk of hepatotoxicity due to treatment with other anti-epilepsy drugs or to an independent, but concomitant, disease process.

Neurocompensatory responses to balloon-catheter-induced injury of the rat carotid artery.

Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty relieves discrete arterial stenosis but causes extensive vascular injury. There is denudation of the endothelium and variable medial disruption, but the effect on adventitial structures has not been studied in detail. We have investigated the innervation of the left and right carotid arteries after unilateral balloon-catheter-induced injury.

Ultrastructural localisation of nitric oxide synthase, endothelin and binding sites of lectin (from Bandeirea simplicifolia) in the rat carotid artery after balloon catheter injury.

An immunocytochemical and cytochemical study has been made on the ultrastructural localisation of type III (endothelial) nitric oxide synthase, endothelin-1 and the binding sites of lectin from Bandeirea simplicifolia to the endothelium surface-associated glycoproteins in the rat left common carotid artery at 1 and 28 d after Fogarty embolectomy balloon catheter-induced injury. Controls were carotid arteries from sham operated rats. In the controls, the immunoreactivity to nitric oxide synthase-III and endothelin-1 was localised in different proportions in vascular endothelial cells (36.

Gene delivery to the heart in vivo and to cardiac myocytes and vascular smooth muscle cells in vitro using herpes virus vectors.

Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV1), while usually thought of as neurotrophic, can also efficiently infect a wide variety of non-neuronal cell types and so might be developed as a vector for gene delivery to non-neuronal as well as neuronal cells. Here we have tested three different disabled HSV vectors for their ability to deliver a lacZ gene to primary cardiac myocytes and vascular smooth muscle cells in vitro, and used the most efficient virus to transfect the rat heart in vivo. We also assessed the degree of cytopathic effect of the various viruses on the cardiac myocytes in vitro by testing the effects on the frequency of beating in synchronously beating myocyte cultures.

Exclusion probabilities for pedigree testing farm animals.

Pedigree testing, using genetic markers, may be undertaken for a variety of situations, of which the classical paternity testing is only one. This has not always been made clear in the literature. Exclusion probabilities associated with various testing situations, including the use of autosomal or X-linked codominant marker systems with any number of alleles, are presented.

The acute rise in plasma fibrinogen concentration with exercise is influenced by the G-453-A polymorphism of the beta-fibrinogen gene.

We have investigated the effects of chronic physical training and acute intensive exercise on plasma fibrinogen levels and the relationship of these responses to beta-fibrinogen G-453-A polymorphism genotype. One hundred fifty-six male British Army recruits were studied at the start of their 10-week basic training, which emphasizes physical fitness. Cohorts were restudied between 0.

Algorithm for determining equivalent A-constants and surgeon factors.

Purpose: To describe statistical algorithms for determining surgeon factors and corresponding A-constants and compare them to empirical data.

Methods: The Holladay and SRK/T equations are rearranged to develop a series of equations expressing the surgeon factor as a function of the A-constant or, alternatively, the A-constant as a function of the surgeon factor. These expressions are statistically manipulated using keratometric and axial length distributions to determined clinically equivalent A-constant-surgeon factor pairs.

Inhibition of intimal hyperplasia in balloon injured arteries with adjunctive phthalocyanine sensitised photodynamic therapy.

Objectives: We investigated the effects of Photodynamic therapy (PDT) using Aluminium disulphonated phthalocyanine (AlS2Pc) on experimental intimal hyperplasia (FCIH).

Materials And Methods: (a) Pharmacokinetics: Normal rats were injected with Als2Pc and carotid artery fluorescence was measured. (b) Normal artery PDT: Sensitised rats underwent carotid artery laser irradiation (50J/cm2, 675nm) and were assessed after 3 and 14 days and 1-6 months.

Orbital and skin metastases in a polymorphous low grade adenocarcinoma of the salivary gland.

We report the previously undocumented development of an orbital metastasis and skin metastases in a patient with polymorphous low grade adenocarcinoma (PLGA) 15 years after initial presentation. The clinical course, treatment and changing histological features are discussed.

Diallel analysis of the latent period of stripe rust in wheat.

A half diallel was made amongst five wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes of which one was susceptible, while the others had adult-plant resistance, to stripe rust (Puccinia striiformis West.).

Reproducibility of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor induced cough: a double-blind randomised study.

1. The reproducibility of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor induced cough was examined in a double-blind cross over study in patients previously shown to have exhibited this side effect. 2.

Photodynamic therapy of normal and balloon-injured rat carotid arteries using 5-amino-levulinic acid.

Background: Although the management of atherosclerotic disease by the use of balloon angioplasty is widespread, the treatment is limited by restenosis in 30% to 50% of cases. Fibrocellular intimal hyperplasia, the main cause of restenosis, arises from proliferation and migration of medial smooth muscle cells (SMC) into the intimal layer. Factors leading to intimal hyperplasia are incompletely understood, and drugs have universally failed to influence clinical restenosis.

Thallium imaging for brain tumors with results measured by a semiquantitative index and correlated with histopathology.

Background: The optimal management of patients with brain tumors requires knowledge of the tumor characteristics upon presentation and the discovery of recurrence after therapy. Thallium-201 (Tl-201) chloride has shown varying uptake in tumors, depending on their viability and the type and degree of malignancy. This study explores the diagnostic potential of thallium imaging in patients with brain tumors.

Inhibition of vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo by c-myc antisense oligodeoxynucleotides.

Restenosis after angioplasty is due predominantly to accumulation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). The resistance of restenosis to pharmacological treatment has prompted investigation of genes involved in VSMC proliferation. We have examined the effect on VSMC proliferation of blocking expression of the c-myc proto-oncogene with antisense oligodeoxynucleotides, both in vitro and in a rat carotid artery injury model of angioplasty restenosis.