Congenital toxoplasmosis. The Toxoplasmosis Study Group.

Congenital toxoplasmosis is a preventable and treatable disease with predominant neurological and ophthalmologic manifestations. These manifestations and approaches to diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of this infection are considered. Outcomes with and without treatment are emphasized.

Carboxyl-terminal truncation of apolipoproteinB-100 inhibits lipoprotein(a) particle formation.

Recombinant expression systems for both apo(a) and apoB were used to identify sequences in apoB which are required for Lp(a) formation. Incubation of a [35S]Cys-labelled 17-kringle form of apo(a) with supernatants from rat hepatoma (McA-RH7777) cells expressing apoB-88, apoB-94 and apoB-100 resulted in covalent r-Lp(a) formation only with apoB-100. Additionally, apoB-86 present in the LDL of a hypobetalipoproteinemic subject did not associate with a 12-kringle form of recombinant apo(a) to form r-Lp(a) complexes.

Prospective evaluation of early morphological changes in pelvic ileal pouches.

Background/aims: Little is known about the evolution of morphological changes in pelvic ileal-pouch mucosa. This study evaluates prospectively the sequence of early morphological, histochemical, and phenotypic features in pouch mucosal biopsy specimens.

Methods: Twenty-two patients with pelvic ileal pouches constructed after total colectomy for chronic ulcerative colitis had biopsies performed at the time of ileostomy closure and after 6 weeks and 6 months of pouch function and were evaluated to assess the type and degree of inflammation, villus atrophy, Paneth's cell hyperplasia, mucin histochemical changes, the mucosal proliferative activity using the murine monoclonal antibody 1 (MIB-1), and the expression of the enzyme sucrase-isomaltase.

Species differences in the cardiovascular responses to histamine H3 receptor activation.

Potential species differences in cardiovascular responses to histamine H3 receptor activation were studied in the conscious guinea pig, rabbit, normotensive rat and the spontaneously hypertensive rat. R-alpha-Methylhistamine (100 micrograms/kg i.v.

Periodic health examination, 1994 update: 2. Screening strategies for colorectal cancer. Canadian Task Force on the Periodic Health Examination.

Objective: To make recommendations on the effectiveness of screening for colorectal cancer in asymptomatic patients over 40 years of age.

Options: Multiphase screening that begins with test for fecal occult blood, uniphase screening with sigmoidoscopy and uniphase screening with colonoscopy. Options included screening repeated at different intervals and different procedures for patients with selected risk factors.

Reliability and validity studies of endoluminal ultrasonography for anorectal disorders.

Purpose: Endoluminal ultrasonography (ELUS) is accurate in the assessment of penetration through the rectal wall by carcinoma. Clinical studies were performed to determine the reliability and validity of ELUS.

Methods: The interobserver reliability among four observers with varying experience with ELUS was determined for staging the penetration of rectal cancer through the rectal wall.

Randomized controlled trials in surgery.

Background: The objective was to determine the number of randomized controlled trials (RCT) performed by surgeons, published in surgical journals, or comprising a surgical arm and to assess their characteristics and overall quality.

Methods: RCT in general surgery (including gastrointestinal, breast, surgical oncology, vascular, critical care, and trauma) published in 1990 were retrieved by MEDLINE and analyzed to determine the funding agency, type of therapy, area of surgery, journal published, country of origin, number of centers, and whether a surgeon was the principal author. The completeness of the MEDLINE search was compared to a manual search of the literature.

In vitro effects of artemisinin ether, cycloguanil hydrochloride (alone and in combination with sulfadiazine), quinine sulfate, mefloquine, primaquine phosphate, trifluoperazine hydrochloride, and verapamil on Toxoplasma gondii.

The in vitro effect of the following antimicrobial agents on Toxoplasma gondii tachyzoites were studied: artemisinin ether (arteether), cycloguanil hydrochloride (cycloguanil), mefloquine, primaquine phosphate, and quinine sulfate, as well as the calcium channel blocker verapamil and the calmodulin inhibitor trifluoperazine hydrochloride. Arteether at > or = 0.5 micrograms/ml and cycloguanil at > or = 1.

Synthesis and secretion of hepatic apolipoprotein B-containing lipoproteins.

Human apolipoprotein (apo) B-100 is required for the synthesis and secretion of hepatic triacyglycerol-rich lipoproteins. This review summarizes recent developments in understanding the interaction of cis-acting DNA sequences and trans-acting protein factors in regulation of apo B gene expression and apo B mRNA editing, and the role of structural determinants of apo B-100 in the assembly and secretion of hepatic lipoproteins. In particular, experimental results obtained from cell culture studies using techniques of molecular and cellular biology are described and discussed.

Effects of human class I transgenes on Toxoplasma gondii cyst formation.

MHC class I genes are important in the regulation of cyst number in mice perorally infected with Toxoplasma gondii. Since human MHC class I molecules may be capable of functioning as restriction elements in mice, to determine whether class I genes also control outcome of T. gondii infection for humans, a transgenic mouse model was developed using human class I genes in mice.

Osteoblastoma: clinicopathologic study of 306 cases.

The clinical, radiologic, and pathologic features of 306 osteoblastomas were analyzed. Seventy-five were Mayo Clinic cases and 231 were from consultation files. Males outnumbered females two to one.

Combined use of molecular and biomarkers for presymptomatic carrier risk assessment in familial adenomatous polyposis: implications for screening guidelines.

Predictive carrier testing for the inherited disorder of familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) can be conducted using DNA markers linked to the FAP locus. The presence of characteristic hypertrophic retinal lesions has been advocated as useful biomarkers for FAP. We have compared molecular linkage and retinal screening techniques by evaluating the presymptomatic carrier risk of 40 at-risk individuals from 15 FAP families.

Carboxyl-terminal truncation impairs lipid recruitment by apolipoprotein B100 but does not affect secretion of the truncated apolipoprotein B-containing lipoproteins.

Human apolipoprotein (apo) B plays an obligatory role in the assembly and secretion of hepatic triglyceride-rich lipoproteins. Investigation of the truncated human apoB variants associated with hypobetalipoproteinemia has suggested that both size and secretion of apoB-containing lipoproteins may be reduced by carboxyl-terminal truncation. To examine the role of the carboxyl terminus of apoB in the assembly and secretion of hepatic lipoproteins, we have generated rat hepatoma McA-RH7777 cells that synthesize and secrete the full-length human apoB100 and the truncated forms B94, B88, B80, B72, and B60.

Histologic and microbiologic features of biopsy samples from patients with normal and inflamed pouches.

Purpose: This study was undertaken to assess the electron microscopic and microbiologic findings in tissue biopsy samples from patients with pouchitis and to compare them with findings in patients with normal pouches, conventional ileostomies, and normal ileum.

Methods: Tissue samples were obtained from 78 patients: 23 patients with normal pouches endoscopically and histologically (Group 1), 12 patients with endoscopic and histologic evidence of inflammation (pouchitis) (Group 2), 14 patients who had either endoscopic or histologic evidence of inflammation but not both (Group 3), 20 patients with conventional ileostomies (Group 4), and 9 patients without ileostomies from whom biopsy samples of normal ileum were obtained (Group 5).

Results: The mean total aerobic facultative counts in the biopsy samples from the pouchitis patients were significantly higher when compared with biopsy samples from Groups 4 and 5 (P < 0.

Osteofibrous dysplasia: clinicopathologic study of 80 cases.

A thorough review of the clinical, radiologic, and histologic features of 80 cases of long bone osteofibrous dysplasia is presented. Of the six cases of osteofibrous dysplasia immunostained with a cytokeratin antibody, two were cytokeratin positive; however, the five cases of fibrous dysplasia that were stained were all negative. Follow-up (mean, 5.

NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester does not affect balloon catheter-induced intimal hyperplasia in rats.

The L-arginine derived NO-cGMP pathway's role in the response of the arterial wall to balloon catheter injury was examined. Rats were given the nitric oxide synthase inhibitor NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (10 mg/kg po twice daily) or vehicle for 6 days before and 2 weeks after balloon catheter injury. NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester treatment increased blood pressure and inhibited acetylcholine responses in aortic rings but did not alter the lesions produced by balloon injury.

Role of specific immunoglobulin E in diagnosis of acute toxoplasma infection and toxoplasmosis.

Toxoplasma immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies were evaluated in an immunosorbent agglutination assay (ISAGA) and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to determine their usefulness in the diagnosis of acute infection with Toxoplasma gondii. IgE antibodies were not detected in serum specimens from otherwise seronegative individuals, individuals with chronic toxoplasma infection, or infants without congenital toxoplasmosis. In contrast, they were detected in pregnant women who seroconverted during gestation (100% by ELISA, 63% by ISAGA), patients with toxoplasmic lymphadenopathy (96% by ELISA, 88% by ISAGA), infants with signs of congenital toxoplasmosis which prompted serologic testing in the postnatal period (92% by ELISA, 67% by ISAGA), children and adults with toxoplasmic chorioretinitis (36% by ELISA, 18% by ISAGA), and adult patients with AIDS and toxoplasmic encephalitis (33% by ELISA, 25% by ISAGA).

Treatment of giant-cell tumor of the pelvis.

Nineteen patients who had a giant-cell tumor of the pelvis were managed from 1944 through 1989. Thirteen of the patients were in the third or fourth decade of life. The ileum was involved in thirteen patients; the pubis, in two; the ischium, in three; and the pubis and ischium, in one.