Validity of the CAGE questionnaire in schizophrenic patients with alcohol abuse and dependence.

The objective of the study was to assess the sensitivity and the specificity of the CAGE questionnaire in 114 schizophrenic patients. The Composite International Diagnostic Interview was used to assess the DSM-III-R diagnosis of abuse of or dependence on alcohol. The CAGE questionnaire can be reliably used to assess alcohol use disorders in schizophrenic patients: with a cutoff score of 1 or more, the sensitivity of the CAGE questionnaire was 0.

Enhanced in situ expression of NF-kappaBp65 is an early marker of intestinal graft rejection in rats.

Background: Although intestinal transplantation provides a unique situation of free access to the graft because of the presence of temporary enterostomas, evaluation of local immunosuppression is still an unresolved issue and may constitute one of the causes of grafting failure.

Aims: To study in a rat model of allogeneic intestinal transplantation the expression of transcription factors involved in lymphocyte activation in situ in the graft and to identify factors reflecting the efficiency of drug immunosuppression.

Methods: Intestinal transplantation was performed in a Brown Norway (RT1n-donors)-Lewis (RT1(l)-recipients) rat strain combination.

Fetal intestinal obstruction induces alteration of enteric nervous system development in human intestinal atresia.

Intestinal motility disorders are a major cause of morbidity after surgical repair of intestinal atresia of unknown mechanism. We hypothesized that interruption of antenatal peristalsis may disturb the normal development of the enteric nervous system. Using a series of neuronal (synaptophysin, neuronal nitric oxide synthase, neurofilaments) and nonneuronal markers (glial acidic fibrillary protein and c-Kit) and immunohistochemistry, we have defined developmental steps of the enteric nervous system in normal intestine (12 fetuses, 15 children, and 4 adults) and their alterations above and below the obstacle in 22 human intestinal atresia compared with age-matched controls.