Flexible sigmoidoscopy screening for colorectal cancer in average-risk subjects: a community-based pilot project.

Objective: To test a pilot screening program for colorectal cancer.

Design: Subjects, chosen at random and recruited by mail, were examined by flexible sigmoidoscopy.

Participants And Setting: Normal-risk, asymptomatic men and women aged 55-59 years recruited from the community, July to December, 1995.

Hepatic mitochondrial oxidative metabolism and lipid peroxidation in iron-loaded rats fed ethanol.

The aims of this study were to determine whether chronic ethanol consumption potentiates mitochondrial lipid peroxidation or impairment of mitochondrial oxidative metabolism in rats with chronic iron overload. Experimental iron overload was induced by feeding rats a chow diet supplemented with 2.5% carbonyl iron.

Hepatitis C.

Preview Infection with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is fairly common and often serious: Significant liver disease develops in up to 50% of cases. What are the risk factors for HCV infection, and how likely is it to become chronic? How effective is interferon therapy, and what factors influence response? What new treatment strategies are being evaluated? Drs Olynyk and Bacon answer these and other questions as they bring readers up to date on the recent explosion of knowledge about hepatitis C.

Hepatitis C. Recent advances in understanding and management.

Chronic hepatitis C is a major health issue, affecting up to 1.4% of the US population. A high proportion of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections are chronic.

A long-term study of the interaction between iron and alcohol in an animal model of iron overload.

Background/aims: The hypothesis that chronic alcohol ingestion potentiates iron-associated liver injury was investigated in the 'carbonyl iron-overload rat model'.

Methods: Newborn male and female Wistar-Furth rats (seven per group) were used to investigate iron-alcohol interaction over a 26-week period. Groups 1 and 2 were iron loaded from birth, while the others received normal diet.

Hepatic iron concentration as a predictor of response to interferon alfa therapy in chronic hepatitis C.

Background/aims: It has been reported that hepatic iron concentration (HIC) may influence response to therapy in chronic viral hepatitis. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between HIC and response to interferon alfa therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Methods: HIC was measured in liver biopsy specimens from 58 patients with chronic hepatitis C treated at three centers.

Hereditary hemochromatosis.

Preview Hereditary hemochromatosis, once believed to be rare, is now known to affect 1 in 250 to 300 people of northern European descent. Untreated, the disorder can have serious complications, but for patients in whom it is discovered and treated early, the prognosis is good. In this guide to diagnosis and management, Drs Olynyk and Bacon discuss, among other things, which patients to screen, what tests to order, length of treatment, effect of treatment on complications, and prognosis.

Hereditary hemochromatosis. Detecting and correcting iron overload.

Hereditary hemochromatosis is a common genetic disorder. A large number of homozygous patients with early disease are asymptomatic, but with early diagnosis and treatment, their life expectancy is normal. The best screening test is determination of the percent saturation of transferrin or the transferrin index.

Differential production of TNF by Kupffer cells after phagocytosis of E. coli and C. albicans.

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) of hepatic origin is thought to play a pivotal role early in the genesis of the septic shock syndrome, regardless of microbial etiology. To determine if production of TNF by Kupffer cells varies with microbial taxonomic class, we measured TNF secretory responses in primary cultures of rat Kupffer cells to numerically equivalent gram-negative bacterial or fungal phagocytic challenges. After a 30-min exposure to media, latex beads, soluble Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS; serotype 055:B5), live or Formalin-fixed E.

Determination of hepatic iron concentration in fresh and paraffin-embedded tissue: diagnostic implications.

Background/aims: Determination of hepatic iron concentration (HIC) is essential for the evaluation of hereditary hemochromatosis. Occasionally, only paraffin-embedded liver biopsy specimens are available, or fresh biopsy specimens have been placed in saline for transport. This study aimed to describe a method for extraction of liver tissue from paraffin blocks, determine the accuracy of measurement of HIC in recovered tissue compared with fresh tissue, and determine the effect of immersion in saline on HIC.

Screening for genetic haemochromatosis in a rheumatology clinic.

Background: Recent data indicate that the prevalence of genetic haemochromatosis (GH) is greater than previously recognised and suggest that this disease is underdiagnosed.

Aims: To determine the prevalence of GH in rheumatology clinic population.

Methods: Over a 12 month period 339 consecutive patients, mean age 67.

Pathophysiology of iron toxicity.

There are several inherited and acquired disorders that can result in chronic iron overload in humans, and the major clinical consequences are hepatic fibrosis, cirrhosis, hepatocellular cancer, cardiac disease, and diabetes. It is clear that lipid peroxidation occurs in experimental iron overload if sufficiently high levels of iron within hepatocytes are achieved. Lipid peroxidation is associated with hepatic mitochondrial and microsomal dysfunction in experimental iron overload, and lipid peroxidation may underlie the increased lysosomal fragility that has been detected in liver samples from both iron-loaded human subjects and experimental animals.

Transferrin index: an alternative method for calculating the iron saturation of transferrin.

We surveyed 140 clinical chemistry laboratories in Australia to establish which laboratory methods they used to determine serum iron status: 125 measured serum iron (Fe), 85 measured transferrin (TRF), 47 measured total iron-binding capacity (TIBC), and 14 measured both TRF and TIBC. Of the 55 laboratories routinely reporting TRF saturation (TS), 16 calculated TS directly as (Fe/TIBC) x 100, and 9 used [Fe/(TRF x 2)] x 100. Thirty laboratories measured TRF and converted it to an equivalent TIBC concentration; the derived TIBC was then used to calculate TS.

Fine-needle aspiration biopsy for the measurement of hepatic iron concentration.

The potential application of fine-needle aspiration liver biopsy in the documentation of hepatic iron overload has been assessed in iron-loaded rats. Fine-needle aspiration and standard liver biopsy specimens were obtained from three groups of animals supplemented with oral and parenteral iron for 2 to 6 mo. The mean dry weights of standard and fine-needle biopsy specimens were 7.

Radioiodine speciation in the hot cell effluent gases of a radiopharmaceutical production facility.

In order to characterize the various chemical forms of airborne radioiodine species, grab-sampling measurements were conducted at the hot cell laboratory of a radiopharmaceutical production facility, using a selective-adsorbent-iodine filter system. Volatile radioiodine species were produced in the hot cell process which extracted the fission product 99Mo from the irradiated uranium target. The effluent gases were then released through the hot cell filter bank and the main filter bank.

Computerized measurement of iron in liver biopsies: a comparison with biochemical iron measurement.

The measurement of stainable hepatic iron using a microcomputer image analysis system was compared with standard biochemical measurements of liver iron content in 103 liver biopsy specimens--29 of idiopathic hemochromatosis, 51 of alcoholic liver disease and 23 of various nonalcoholic liver diseases. Sections were stained using Perls' method for iron; the mean area staining positively for iron was measured and expressed as a percentage of the area of biopsy measured. Biochemical (biochemical hepatic iron [mumol/gm dry wt]/age) and morphometrical (morphometrical hepatic iron [%]/age x 100) hepatic iron indices were calculated.

Right ventricular ejection fraction measured by first-pass intravenous krypton-81m: reproducibility and comparison with technetium-99m.

Study of the effects of various diseases and therapeutic manipulation of pulmonary vascular resistance on the right ventricle has been restricted by methodologic limitations. The radioactive gas in solution, krypton-81m was used to study the right ventricle and the technique was compared with a technetium-99m method. In 22 subjects, first-pass krypton-81m right ventricular ejection fraction, acquired both in list mode and electrocardiogram-gated frame mode, correlated well (r = 0.

The acute effect of placentectomy and hysterectomy on peripheral plasma progesterone levels and ovarian progesterone secretion in the pregnant rat.

The role of placental luteotrophins in modulating plasma progesterone concentrations and ovarian progesterone secretion was examined in 16-day pregnant rats. In an initial experiment rats were placentectomized and their plasma progesterone concentrations monitored for 24 h; the rats were conscious within 30 min of placentectomy. Relative to control values, progesterone concentrations fell significantly within 0.

Independence of ovarian progesterone secretion rate from arterial progesterone concentrations in the pregnant rat.

We have sought to determine whether the rate of ovarian progesterone secretion in pregnant rats is inversely related to the arterial plasma progesterone concentrations. For this purpose, rates of ovarian progesterone secretion were measured on day 16 of pregnancy in seven progesterone-treated and eight untreated rats. Treated rats received once-daily s.