Nineteenth century Indian leper censuses and the doctors.

This study describes the circumstances under which enumerations of "lepers" were conducted in India in the late 19th century, and the ideological biases of the respective investigators and the meanings that they read into the statistics. This report focuses on the Bombay Presidency leprosy returns of 1867, examined in 1871 by Henry Vandyke Carter, and the decennial nation-wide population census of 1871-1872, 1881, and 1891, in which the leprosy-affected, among other infirm persons, were also enumerated. The evidence examined includes the investigators' reports and other published and unpublished contemporaneous documents.

Regional variations in fibre growth dynamics of myotomal and caudal fin muscles in relation to body size of a freshwater teleost, Barbus sarana (Cuv. & Val.).

The growth of red fibres in anterior and middle myotomal regions of B. sarana was mainly by hyperplasia in smaller size classes. In higher size classes, growth by hyperplasia was greater in posterior myotomal region compared to the other two myotomal regions.

Emerging, noninvasive surrogate markers of atherosclerosis.

Noninvasive surrogate markers of atherosclerosis allow the physician to identify subclinical disease before the occurrence of adverse cardiovascular events, thereby limiting the need to perform invasive diagnostic procedures. Imaging modalities, such as carotid artery ultrasound, two-dimensional echocardiography, coronary artery calcium imaging, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, ankle-brachial indices, brachial artery reactivity testing, and epicardial coronary flow reserve measurements, provide information that may improve the predictive value of a person's risk of developing clinically significant atherosclerotic disease. Newer imaging modalities have also emerged to bring insight into the pathophysiology and treatment of atherosclerosis.

Medical ethics in the neurosciences.

Doctors in India are heirs to a long tradition of ethics from their own forebears and from those from the West. This paper discusses ethical aspects of topics of relevance to neurological scientists such as brain death, neural transplant and whole brain transplant. Many other topics such as ethics in research, patients with AIDS, patients in a persistent vegetative state and euthanasia deserve similar consideration and debate.

The first international leprosy conference, Berlin, 1897: the politics of segregation.

The present paper examines the first attempts to internationalize the problem of leprosy, a subject hitherto overlooked by historians of imperialism and disease. The last decade of the nineteenth century saw many in the 'civilized countries' of the imperialist West gripped by a paranoia about an invasion of leprosy via germ-laden immigrants and returning expatriates who had acquired the infection in leprosy-endemic colonial possessions. Such alarmists clamoured for the adoption of vigorous leper segregation policies in such colonies.

Additional of functional vinylzinc reagents to nitrones: synthesis of (E)-N-allylhydroxylamines and their rearrangement into (E)-O-allylhydroxylamines.

The vinylzinc reagents derived from hydrozirconation of alkynes and transmetallation add readily to nitrones to yield pure (E)-N-allylhydroxylamines; some of these rearrange into O-allylhydroxylamines.

Open label, randomised, comparative phase III safety and efficacy study with conventional amphotericin B and liposomal amphotericin B in patients with systemic fungal infection.

Objective: To compare conventional amphotericin B (c-amp B) and liposomal amphotericin B (L-AMP-LRC-1-India) in patients with systemic fungal infection in open, randomized, comparative, laboratory blind, phase III safety and efficacy study.

Material And Methods: Formulation of liposomal amphotericin B - L-AMP-LRC-1, containing natural phospholipids, was prepared and tested at the Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital, Mumbai, India. Patients suffering from proven systemic fungal infection, were treated with c-amp B or L-AMP-LRC-1 with 17 patients in each group.

Methotrexate twice weekly vs once weekly in rheumatoid arthritis: a pilot double-blind, controlled study.

Methotrexate (MTX) is the most commonly used disease-modifying antirheumatoid drug used in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. It is usually given on a weekly schedule, but as the half-life of its active compound, the polyglutamate MTX, is 3 days, we did a pilot study to see if MTX twice weekly is superior to MTX once weekly. Eighty patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) fulfilling the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria were enrolled into a double-blind, controlled trial of 16-week duration.

A comparative study of plasma concentrations of liposomal amphotericin B (L-AMP-LRC-1) in adults, children and neonates.

Amphotericin B (AmpB) incorporated into small unilamellar liposomes prepared from soya phosphatidylcholine and cholesterol (L-AMP-LRC-1) has been shown to be safe and effective in patients with systemic fungal infections. In this report, we compared the plasma levels of AmpB in adults, children and neonates following administration of L-AMP-LRC-1. A 1.

Dialkylzinc-assisted alkynylation of nitrones.

[reaction: see text]. Reaction of nitrones with terminal alkynes takes place readily in the presence of a substoichiometric amount of diethylzinc in toluene, affording N-propargyl-hydroxylamines in excellent yields and purity.

Bioprosthetic heart valve leaflet deformation monitored by double-pulse stereo photogrammetry.

A double-pulse stereo photogrammetry technique has been developed for the dynamic assessment of the leaflet deformation of bioprosthetic heart valves under simulated physiological conditions. By using a specially designed triggering technique, which takes the advantage of the field transfer mechanisms of the charge coupled device camera, two consecutive images separated by a time interval as short as 5 ms were captured. This made it possible to investigate the realistic leaflet deformation during the valve opening and closing processes which typically last 25-45 ms.

Pertussis outbreak in an elementary school with high vaccination coverage.

Background: An outbreak of pertussis in a US elementary school with high vaccination coverage was investigated to evaluate vaccine effectiveness and to identify potential contributing factors.

Methods: Survey and cohort study of all 215 students of an elementary school (including 36 case patients) and 16 secondary cases among contacts.

Results: Fifty-two pertussis cases were identified (attack rate among students, 17%).

Lentivirus and foamy virus vectors: novel gene therapy tools.

The aim of gene therapy is to modify the genetic material of living cells to achieve therapeutic benefit. Gene therapy involves the insertion of a functional gene into a cell, to replace an absent or defective gene, or to fight an infectious agent or a tumour. At present, a wide variety of somatic tissues are being explored for the introduction of foreign genes with a view towards treatment.

Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of albuterol in facioscapulohumeral dystrophy.

Background/objectives: Animal and human studies suggest that beta(2)-adrenergic agonists exert anabolic effects on muscles, inducing and preventing atrophy after a variety of insults. Based on data from an open-label trial of albuterol in 15 patients with facioscapulohumeral dystrophy (FSHD), the authors conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of sustained-release albuterol in this disease.

Methods: Ninety patients were randomized to three groups: placebo; 8.

Development of an Rev-independent, minimal simian immunodeficiency virus-derived vector system.

Lentiviral vectors are attractive candidates for gene therapy because of their ability to integrate into nondividing cells. To date, conventional HIV-1-based vectors can be produced at higher titers, but concerns regarding their safety for human use exist because of the possibility of recombination leading to production of infectious virions with pathogenic potential. Development of lentivirus vectors based on nonhuman lentiviruses constitutes an active area of research.