Ligand Selection by Combination of Recombinant and Cell Panning Selection Techniques.

High-throughput protein selection methods are a cornerstone for protein engineering and pharmaceutical development. Traditional high-throughput selection strategies rely largely on recombinant antigen to generate target specificity. Though effective, this selection strategy can be limited by soluble target quality, particularly in the case of recombinant extracellular domains of transmembrane proteins.

A visual approach to providing prognostic information to parents of children with retinoblastoma.

Objective: Parents must rapidly assimilate complex information when a child is diagnosed with cancer. Education correlates with the ability to process and use medical information. Graphic tools aid reasoning and communicate complex ideas with precision and efficiency.

Acute impact of immediate release methylphenidate administered three times a day on sleep in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Objective: To determine the impact of immediate release Ritalin, given three times a day, on sleep quality and quantity in medication-naïve, newly diagnosed children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Methods: Children (aged 6-12) rigorously diagnosed with ADHD (n = 21) underwent multiple measurement assessments (i.e.

Adaptive responses by mouse early embryos to maternal diet protect fetal growth but predispose to adult onset disease.

Poor maternal nutrition during pregnancy can alter postnatal phenotype and increase susceptibility to adult cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. However, underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. Here, we show that maternal low protein diet (LPD), fed exclusively during mouse preimplantation development, leads to offspring with increased weight from birth, sustained hypertension, and abnormal anxiety-related behavior, especially in females.

Incomplete and inconsistent information provided to men making decisions for treatment of early-stage prostate cancer.

Objectives: To determine whether there is a gap between what patients know about early-stage prostate cancer and what they need to know to make treatment decisions, and whether the information patients receive varies depending on their treating physician.

Methods: Needs assessment was performed using a questionnaire consisting of 41 statements about early-stage prostate cancer. Statements were divided into six thematic subsets.

Composite asymptotic expansions and scaling wall turbulence.

In this article, the assumptions and reasoning that yield composite asymptotic expansions for wall turbulence are discussed. Particular attention is paid to the scaling quantities that are used to render the variables non-dimensional and of order one. An asymptotic expansion is proposed for the streamwise Reynolds stress that accounts for the active and inactive turbulence by using different scalings.

Sensitive and efficient detection of RB1 gene mutations enhances care for families with retinoblastoma.

Timely molecular diagnosis of RB1 mutations enables earlier treatment, lower risk, and better health outcomes for patients with retinoblastoma; empowers families to make informed family-planning decisions; and costs less than conventional surveillance. However, complexity has hindered clinical implementation of molecular diagnosis. The majority of RB1 mutations are unique and distributed throughout the RB1 gene, with no real hot spots.

Long-term follow-up of leiske closed-loop anterior chamber intraocular lenses.

Purpose: To provide long-term follow-up on the rates of endothelial cell loss in eyes with retained closed-loop anterior chamber intraocular lenses (IOLs).

Setting: Private practices, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Methods: In 1980 to 1982, 3 surgeons performed 587 intracapsular cataract extractions with implantation of Leiske closed-loop anterior chamber IOLs.

The involvement of pharmacists in professional and clinical audit in the UK: a review and assessment of their potential role.

This review addresses the uptake and implementation of the principles of audit by community, hospital and health authority pharmacists. The pressures to audit professional services are discussed, as are the barriers to cooperation among pharmacists and between pharmacists and prescribers in primary care. The development of standards of professional practice is then described taking into account the particular difficulty in developing standards for health care workers who are geographically separated from other members of the primary care team and are in commercial competition with each other.

A four-year experience with laparoscopy in the management of appendicitis.

Background: The study was conducted to determine the influences of laparoscopy in the management and outcome of patients with appendicitis.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of 154 consecutive patients who were treated for suspected appendicitis. The pre-operative diagnosis included appendicitis, right lower quadrant pain of unknown etiology, and generalized peritonitis.

Transferring the costs of expensive treatments from secondary to primary care.

General practitioners, especially fundholders, are becoming increasingly concerned about being asked to prescribe treatments for their patients that are outside their therapeutic experience. They are concerned about the clinical responsibility for such prescribing and the effects on their budgets. In some specialties transferring the costs of expensive treatments from secondary to primary care (cost shifting) has become partly institutionalised because of the separate sources of funding for drugs prescribed in the two sectors.

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy: a continuing plea for routine cholangiography.

The purpose of this clinical study was to demonstrate the usefulness of routine intraoperative cholangiography (IOC) and the safety of laparoscopic cholecystectomies (LC) in a community hospital. There were no ductal injuries and perioperative complications were extremely low. Patients (n = 236) with symptomatic gallstone disease, acalculus cholecystitis, or gallbladder polyps underwent LC from March 1991 to June 1993.

Laparoscopic hernia repair.

Seventy-nine patients (106 repairs) with inguinal hernias underwent laparoscopic transabdominal preperitoneal hernia repair. The patients included 73 males and 6 females, ranging in age from 19 to 86 years. Twenty-five percent had undergone previous abdominal surgery, and 19% had recurrent hernias.

An elevated hematogenous photosensitizer in the preterm neonate.

Purpose: Human blood contains low levels of protoporphyrin IX (PP IX), a photoactive compound that produces reactive oxygen species when exposed to light. It has been proposed that photoactivation of PP IX and subsequent generation of potentially tissue-damaging reactive oxygen may be a mechanism of retinal injury in retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). The purpose of this study is to determine an association between blood PP IX level and infant birth-weight and gestational age.

Surgical management of subluxed posterior-chamber intraocular lenses.

Objective: To formulate a systematic approach to the surgical management of subluxed posterior-chamber intraocular lenses (IOLs).

Design: We reviewed the records of 31 consecutive patients who underwent anterior-segment surgery for IOL subluxation. Presumed anatomic causes of IOL subluxation were identified in 28 cases (90%).

Excision of limbal dermoids.

We reviewed the clinical files of 10 patients who had undergone excision of unilateral epibulbar limbal dermoids. Preoperatively, all of the affected eyes had worse visual acuity (P less than .02) and more astigmatism (P less than .

Retinal arterial macroaneurysms: risk factors and natural history.

A case control study was conducted to identify the systemic and ocular risk factors for retinal arterial macroaneurysms. Forty-three patients with 52 photographically confirmed macroaneurysms were located. Forty-three age-matched, race-matched concurrent control patients were also identified.

Murine tumor-induced platelet aggregation and coagulation: mechanisms, inhibitors, and species differences.

This study examined the platelet-aggregating and procoagulant activities of two hematogenously disseminating tumors, a mouse lymphoblastic leukemia (L5178Y) and a mouse renal adenocarcinoma (RAG). Tumor-induced human platelet aggregation was inhibited by addition of the following agents to platelet-rich plasma (PRP): a calcium channel blocker (verapamil), a chelator of divalent cations (EDTA), stimulators of adenylate cyclase (2-fluoroadenosine and forskolin), and inhibitors of cAMP phosphodiesterase (oxagrelate and papaverine). The platelet-aggregating activities of both cell lines were completely blocked by treatment of the cells with heat, sonication, phospholipase A2, and Triton X-100.