Inadequacy of iridium implant as sole radiation treatment for operable breast cancer.

In order to avoid a prolonged course of external irradiation as part of breast conservation therapy, 27 patients received an iridium implant to the primary tumour bed as sole radiation treatment. Surgery was standardised comprising tumourectomy and axillary clearance. Using a rigid implant afterloading with iridium192 wires, 55 Gy was delivered on a continuous basis over 5 days.

Overachievement and coping strategies in adolescent males.

How to assist young people to achieve to their potential is a universal concern of educators. The relationship between achievement above that expected on the basis of IQ alone (often referred to as overachievement) in school assessment and preferred coping style, as assessed by the Adolescent Coping Scale (ACS, Frydenberg & Lewis, 1993a), was investigated in a group of 374 boys in Grades 9, 10 and 11 at an independent boys' school in metropolitan Melbourne. Separate partial correlation analyses for each of the three year levels showed that three of the coping strategies, Work and Achieve, Solve the Problem, and Social Support positively correlated with overachievement at all three levels.

Glutamic acid decarboxylase 65 and 67 isoforms in fetal, neonatal and adult porcine islets: predominant beta cell co-localization by light and confocal microscopy.

Glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) has been shown to exist as two isoforms with molecular weights of 65 kD (GAD65) and 67 kD (GAD67) in the central nervous system as well as in several non-neuronal tissues, including the pancreatic islets. Recently, this enzyme has been proposed as a key beta-cell autoantigen in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). In the present study, we used double label light and confocal microscopy to examine the expression of the two GAD isoforms in islet cells of fetal, neonatal and adult porcine pancreas.

Confocal imaging of the keratocyte network in porcine cornea using the fixable vital dye 5-chloromethylfluorescein diacetate.

This study reports on the combined use of an aldehyde fixable, cell viability fluoroprobe, 5-chloromethylfluorescein diacetate (CMFDA), confocal laser scanning microscopy and digital image reconstruction, to produce high resolution images of corneal keratocyte preparations in situ. The central region of freshly enucleated porcine corneae were removed and stained overnight at 4 degrees C with CMFDA. The tissue was washed, fixed, and frozen for cryosectioning in either a horizontal or antero-posterior orientation.

Detection of viable and non-viable cells in connective tissue explants using the fixable fluoroprobes 5-chloromethylfluorescein diacetate and ethidium homodimer-1.

The efficacy of connective tissue explants is difficult to determine, particularly where autopsy material is required for research or clinical applications. We report here an optimised protocol using 5-chloromethylfluorescein diacetate (CMFDA) and ethidium homodimer-1 to distinguish viable and non-viable cells in a range of connective tissue explants. Biopsies and explants of corneae, arteries, cartilage and skin were loaded with fluoroprobes for extended periods (< or = 24h) at low temperatures (4 degrees C), fixed in paraformaldehyde, and processed using a variety of embedding, sectioning, autoradiographic, and immunohistochemical procedures.

Operative gastric perforation: a rare complication of ventriculoperitoneal shunt.

Complications of ventriculoperitoneal shunts are reported in 24-47 % of cases. These include mechanical malfunction and infection, cerebrospinal fluid collection, shunt migration, and visceral perforation. Intestinal perforation, most commonly colonic, may be associated with meningitis or cerebral abscess.

Changing trends in the epidemiology and pathogenesis of neonatal chronic lung disease.

Objective: To assess the role of specific risk factors that may predispose preterm infants with mild or no initial respiratory distress syndrome to the development of chronic lung disease (CLD).

Study Design: Clinical data were collected prospectively from 119 ventilator-supported preterm infants with birth weights between 500 and 1000 gm, who survived more than 28 days and required fewer than 3 days of treatment with fraction of inspired oxygen > 25% during the first 5 days of life. Logistic regression analysis was used in a multivariate assessment of risk factors for CLD.

Etoposide protein binding in cancer patients.

The protein binding of etoposide was studied in vivo in 36 cancer patients receiving etoposide therapy. Free etoposide was separated from plasma using an ultrafiltration method and the etoposide concentrations (free and total) were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Considerable interpatient variation in the protein binding of etoposide was observed.

Effects on health of a change from a delaying to an advancing shift system.

Objectives: Shift work can lead to a range of problems for some people that seem to result from the disturbance of the circadian system, and can broadly be classified as: disturbances of sleep, impaired physical and psychological health, and disturbed social and domestic life. The main attempt to try to reduce these problems has focused on the design of the shift system, and the identification of the most problematic features of the shift system. One such feature is believed to be the direction of shift rotation.

Increased injuries on night shift.

Concern over safety has resulted in legislation by, for example, the Commission of the European Union, to limit the number of hours worked at night. There is, however, no direct evidence that injuries are more frequent at night. We analysed all 4645 injury incidents reported for a year on a rotating three-shift system in a large engineering company where the a-priori accident risk appeared to be constant.

Statistical significance testing in the American Journal of Epidemiology, 1970-1990.

Despite persistent controversy over statistical significance testing and the obligation for all researchers to adopt some position on the issue, until now, practices of epidemiologists have not been examined thoroughly. Articles in the American Journal of Epidemiology around the years 1970, 1980, and 1990 were evaluated and divided into infectious disease epidemiology, cancer epidemiology, and cardiovascular disease epidemiology, with a minimum of 25 articles per topic area and time period. Presentation of significance test results and confidence intervals was evaluated in the abstracts, results text, and results tables, as was the degree of reliance on significance testing in the discussion section.

Sickness absence in diabetic employees at a large engineering factory.

It is not known whether employees who have diabetes mellitus lose more time from work due to sickness than non-diabetic employees. A study was undertaken to compare sickness absence in 91 diabetic with 91 non-diabetic employees matched for sex, age, and occupation. Although sickness absence was greater in the diabetic group this was not significant.

A phase I/II trial of recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor in the intensification of cisplatin and cyclophosphamide chemotherapy for advanced ovarian cancer.

A pilot study was undertaken in eight patients to assess the feasibility of recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (rH GM-CSF) support to intensify standard chemotherapy for advanced ovarian cancer using a shortened 15 day treatment interval. Only four patients completed the course of six cycles of cisplatin 75 mg m-2 and cyclophosphamide 750 mg m-2 with rH GM-CSF, 3-5 micrograms kg-1 day-1, days 3-14, but one of these suffered a toxic death on study. Another died of disease progression.

Hepatic arterial chemotherapy for metastatic colorectal carcinoma.

In this review, the rationale of regional chemotherapy for treatment of hepatic metastases in advanced colorectal carcinoma is discussed. Pharmacokinetic principles and early clinical experience of hepatic arterial drug administration are summarised. The regional advantage of fluoropyrimidine compounds in this setting is well established, and recent evidence suggests that 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is more efficacious than the analogue 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine (FUDR).

Empirical-Bayes and semi-Bayes approaches to occupational and environmental hazard surveillance.

Empirical-Bayes methods offer potentially dramatic improvements in statistical accuracy over conventional statistical methods. We provide an elementary introduction to empirical-Bayes analysis of occupational and environmental hazard surveillance data. Such analyses are especially well suited to situations in which many associations must be examined, but few or none can be estimated precisely.

Kidney cancer and hydrocarbon exposures among petroleum refinery workers.

To evaluate the hypothesis of increased kidney cancer risk after exposure to hydrocarbons, especially those present in gasoline, we conducted a case-control study in a cohort of approximately 100,000 male refinery workers from five petroleum companies. A review of 18,323 death certificates identified 102 kidney cancer cases, to each of whom four controls were matched by refinery location and decade of birth. Work histories, containing an average of 15.