In vitro activities of garenoxacin and levofloxacin against Chlamydia pneumoniae are not affected by presence of Mycoplasma DNA.

We studied 20 Chlamydia pneumoniae isolates obtained from respiratory sites and atheroma tissue of patients from various geographic areas to determine the susceptibilities of these isolates to a new des-fluoroquinolone, garenoxacin, and to levofloxacin. In addition, we assessed the cultures with these isolates by PCR for the presence or absence of Mycoplasma sp. DNA.

Subintimal recanalisation and stenting of a common iliac artery occlusion by a left axillary and an ipsilateral femoral retrograde approach using modified gooseneck grab aided by balloon dilatation of "dissection port".

The technique of recanalisation using deliberate subintimal dissection of an occluded iliac artery is being increasingly used and practised via ipsilateral and or contralateral approaches. There remains, however, a fair proportion of cases where, in spite of using gooseneck snares, the wire manipulation to traverse the occlusion can prove unsuccessful resulting in failed de-obliteration of the occlusion. We describe a technique to aid successful re-establishment of the patency using balloon dilatation of the dissection "entry port" with modified gooseneck snare grab.

Vaccine potential of the Neisseria meningitidis 2086 lipoprotein.

A novel antigen that induces cross-reactive bactericidal antibodies against a number of Neisseria meningitidis strains is described. This antigen, a approximately 28-kDa lipoprotein called LP2086, was first observed within a complex mixture of soluble outer membrane proteins (sOMPs) following a series of fractionation, protein purification, and proteomics steps. Approximately 95 different neisserial isolates tested positive by Western blotting and PCR screening methods for the presence of the protein and the gene encoding LP2086.

Evaluating evaluation forms form.

Objectives: To provide a tool for evaluating evaluation forms.

Methods: A new form has been developed and tested on itself and a sample of evaluation forms obtained from the graduate medical education offices of several local universities. Additional forms from hospital administration were also subjected to analysis.

Fetal cystoscopy in the management of fetal obstructive uropathy: experience in a single European centre.

Objective: To audit diagnostic and therapeutic fetal cystoscopy for suspected posterior urethral valves (PUV).

Methods: In 13 fetuses, (14-28 weeks) the bladder was entered with a 1.3 mm embryo-fetoscope and intravesical findings documented.

Enzootic Babesia microti in Maine.

Human babesiosis in the northeastern United States caused by Babesia microti (Apicomplexa: Piroplasmida) is mainly reported from coastal New England sites, where deer ticks (Ixodes dammini) are common. However, the piroplasm has been detected in microtine rodents elsewhere in association with I. angustus or other nidicolous ticks, suggesting that the agent is widely distributed but zoonotically significant only where a human-biting "bridge" vector is present.

Acute increase in femoral artery resistance in response to direct physical stimuli in the human fetus.

Objective: To determine whether fetal response to needling resembles the fetal 'brain sparing' response seen with hypoxaemia.

Design: Prospective observational study.

Setting: Centre for Fetal Care, Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital, London.

Prevalence of faecal excretion of verocytotoxigenic Escherichia coli O157 in cattle in England and Wales.

During the decade to 1999, the incidence of human infections with the zoonotic pathogen verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli O157 (VTEC O157) increased in England and Wales. This paper describes the results of a survey of 75 farms to determine the prevalence of faecal excretion of VTEC O157 by cattle, its primary reservoir host, in England and Wales. Faecal samples were collected from 4663 cattle between June and December 1999.

Genetic diversity among Escherichia coli O157:H7 isolates from Bovines living on farms in England and Wales.

Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of Escherichia coli O157:H7 isolates (n = 228) from 122 healthy animals on 11 farms discriminated 57 types. Most clones were found only on individual farms. Numerous clones were found within each farm, with a prevalent clone normally found in several animals.

Internet use by patients with prostate cancer undergoing radiotherapy.

Objectives: To analyze the amount of Internet use, type of Internet use, and factors that predict Internet use by patients with prostate cancer.

Methods: A questionnaire evaluating the use of the Internet was given to 295 patients undergoing radiotherapy for prostate cancer in three different settings: an academic center (AC), a Veterans Affairs center (VA), and a community hospital. The study included 171 AC patients (58%), 104 VA patients (35%), and 20 community hospital patients (7%).

Search for large extra dimensions in the monojet+E(T) channel with the DØ detector.

We present a search for large extra dimensions (ED) in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.8 TeV using data collected by the DØ detector at the Fermilab Tevatron in 1994-1996. Data corresponding to 78.

Phase I study of an oral formulation of ZD9331 administered daily for 28 days.

Purpose: To define the maximum-tolerated dose and dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs) of an oral formulation of ZD9331, a novel thymidylate synthase inhibitor that is not a substrate for folylpolyglutamate synthase.

Patients And Methods: Patients had Cancer and Leukemia Group B performance status < or = 2 and refractory solid tumors. Initially, patients received ZD9331 daily for 2 weeks, with the duration of treatment escalated to a maximum of 4 weeks, followed by a 2-week rest period.

Levofloxacin kills Chlamydia pneumoniae and modulates interleukin 6 production by HEp-2 cells.

Background: Chlamydia pneumoniae is known to cause acute respiratory infection and more recently it has been studied as a pathogen causing inflammatory changes in chronic diseases such as atherosclerosis. This study addresses the antichlamydial effect of levofloxacin and its role in modulation of a proinflammatory cytokine IL-6 production by uninfected and infected HEp-2 cells.

Methods: HEp-2 cell monolayers were infected with previously prepared and frozen aliquots of C.

Deer density and the abundance of Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae).

The abundance of Ixodes scapularis Say (Ixodes dammini Spielman, Clifford, Piesman & Corwin), the vector tick of the Lyme disease spirochete and other human pathogens, is related to the presence of its primary reproductive stage host, white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus Zimmerman). However, this relationship has not been quantified in terms that would guide wildlife management in areas in which the public is, or is likely to become, exposed to infected ticks. In this study, deer density and tick abundance were measured in an emergent area for Lyme disease at three spatial scales using estimation methods appropriate for each.

Direct field-resolved detection of terahertz transients with amplitudes of megavolts per centimeter.

Phase-matched difference-frequency mixing in a thin GaSe crystal within the broad spectrum of 25-fs pulses from a Ti:sapphire oscillator multipass amplifier system permits the generation of few-cycle electric field transients, frequencies up to 30 THz, and amplitudes of more than 1 MV/cm. The field transients generated at a 1-kHz repetition rate are directly measured by electro-optic sampling by 12-f probe pulses from the 75-MHz repetition-rate Ti:sapphire oscillator in combination with a novel electronic gating technique.

Use of the microbial growth curve in postantibiotic effect studies of Legionella pneumophila.

Using the standard Craig and Gudmundsson method (W. A. Craig and S.

Search for the production of single sleptons through R-parity violation in pp; collisions at square root (s) =1.8 TeV.

We report the first search for supersymmetric particles via s-channel production and decay of smuons or muon sneutrinos at hadronic colliders. The data for the two-muon and two-jets final states were collected by the D0 experiment and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 94+/-5 pb(-1). Assuming that R parity is violated via the single coupling lambda'211, the number of candidate events is in agreement with expectation from the standard model.

Search for R-parity violating supersymmetry in two-muon and four-jet topologies.

We present results of a search for R-parity-violating decay of the neutralino chi;01, taken as the lightest supersymmetric particle, to a muon and two jets. The decay proceeds through a lepton-number violating coupling lambda(')(2jk) (j=1,2; k=1,2,3), with R-parity conservation in all other production and decay processes. In the absence of candidate events from 77.

Human granulocytic ehrlichiosis in a renal allograft recipient: review of the clinical spectrum of disease in solid organ transplant patients.

Background: Ehrlichiosis is a recently described zoonotic infection with two major expressions: human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE) and human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME). The organisms associated with HGE and HME have been detected in a tick vector in several regions of United States and cases of ehrlichiosis have been reported in the general population.

Methods: We report a case of HGE in a renal allograft recipient and review the clinical spectrum of disease in solid organ transplant recipients and the epidemiological basis for risk.

Photodynamic therapy for mesothelioma.

Multiple trials of traditional cancer therapies for malignant pleural mesothelioma (including surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy) have not convincingly demonstrated that any one treatment is superior to supportive care alone. Although there have been reports of long-term survivors who were treated with aggressive surgery combined with radiation and aggressive multi-agent chemotherapeutic regimens, these patient populations are highly selected and results cannot be generalized to a larger population. Despite attempts to use aggressive multimodality therapies, disease recurs in most patients.