Shostakovich versus the Central Committee: the power of music.

The centenary of Shostakovich's birth, celebrated in 2006, generated considerable interest in his life and music. During the Cold War his music was rarely played in the West, and it was not until after his death in 1975 that it re-emerged. The publication of his memoirs in the UK, in 1979, gave new insights into his life in Soviet Russia.

The Alport nephropathy: clinicopathological correlations.

The alleged dominance of diffuse attenuation of the glomerular basement membrane (GBM) in young children and females with Alport's Syndrome (AS) suggests that it might be the initial ultrastructural manifestation of type IV collagen defects. We carried out a 'blind' review of 130 renal biopsies obtained from 100 patients with AS, emphasizing the electron microscopy changes, and related the findings to the clinical presentation and outcome. The intracapillary distribution of (1) thickened, (2) attenuated and (3) normal GBM was assessed individually as: none (grade 0), <25% (grade 1), 25-50% (grade 2) and >50% (grade 3).