Nicotine patch therapy in 101 adolescent smokers: efficacy, withdrawal symptom relief, and carbon monoxide and plasma cotinine levels.

Objectives: To determine the efficacy of nicotine patch therapy in adolescents who want to stop smoking and to assess biochemical markers of smoking and nicotine intake.

Design: Nonrandomized, open-label trial using a 15 mg/16 h patch.

Setting: Two midwestern cities.

Positive predictive value of clinical suspicion of abdominal aortic aneurysm. Implications for efficient use of abdominal ultrasonography.

Although selective screening for an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) by abdominal palpation aimed at detecting AAAs has engendered considerable support, no population-based data pertaining to the positive predictive value (PPV) of the clinical assessment of AAAs in routine clinical practice are available. Therefore, we used the unique resources of the Rochester (Minn) Epidemiology Project and the Mayo Clinic computerized abdominal ultrasonography database to identify all residents of Olmsted County, Minnesota,who underwent ultrasound examination for a clinically suspected AAA between November 1, 1985, and October 31, 1987. Of 116 residents who were suspected of having an AAA on abdominal palpation and were referred for an ultrasound examination for confirmation, 17 patients had a 3.

Idiotypic analysis of myeloma proteins: anti-DNA activity of monoclonal immunoglobulins bearing an SLE idiotype is more common in IgG than IgM antibodies.

The anti-idiotype 3I which recognizes a determinant on kappa-chains of anti-DNA antibodies in SLE patients also recognizes a determinant on kappa-chains of 82/706 myeloma proteins tested. Twenty-nine of these 82 proteins bind to double-stranded DNA, including two monoclonal IgM, one monoclonal IgA, and 26 monoclonal IgG proteins. DNA binding is much more frequent in the IgG than in the IgM myeloma proteins (p less than 0.