Making Glove Decision Less of a White Knuckling Experience: A Systematic Review and Inventory of Glove Accelerator Contents.

Background: Accelerators in medical gloves are a common cause of allergic contact dermatitis among healthcare workers.

Objective: A systematic review of medical and nursing literature, patch testing reports, and chemical analyses of gloves was conducted to assess accelerator contents reported in the literature and to identify accelerator-free gloves.

Methods: A systematic literature search was performed in OVID Medline and OVID EMBASE.

Observable characteristics coincident with internal cracks in teeth: Findings from The National Dental Practice-Based Research Network.

Background: This study determined if there are observable patient-, tooth- and crack-level characteristics markedly associated with whether a tooth with an external crack also has an internal crack.

Methods: Two hundred nine dentists in The National Dental Practice-Based Research Network enrolled 2,858 adults with a vital permanent posterior tooth having at least 1 observed external crack. Presence and characteristics of internal cracks were recorded for 435 cracked teeth that were treated.

Intraoperative, real-time aberrometry during refractive cataract surgery with a sequentially shifting wavefront device.

Purpose: To introduce a new sequential wavefront device with rapid sampling that can be used as an intraoperative, real-time aberrometer/refractometer for immediate diagnosis and management of refractive outcomes during cataract surgery.

Methods: A unique wavefront device uses a rotating prismatic mirror to rapidly shift the incident wavefront emanating from the eye through an aperture for analysis of a sequentially sampled wavefront segment. The sampled segment is then focused onto a quad detector that localizes its angular displacement of the sampled segment's wavefront gradient.

The influence of intravenous hydration on hospital length of stay in infants with hyperbilirubinemia.

A retrospective chart review compared data on neonates with physiologic jaundice admitted for phototherapy at a children's hospital. Those infants who received intravenous fluids (IVF) had significantly longer lengths of stay, higher initial bilirubin levels, and were more dehydrated than those babies who did not receive IVF.

Electroconvulsive therapy and venous angiomas: two case reports and review of the literature.

According to the American Psychiatric Association, the risk for complications related to the electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) treatment of patients with cerebrovascular malformations is small. The literature contains a number of case studies presenting the uneventful treatment of patients with cerebral aneurysms with ECT. However, there is a paucity of cases presenting ECT in the context of a cerebral venous angioma.

Ziprasidone for agitation or psychosis in dementia: four cases.

Objective: These case reports examine the potential efficacy and safety of ziprasidone for the treatment of agitation or psychosis in dementia.

Method: The authors performed a retrospective chart review of three patients with DSM-IV diagnoses of dementia, treated with ziprasidone for agitation/psychosis on an academic psychiatric inpatient unit in 2002-2003. In addition, these three case reports are supplemented by a clinical report of the first outpatient with DSM-IV diagnosis of dementia completing a prospective open-label six-week study in 2004 evaluating the use of oral ziprasidone for agitation/psychosis in dementia.

Interferon-alpha2a and 13-cis-retinoic acid with radiation treatment for high-grade glioma.

Interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) has been safely given concurrently with radiation therapy (RT) in treating gliomas. As single agents, both IFN-alpha and cis-retinoic acid (CRA) have produced objective tumor regressions in patients with recurrent gliomas. In vitro, IFN-alpha2a and CRA enhance radiation therapy effects on glioblastoma cells more than either agent alone.

Dysregulated expression of ebaf, a novel molecular defect in the endometria of patients with infertility.

We recently described the expression of ebaf, a novel member of the transforming growth factor-beta superfamily in human endometrium. ebaf messenger ribonucleic acid was expressed in late secretory and menstrual endometria. Here, we show that ebaf is secreted as 42-, 34-, 28-, and 14-kDa proteins into the conditioned medium of transfected cells, endometrial fluid, and serum.

From endometrial receptivity to infertility.

Implantation of the blastocyst in endometrium requires establishment of a coordinated molecular dialogue between the embryo and the endometrium. Factors instrumental in the preparation of a receptive endometrium are derived from the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. These factors modulate the expression of genes that drive the endometrium throughout the characteristic menstrual cycles.

Hypophysiotropic action of pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) in the goldfish: immunohistochemical demonstration of PACAP in the pituitary, PACAP stimulation of growth hormone release from pituitary cells, and molecular cloning of pituitary type I PACAP receptor.

Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) is a member of the glucagon/secretin peptide family, and its molecular structure is highly conserved in vertebrates. In this study, the functional role of PACAP in regulating GH release in the goldfish was investigated. Using immunohistochemical staining, nerve fibers with PACAP immunoreactivity were identified in the vicinity of goldfish somatotrophs, suggesting that this neuropeptide may influence GH release in the goldfish.

Concurrent carboplatin and iodine-125 brachytherapy for recurrent glioblastoma multiforme.

Toxicity and safety study of concurrent carboplatin chemotherapy and iodine-125 (I-125) brachytherapy. I-125 brachy therapy has an established albeit limited role in surgically accessible recurrent gliomas. Carboplatin has anti-tumoral; activity against gliomas and demonstrated sensitization of tumor to radiotherapy.

Stereotactic radiosurgery for metastatic brain tumors.

We report on a prospective phase TI study utilizing stereotactic radiosurgery for patients with intracranial parenchymal metastases. Fifty patients ranging in age from 38 to 77 years with 1 to 3 intraparenchymal brain metastases were treated with stereotactic radiosurgery either immediately following whole brain radiotherapy or at the time of intracranial disease progression following failure of whole brain radiotherapy. Twenty patients treated with adjuvant therapy received a median radiosurgical dose of 20 Gy.

Lumbar intraspinal synovial and ganglion cysts (facet cysts). Ten-year experience in evaluation and treatment.

Study Design: This study analyzed the clinical history, physical examination, diagnostic studies, and operative and histologic findings in 19 patients with lumbar intraspinal synovial and ganglion facet cysts evaluated and treated over a 10-year period.

Objectives: The results were correlated to provide a greater understanding of lumbar facet cysts and rationale for conservative or surgical treatments.

Summary Of Background Data: The 19 patients included 13 women and 6 men ranging in age from 38 to 79 years.

Stereotactic radiosurgery for recurrent gliomas.

Background: The treatment of recurrent gliomas is palliative; however, the local pattern of tumor recurrence permits retreatment with single fraction, high dose stereotactic radiotherapy or radiosurgery (RS).

Methods: Twenty patients (median Karnofsky performance status, 80), aged 8-62 years with recurrent gliomas, were treated with RS after failing adjuvant therapy. Tumor histologies included glioblastoma multiforme (5), anaplastic astrocytoma (10), fibrillary astrocytoma (4), and primitive neuroectodermal tumor (1).

Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia during steroid taper in patients with primary brain tumors.

Pneumocystis carinii causes life-threatening pneumonitis (PCP) in immunocompromised individuals. In the non-AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) population, PCP is frequently associated with corticosteroid therapy, and the rodent model uses corticosteroid-induced immunosuppression to provoke PCP. Although patients with intracranial tumors are frequently treated with long courses of corticosteroids, there have been very few descriptions of PCP in this population.

Radiosurgery as part of the initial management of patients with malignant gliomas.

Purpose: Between May 1988 and May 1991, 41 patients with malignant gliomas were enrolled onto a prospective study designed to evaluate the role of radiosurgery as a component of initial management.

Patients And Methods: Thirty-seven patients underwent radiosurgery according to the protocol and were assessable for survival and complications of treatment. Diagnoses included glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) in 23 (62%) cases and anaplastic astrocytoma in 14 (38%) cases.

New site-directed polyclonal antibody maps N-terminus of occluded region of the non-transformed glucocorticoid receptor oligomer to within BUGR epitope.

Using a 17-mer synthetic peptide for immunization, a polyclonal antibody (WS933) directed against amino acid residues 395-411 of the mouse glucocorticoid receptor (GCR) has been raised and used to probe the significance of this region in forming the receptor oligomer and to localize the truncation site of the mutant GCR of the P1798 lymphosarcoma. This region of the receptor, which encompasses the BUGR epitope, is amino-terminal of and immediately adjacent to the DNA-binding domain. The polyclonal antibody WS933 reacted with both native and denatured forms of the wild-type mouse GCR as judged by its ability to shift the transformed receptor peak on Sephacryl S300 columns, to immunoadsorb the receptor to protein A Sepharose, and by immunoblot analysis where it identified the 98 kDa receptor protein in the cortisol-sensitive line of the P1798 mouse lymphosarcoma.

The truncated glucocorticoid receptor in the P1798 mouse lymphosarcoma is associated with resistance to glucocorticoid lysis but not to other glucocorticoid-induced functions.

Glucocorticoid receptors in lines of the P1798 mouse lymphosarcoma either sensitive or resistant to glucocorticoid-induced lysis have been characterized and their functional significance determined. The glucocorticoid receptor from the cortisol-sensitive tumor is an Mr approximately 98,000 protein with a Stokes radius of 7.4 nm in the oligomeric, non-DNA-binding state and 5.

Results of stereotactic brachytherapy used in the initial management of patients with glioblastoma.

Recent studies have shown a survival benefit for patients with recurrent glioblastomas treated with stereotactic brachytherapy. On the basis of these encouraging results, we began a prospective study in 1987 to evaluate the use of brachytherapy in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma. Patients were considered eligible for this study if they met the following criteria: Karnofsky performance status 70% or greater; tumor size not greater than 5 cm in any dimension; a radiographically well delineated, supratentorial lesion not involving the ependymal surfaces; and pathologically confirmed glioblastoma.

Primary culture of normal rat mammary epithelial cells within a basement membrane matrix. II. Functional differentiation under serum-free conditions.

A serum-free primary culture system is described which allows normal rat mammary epithelial cells (RMECs) embedded within a reconstituted basement membrane to undergo extensive growth and functional differentiation as detected by synthesis and secretion of the milk products casein and lipid. RMECs isolated from mammary glands of immature virgin rats were seeded within an extracellular matrix preparation derived from the Engelbreth-Holm-Swarm sarcoma and cultured in a serum-free medium consisting of Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium-F12 containing insulin, prolactin, progesterone, hydrocortisone, epidermal growth factor, bovine serum albumin, transferrin, and ascorbic acid. Casein synthesis and secretion were documented at the electron microscopic level as well as by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) assay using a polyclonal antibody against total rat caseins.

High lumbar disc degeneration. Incidence and etiology.

Three hundred seventy-nine consecutive magnetic resonance images (MRIs) with dual-echo images of the entire lumbar spine were reviewed by the authors. All 379 patients presented with back pain and/or leg pain; they were interviewed and examined. Pain drawings were completed by all.

Short-term primary culture of rat prostate tumor epithelial cells on reconstituted basement membrane as a useful in vitro model to assess drug action on prostatic cancer: efficacy of the thiazolidinedione derivative CGP 19984.

A model system has been developed that permits short-term culture of rat R3327 prostate adenocarcinoma epithelial cells on a reconstituted basement membrane. Growth of prostate tumor cells under these conditions resulted in an enriched epithelial cell population that exhibited an eightfold increase in cell number in 10 days. This model system was used to test the efficacy of the thiazolidinedione derivative CGP 19984, a drug that inhibits luteinizing hormone secretion in vivo.