Structure and dynamic properties of a glucocorticoid receptor-induced chromatin transition.

Activation of the mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) promoter by the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) is associated with a chromatin structural transition in the B nucleosome region of the viral long terminal repeat (LTR). Recent evidence indicates that this transition extends upstream of the B nucleosome, encompassing a region larger than a single nucleosome (G. Fragoso, W.

Role of a defunctioning stoma in the management of large bowel Crohn's disease.

Background: The faecal stream plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of Crohn's disease. This retrospective study aimed to assess the effect of faecal diversion on the natural history of refractory Crohn's colitis (RCC) and severe perianal disease (PAD).

Methods: All patients undergoing a defunctioning stoma without resection for RCC or PAD between 1970 and 1997 were studied.

Consented testing of newborns and childbearing women for human immunodeficiency virus through a newborn metabolic screening program.

Objective: In this program a postpartum woman could consent to receive her newborn's human immunodeficiency virus test result from the New York State Newborn Screening Program.

Study Design: By state regulation each postpartum woman was counseled and offered her newborn's human immunodeficiency virus test result. With the mother's consent, newborn human immunodeficiency virus antibody test results from the Newborn Screening Program were sent to the baby's pediatrician; otherwise, test results were blinded.

A consumer-oriented practice model for psychiatric mental health nursing.

Psychiatric mental health (PMH) nurses are systematically examining the concepts of health, wellness, and culture as they relate to recovery processes in mental health consumers. This article describes the development of a holistic, consumer-oriented model, the Recovery and Monitoring Model, which integrates concepts involved in the recovery process and the manifestation and management of psychiatric symptoms. Information regarding a test of the model is presented using data from a cross-sectional study of 199 community-based, adult, public mental health consumers.

Renal adenosine A3 receptors in the rat: assessment of functional role.

The functional roles of adenosine A3 receptors in the rat kidney were assessed for the first time with respect to A1 receptor-mediated responses. Utilizing a chronically instrumented conscious rat preparation, we tested renal excretory responses to acute administration of the A3 receptor antagonists 3-ethyl-5-benzyl-2-methyl-6-phenyl-4-phenylethynyl-1 ,4-(+)-dihydropridine-3,5-dicarboxylate (MRS-1191) and 9-chloro-2-(2-furyl)-5-phenylacetylamino-[1,2,4]-triazolo[1,5-c]qu inazoline (MRS-1220) with reference to the effects of the A1 receptor antagonist 1,3-dipropyl-8-cyclopentylxanthine (DPCPX). The intravenous administration of DPCPX resulted in significant increases in fluid and sodium excretions without affecting glomerular filtration rate (GFR).

Endovascular treatment of penetrating thoracic outlet arterial injuries.

Objectives: to establish the feasibility of stent-graft treatment of penetrating thoracic outlet arterial injuries.

Design: prospective study.

Materials And Methods: forty-one patients with penetrating injuries to the carotid, subclavian and proximal axillary arteries admitted between August 1998 and May 1999 were studied.

NaCl-induced hypertensive rat model of non-insulin-dependent diabetes: role of sympathetic modulation.

Systemic hypertension is common in individuals with non-insulin-dependent diabetes (NIDD) and, in this population, markedly increases the risk for cardiovascular complications. The aims of this study were to develop a rat model of combined NaCl-induced hypertension and NIDD, and to determine the contribution of the sympathetic nervous system to the development of the manifest hypertension. Two-day old male Wistar-Kyoto rats were injected with either streptozotocin (90 mg/kg, ip; NIDD) or vehicle (citrate buffer; control).

Lack of mucin MUC5AC field change expression associated with tubulovillous and villous colorectal adenomas.

Background: MUC5AC is a secreted mucin aberrantly expressed by polypoid colorectal adenomas. It has been hypothesised that the "normal" surrounding colorectal mucosa expresses MUC5AC as a field change phenomenon that can be used to predict adenoma recurrence following resection.

Aim: To determine if there is a field change of de novo MUC5AC expression in histologically normal rectal mucosa adjacent to villous and tubulovillous adenomas, and thus whether MUC5AC expression can be used as a marker of early tumour recurrence.

The personal construction of death in anorexia nervosa.

This paper reports a study concerned with an attempt to understand the manner in which individuals at high objective risk of death through their own behaviour, understand the phenomenon of death, and their own death. It is an extension of an earlier empirical study (Warren et al., 1994) which in turn, set out to test a hypothesis advanced by Jackson and Davidson (1986) that disturbed death ideation was aetiologically significant in anorexia nervosa; and an extension of earlier work on death constructions, and death education (Warren, 1984, 1989).

Aneuploidy and columnar cuff surveillance after stapled ileal pouch-anal anastomosis in ulcerative colitis.

Purpose: A stapled pouch-anal anastomosis without mucosectomy is widely used in restorative proctocolectomy. Uncertainty exists about the longer-term outcome of retaining a columnar cuff of epithelium in the anal canal and about the need for surveillance of the columnar cuff. The aim of this article was to assess the ability to obtain biopsies of the columnar cuff, to assess the risk of dysplasia, and to search for the presence of aneuploidy as an early of marker of dysplasia in nondysplastic epithelium.

Acute acalculous cholecystitis--a clinical-pathological disease spectrum.

Objective: To assess the influence of disease setting on clinical and pathological features of acute acalculous cholecystitis (AAC).

Design: Analysis of prospectively accumulated clinical data. Blinded histopathological review.

The relationship between inflammatory and serosal connective tissue changes in ileal Crohn's disease: evidence for a possible causative link.

The relationship between the gross connective tissue and inflammatory changes in ileal Crohn's disease remains unclear. This study investigated 20 patients undergoing ileal resection for Crohn's disease and 20 normal controls. The specimens were blocked in 1 cm serial sections and fully examined, including fresh morphometry and documentation of a range of pathological features.

Reduction of sialic acid O-acetylation in human colonic mucins in the adenoma-carcinoma sequence.

The oligo-O-acetylation of sialic acids found in normal colonic mucins is greatly reduced in colorectal cancer. Mucins prepared from cancer tissue in adenocarcinoma showed this reduction, while normal O-acetylation was detected in resection margin and control cases and total mucin sialic acid content was significantly decreased in cancer vs. control samples.

Predictors of complications and learning curve using the Angio-Seal closure device following interventional and diagnostic catheterization.

A retrospective study was conducted to determine the frequency and nature of groin complications when the Angio-Seal device was used on 252 occasions by one operator immediately following interventional (66%) and diagnostic (34%) procedures. Sixty-nine percent of the 238 successfully deployed cases received ticlopidine or clopidogrel, 16% received abciximab, and 15% received heparin postprocedure. Complications included vascular surgery for collagen plug perforation into the femoral artery (0.

Preoperative radiotherapy for rectal cancer: implications for surgeons, pathologists and radiologists.

Background: Over 10,000 new cases of rectal cancer are reported in the UK each year and adjuvant treatments, such as preoperative radiotherapy, are now being used almost routinely.

Methods: A literature review was performed on the Medline database for English language publications on preoperative radiotherapy and rectal cancer. The radioresponsiveness of rectal cancer, tumour downstaging, radiological staging of irradiated rectal cancer, effects of radiotherapy on anastomotic integrity, anorectal and genitourinary function, the role of preoperative radiotherapy in local excision of rectal cancer, and the histological changes peculiar to radiotherapy were evaluated.

Interpreting the 13C-urea breath test among a large population of young children from a developing country.

The 13C-urea breath test is a noninvasive tool for the diagnosis of gastric Helicobacter pylori infection. However, it has not been validated in young children from the developing world, where infection is very common. 13C urea breath tests were performed on 1532 occasions on 247 Gambian infants and children aged from 3 to 48 mo.

Polymerase chain reaction based human leucocyte antigen genotyping for the investigation of suspected gastrointestinal biopsy contamination.

Background: Mislabelling or contamination of surgical specimens may lead to diagnostic inaccuracy, particularly within gastrointestinal pathology when multiple small mucosal biopsy specimens are commonly taken, and where a tiny fragment of foreign tissue may be indistinguishable from true biopsy material using histological assessment alone.

Aims: To assess the utility of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based human leucocyte antigen (HLA) genotyping techniques for the investigation of potentially mislabelled or contaminated gastrointestinal biopsy specimens.

Patients: Ten cases (28 samples) in which mislabelling or contamination was suspected, comprising four upper gastrointestinal tract biopsies and six colonoscopic biopsy series.

"Cuffitis" and inflammatory changes in the columnar cuff, anal transitional zone, and ileal reservoir after stapled pouch-anal anastomosis.

Purpose: During the past eight to ten years most surgeons have adopted the double-stapled technique to accomplish the pouch-anal anastomosis in restorative proctocolectomy for ulcerative colitis. Little attention has been focused on the functional implications of retaining a segment of diseased columnar mucosa in the upper anal canal. The aim of this study was to investigate clinically significant inflammation in the columnar cuff.

Comparison of two closure techniques for the repair of experimental colonic perforations.

Background: Primary repair of penetrating wounds of the colon is gaining increasing acceptance in surgical practice. This study compared two techniques for the repair of experimental colonic perforations in the presence of peritonitis.

Methods: Multiple colonic perforations were created in the colon of 24 pigs.