Personal and situational factors in drug use as perceived by kibbutz youth.

Sixteen 17-year-old kibbutz members, seven of them smokers, and nine nonsmokers of hashish, assessed the probability that a young person of similar background would use drugs. Two sources of information were manipulated bifactorially: personal predisposition (curiosity, risk-taking, and existential meaning) and the level of group pressure to smoke hashish. It was found that hashish smokers assigned meaningful importance to a combined influence of the two factors, while the nonsmokers considered only group pressure to be important.

The etiology of intimal hyperplasia.

Injury of an arterial wall results in the growth of a neointima which can cause significant luminal narrowing. Current theories do not adequately explain the experimental and clinical data. We propose the hypothesis that some substance produced by the media is inhibitory to smooth muscle cell proliferation.

Ischemic monomelic neuropathy: an under-recognized complication of hemodialysis access.

During the past 3 years six episodes of ischemic monomelic neuropathy (IMN) have been identified in five patients as a complication of upper extremity dialysis grafts. All patients had long-standing insulin-dependent diabetes, peripheral neuropathy, and brachial artery graft origins, whereas 60% had peripheral vascular disease. Five episodes occurred immediately after graft placement, whereas one was due to a graft-related thromboembolus.

Is thrombolysis of occluded popliteal and tibial bypass grafts worthwhile?

Purpose: We analyzed the short- and long-term results for patients undergoing thrombolysis of occluded infrainguinal bypass grafts at our institution over a 62-month period.

Methods: Thirty-one patients with 40 episodes of graft thrombosis in 33 grafts managed by thrombolysis were retrospectively reviewed. The effects of graft age, material, and anatomy, symptoms, treatment, anticoagulation, and occlusion duration were evaluated for impact on patency after thrombolysis.

Computed tomography scanning findings associated with rapid expansion of abdominal aortic aneurysms.

Purpose: Early repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) is particularly appropriate for those that are most likely to expand. Our aim was to define features on computed tomography (CT) scanning associated with subsequent rapid aneurysm expansion.

Methods: We reviewed CT scans of 80 patients with AAA (> 3.

Pseudo-sinusoidal heart rate associated with major cardiac anomalies.

Pseudo-sinusoidal fetal heart rate (pseudo-SHR) pattern, characterised by intermittent episodes of sinusoidal heart rate and normal fetal heart rate (FHR), is considered benign although its pathophysiologic mechanism remains obscure. We present a case of pseudo-SHR episodes throughout all stages of labor associated with multiple major cardiac anomalies. We suggest that when confronted with repeated episodes of pseudo-SHR pattern, the possibility of an underlying cardiac anomaly should be considered.

Cystadenofibroma of the ovary in young women.

Cystadenofibroma of the ovary, a relatively rare benign tumor, usually appears during the fourth and fifth decades. This tumor has malignant ultrasonographic features and may also macroscopically appear as malignant during surgery. Since this tumor has a rare malignant potential, it is well-advised to be aware of the possibility of a cystadenofibroma before selecting an aggressive surgical approach in young patients.

Antibodies against transforming growth factor-beta 1 suppress intimal hyperplasia in a rat model.

Intimal hyperplasia is induced by therapeutic vascular interventions and often results in clinically important narrowing of the vascular lumen. Examination of the role of TGF-beta 1 in a rat carotid artery injury model confirmed the presence of a previously reported increase in TGF-beta 1 mRNA in the media of injured arteries. Administration of neutralizing anti- TGF-beta 1 antibodies significantly (P < 0.

Site-directed mutagenesis of the tick-borne encephalitis virus NS3 gene reveals the putative serine protease domain of the NS3 protein.

Several mutations were introduced into the putative serine protease domain of the tick-borne encephalitis virus NS3 protein and into a possible internal cleavage site within the protein. The influence of these mutations on proteolytic activity of NS3 protein and NS3' protein formation was tested in vitro. It was found that NS3' formation was not dependent on the activity of the NS3 N-terminal serine protease.

Initial experience with the Palmaz stent for aortoiliac stenoses.

The initial 37 consecutive patients to be treated at our institution with the Palmaz stent placed in the aortoiliac arteries were retrospectively reviewed. In these patients, 50 stenoses and six occlusions were treated with 128 stents. Nine patients with combined iliac and common femoral obstruction underwent common femoral endarterectomy and profoundaplasty with intraoperative iliac artery angioplasty and stent application.

[Pelvic inflammatory disease in pregnancy].

Although pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is a common complaint in young, fertile women, it is quite rare during pregnancy. Clinically it is characterized by abdominal pain, sometimes presenting as an acute abdomen with fever. Since PID has no characteristic clinical or laboratory findings, and is rare during pregnancy, it is understandable why the diagnosis is missed in most cases, and the patient is treated as an abdominal emergency.

Surgical treatment of aneurysm of the persistent sciatic artery.

Persistent sciatic artery (PSA) is a rare congenital malformation that is complicated by aneurysm formation in more than 25% of the reported cases. Two cases of aneurysm of the PSA are presented. Twenty-six aneurysms of the PSA, including our two cases, have been reported in the English literature in the last three decades.

DIROM: an experimental design interactive system for directed mutagenesis and nucleic acids engineering.

A computer system DIROM for oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis and artificial gene design has been designed for better experimental planning and control. DIROM permits searching for optimal oligonucleotides with respect to certain important parameters, namely sufficient energy of oligonucleotide-target hybridization, the secondary structure of oligonucleotide and target DNA, the presence of alternate binding sites in the target DNA and terminal G/C pairs. It can also be used to plan polymerase chain reaction experiments, for optimal primer selection, in sequencing, etc.

Steroid therapy and duodenal ulcer in infants.

Two infants with acute life-threatening complications of duodenal ulcer following steroid administration are described. Although the possible association between steroid therapy and peptic ulcer disease is well known, the need for ulcer prophylaxis during such therapy in infants is not unanimously accepted. The case for ulcer prophylaxis in this setting is presented.

Thoraco-abdominal enteric duplication with meningocele, skeletal anomalies and dextrocardia.

We describe an infant with an enteric thoraco-abdominal duplication arising in the proximal jejunum and associated with a dorsal meningocele, dextrocardia, agenesis of ribs and hypoplasia of the left arm. Diagnosis was reached post-operatively and the infant died of cytomegalovirus pneumonitis. Results of the postmortem examination are presented.

Arterial trauma of the upper extremity in children.

Thirty children with upper extremity arterial trauma were retrospectively reviewed. Trauma was penetrating in 87% of cases and in 53% injury was caused by broken plate glass. The injured artery was repaired in all but four cases.

A new superfamily of putative NTP-binding domains encoded by genomes of small DNA and RNA viruses.

Statistically significant similarity was revealed between amino acid sequences of NTP-binding pattern-containing domains which are among the most conserved protein segments in dissimilar groups of ss and dsDNA viruses (papova-, parvo-, geminiviruses and P4 bacteriophage), and RNA viruses (picorna-, como- and nepoviruses) with small genomes. Within the aligned domains of 100-120 amino acid residues, three highly conserved sequence segments have been identified, i.e.

Dysphagia in a child with aggressive fibromatosis of the esophagus.

A case of a girl who developed severe dysphagia from an aggressive fibromatosis involving the cervical esophagus is reported. A 3 x 4 cm unencapsulated fibrous tumor was completely excised with the involved esophageal wall. The esophageal defect was bridged by an inverted skin tube with good functional and cosmetic results.

[Surgical treatment of chronic mesenteric ischemia].

A 44-year-old woman with chronic abdominal pain and weight loss is presented. 1 year after onset of symptoms and following multiple diagnostic procedures, angiography revealed high grade stenosis of the celiac and superior mesenteric arteries at their origins. Bypass grafts of Goretex were implanted from the infrarenal aorta to both arteries beyond the narrowed segments.

Perceptual and memorial constructs in children's judgments of quantity: a law of across-representation invariance.

Children at three different ages made judgments of physically presented (perceptual estimation) or symbolically represented (memorial estimation) rectangles. Height and width were integrated according to different, age-dependent algebraic rules. Memorial data obeyed the same integration rules that operated in the original perceptual judgments even when younger children and older children used completely different combination models.

Dependence of oxygen consumption on cardiac output in sepsis.

We studied the relationship between oxygen consumption (Vo2) and cardiac output in 17 hemodynamically stable, septic and eight nonseptic ICU patients. Each received 300 ml of fresh-frozen plasma or 25% albumin with up to 500 ml of crystalloids, in addition to regular maintenance fluids; this treatment increased pulmonary wedge pressure (WP) by 3 to 4 mm Hg. Measurements were performed before and after approximately 5 h of volume loading.