C5 complement inhibition attenuates shock and acute lung injury in an experimental model of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Background: Ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (RAAA) is associated with a systemic inflammatory response syndrome and multiple organ dysfunction. The potential role of a novel C5 complement inhibitor in attenuation of pathological complement activation and tissue injury was explored in a model of RAAA.

Methods: Anaesthetized rats were randomized to sham (control) or shock and clamp (SC) groups.

Selective inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) inhibition attenuates remote acute lung injury in a model of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Objective: Abdominal aortic aneurysm rupture is associated with a systemic inflammatory response syndrome and acute lung injury. Using a selective inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) inhibitor, N(6)-(iminoethyl)-lysine (L-NIL), we explored the role of iNOS in the early pro-inflammatory signaling and acute lung injury in experimental abdominal aortic aneurysm rupture.

Materials And Methods: Anesthetized rats were randomized to sham control or shock and clamp (s + c) groups, which underwent one hour of hemorrhagic shock, followed by 45 minutes of supramesenteric aortic clamping, and then two hours resuscitated reperfusion.

Complement C5a receptor antagonist attenuates multiple organ injury in a model of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Objective: Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) rupture is associated with a systemic inflammatory response syndrome, characterized by increased microvascular permeability and neutrophil sequestration, leading to multiorgan dysfunction. We examined the role of a novel complement factor 5a (C5aR) receptor antagonist, the cyclic peptide AcF-(OpdChaWR), in attenuation of pathologic complement activation and tissue injury in a model of AAA rupture.

Methods: Anesthetized rats were randomized to sham (control) or shock and clamp (s+c) groups.

Restoration of endodontically treated teeth with carbon fibre posts--a prospective study.

Background: A prospective study was started in 1995 to evaluate the success of carbon fibre reinforced epoxy resin (CFRR) posts used to restore endodontically treated teeth. All the teeth in the study had lost more than 50% of their coronal structure.

Methods: Fifty-nine carbon fibre Composiposts cemented with Metabond and built up with Core Paste cores were placed into the teeth of 47 patients.

Obstetric outcome of adolescent pregnancies.

Background: To determine if adolescent pregnancies are at increased risk of poor obstetrical outcome compared with a general obstetrical population.Methods: A five-year retrospective review of the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children's Teenage Pregnancy Unit was carried out. Information was available on 209 patients < 19 years age between January 1994 and December 1998.

Lipid intervention trials in diabetes.

Most clinical trials of lipid intervention and coronary artery disease prevention have been conducted in study populations that exclude diabetic individuals. Three trials have conducted post hoc analyses of their diabetic subgroups. One of these was a primary intervention trial with gemfibrozil (Helsinki Heart Study).

Reliability and validity of an observer-rated disfigurement scale for head and neck cancer patients.

Background: Facial disfigurement is considered to be one of the most distressing aspects of head and neck cancer and its treatment, but it has been the focus of little systematic study. Existing studies have yielded conflicting results about the psychosocial impact of disfigurement. No studies to date have examined disfigurement using a valid and reliable observer-rated measure.

Prenatal detection of cerebral lesions in a fetus with tuberous sclerosis.

We report a newborn, diagnosed prenatally with both cardiac rhabdomyomas and a brain tumor. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of central nervous system (CNS) lesions detected prenatally in a child with tuberous sclerosis with term follow-up. At 36 months, the child has normal growth and is developing appropriately.

Baseline characteristics of the study population in the Diabetes Atherosclerosis Intervention Study (DAIS). World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for the Study of Atherosclerosis in Diabetes.

The Diabetes Atherosclerosis Intervention Study (DAIS) is the first study designed a priori to determine whether correcting dyslipoproteinemia in type II diabetes will alter coronary atherosclerosis. It is a multinational randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled trial using micronized fenofibrate. Its primary end point is a change in the average mean segment diameter determined on coronary angiograms taken at the beginning and end of the treatment period.

Autologous transplantation of bone marrow cells improves damaged heart function.

Background: Autologous bone marrow cells (BMCs) transplanted into ventricular scar tissue may differentiate into cardiomyocytes and restore myocardial function. This study evaluated cardiomyogenic differentiation of BMCs, their survival in myocardial scar tissue, and the effect of the implanted cells on heart function.

In Vitro Studies: BMCs from adult rats were cultured in cell culture medium (control) and medium with 5-azacytidine (5-aza, 10 micromol/L), TGFbeta1 (10 ng/mL), or insulin (1 nmol/L) (n=6, each group).

Correction of hyperandrogenemia by laparoscopic ovarian cautery in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome is not accompanied by improved insulin sensitivity or lipid-lipoprotein levels.

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a common disorder associated with hyperandrogenemia and infertility. Abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, and dyslipoproteinemias are other common metabolic disorders typically found in women with PCOS. The cause-effect relationship between hyperandrogenemia and insulin resistance-dyslipoproteinemia remains unclear.

Randomized phase III trial comparing the new potent and selective third-generation aromatase inhibitor vorozole with megestrol acetate in postmenopausal advanced breast cancer patients. North American Vorozole Study Group.

Purpose: To compare the efficacy and safety of vorozole (VOR) 2.5 mg once daily with that of megestrol acetate (MA) 40 mg four times per day as second-line therapy in postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer whose disease progressed after tamoxifen treatment.

Patients And Methods: A total of 452 patients were enrolled onto an open, multicenter, randomized phase III trial comparing VOR to MA for tumor response, safety, and quality of life (as indicated by the Functional Living Index-Cancer score).

A CD18 monoclonal antibody reduces multiple organ injury in a model of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.

The role of CD18 antibody (anti-CD18) in remote and local injury in a model of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm repair was investigated. Rats were divided into sham, shock, clamp, and shock + clamp groups. Shock + clamp animals received anti-CD18 or a control monoclonal antibody.

Smooth muscle cell transplantation into myocardial scar tissue improves heart function.

This study was designed to evaluate the effect of smooth muscle cell transplantation into myocardial ventricular scar formed by cryo-necrosis. The left ventricular free wall (LVFW) of adult rats was cryo-necrosed. At 4 weeks after cryo-injury cultured fetal rat stomach smooth muscle cells (transplanted group, n = 10) or culture medium (control, n = 10) were transplanted.

Pre-clinical and clinical review of vorozole, a new third generation aromatase inhibitor.

Vorozole (Rivizor), is a triazole derivative and one of the new, third generation aromatase inhibitors. Vorozole causes reversible inhibition of cytochrome P450 aromatase with the majority of the aromatase inhibition activity attributable to the dextro-isomer. In vitro the IC50 against human placental aromatase and in cultured rat ovarian granulosa cells is 1.

Apolipoprotein B-48 and retinyl palmitate are not equivalent markers of postprandial intestinal lipoproteins.

This study compared retinyl palmitate and apolipoprotein (apo) B-48 as markers of postprandial triglyceride-rich lipoproteins. Nine non-diabetic men received an oral vitamin A-containing fat load. We measured retinyl palmitate, apoB-48, apoB-100, and triglyceride levels in Sf > 400, Sf 60-400 and Sf 20-60 lipoproteins.

Cell therapy to repair broken hearts.

Current therapeutic options for myocardial infarction include medical therapy, of proven but limited benefit, and various surgical options, which have either restricted applicability or unproven benefit. New cellular-based therapeutic strategies are being developed in response to the shortcomings of available treatments. These include attempts to reinitiate cardiomyocyte proliferation in the adult, conversion of fibroblasts to contractile myocytes and transplantation of myocytes into injured myocardium.

Fetal bilateral subdural haemorrhages. Prenatal diagnosis and spontaneous resolution by time of delivery.

We report a patient diagnosed prenatally on routine fetal ultrasound, at 30 weeks' gestation, with subdural haemorrhage. The mother had suffered a mild abdominal trauma and had Factor XI deficiency; however, both were felt to be aetiologically insignificant. Prenatal follow-up showed a complete resolution of the haematoma and no postnatal sequelae have been noted to date.

Prenatally diagnosed neural tube defects: ultrasound, chromosome, and autopsy or postnatal findings in 212 cases.

From January 1990 until December 1996, 212 cases of neural tube defect (NTD) were seen through the Prenatal Diagnosis Program of the University of Toronto. Of the 212 cases, 200 were karyotyped successfully and of these, 13 (6.5%) had chromosome abnormalities.

Important contribution of lipoprotein particle number to plasma triglyceride concentration in type 2 diabetes.

The aim of the present study was to determine the contributions of particle size versus number to differences in plasma triglyceride-rich lipoprotein concentrations in patients with type 2 diabetes. Fasting plasma was obtained from 174 consecutive eligible men and women with type 2 diabetes (with or without insulin treatment, mean age 57.0 + 6.

Normal external genitalia in a female with classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia who was not treated during embryogenesis.

Classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) results from an inherited enzymatic defect in cortisol synthesis and more than 90 per cent of cases are due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency. The androgen excess associated with this condition typically results in ambiguous external genitalia in affected females. It has been shown that prenatal treatment with dexamethasone is successful in preventing or reducing genital ambiguity in affected females.