Evaluation of clinical reasoning in basic emergencies using a script concordance test.

Objectives: To develop and assess the reliability of a script concordance test (SCT) to evaluate pharmacy students' clinical reasoning when facing basic emergency situations.

Design: A first aid course was designed that consisted of 8 weekly instructional sessions (4 on internal medicine, including life threatening situations; 2 on pediatrics; and 2 on trauma) in which the instructor presented case studies in a small-group format. In the first and final sessions of the course, a practice SCT was administered to familiarize students with the test format.

[Central nervous system involvement in Wegener's granulomatosis].

Introduction: Wegener's granulomatosis (WG) is a systemic necrotizing vasculitis associated with c-ANCA antibodies. The involvement of the central nervous system in WG is uncommon and usually caused by in situ vasculitis, intracranial granuloma formation or contiguous invasion from extracranial sites.

Case Report: Here, we report on a tumour-like expansion of a severe nasosinusal WG into the brain, which was confirmed by brain biopsy examination.

Obstacles to the use of intravenous tissue plasminogen activator for acute ischemic stroke. Is time the only barrier?

Background And Aims: The short time window is frequently cited as the main reason for exclusion of intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) in acute stroke. Identifying and circumventing barriers to thrombolysis other than time could increase the frequency of treatment. The goal of this study was to identify whether the rate of treatment with tPA would increase if time window was not an obstacle to treatment.

A procedure for localisation and electrophysiological characterisation of ion channels heterologously expressed in a plant context.

Background: In silico analyses based on sequence similarities with animal channels have identified a large number of plant genes likely to encode ion channels. The attempts made to characterise such putative plant channels at the functional level have most often relied on electrophysiological analyses in classical expression systems, such as Xenopus oocytes or mammalian cells. In a number of cases, these expression systems have failed so far to provide functional data and one can speculate that using a plant expression system instead of an animal one might provide a more efficient way towards functional characterisation of plant channels, and a more realistic context to investigate regulation of plant channels.

[Diffuse retinal epitheliopathy: study of 30 eyes].

Retrospective study of 17 patients (30 eyes) with diffuse retinal epitheliopathy followed for at least 5 years. The study is based on clinical data, ophthalmoscopic findings and fluorescein angiograms. The patients (16 men and 1 woman) are all caucasian with a mean age of 43 years.

Permeafix: a useful tool to detect antigens and DNA in flow cytometry.

A new product called Permeafix has been developed for gentle fixation of cells and permeability of their membranes. This product is useful for the staining of intracellular antigens and parallel quantification of DNA content simultaneously with cell surface staining.

Matrigel: a useful tool to study endothelial differentiation.

Matrigel is a matrix of a mouse basement membrane neoplasm. It represents a complex mixture of basement membrane proteins including laminin, type IV collagen, entactin/nitrogen and proteoheparan sulfate, but it also contains growth factors. Matrigel induces endothelial cells to differentiate as evidenced by both the morphologic changes and by the reduction in proliferation and, therefore, offers a convenient model to study biochemical and molecular events associated with angiogenesis.

Effects of methionine hydroxy analog on voluntary intake, digestibility, nitrogen balance, and chewing behavior in sheep fed grass silage.

Voluntary intake, digestibility, N balance, and chewing behavior of six 6-mo-old (young) and six 30-mo-old (mature) Texel wethers (32.6 and 83.1 kg average BW) given ad libitum access to grass silage and 100 g of top-dressed soybean meal with or without 5 g of methionine hydroxy analog (MHA) in the acid form were examined according to a two-period crossover design.

Measurement of beta 2-microglobulin in serum by a particle-enhanced nephelometric immunoassay.

A particle-enhanced immunoassay of beta 2-microglobulin in serum is described. It is based on the agglutination of complexes formed between the serum beta 2-microglobulin and latex particles coated with F(ab')2 fragments of polyclonal anti-beta 2-microglobulin antibodies. The analytical range of the method is 0.

Fragmentation and ruminal escape of particles as related to variations in voluntary intake, chewing behavior and extent of digestion of potentially digestible NDF in heifers.

The distribution of particles of differing sizes in ruminal, duodenal and fecal samples, the efficiency of particle breakdown and ruminal escape and their relationships to voluntary intake, chewing behavior and extent of digestion of potentially digestible NDF were examined in six heifers (290 kg average BW) with ruminal, duodenal and ileal cannulas. Animals had ad libitum access to corn silage, with or without 100 mg monensin head-1.d-1, in a two-period crossover design.

[Quantitative analysis of the rythm of feeding and merycismal activities].

The nycterohemeral eating and ruminating patients were studied in 6 heifers given ad libitum access to grass or corn silage in a 2 period cross-over design. Rhythm components (no of cycles/24 h) were characterized by the finite Fourier transform of hourly means of the 24 h mastication activities. Rhythm components 1, 3 and 4 contributed considerably to explaining the total dispersion of 24 h eating and ruminating mastication series.

Quantitative analysis of nycterohemeral eating and ruminating patterns in heifers with different voluntary intakes and effects of monensin.

The nycterohemeral pattern of eating and ruminating behavior was examined in six heifers given ad libitum access to a corn silage-based diet with or without 100 mg monensin.hd-1.d-1 in a two-period crossover design.

Medical and technical usefulness of measurement of kappa and lambda immunoglobulin light chains in serum with an M-component.

Kappa and lambda-immunoglobulin light chains were measured to evaluate their usefulness for identifying monoclonal components in serum. Reference concentrations of the Ig light chains were evaluated by the analysis of the serum of 50 blood donors. Two hundred and fifty patients were selected for the presence of an M-component in their serum, which was detected by serum electrophoresis on agarose.