Comparison of microembolism detected by transcranial Doppler and neuropsychological sequelae of carotid surgery and percutaneous transluminal angioplasty.

Background And Purpose: Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) is currently being assessed for the treatment of carotid stenosis. In comparison with carotid endarterectomy (CEA), there is evidence of an increased risk of cerebral microembolism during the procedure. We have sought evidence of any neuropsychological sequelae of carotid PTA and compared it with CEA to demonstrate the relative safety of the 2 treatment options.

A study to determine whether trisomy 8, deleted 9q and trisomy 22 are markers of cryptic rearrangements of PML/RARalpha, AML1/ETO and CBFB/MYH11 respectively in acute myeloid leukaemia. MRC Adult Leukaemia Working Party. Medical Research Council.

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) patients with either a t(15;17), t(8;21) or inv(16) at diagnosis have 'good-risk' disease with a favourable response to therapy and improved survival. Detection of cryptic fusion genes created by these translocations has been reported where there is no cytogenetic evidence of the corresponding abnormality. It is likely that these cases share the same favourable prognosis.