Pain, disability, and symptoms among siblings of children with functional abdominal pain.

Objective: To examine reports of pain, disability, and somatic and psychological symptoms among siblings of children with functional abdominal pain (FAP) and siblings of "healthy" comparison children.

Methods: This survey study explored two groups of participants (FAP and healthy) consisting of (1) children with FAP and their siblings and parents and (2) healthy comparison children and their siblings, and parents. Participants included 13 FAP families and 10 healthy comparison families.

Willingness to use microbicides is affected by the importance of product characteristics, use parameters, and protective properties.

Background: Along with efficacy, a microbicide's acceptability will be integral to its impact on the pandemic. Understanding Product Characteristics that users find most acceptable and determining who will use which type of product are key to optimizing use effectiveness.

Objectives: To evaluate psychometrically the Important Microbicide Characteristics (IMC) instrument and examine its relationship to willingness to use microbicides.

Multidisciplinary group behavioral and pharmacologic intervention for cardiac risk reduction in diabetes: a pilot study.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary team providing both education and medication management in a group setting for cardiac risk reduction in patients with diabetes mellitus.

Methods: The electronic medical records of patients with diabetes who participated in group behavioral and pharmacologic interventions for cardiac risk reduction during May to October 2002 at the Providence VA Medical Center were reviewed. Forty-one veterans with diabetes mellitus attended the weekly sessions of a diabetes education and intervention program directed by pharmacists for 1 month.

Chronic ethanol consumption impairs cellular immune responses against HCV NS5 protein due to dendritic cell dysfunction.

Background & Aims: Alcoholic patients with and without chronic liver disease have a high incidence of infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV). Long-term ethanol consumption in mice has been associated with a strikingly reduced CD8(+) cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) response to HCV nonstructural proteins following DNA-based immunization. This study evaluated the effect of ethanol on dendritic cells (DCs) as a mechanism(s) for reduced CTL activity.

Parent-adolescent communication and psychological symptoms among adolescents with chronically ill parents.

Objective: To examine the psychological adjustment of adolescents living with a chronically ill parent and the relationship between psychological symptoms and communication with both their healthy and ill parents.

Method: Adolescents, healthy parents, and ill parents from 38 families completed questionnaires regarding adolescent psychological symptoms, including posttraumatic stress symptoms, and parent-adolescent communication.

Results: Adolescent anxiety, depression, and behavior problems were within the subclinical ranges while approximately one-third of adolescents reported clinical levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms.

The histopathologic spectrum of carcinomas involving the gastroesophageal junction in the Chinese.

Carcinomas involving the gastroesophageal junction are common in China. The histopathologic characteristics of these cancers have not been systematically investigated. Reported are 41 such resected cancers from Chinese patients (30 men, 11 women).

A case-control study to determine risk factors for hospitalization for rotavirus gastroenteritis in U.S. children.

Objective: The objective of this case-control study nested within a surveillance study conducted at 3 hospitals (Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH; Children's Hospital of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA; and Hasbro Children's Hospital, Providence, RI) was to identify risk factors for rotavirus gastroenteritis requiring hospitalization.

Patients: Cases were children < or =59 months of age who were admitted with acute gastroenteritis (AGE) and found to have rotavirus infection. Controls were selected from a birth certificate registry (Cincinnati and Providence) or a registry of patients from a large practice consortium in 11 locations (New Orleans).

Re-operative neck surgery for well-differentiated thyroid cancer of follicular origin.

This review focuses on the pathologic criteria for completion thyroidectomy in well differentiated thyroid cancer as well the diagnosis and treatment of recurrent disease. The roles of ultrasound in the diagnosis of a cervical recurrence, its value in determining the extent of lymph node dissection in the lateral compartment, and the importance of intra-operative ultrasound in re-operative thyroid surgery are discussed.

Comparison of serum markers in first-trimester down syndrome screening.

Objective: To estimate patterns of total hCG and inhibin A levels in the late first trimester of Down syndrome pregnancies, compare them with that of free beta-hCG, and assess screening performance of these markers individually and in combination with pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A) and nuchal translucency.

Methods: Seventy-nine matched case-control sets of maternal serum samples (each Down syndrome case matched to 5 controls) from 11 through 13 completed weeks of gestation were taken from the sample bank of the First and Second Trimester Evaluation of Risk Consortium, a population-based study, and assayed for levels of free beta-hCG, total hCG, and inhibin A. Distribution characteristics and correlations of the multiples of the median values were estimated in cases and controls.

Loss of Raf kinase inhibitor protein promotes cell proliferation and migration of human hepatoma cells.

Background & Aims: The Raf kinase inhibitor protein (RKIP) has been identified as a suppressor of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. Loss of RKIP function promotes tumor metastasis in prostate cancer and melanoma. The insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I)-mediated MAPK cascade is often activated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the role of RKIP in the molecular pathogenesis of these tumors is unknown.

Therapeutic rescue of neurodegeneration in experimental type 3 diabetes: relevance to Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with major impairments in insulin and insulin-like growth factor (IGF) gene expression and signaling in the brain. These abnormalities increase with severity of dementia, and are associated with deficiencies in energy metabolism and acetylcholine homeostasis. The co-existence of brain insulin/IGF deficiency and resistance suggests that AD may represent a brain-specific form of diabetes, i.

Splenic artery embolization: Have we gone too far?

Background: Splenic artery angioembolization (EMBO) has been promoted to increase the success rate of nonoperative management of splenic injuries. Our institutional clinical pathway calls for EMBO in the setting of ongoing splenic bleeding or contrast blush on computed tomography scan. We perceived a higher rate of failure than that reported in the literature.

Depressive symptoms as a predictor of sexual risk among African American adolescents and young adults.

Purpose: To understand the prospective relationship between depressive symptoms and sexual risk behavior among a community sample of African American adolescents.

Methods: African American adolescents (n = 415) who participated in a larger multi-site human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention program provided baseline data on demographics, psychosocial context and depressive symptoms. At six-month follow-up, data were collected regarding sexual activity in the past 90 days.

Condom use with "casual" and "main" partners: what's in a name?

Objective: This study examined adolescents' attitudes about and behaviors toward condom use with "casual" vs. "main" sexual partners.

Method: Participants were sexually active adolescents aged 15-21 years (n = 1316) recruited from primary care clinics and through outreach activities in three major cities in the United States.

Outcomes from the women's wellness project: a community-focused physical activity trial for women.

Background: Given the low rates of physical activity participation, innovative intervention approaches are needed to make a public health impact.

Methods: The study was conducted at the Miriam Hospital/Brown Medical School in Providence, RI, and in communities of Southeastern Massachusetts from 2002 to 2005. Previously sedentary women (n = 280; mean age = 47.

Molecular indices of oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction occur early and often progress with severity of Alzheimer's disease.

Glucose uptake and energy metabolism in the brain are regulated by insulin and insulin-like growth factors (IGF). Recent studies demonstrated progressive deficiencies in brain insulin and IGF production and responsiveness, and linked these abnormalities to acetylcholine deficiency in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We extended this line of research by attempting to correlate the deficits in insulin/IGF signaling and energy production with mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative injury, and compensatory cyto-protective responses in brains with different Braak Stage severities of AD.

RAGE, LRP-1, and amyloid-beta protein in Alzheimer's disease.

The receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) is thought to be a primary transporter of beta-amyloid across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) into the brain from the systemic circulation, while the low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein (LRP)-1 mediates transport of beta-amyloid out of the brain. To determine whether there are Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related changes in these BBB-associated beta-amyloid receptors, we studied RAGE, LRP-1, and beta-amyloid in human elderly control and AD hippocampi. In control hippocampi, there was robust RAGE immunoreactivity in neurons, whereas microvascular staining was barely detectable.

Examination of print and telephone channels for physical activity promotion: Rationale, design, and baseline data from Project STRIDE.

Background: Project STRIDE is a 4-year randomized controlled trial comparing two computer-based expert system guided intervention delivery channels (phone vs. print) for physical activity adoption and short-term maintenance among previously sedentary adults.

Methods: Sedentary adults (n=239) were randomized to one of the following (1) telephone-based, individualized motivationally-tailored feedback; (2) print-based, individualized motivationally-tailored feedback; (3) contact-control delayed treatment group (received intervention after 12 months as control).

Reasons for intimate partner violence perpetration among arrested women.

There are limited empirical data regarding the reasons or motives for the perpetration of intimate partner violence among women arrested for domestic violence and court referred to violence intervention programs. The present study examined arrested women's self-report reasons for partner violence perpetration and investigated whether women who were victims of severe intimate partner violence were more likely than were women who were victims of minor partner violence to report self-defense as a reason for their behavior. In all, 87 women in violence intervention programs completed a measure of violence perpetration and victimization and a questionnaire assessing 29 reasons for violence perpetration.

First- and second-trimester Down syndrome screening markers in pregnancies achieved through assisted reproductive technologies (ART): a FASTER trial study.

Objective: To determine whether first- and second-trimester Down syndrome screening markers and screen-positive rates are altered in pregnancies conceived using assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs).

Methods: ART pregnancies in the multicenter FASTER trial were identified. Marker levels were evaluated for five types of ART: in vitro fertilization with ovulation induction (IVF-OI), IVF with OI and egg donation (IVF-OI-ED), IVF with ED (IVF-ED), and intrauterine insemination with OI (IUI-OI) or without OI (IUI).

Effects of postnatal steroids on Na+/K+-ATPase activity and alpha1- and beta1-subunit protein expression in the cerebral cortex and renal cortex of newborn lambs.

Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase is a membrane-bound enzyme responsible for Na(+)/K(+) translocation across cell membranes. It is essential for the generation of electrochemical gradients, which control the ionic environment necessary for electrical activity and water and electrolyte balance. Newborn infants who are at risk of developing bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) are frequently treated with corticosteroids.

Transmission of lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus by organ transplantation.

Background: In December 2003 and April 2005, signs and symptoms suggestive of infection developed in two groups of recipients of solid-organ transplants. Each cluster was investigated because diagnostic evaluations were unrevealing, and in each a common donor was recognized.

Methods: We examined clinical specimens from the two donors and eight recipients, using viral culture, electron microscopy, serologic testing, molecular analysis, and histopathological examination with immunohistochemical staining to identify a cause.