[Methods and perspectives of AIDS prevention among teachers of secondary schools in the village of Namur].

In 1994, ASBL Namur-Entraide-Sida has been involved in a survey through questionnaires for teachers of the whole high schools in Namur (Belgium). Its purpose was to better notice what sort of viewpoints and modalities in preventing youngs from aids were developed or not during the school. From 2,435 questionnaires, 617 (25%) have been returned and analysed.

[Treatment of deep anal fistulas using a flap from the rectal wall].

Classic treatment of high anal fistulas by the laying open technique requires total or subtotal section of the sphincter muscles and results in anal incontinence. This study assesses the efficacy of the flap advancement technique in these cases. It entails the resection of the crypt at the origin of the fistula, the area being covered by a mucomuscular flap of the rectal wall.

[Refractory diarrhea in infants: experimental basis of current therapeutic perspectives].

Intractable diarrhoea is a severe condition of early infancy producing prolonged food intolerance, massive watery diarrhoea and malnutrition. Although the etiology remains unknown in more than half of the cases, a basic physiopathological mechanism appears to be a variable inhibition of the maturation and differentiation of the crypt cell resulting in immature villus cells. Among the known nutritional and hormonal factors that control maturation of the enterocytes, polyamines (spermine, spermidine) emerge as the most trophic substances potentially useful for humans.

[Non-surgical treatment of benign prostatic hypertrophy. Current status of the problem].

Benign prostatic hypertrophy is a highly prevalent disease, with a significant morbidity. Classical surgical therapy (open or transurethral adenomectomy) is very effective, but not without risks and complications. Better understanding of the pathogenesis of the disease have led to the development of several alternative treatments.

[Trans-laparoscopy surgery, a passing fashion or progress?].

Since the first laparoscopic cholecystectomy performed in 1987 by Philippe Mouret in Lyon (France), there has been a real revolution in the field of visceral surgery: more and more operations are performed by this mini-invasive surgical method: lithiasis of the common bile duct, Nissen and Heller procedure, truncal vagotomies, abdominal and thoracic, supra-selective vagotomies, hernia, appendectomy, band sections during intestinal occlusion, resection of the colon and rectum, oesophagectomies ...

[Epidemiological survey of central nervous system anomalies and the implications of teratogens].

One of the aims of epidemiologic surveillance is to assess the role of environmental factors acting during pregnancy (teratogens) in abnormal development of the nervous system. The data of Eurocat, a european system of congenital anomaly surveillance, was analysed and evaluated. Great geographical variation is observed in the prevalence of neural tube defects.

[Control of growth hormone synthesis, paradigm of tissue specificity and of hormonal gene expression regulation].

The study of the transcriptional control of the growth hormone gene illustrates the complementary role of three types of regulatory proteins. These proteins bind to the gene upstream of the transcription initiation site to stimulate or inhibit transcription. A first type of proteins includes ubiquitous factors.

[The molecular basis of the virulence of Yersinia].

Pathogenic bacteria of the genus Yersinia (Y. enterocolitica, Y. pseudotuberculosis and Y.

[Early stages and development of chronic obstructive pneumopathy].

Chronic obstructive lung disease (COLD) is an important cause of mortality and disability. In a cross-over study, followed by a longitudinal one, of a homogeneous group of blue collar steel workers, we have found that the slope of the N2 alveolar plateau was the most frequently impaired test, in the absence of any respiratory symptom. However, its predictive power was low enough to preclude its use for early detection of COLD.

[Lyme disease: clinical and sero-epidemiological study of Borrelia burgdorferi infections in Belgium].

Lyme disease is a multi-systemic infection caused by the spirochaete Borrelia burgdorferi: this bacterium, discovered in 1982 in the United States, is mainly transmitted by a tick bite, Ixodes ricinus in Europe. In Belgium, a first seroepidemiological study of 3 years has revealed 190 patients and the whole spectrum of clinical pictures was observed, including the early stage of this infection in the skin (erythema chronicum migrans), neurological involvement and arthritis. The Lyme borreliosis is endemic in our country: the incidence ranges from low near the coast to high in the south-eastern part of Belgium.

[Diabetes, malnutrition and growth retardation].

We investigated the cellular mechanisms responsible for growth hormone (GH) resistance in diabetes and malnutrition in the rat. In insulin-dependent diabetes, a post-receptor defect participates in GH resistance. During fasting, there is a loss of liver GH binding sites.

[Postnatal maturation of excitation-contraction coupling of the heart].

We have studied the post-natal maturation of excitation-contraction coupling in rat ventricle by means of pharmacological agents that selectively modulate either Ca entry via voltage-dependent sarcolemmal channels (dihydropyridines) or Ca release from sarcoplasmic reticulum (ryanodine). We have investigated the effects of those agents on cardiac contractility, and we have used them as radioligands to examine the properties of their receptors. Our results show that, after birth, dihydropyridine receptors (i.

[Anatomical variations at the level of the muscles of the arm].

The muscular anatomical variations of the thoracic member are recorded in a series of 180 subjects. Two muscles are supernumerary: a bilateral accessory coraco-brachialis and a unilateral accessory palmaris longus. Two muscles have additional tendons: the extensor carpi radialis brevis and the extensor digitorum.