More than 200 meters of lake ice above subglacial Lake Vostok, Antarctica.

Isotope studies show that the Vostok ice core consists of ice refrozen from Lake Vostok water, from 3539 meters below the surface of the Antarctic ice sheet to its bottom at about 3750 meters. Additional evidence comes from the total gas content, crystal size, and electrical conductivity of the ice. The Vostok site is a likely place for water freezing at the lake-ice interface, because this interface occurs at a higher level here than anywhere else above the lake. Isotopic data suggest that subglacial Lake Vostok is an open system with an efficient circulation of water that was formed during periods that were slightly warmer than those of the past 420,000 years. Lake ice recovered by deep drilling is of interest for preliminary investigations of lake chemistry and bedrock properties and for the search for indigenous lake microorganisms. This latter aspect is of potential importance for the exploration of icy planets and moons.

[Clinical case of the month. Association between medullary thyroid cancer and type 3 autoimmune thyroiditis: discussion of an unusual case]. / Le cas clinique du mois. Association entre cancer médullaire thyroïdien et thyroïdite auto-immune de type 3: discussion à partir d'un cas rare.

A 67 year old woman was found to have Grave's disease associated with medullary carcinoma of the thyroid. She was treated by surgery and hormone replacement therapy by Elthyrone. This case shows possible associations between thyroid carcinoma and Grave's disease.

[Primary hyperparathyroidism: etiology, diagnosis and treatment]. / Les hyperparathyroïdies primaires: étiologies, diagnostic et traitement.

Primary hyperparathyroidism is a not so infrequent disease that is often overlooked by physicians. Its incidence is estimated to be about 28 in 100.000 subjects, mainly women over seventy years old. Three to four percents of women over seventy are affected. Hyperparathyroidism can be isolated or be a component of a more complex syndrome like multiple endocrine neoplasms (MEN). Patients can be asymptomatic or present with symptoms like asthenia, hypertension or nephrolithiasis. The biological investigation requires the combined measurements of plasmatic ionized calcium and parathormone. In some cases, more specific explorations like calcium loading tests have to be performed in order to confirm the diagnosis.

The effects of positioning, reason for screening and the referring veterinarian on prevalence estimates of canine hip dysplasia.

Although the prevalence of canine hip dysplasia (HD) has been the subject of a number of published studies, estimates vary widely. This study evaluated several possible causes for these differences. Sixty Belgian, Dutch and German veterinarians were asked to submit all hip radiographs obtained for screening purposes (irrespective of HD status) over a 2-year period, resulting in a database of 583 dogs. Each set of radiographs was accompanied by information on the reason for screening (breeding soundness examination, clinical complaint, assistance dogs, or other reasons), and dog breed, date of birth and age. Dog positioning exerted an effect at multiple levels. The agreement among different observers regarding correct or incorrect positioning was limited and incorrect positioning itself reduced the inter-observer agreement for radiographic hip conformation. Dysplastic dogs were more commonly positioned incorrectly than non-dysplastic dogs. The clinical complaint population had a high prevalence of dysplastic dogs (>70%) compared with the breeding population (11%) and the assistance dogs (6%). There was a significantly lower prevalence of HD among cases referred by veterinarians who frequently submitted hip-extended radiographs for evaluation (P = 0.002) compared to those who refer less frequently. However, this was likely to be selection bias, as radiographs that were from dogs suspected to be dysplastic were not submitted by frequent senders. The prevalence of dysplastic dogs varied widely between breeds (16.7-71.4%). Dogs diagnosed with dysplasia were significantly older than dogs considered healthy (P = 0.001) and dogs classified as borderline dysplastic (P = 0.035). Inter-observer agreement for hip conformation was moderately low, resulting in >7% variation in prevalence estimates for dysplasia.