Resolution of optociliary shunt vessels.

A 40-year-old woman developed profound bilateral loss of vision from chronic atrophic papilledema. There were striking optociliary shunt vessels on the right optic disc. Within 1 month after removal of a massive intracranial meningioma, the shunt vessels had regressed markedly. This regression was evident on fluorescein angiograms. We attribute their resolution to the normalization of intracranial pressure.

Factors influencing glycosaminoglycan synthesis by calf trabecular meshwork cell cultures.

When cell or explant cultures were established from excised calf aqueous outflow pathway tissue and subsequently labeled with radioactive precursors of glycosaminoglycans [( 3H]glucosamine and [35S]sulfate), hyaluronic acid was the predominant glycosaminoglycan produced initially. As the cultures reached confluence, sulfated glycosaminoglycans became more prominent products. Further investigation revealed that the cultured trabecular cells could synthesize all of the glycosaminoglycans found in isolated calf trabecular tissue once a critical cell density had been attained. Increasing concentrations of fetal bovine serum in the culture medium stimulated glycosaminoglycan accumulation without altering the quantitative distribution of the various glycosaminoglycan products. Treatment of confluent monolayers with enzymes capable of degrading extracellular matrix molecules caused marked changes in the distribution of glycosaminoglycans produced by calf trabecular-cell cultures. The results suggest that calf trabecular cell cultures can be used to study the dynamics of extracellular matrix production and turnover under controlled experimental conditions.

Cystic fibrosis survival rates. The influences of allergy and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Allergy and chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) infection are two factors that possibly affect the clinical severity of cystic fibrosis pulmonary disease, although the role of allergy is controversial. We have examined the effects of these factors on actuarial survival rates in 117 children with cystic fibrosis who were skin tested in 1974 and classified as allergic (A+) or nonallergic (A-) by their reactions to 12 prick tests with common environmental allergens. Patients were also classified according to whether or not they had chronic pulmonary infection with PA in 1974 (PA-positive or PA-negative). Survival rates in A+ patients were not significantly different from those in the A- group (percent survival to age 16 years, 67% vs 80%), whereas the PA+ group had significantly worse survival rates than the PA- group (percent survival to age 16 years, 53% vs 84%). There was no significant interaction between allergic skin reactions and either age at onset of chronic PA infection or subsequent duration of survival.

Survival rates in cystic fibrosis.

Life tables were calculated for 273 British children with cystic fibrosis for the period 1974-9. There was a marked improvement in survival rates in the meconium ileus group compared with the 1969-73 data, but there was little improvement in patients presenting later with other symptoms.