A study comparing cervical cytology results from a genitourinary medicine department with those of two other local populations.

A retrospective study compared one year's cervical smear results from 4920 women from the following 3 populations in Leicestershire; the Genitourinary Medicine (GUM) Departments; the city family planning clinic (FPC); and a general practice (GP) in a local University town. The results were standardized for age by logistic regression. Cytological abnormality was divided into: dyskaryosis (all grades), borderline, and inflammatory changes. The GUM attenders had an excess of total cervical smear abnormalities compared to both the FPC (P < 0.001) and GP population (P < 0.001) after adjusting for age. The FPC and GP rates of smear abnormality were similar at 60 and 63 per 1000 women screened, respectively, while the rate for the GUM clinic was 155 per 1000 women screened.

Quantification of Candida albicans morphology in vaginal smears.

The morphology index (Mi) of Candida albicans cells was determined by microscopic image analysis in vaginal smears from 26 patients. The morphology of the cells typically showed a broad distribution of forms, but the mean Mi was greater than 2.0 in 23/26 instances, indicating a preponderance of pseudohyphal and hyphal forms. No association could be found between Mi and the clinical assessment of signs or symptoms of Candida infection. Comparison of these 26 patients with 43 others who had Candida-positive vaginal smears but with fewer than 15 fungal cells in the smear revealed significantly lower scores for vulvovaginal symptoms among the latter.

Growth faltering lacks association with the distribution of first year deaths.

A retrospective study of infant mortality from death registers was made in St Lucia and St Vincent. In both islands postneonatal deaths by month were found to be evenly distributed throughout the first year although the total infant mortality rates differed widely. The growth of a cohort of children from three St Lucian villages was studied. Their weight curve showed 'faltering' at 3 months, closely resembling the developing world pattern described by Waterlow, Ashworth & Griffiths (1980). We therefore conclude that there is no necessary association between this pattern of infant growth and infant mortality rate, nor between the distribution of weight velocity and the distribution of deaths in the first year.

Genetic studies on the beta subunit of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase. III. Analysis of low-level rifampicin-resistant mutants.

Spontaneously-occurring rifampicin-resistant mutants that survive on low (20 micrograms ml-1) but not high drug concentrations (200 micrograms ml-1) have been isolated. One such mutation appears to map close to residue 650 on the beta structural gene. RNA polymerase from low-level resistant strains shows an intermediate response to rifampicin in vitro: both the association and dissociation rates of the antibiotic are markedly reduced. Continued expression of this unusual phenotype upon introduction of a high-level resistance allele is described in terms of DNA blockade.