Search for charged Higgs bosons in e+e- collisions at [Formula: see text].

A search is made for charged Higgs bosons predicted by Two-Higgs-Doublet extensions of the Standard Model (2HDM) using electron-positron collision data collected by the OPAL experiment at [Formula: see text], corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 600 pb-1. Charged Higgs bosons are assumed to be pair-produced and to decay into [Formula: see text], τντ or AW±. No signal is observed. Model-independent limits on the charged Higgs-boson production cross section are derived by combining these results with previous searches at lower energies. Under the assumption [Formula: see text], motivated by general 2HDM type II models, excluded areas on the [Formula: see text] plane are presented and charged Higgs bosons are excluded up to a mass of 76.3 GeV at 95 % confidence level, independent of the branching ratio BR(H±â†’τντ ). A scan of the 2HDM type I model parameter space is performed and limits on the Higgs-boson masses [Formula: see text] and mA are presented for different choices of tanß.

Bone mass of spine and forearm in osteoporosis and in German normals: influences of sex, age and anthropometric parameters.

We measured forearm bone mineral density (BMD) using single photon absorptiometry (SPA) and bone mineral content (BMC) and BMD of lumbar spine by dual photon absorptiometry (DPA). The population consisted of 463 bone healthy subjects, 346 females and 117 males aged 20-85 years. Any underlying bone disease or other diseases known to affect bone mass were excluded by physical examination, thoracic and lumbar radiographs and laboratory screening. Patients with osteoarthritis of lumbar spine were excluded as well as patients taking drugs known to affect bone mass. All bone mass values declined with age. Body height also declined with age by 1.2 cm and 1.8 cm per 10 years (-0.7% and -1%) in females and males respectively. Main effects of age, body height, -surface, -weight and -mass index on bone mass were calculated using multiple regression models. In males and females lumbar BMC measured in gHA depended primarily on body height and secondarily on age. Spinal BMD as measured in g cm-2 was primarily dependent on age and then on height. In females forearm BMD depended primarily on age and then on body surface, in males on body surface only. Using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis the ROC area increased from 0.81-0.85 (n.s.) including body height into spinal BMD values leading to a higher sensitivity of measurements of spinal bone mass in recognizing 58 patients with spinal postmenopausal osteoporosis. Including body surface into forearm BMD measurements ROC area increased from 0.66-0.69 (P = 0.055).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Spine deformity index (SDI) versus other objective procedures of vertebral fracture identification in patients with osteoporosis: a comparative study.

Radiologic identification of vertebral fractures is most important in the diagnosis and monitoring of patients with spinal osteoporosis. Different methods, using vertebral height measurements for fracture identification, have therefore been developed. We compared four methods for fracture identification in spinal x-rays of 62 female patients with primary osteoporosis. The methods of Hedlund and Gallagher, Melton et al., and Davies et al. are based on the ratio of heights within one vertebra or of the height ratios of adjacent vertebrae; all three methods result in counting the number of vertebral fractures. The fourth method of Minne et al. relates anterior, middle and posterior heights of the vertebrae between T5 and L5 to the respective heights of T4. The relative vertebral heights of patients with osteoporosis are compared to the respective relative heights (anterior, middle, and posterior) of normal subjects (T5-L5). This allows the identification of fractured vertebrae, as well as a quantification of the extent of deformation due to these fractures (spine deformity index, SDI). The same measurement data of 62 spinal x-rays of anterior, middle, and posterior heights between T4 and L5 were used to detect vertebral fractures by the four different methods. Correlation between the number of identified fractures by the different methods ranged between r = 0.56 and 0.83. On the other hand, we found a remarkable difference in the mean number of identified fractures and a discrepancy in the identification of single vertebrae as fractured or not. All four methods revealed an accumulation of fractures in the midthoracic area and in the region of transition from thoracic to lumbar spine. Vertebral fractures as identified by SDI were not detected by the other three methods in 12-29% of the cases, even if vertebral height reduction was more than 6 mm. The reliability of each method was examined by the determination of "decreasing" number of fractures during follow-up. A decrease in the number of fractures was found in about 25% patients, if using the three methods that count only the number of fractures. We obtained a 3.6% decrease in the number of fractures using the fourth method. Furthermore, the decrease in SDI values in follow-up was within the range of variance. We therefore believe that SDI and related procedures are reliable in quantifying spinal osteoporosis and monitoring during follow-up.