Herpesviral Hematopoietic Necrosis in Goldfish in Switzerland: Early Lesions in Clinically Normal Goldfish (Carassius auratus).

Cyprinid herpesvirus 2 is a pathogen of goldfish, inducing a disease referred to as herpesviral hematopoietic necrosis. The disease is described so far in Japan, North America, Taiwan, Australia, the United Kingdom, and recently also Italy. Here the authors describe histologic lesions in clinically affected fish in comparison with clinically normal but virus DNA-positive goldfish in Switzerland. While necrosis or enhanced single-cell necrosis in the hematopoietic tissue in the pronephros or mesonephros was evident in dead and sick animals, in clinically normal goldfish, only single-cell necrosis was observed. Virus DNA was demonstrated in dead as well as clinically affected and subclinically infected goldfish by polymerase chain reaction and in situ hybridization. This study identifies the presence of goldfish herpesvirus in Switzerland and highlights the fact that the virus might be more widespread than assumed, as clinically normal goldfish can also carry cyprinid herpesvirus 2, showing histologically similar lesions but of lesser extent and severity.

Seeding of tumour cells following breast biopsy: a literature review.

Needle biopsy of the breast is widely practised. Image guidance ensures a high degree of accuracy. However, sporadic cases of disease recurrence suggest that in some cases the procedure itself may contribute to this complication. This article reviews evidence relating to needle biopsy of the breast and the potential for tumour cell migration into adjacent tissues following the procedure. A literature search was undertaken using Medline, Embase and the Cochrane Library. Results are grouped under three categories: histological evidence of spread, clinical evidence of recurrent disease and the likelihood of seeding dependent upon tumour type. There is histological evidence of seeding of tumour cells from the primary neoplastic site into adjacent breast tissue following biopsy. However, as the interval between biopsy and surgery lengthens then the incidence of seeding declines, which suggests that displaced tumour cells are not viable. Clinical recurrence at the site of a needle biopsy is uncommon and the relationship between biopsy and later recurrence is difficult to confirm. There is some evidence to suggest that cell seeding may be reduced when vacuum biopsy devices are deployed.

Isolation, endocrine regulation and transcript distribution of a putative primary JH-responsive gene from the pine engraver, Ips pini (Coleoptera: Scolytidae).

We isolated a cDNA of unknown function from a juvenile hormone III (JH III)-treated male midgut cDNA library prepared from the pine engraver beetle, Ips pini, and examined its genomic structure. The gene, tentatively named "Ipi10G08", encoded a 410 amino acid translation product that shared 26-37% identity with unannotated matches from several insects. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis of Ipi10G08 following application of a 10 microg dose of JH III demonstrated an early induction for both male and female beetles, with transcripts being detectable after 45 min. An expression profile of male midgut tissue indicated Ipi10G08 transcript levels reach a maximum induction of approximately 22.5-fold control levels at 4h post-treatment. Tissue distribution studies displayed a large induction of Ipi10G08 mRNA in the alimentary canal of JH III-treated beetles, especially in males. A dose curve from both sexes suggested there may be a difference in the ability to respond to lower levels of JH III and immunoblot analysis indicated that although JH III highly induces transcript levels in females, protein levels are not similarly induced, while protein levels are induced in males. Ipi10G08 is likely a primary JH response gene and may provide insight into how this hormone exerts its actions.

Isolation, endocrine regulation and mRNA distribution of the 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A synthase (HMG-S) gene from the pine engraver, Ips pini (Coleoptera: Scolytidae).

We isolated a full-length cDNA encoding 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A synthase (HMG-S) from the pine engraver beetle, Ips pini (Say), and examined its genomic structure. The intron-less gene has a predicted 460 amino acid cytosolic protein product with 73% identity to HMG-S from Dendroctonus jeffreyi, and high identity (58-64%) with other insect HMG-Ss. Topically applied juvenile hormone (JH) III induced HMG-S mRNA levels up to 6.5-fold in both sexes, mostly in the anterior midgut, though there were differences between males and females in the timing, sensitivity to JH III dose and tissue distribution of HMG-S mRNA. These data further validate the coordinate regulation of mevalonate pathway genes for de novo isoprenoid pheromone production in bark beetles.

Effects of juvenile hormone on gene expression in the pheromone-producing midgut of the pine engraver beetle, Ips pini.

Juvenile hormone III (JH III) stimulates biosynthesis of the monoterpenoid aggregation pheromone component, ipsdienol, in the anterior midgut of the male pine engraver beetle, Ips pini (Say). To understand better the hormonal regulation of pheromone biosynthesis in this forest pest, and identify JH III-responsive genes, microarrays were prepared and hybridized to cDNA from midguts of JH III-treated beetles. Expression patterns were confirmed by quantitative real-time RT-PCR. JH III co-ordinately regulated mevalonate pathway genes and many other genes implicated in pheromone biosynthesis. Sex differences in basal levels of mevalonate pathway genes were consistent with their role in male-specific pheromone biosynthesis. This is the first microarray-based study of the developmental and hormonal regulation of insect pheromone biosynthesis.

Tropical rain forest tree growth and atmospheric carbon dynamics linked to interannual temperature variation during 1984-2000.

During 1984-2000, canopy tree growth in old-growth tropical rain forest at La Selva, Costa Rica, varied >2-fold among years. The trees' annual diameter increments in this 16-yr period were negatively correlated with annual means of daily minimum temperatures. The tree growth variations also negatively covaried with the net carbon exchange of the terrestrial tropics as a whole, as inferred from nearly pole-to-pole measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO(2)) interpreted by an inverse tracer-transport model. Strong reductions in tree growth and large inferred tropical releases of CO(2) to the atmosphere occurred during the record-hot 1997-1998 El Niño. These and other recent findings are consistent with decreased net primary production in tropical forests in the warmer years of the last two decades. As has been projected by recent process model studies, such a sensitivity of tropical forest productivity to on-going climate change would accelerate the rate of atmospheric CO(2) accumulation.

Preparative chiral liquid chromatography for enantiomeric separation of pheromones.

Cellulose triacetate was investigated as a chiral stationary phase for preparatively separating the enantiomers of lineatin, frontalin, exo-brevicomin, endo-brevicomin, verbenone, (E)-conophthorin, and grandisol. Tens of milligrams of both enantiomers were efficiently prepared in high percentage enantiomeric excess from one injection of each compound except grandisol. We prepared grandisyl acetate, benzoate, and 4-bromobenzoate to determine if derivatization of the free alcohol might improve separation. Of these, grandisyl 4-bromobenzoate provided the best separation but was still not very well resolved. Preparative separation of enantiomers on cellulose triacetate is a viable alternative to stereoselective synthesis when semiochemicals of very high enantiomeric purity are required for biological testing.

Changes in the intramolecular stable carbon isotope ratios with age of the European cave bear (Ursus spelaeus).

Changes with age in the diet and metabolism of the extinct European cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) from the Divje Babe archaeological site in northwestern Slovenia were investigated by comparing the stable carbon isotope ratio of whole bone collagen with that of the peptide-bonded carboxyl carbons in collagen. These carboxyl carbons were selectively released by decarboxylation of the collagen hydrolysate with ninhydrin (2,2-dihydroxy-1,3-indanedione). The stable carbon isotope ratio increased with age for both the peptide-bonded and other carbons. Although only one-third of the carbon atoms in collagen are peptide-bonded, they account for most of the observed change with age of the stable carbon isotope ratio of the whole collagen. Stable nitrogen isotope ratios decreased with age and were negatively correlated with changes in the stable carbon isotope ratios. These observations support previous investigations on the unique metabolism of hibernating bears.

The 1,800-year oceanic tidal cycle: a possible cause of rapid climate change.

Variations in solar irradiance are widely believed to explain climatic change on 20,000- to 100,000-year time-scales in accordance with the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages, but there is no conclusive evidence that variable irradiance can be the cause of abrupt fluctuations in climate on time-scales as short as 1,000 years. We propose that such abrupt millennial changes, seen in ice and sedimentary core records, were produced in part by well characterized, almost periodic variations in the strength of the global oceanic tide-raising forces caused by resonances in the periodic motions of the earth and moon. A well defined 1,800-year tidal cycle is associated with gradually shifting lunar declination from one episode of maximum tidal forcing on the centennial time-scale to the next. An amplitude modulation of this cycle occurs with an average period of about 5,000 years, associated with gradually shifting separation-intervals between perihelion and syzygy at maxima of the 1,800-year cycle. We propose that strong tidal forcing causes cooling at the sea surface by increasing vertical mixing in the oceans. On the millennial time-scale, this tidal hypothesis is supported by findings, from sedimentary records of ice-rafting debris, that ocean waters cooled close to the times predicted for strong tidal forcing.

Knowledge management in the NHS: positioning the healthcare librarian at the knowledge intersection.

This paper defines what is meant by Knowledge Management, investigates how it interlinks with new ways of delivering health care and gives a synopsis of a study that investigated issues around implementation of Knowledge Management across a sample of healthcare librarians. Areas of investigation that are related to Knowledge Management include: HSG(97)47, evidence-based medicine, clinical governance, information and communication technologies, and the changing role of the healthcare librarian. A diagram is included in this paper which illustrates how the healthcare librarian interacts with resources, staff and practices, so contributing to the knowledge base of health care. The paper concludes that Government policy, new technologies and the push towards the practice of information age medicine are forcing changes throughout the NHS. Recognition of Knowledge Management is still in its infancy in the NHS--it calls for major change in organizational thinking and acceptance by the librarian that their service must also be subject to continuous improvement.

Possible forcing of global temperature by the oceanic tides.

An approximately decadal periodicity in surface air temperature is discernable in global observations from A.D. 1855 to 1900 and since A.D. 1945, but with a periodicity of only about 6 years during the intervening period. Changes in solar irradiance related to the sunspot cycle have been proposed to account for the former, but cannot account for the latter. To explain both by a single mechanism, we propose that extreme oceanic tides may produce changes in sea surface temperature at repeat periods, which alternate between approximately one-third and one-half of the lunar nodal cycle of 18.6 years. These alternations, recurring at nearly 90-year intervals, reflect varying slight degrees of misalignment and departures from the closest approach of the Earth with the Moon and Sun at times of extreme tide raising forces. Strong forcing, consistent with observed temperature periodicities, occurred at 9-year intervals close to perihelion (solar perigee) for several decades centered on A.D. 1881 and 1974, but at 6-year intervals for several decades centered on A.D. 1923. As a physical explanation for tidal forcing of temperature we propose that the dissipation of extreme tides increases vertical mixing of sea water, thereby causing episodic cooling near the sea surface. If this mechanism correctly explains near-decadal temperature periodicities, it may also apply to variability in temperature and climate on other times-scales, even millennial and longer.

On the status of the genus Pinguicollum (Tetraphyllidea: Onchobothriidae) with a redescription of P. pinguicollum.

Material of the poorly known Pinguicollum pinguicollum from Raja spp. in California from the personal collections of Nathan Riser and Mike Moser was examined by light and scanning electron microscopy. The presence of unusual triloculated bothridia covered with a layer of tissue, but capable of protruding through an aperture in this tissue, was confirmed. The species is also unusual in its lack of a muscular pad and apical sucker on each bothridium and in its possession of bifid hooks in which the axial prongs are conspicuously shorter than the abaxial prongs. The scolex was interpreted to consist of a short bothridial region and an elongate cephalic peduncle containing 4 pairs of robust longitudinal muscle bundles. The segment morphology is described in detail and figured for the first time. The ovary is bilobed in cross section; the testes are arranged in multiple rows in cross section. The apex of the scolex was found to possess elongate, filiform microtriches. The distal surfaces of the protrusible regions of the bothridia were covered with short filiform microtriches in the anterior and both short filiform microtriches and spiniform microtriches on the posterior bothridial surfaces. The remainder of the scolex and cephalic peduncle were covered with densely packed, spiniform microtriches of varying sizes. Based on the unusual bothridia, robust cephalic peduncle, and lack of muscular pad and apical sucker on the bothridia, it is recommended that the genus be considered to be valid. As all attempts to locate the type material of the species failed, a neotype is designated to facilitate future study of the genus.

Radioimmunodetection of occult carcinoembryonic antigen-producing cancer.

This study evaluates the ability of 111In-labeled anti-carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) monoclonal antibody (Mab) ZCE-025 to detect sites of occult cancer in patients with elevated serum CEA who have negative or equivocal CT scans. One hundred forty patients suspected of having occult cancer were evaluated. Except for elevated CEA levels, all had negative work-ups, including negative or inconclusive CT scans. Eighty-two patients (59%) had positive scans and 58 (41%) had negative scans. Seventy-five of the 82 patients with positive scans had confirmation of at least one Mab-positive lesion (91% positive predictive value). Thirty-eight of the 58 patients with negative scans had negative follow-up (66% negative predictive value). The Mab scan correctly identified at least one site of tumor in 75 of the 95 patients with recurrent or metastatic disease (79% sensitivity) and correctly predicted the absence of disease in 38 of 45 patients (84% specificity).

Parathyroid imaging. Use of dual isotope scintigraphy for the localization of adenomas before surgery.

Seventy-nine patients with primary hyperparathyroidism, whose average preoperative blood calcium level was 11.6 mg/dl, underwent thallium-technetium dual isotope scintigraphy of the thyroid and parathyroids. For patients who had surgery, the detection and localization rate of parathyroid disease or the sensitivity was low (0.53), but the positive predictive value for the location was high (0.80). Correct localization correlated positively with the weight of the tumor but not significantly with the parathyroid hormone blood level nor with the blood calcium level. Unprocessed data alone were sufficient to predict correctly the location in two thirds of the detected cases. Computer processing increased the sensitivity without decreasing the specificity. Those results, at variance with earlier published data but congruent with another more recent study, require a reevaluation of the role of this scintigraphic technique in the management of hyperparathyroidal patients.

The in vivo distribution of human peripheral blood lymphocytes and lymphokine-activated killer cells adoptively transferred in human pancreatic cancer-bearing nude mice.

In this study we evaluated human pancreatic cancer xenotransplanted into nude mice as a model suitable for adoptive immunotherapy studies. A pancreatic cancer cell line (MIA PaCa-2) was chosen and its growth in nude mice and sensitivity to lysis by human lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells were characterized. This line grew in 96% of the cases when young (4- to 6-week-old) Swiss/NIH nude mice were used. The line was highly sensitive to lysis by LAK cells in a standard chromium-51 release assay (67.8%), similarly to other cell lines known to be highly sensitive, such as K562 (75.6%) and the melanoma cell line SU.102 (53.1%). To assess their in vivo distribution, human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) and LAK cells were adoptively transferred into nude mice after labeling with indium-111 oxine. The results of this study show that adoptively transferred PBLs and LAK cells localize in this heterologous system as they do in autologous systems. PBLs are taken up mostly by the liver and spleen. The percentage of the administered dose of radioactivity taken up corrected by weight (percent dose per gram tissue) is 64.3 +/- 15.6%d/gm (liver) and 43.5 +/- 9.5%d/gm (spleen). LAK cells are taken up by liver (43.2 +/- 5.3%d/gm) and spleen (28.0 +/- 4.9%d/gm) but also localize significantly more than PBLs in other organs such as lungs (12.9 +/- 3.5%d/gm vs 1.4 +/- 0.3%d/gm, p less than 0.01), kidneys (19.1 +/- 2.1%d/gm vs 6.3 +/- 1.5%d/gm, p less than 0.001), and pancreatic tumors growing in orthotopic position (1.93 +/- 0.36%d/gm vs 0.56 +/- 0.06%d/gm, p less than 0.05). When the nude mice are pretreated with human recombinant tumor necrosis factor, localization of LAK cells compared with PBLs is even further enhanced both in tumors implanted in the pancreas (3.1 +/- 0.5%d/gm vs 0.56 +/- 0.06%d/gm, p less than 0.01) and in the subcutis (12.5 +/- 8.3%d/gm vs 0.95 +/- 0.29%d/gm, p less than 0.001).

Complications of fractures and their healing.

The role of nuclear medicine studies in diagnosing late complications of fractures is described. Static bone scintigraphy is not helpful in predicting delayed or non-union of fractures. Several investigators have developed simple formulae comparing uptake in fracture site with adjacent or contralateral normal bone and described criteria that will predict problems with healing. These types of tests should only be used in patients who are at risk for delayed union. The scintigraphic diagnosis of infection complicating a fracture is difficult. Bone scintigraphy alone is not useful and combined 67Ga/99mTc MDP scanning has been disappointing. Most published series support the role in 111In WBC in this situation, but not all cases are correctly diagnosed. 111In (Chloride) cannot differentiate an infected from a delayed-healing fracture. Bone scintigraphy has a significant role in determining whether a bone graft is viable or not. Reflex sympathetic dystrophy is a rare complication of a fracture; it can be diagnosed by increased periarticular uptake on bone scan in all the joints of the affected part. Bone scintigraphy, especially when done with SPECT, is a very sensitive test for the diagnosis of avascular necrosis (AVN).

Iodine-131 MIBG uptake in metastatic medullary carcinoma of the thyroid. A patient treated with somatostatin.

A 47-year-old man with multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) type 2a syndrome in whom metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) concentrated in lesions from metastatic medullary carcinoma of the thyroid is reported. A somatostatin analogue (Sandostatin SMS 201-995) alleviated the symptoms of flushing and diarrhea associated with the elevated calcitonin levels but it did not alter either the course of the disease or the MIBG images. A review of the literature is presented of the noncatecholamine secreting tumors associated with MIBG uptake. Similarities between this case and metastatic carcinoid syndrome are discussed.