A visual search examination of attentional biases among individuals with high and low drive for thinness.

The purpose of this study was to examine attentional biases through visual search patterns of 40 females with high (high-risk for eating disorders) or low (low-risk for eating disorders) levels of drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction while viewing slides depicting ectomorphic, mesomorphic, and endomorphic female body shapes. Participants were outfitted in an eye tracking system, which was used to collect gaze behavior data while viewing the slides. Fixation frequency and duration to five body locations were analyzed through the use of ASL EYENAL software. For the mesomorphic, ectomorphic, and endomorphic slides, the low-risk group looked significantly more often at the leg region than the high-risk group. The low-risk group also gazed significantly longer at the leg region than the high-risk group when viewing the mesomorphic and ectomorphic slides. For the endomorphic slides, the low-risk group focused significantly longer on the midsection than did the high-risk group. The findings suggest avoidance behaviors among the high-risk group that are reflected in their locus of attention, and indicate that negative affect among high-risk individuals may be induced by selective attention to particular environmental cues. An integrative theoretical account emanating from cognitive, social, and behaviorist approaches to understanding attentional biases in body disturbance is used to explain the findings.

Prognostic importance of vascular invasion in papillary thyroid carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: The prognostic importance of vascular invasion has not been extensively studied in patients with papillary thyroid cancer. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the presence of vascular invasion in papillary thyroid carcinoma, even within the thyroid gland, is associated with more aggressive disease at diagnosis and a higher incidence of tumor recurrence. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We identified 410 patients who had been diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer since 1986 who had a follow-up period of longer than 1 year (median follow-up, 5.5 years). Pathology reports were reviewed and patients were separated into 3 groups: no vascular invasion, intrathyroidal vascular invasion, and extrathyroidal vascular invasion. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Statistical comparison was performed by univariate and multivariate analysis. RESULTS: Patients with intrathyroidal vascular invasion were more likely to have distant metastasis at the time of diagnosis (26.1% vs 2.2%, P = .001). Similarly, patients with extrathyroidal vascular invasion had a higher incidence of distant metastases at diagnosis (40% vs 4.4%, P = .02). Patients with tumors identified to have intrathyroidal vascular invasion were more likely to develop distant recurrence (20% vs 3%, P = .002). CONCLUSIONS: These associations were found to be independent by multiple regression analysis. Patient age, sex, palpable or fixed lymph nodes, radiation exposure, and race did not differ between the patient group with and those without vascular invasion. Preliminary analysis of our data suggests that the presence of vascular invasion in papillary, thyroid carcinoma, even within the thyroid gland, is associated with more aggressive disease at diagnosis and with a higher incidence of tumor recurrence.

Rhinolithiasis: an unusual pediatric nasal mass.

Rhinoliths are uncommon nasal masses in pediatric patients. The etiology, clinical presentation, CT findings, and differential diagnosis in one case of rhinolith are presented in this report. Understanding this benign entity will allow its distinction from tumors of the nasal cavity.

A solid-phase fluoroimmunoassay for human IgE.

A fluoroimmunoassay (FIA) for the measurement of immunoglobulin E (IgE) is described. The method involves a sandwich technique in which antiserum to human IgE is adsorbed on a cellulose acetate/nitrate disc which is attached to a plastic StiQTM sampler. The prepared sampler is reacted with serum and antigen is bound specifically. After buffer wash and treatment with goat serum to block non-specific binding, the samplers are reacted with monospecific fluorescein conjugated antisera to human IgE. Two buffer washes remove unbound material and the fluorescence which is directly proportional to the IgE concentration is measured in a FIAX fluorometer. Assay standards range from 2 to 400 IU/ml. The method gives within run coefficients of variation (CV) from 3.3 to 8.4% and between run CV from 6.2 to 16.1% being less precise at low analyte concentrations. IgE concentrations of a group of 74 sera determined by FIA using StiQsTM prepared with antisera from 2 sources correlated well with results found by radioimmunoassay.

Comparison of the PCA titer and aerosol microshock time in guinea pigs made sensitive to ragweed.

Guinea pigs were sensitized either by intranasal dusting with ragweed (RW) pollen or by intranasal instillation of RW extract and subsequently challenged with a RW extract aerosol. It was relatively easy to determine the microshock time for animals which responded between 0 and 10 minutes. Sera from these sensitive guinea pigs were tittered by passive cutaneous anaphylaxis tests. Data from these two assays showed a semilogarithmic relationship with a correlation coefficient of -0.934.

Suppression of anaphylactic reactions in guinea pigs by previous treatment with ragweed aerosol.

Guinea pigs subjected to intranasal dusting with ragweed (RW) pollen or intranasal instillation of RW extract (RWE) showed anaphylactic reactions when subjected to RW extract aerosol (RWE). These animals, however, did not respond to an aerosol of RW whole pollen. Animals which received the RWEA treatment prior to nasal dusting with RW pollen showed no subsequent anaphylactic reactions when exposed to RWEA. Both the aerosol-sensitive and the aerosol-nonresponsive animals exhibited high titers of homocytotropic antibodies to RWE. In addition, the aerosol-nonresponsive animals also had precipitating antibodies of IgG type. The state of nonresponsiveness did not appear to be due to the precipitating antibodies, since this condition could not be passively transferred by sera and blocking antibody activity was not demonstrable.

Intrarenal pheochromocytoma: preoperative angiographic diagnosis.

This report documents the angiographic, urographic, and tomographic findings in a patients with a pheochromocytoma within the renal capsule and separate from a normal adrenal gland.