Establishment of a human cutaneous T-cell lymphoma in C.B-17 SCID mice.

Investigation into the immunobiology of cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCL) would be facilitated by the development of a suitable experimental system. The recent use of mice with severe combined immune deficiency (SCID) as a vehicle to study the human immune system prompted us to try to establish CTCL in SCID mice. We found that a CD4+ lymphocytic infiltrate characteristic of CTCL was maintained within patient skin grafts in place on natural killer cell depleted SCID mice for the month of observation. CTCL cells were not found outside the human skin graft. This chimeric model using SCID mice and patient lesional skin should provide a useful tool to characterize CTCL/skin microenvironmental interactions and to test new therapeutic approaches.

Ultra-high throughput screen of two-million-member combinatorial compound collection in a miniaturized, 1536-well assay format.

Results of a complete survey of the more than 2-million-member Pharmacopeia compound collection in a 1536-well microvolume screening assay format are reported. A complete technology platform, enabling the performance of ultra-high throughput screening in a miniaturized 1536-well assay format, has been assembled and utilized. The platform consists of tools for performing microvolume assays, including assay plates, liquid handlers, optical imagers, and data management software. A fluorogenic screening assay for inhibition of a protease enzyme target was designed and developed using this platform. The assay was used to perform a survey screen of the Pharmacopeia compound collection for active inhibitors of the target enzyme. The results from the survey demonstrate the successful implementation of the ultra-high throughout platform for routine screening purposes. Performance of the assay in the miniaturized format is equivalent to that of a standard 96-well assay, showing the same dependence on kinetic parameters and ability to measure enzyme inhibition. The survey screen identified an active class of compounds within the Pharmacopeia compound collection. These results were confirmed using a standard 96-well assay.

Group sessions as a method of reducing anxiety in patients with coronary artery disease.

The purpose of the group sessions in our hospital was to relieve patient anxiety by offering the patients an opportunity to discuss lifestyle changes necessary for adjustment in living with CAD in order to better adapt to the illness. A series of informal group sessions accomplished these purposes admirably. It is the opinion of these authors that nurses educated in group skills should institute group sessions for patients with CAD. The benefits to both the nurse and patient are unlimited.

Commitment to physical activity and anxiety about physique among college women.

This study involved a comparison of scores on the Commitment to Physical Activity Scale and the Social Physique Anxiety Scale by 258 women athletes, kinesiology majors, and a control group. Mean commitment to physical activity of the control group was significantly lower than the means of the other groups; the mean on anxiety about social physique was significantly higher.

A survey of exercise based cardiac rehabilitation services in Northern Ireland.

A survey was undertaken to establish the extent of provision of phase III exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation in Northern Ireland. Detailed information was obtained on patient referral mechanisms, patient assessment, the exercise component of cardiac rehabilitation and the use of outcome measures. The results suggest that cardiac rehabilitation in Northern Ireland has developed on an ad hoc basis, and although most centres accept myocardial infarction and coronary artery bypass graft patients for cardiac rehabilitation, higher risk patients are generally excluded from these programmes. Currently, little in the way of standard outcome measures are being used to evaluate the effectiveness of existing cardiac rehabilitation services. This paper makes several recommendations to facilitate the development of a more standardised service within Northern Ireland.

Sympathetic sprouting in visual cortex stimulated by cholinergic denervation rescues expression of two forms of long-term depression at layer 2/3 synapses.

Cholinergic innervation of hippocampus and cortex is required for some forms of learning and memory. Several reports have shown that activation of muscarinic m1 receptors induces a long-term depression (mLTD) at glutamate synapses in hippocampus and in several areas of cortex, including perirhinal and visual cortices. This plasticity likely contributes to cognitive function dependent upon the cholinergic system. In rodent models, degeneration of hippocampal cholinergic innervation following lesion of the medial septum stimulates sprouting of adrenergic sympathetic axons, originating from the superior cervical ganglia (SCG), into denervated hippocampal subfields. We previously reported that this adrenergic sympathetic sprouting occurs simultaneously with a reappearance of cholinergic fibers in hippocampus and rescue of mLTD at CA3-CA1 synapses. Because cholinergic neurons throughout basal forebrain degenerate in aging and Alzheimer's disease, it is critical to determine if this compensatory sprouting occurs in other regions impacted by cholinergic cell loss. To this end, we investigated whether lesion of the nucleus basalis magnocellularis (NbM) to cholinergically denervate cortex stimulates adrenergic sympathetic sprouting and the accompanying increase in cholinergic innervation. Further, we assessed whether the presence of sprouting positively correlates with the ability of glutamate synapses in acute visual cortex slices to express mLTD and low frequency stimulation induced LTD (LFS LTD), another cholinergic dependent form of plasticity in visual cortex. We found that both mLTD and LFS LTD are absent in animals when NbM lesion is combined with bilateral removal of the SCG to prevent possible compensatory sprouting. In contrast, when the SCG remain intact to permit sprouting in animals with NbM lesion, cholinergic fiber density is increased concurrently with adrenergic sympathetic sprouting, and mLTD and LFS LTD are preserved. Our findings suggest that autonomic compensation for central cholinergic degeneration is not specific to hippocampus, but is a general repair mechanism occurring in other brain regions important for normal cognitive function.

Experience with rapid latex agglutination testing for group A streptococcal pharyngitis in a pediatric group office laboratory.

We evaluated 2401 patients with suspected streptococcal pharyngitis with the Culturette 10-minute Group A Strep ID test during a 6-month period in order to determine its suitability for rapid diagnosis in a busy private office practice. Duplicate throat swabs were obtained for each child, and latex agglutination was performed within 15 minutes. In children with negative latex agglutination results, the second swab was cultured. All latex agglutination results were available within 20 minutes of collection, while the patients waited in the office. Seven hundred thirty-eight specimens were positive by latex agglutination. Seventy-eight of the 1663 latex negative specimens contained group A streptococci on culture (sensitivity 90 percent). Approximately 60 percent of these latex-negative, culture-positive specimens demonstrated 3(+)-4+ growth in culture, unlike previous studies ascribing false-negative latex results to low colony count specimens. Fifty percent of bacitracin-susceptible streptococci tested were not group A, indicating a relatively high occurrence of nongroup A beta-hemolytic streptococcal carriage in this patient population. The use of latex agglutination for detection of group A streptococcal pharyngitis was well-suited to our office practice, even during an extremely busy winter season. Although this assay appears to have a relatively high sensitivity, it is still prudent to culture latex-negative swabs to exclude group A streptococcal infection. The significance of nongroup A beta-hemolytic streptococci in our patient population was unclear. Further refinements are necessary.

Effect of atmosphere of incubation on the isolation of group A streptococci from throat cultures.

The optimal atmosphere of incubation for the isolation of group A beta-hemolytic streptococci from throat cultures has been the subject of considerable debate. To resolve this issue, we examined 5992 consecutive throat cultures performed at a private pediatric office in children with acute upper respiratory tract infections. All throat cultures were streaked onto duplicate blood agar plates, one of which was then incubated anaerobically and the other aerobically. beta-Hemolytic streptococci were isolated in cultures from 1885 (31.5%) of the patients; 1479 (24.7%) were identified as group A, and 406 (6.8%) were identified as non-group A. Group A streptococci were recovered significantly more often from the plates incubated anaerobically than from those incubated aerobically (1467 vs. 1054; anaerobic only, 425; aerobic only, 12; P less than 0.01). Non-group A streptococci were also recovered significantly more often from the plates incubated anaerobically than from the plates incubated aerobically (397 vs. 170; anaerobic only, 236; aerobic only, 9;P less than 0.01). Anaerobic incubation maximizes the yield of the throat culture. The additional cost and effort of anaerobic incubation are small, and would appear to be justified by the increased isolation rate of group A beta-hemolytic streptococci. The significance of the increased isolation rate of non-group A beta-hemolytic streptococci with anaerobic incubation needs to be investigated further.

Group F streptococci in the pharynx: pathogens or innocent bystanders?

beta-Hemolytic streptococci (BHS) of Lancefield group F were isolated in moderate to heavy growth from throat cultures taken from 46 children and adolescents with symptomatic pharyngitis. In most instances, oxygen deprivation by means of an anaerobe jar was required for these beta-hemolytic organisms to grow. In relation to a comparison group of children with throat cultures positive for group A BHS, children with group F isolates were more likely to be adolescents and less likely to have fever and cervical adenopathy. It appears that group F BHS are not a major cause of nonepidemic pharyngitis in the pediatric age group. More precise determination of how commonly these organisms cause pharyngitis will require either comparison of isolation rates of group F BHS from the throats of both sick and well children, or further elucidation of the serologic response to these organisms so as to distinguish invasive infection from asymptomatic carriage.

Experience with the microbiologic diagnosis of Campylobacter enteritis in an office laboratory.

Campylobacter jejuni has been recognized as a frequent cause of bacterial diarrhea in infants and children. C. jejuni is a fastidious, Gram-negative, comma-shaped or sea gull-shaped, curved rod which is capable, particularly during the summer months, of causing slimy mucoid, blood diarrhea, abdominal pain and fever. In our pediatric office laboratory we found over a 12-month period that 14 (10%) of 126 stool specimens contained this pathogen. All but two children were diagnosed during the late spring and summer. There was no common source for Campylobacter infections in the patients. In 8 (66%) of 12 patients, C. jejuni infection was immediately detected by examining a 1% aqueous basic fuchsin-stained stool smear. Uncontrolled observations from this study suggest that erythromycin therapy, if started within 2 to 3 days of the onset of illness, is clinically effective.

Rapid diagnosis of streptococcal pharyngitis in two pediatric offices using a latex agglutination kit.

The diagnostic accuracy and practicality of a latex agglutination test for the rapid diagnosis of streptococcal pharyngitis directly from throat swabs were evaluated in two private pediatric practices. Compared with anaerobic throat culture the latex agglutination method had a sensitivity of 93.4%, a specificity of 90.2% and an overall accuracy of 91.8%. Even used as a while-you-wait test, the rapid method fit easily into the routine of busy office practice. Latex agglutination testing for the rapid diagnosis of streptococcal pharyngitis may prove to be a valuable adjunct to the office microbiology laboratory.

Identifying college athletes at risk for pathogenic eating.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effectiveness of a discriminant function that predicts risk of pathogenic eating in comparison with a standard self report measure (EAT) and a clinical interview. In addition, to determine the effectiveness of this discriminant function using a variety of collegiate athletes. METHODS: A total of 319 participants were asked to complete a series of self report measures that assessed dietary practices. In addition, anthropometric measures were obtained, and a random sample of 15% participated in a structured clinical interview. RESULTS: Correlational analyses indicated that the discriminant function categorisation of risk was significantly related to both the clinical interview and EAT (p < or =0.05). The discriminant function was accurate in predicting risk category in this diverse group of athletes, particularly with respect to those at low risk (83.1%) and those at high risk (72.7%). CONCLUSION: This information may be helpful in the development of a simple, accessible tool to identify athletes at risk of engaging in pathogenic eating behaviours.

Radiocarbon dates on bones of extinct birds from Hawaii.

Bones from a stratified sedimentary deposit in the Puu Naio Cave site on Maui, Hawaiian Islands, reveal the late Holocene extinction of 19 species of birds. The age of the sediment and associated fauna was determined by direct radiocarbon dating (tandem particle accelerator-mass spectrometer; TAMS) of amino acids extracted from bones weighing as little as 450 mg. The 14C dates indicate that sediment has been accumulating in the lava tube for at least the last 7750 years, a suitable time frame for testing the hypothesis that Holocene extinction on islands began after human colonization. Despite growing evidence that a worldwide wave of extinctions coincided with human colonization of oceanic islands, little radiometric data have been available to date the extinction of most small fossil vertebrates on islands. The TAMS technique of dating purified collagen from the bones of small vertebrates could lead to vastly improved chronologies of extinction for oceanic islands where catastrophic mid- to late-Holocene extinction is expected or known to have occurred. Chronologies derived from nonarcheological sites that show continuous sedimentation, such as the Puu Naio Cave deposit, may also yield key evidence on the timing of earliest human settlement of Oceania.