Potentialities of lymphography using chromethiotrast, a new x-ray contrast medium]

A study was made of the potentialities of lymphography using a new radiopaque medium chromethiotrast (a solution of harmless fat-soluble anthraquinone dyes fixed with ethiotrast). The agent is intended for combined x-ray and visual investigation of the lymphatic system. Lymphograms of 76 patients (with Hodgkin's disease, prostatic cancer, cancer of the female organs, breast, bladder, rectal cancer, and secondary limb lymphedema) were analyzed. Chromethiotrast is easily administered in the lymphatic bed ensuring a good contrast density of the lymphatic vessels permitting the detection of their structure. Chromethiotrast is quickly discharged from the lymphatic system, causing no marked side-effects provided all precautions necessary for the administration of iodobutyric radiopaque media, are taken.     

Base for use a new liquid accumulation growth medium for the isolation of Salmonella from water objects

Base for use of new luquid mild inhibitory accumulation medium for the isolation of Salmonella from water objects has been proposed. High sensitivity and efficacy of the new medium compared with routinely used magnesium and selenitic media were shown in experimental conditions. During examination of water from surface reservoirs the new accumulation medium allowed to isolate Salmonella with higher index and various serologic patterns.     

Development and use of a new medium to detect yeasts of the genera Dekkera/Brettanomyces

AIMS: The objectives of this work were to develop a selective and/or differential medium able to efficiently recover Dekkera/Brettanomyces sp. from wine-related environments and to determine the relationship between these yeasts and the 4-ethylphenol content in a wide range of wines. METHODS AND RESULTS: The selectivity of the developed medium was provided by the addition of ethanol, as single carbon source, and cycloheximide. The inclusion of bromocresol green evidenced acid-producing strains. The inclusion of p-coumaric acid, substrate for the production of 4-ethylphenol, enabled the differentiation by smell of Dekkera/Brettanomyces sp. from all other yeast species growing in the medium. The medium was used either by plating after membrane filtration or by the Most Probable Number (MPN) technique. In 29 white and 88 red randomly collected wines, these yeasts were found only in red wines at levels up to 2500 MPN ml-1, but constituted less than 1% of the total microbial flora. In red wines, 84% showed detectable amounts of 4-ethylphenol up to 4430 microg l-1 while 28% of the white wines showed detectable levels up to 403 microg l-1. CONCLUSION: The use of the medium proposed in this work evidenced the presence of low relative populations of Dekkera/Brettanomyces sp. even in wines contaminated by fast-growing yeasts and moulds. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: Further ecological studies on Dekkera/Brettanomyces sp. should take into account the use of highly specific culture media in order to establish their true occurrence in nature.     

Development of a new medium for the culture of agallian leafhopper cells

Summary The optimal composition of a medium for tissue culture of cells from the leafhopperAgallia constricta was estimated from experiments in which the rate of growth of the cells was measured at different concentrations of each component. Wound tumor virus and theconstricta variety of potato yellow dwarf virus multiply, inA. constricta when these viruses are transmitted from one plant to another. Differences weredetected in the suitablility of different batches of fetal bovine serum (after heating at 56°C for 30 min), and histidine as components in the tissue culture medium. Without heat treatment even thebest fetal bovine serum was not suitable. Estimated optimal concentrations of fetal bovine serum, histidine, salts, dextrose, lactalbumin hydrolysate and yeast autolysate were determined. Fungizone (amphotericin B) at 50 or 100 mg per 1 caused harmful effects; effective concentrations of penicillin, neomycin and steptomycin did not. Combinations of histidine-HCl and histidine (free-base) made it possible to prepare buffered medium at my pH between 6.0 and 7.0. Optimal growth ofA. constricta cells occurred at pH 6.43, and ofAceratagallia sanguinolenta at pH 6.30. Osmotic pressures of the new medium between 360 and 405 mOSM were better than lower osmotic pressures. The new medium was still suitable for growth of the cells after, storage for 6 months at 4°C. Portion of a thesis submitted for the Ph.D. degree by the senior author to the Graduate College of the University of Illinois. This research was supported in part by Grant GB 20915 from the National Science Foundation and Grant AI 6392 from the National Institutes of Health.     

Cost-effectiveness of magnetic resonance imaging with a new contrast agent for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease

Background

Used as contrast agents for brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), markers for beta-amyloid deposits might allow early diagnosis of Alzheimer''s disease (AD). We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of such a diagnostic test, MRI+CLP (contrastophore-linker-pharmacophore), should it become clinically available.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We compared the cost-effectiveness of MRI+CLP to that of standard diagnosis using currently available cognition tests and of standard MRI, and investigated the impact of a hypothetical treatment efficient in early AD. The primary analysis was based on the current French context for 70-year-old patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). In alternative “screen and treat” scenarios, we analyzed the consequences of systematic screenings of over-60 individuals (either population-wide or restricted to the ApoE4 genotype population). We used a Markov model of AD progression; model parameters, as well as incurred costs and quality-of-life weights in France were taken from the literature. We performed univariate and probabilistic multivariate sensitivity analyses.The base-case preferred strategy was the standard MRI diagnosis strategy. In the primary analysis however, MRI+CLP could become the preferred strategy under a wide array of scenarios involving lower cost and/or higher sensitivity or specificity. By contrast, in the “screen and treat” analyses, the probability of MRI+CLP becoming the preferred strategy remained lower than 5%.

Conclusions/Significance

It is thought that anti-beta-amyloid compounds might halt the development of dementia in early stage patients. This study suggests that, even should such treatments become available, systematically screening the over-60 population for AD would only become cost-effective with highly specific tests able to diagnose early stages of the disease. However, offering a new diagnostic test based on beta-amyloid markers to elderly patients with MCI might prove cost-effective.     

An improved intravenous contrast medium; preliminary studies with hypaque

A relatively new intravenous opaque medium, Hypaque(R) in 50 per cent solution, was used in 50 consecutive patients. None of them had a serious reaction. Twenty-two had mild reactions which were of no clinical significance. The radiographs obtained seemed to be equal in quality to those obtained with other contrast media.     

Brace treatment for patients with Scheuermann's disease - a review of the literature and first experiences with a new brace design

Background

In healthy adolescents normal back shape asymmetry, here termed truncal asymmetry (TA), is evaluated by higher and lower subsets of BMI. The study was initiated after research on girls with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) showed that higher and lower BMI subsets discriminated patterns of skeletal maturation and asymmetry unexplained by existing theories of pathogenesis leading to a new interpretation which has therapeutic implications (double neuro-osseous theory).

Methods

5953 adolescents age 11–17 years (boys 2939, girls 3014) were examined in a school screening program in two standard positions, standing forward bending (FB) and sitting FB. The sitting FB position is thought to reveal intrinsic TA free from back humps induced by any leg-length inequality. TA was measured in both positions using a Pruijs scoliometer as angle of trunk inclinations (ATIs) across the back at each of three spinal regions, thoracic, thoracolumbar and lumbar. Abnormality of ATIs was defined as being outside 2 standard deviations for each age group, gender, position and spinal region, and termed severe TA.

Results

In the sitting FB position after correcting for age, relatively lower BMIs are statistically associated with a greater number of severe TAs than with relatively higher BMIs in both girls (thoracolumbar region) and boys (thoracolumbar and lumbar regions). The relative frequency of severe TAs is significantly higher in girls than boys for each of the right thoracic (56.76%) and thoracolumbar (58.82%) regions (p = 0.006, 0.006, respectively). After correcting for age, smaller BMIs are associated with more severe TAs in boys and girls.

Discussion

BMI is a surrogate measure for body fat and circulating leptin levels. The finding that girls with relatively lower BMI have significantly later menarche, and a significant excess of TAs, suggests a relation to energy homeostasis through the hypothalamus. The hypothesis we suggest for the pathogenesis of severe TA in girls and boys has the same mechanism as that proposed recently for AIS girls, namely: severe TAs are initiated by a genetically-determined selectively increased hypothalamic sensitivity (up-regulation, i.e. increased sensitivity) to leptin with asymmetry as an adverse response to stress (hormesis), mediated bilaterally mainly to the growing trunk via the sympathetic nervous system (leptin-hypothalamic-sympathetic nervous system (LHS) concept). The putative autonomic dysfunction is thought to be increased by any lower circulating leptin levels associated with relatively lower BMIs. Sympathetic nervous system activation with asymmetry leads to asymmetries in ribs and/or vertebrae producing severe TA when beyond the capacity of postural mechanisms of the somatic nervous system to control the shape distortion of the trunk. A test of this hypothesis testing skin sympathetic responses, as in the Rett syndrome, is suggested.