Ionic Basis of Vascular Response to Vasoactive Substances

Neurological sciences in the U.S.S.R. are healthy but have middle-age spread, as judged from an intensive personal tour of facilities as a guest of the Soviet Academy of Sciences during the autumn of 1963. Many of the recent Western enthusiasms in ultrastructure, cytogenetics and molecular genetics appear not to have inflamed many imaginations. However, Soviet neurologists are contributing to the same types of electrophysiological research as are current in the West. The full realization of the talents of many well-trained young investigators is hindered by the strong emphasis on Pavlovian theory and technique, the rigid multi-layered structure of research institutes, and the relative isolation from undergraduate medical schools of most research.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Candida dubliniensis</Emphasis>: Epidemiology and Phenotypic Methods for Identification

Candida dubliniensis is an emerging pathogen first described in 1995, which shares many phenotypic features with Candida albicans and therefore may be misidentified in microbial laboratories. Despite various phenotypic techniques described in the literature to differentiate the two species, the correct identification of C. dubliniensis remains problematic due to phenotypic similarities between these species. Thus, as the differences between both are best characterized at genetic levels, several molecular methods have been proposed to provide a specific and rapid identification of this species. Epidemiological studies have shown that C. dubliniensis is prevalent throughout the world and it is primarily associated with oral carriage and oropharyngeal infections in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). However, data acquired from its isolation from other healthy and immunocompromised patients are variable, and there is still no real consensus on the epidemiological relevance of this species. In this article, we review the various phenotypic methods used in the identification of C. dubliniensis and the epidemiological impact of this new species.