Studies with human myeloid leukemia cell lines indicate that combined interferon (INF) and retinoic acid (RA) have greater effects in inhibiting cell growth and in inducing terminal differentiation ...than either agent alone. Consequently, we studied the effects of these agents, singly and in combination, on fresh leukemic blast cells obtained from 13 acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) patients, most of whom were subsequently treated with recombinant leukocyte-alpha A interferon (rINF-alpha A). The in-vitro response to rINF-alpha A and RA was assessed in an established myeloid leukemic blast cell clonogenic assay containing conditioned medium from phytohemagglutinin-stimulated lymphocytes. Strong inhibition of colony cell growth (greater than or equal to 50%) was observed in 4/10 cases treated with rINF-alpha A alone, but only at high concentration (greater than or equal to 2500 U/ml) and in 4/10 cases treated with RA alone (5 X 10(-8) M or 5 X 10(-7) M). Combined rINF-alpha A and RA augmented the inhibition of primary or secondary colony cell growth in 5/8 evaluable cases. Stimulation of leukemic cell differentiation was observed in 1/8 cases by rINF-alpha A alone and in 4/7 cases by RA alone. Combined rINF-alpha A and RA enhanced cell differentiation in 4/7 cases. In addition, increased inhibition of clonal cell growth and/or differentiation by RA alone was observed in 2/5 cases following in-vivo rINF-alpha A treatment. These results suggest that treatment with combined rINF-alpha A and RA may be rewarding in some cases of AML.
To determine the safety and efficacy of targeted antitumor therapy with cisplatin/epinephrine injectable gel in patients with advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.
Two prospective, ...double-blind, placebo-controlled phase III trials of identical design. Crossover from blinded to open-label phase was permitted for patients with disease progression.
Tertiary referral centers in North America and Europe.
One hundred seventy-nine intensively pretreated patients with recurrent or refractory squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.
Cisplatin/epinephrine injectable or placebo gel was administered by direct intratumoral injection; up to 6 weekly treatments. Dose was 0.25 mL of active or placebo gel per cubic centimeter of tumor up to 10 mL total. Patient benefit after local tumor control of the most symptomatic tumor was assessed by patients and physicians using the Treatment Goals Questionnaire.
Local tumor response and patient benefit attributable to improvements in tumor-related symptoms.
Combined results for the 178 patients with evaluable data in the 2 trials confirmed objective tumor responses in 35 (29%) of 119 patients, including 23 (19%) complete responses achieved with cisplatin/epinephrine gel, vs 1 (2%) of 59 for placebo (P<.001). Tumor response and patient benefit were significantly correlated (P=.006): 47% (17/36) of patients with target tumor responses achieved a rigorously defined benefit based on a prospectively selected treatment goal vs 15% (22/142) of nonresponders.
Cisplatin/epinephrine injectable gel reduces tumor burden, ameliorates tumor symptoms, and provides a new therapeutic option for treating patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.
Multiple use management of aquatic systems frequently involves conflicting demands from the various user groups. A 4-year program designed to evaluate large-scale artificial fertilization as a ...potential management tool for enhancing the forage and game fish populations of Lake Mead, a large Colorado River reservoir, generated considerable attention from both on-lake and downstream water users. An extensive water-quality monitoring program, undertaken as part of the fertilization experiment, demonstrated that the nutrient additions did not produce significant negative impacts on Lake Mead water quality from either a public health (that is, drinking water) or environmental perspective. One set of parameters, for example, hypolimnetic oxygen depletion and the relative abundance of blue-green algae, exhibited no consistent response to the fertilizer. A second group of parameters did respond to fertilizer addition, but changes were both moderate and relatively short-term. Examples in this group include chlorophyll, threshold odor number, and trihalomethane formation potentials.
Buerger's disease in a young woman Leavitt, R Y; Bressler, P; Fauci, A S
The American journal of medicine,
05/1986, Letnik:
80, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Buerger's disease or thromboangiitis obliterans is characterized by peripheral arterial occlusions in young male cigarette smokers. It is rarely considered in the differential diagnosis of vascular ...disease in women, although there have been several well-documented cases in the literature. This report presents a young woman with both angiographic and histopathologic evidence for Buerger's disease who was initially treated with daily corticosteroids for presumed vasculitis. This case emphasizes the fact that Buerger's disease can present in a fashion similar to both vasculitis and collagen vascular disease.
Pulse-labeled ColEl DNA molecules, undergoing replication in Escherichia coli cells either in the absence or presence of chloramphenicol, were extracted and purified by neutral sucrose density ...gradient sedimentation and equilibrium centrifugation in an ethidium bromide-cesium chloride gradient. In the dye-buoyant density gradient, the replicating molecules were found in regions between the supercoiled and open-circular nonreplicating plasmid DNA, as well as in the open-circular region. In a neutral sucrose gradient, peaks of pulse label were found in the region of 26 to 38 S as well as at the 23 and 17 S positions corresponding to the positions of supercoiled and open-circular ColEl DNA. In alkaline sucrose gradient, nascent ColEl DNA was found to sediment as discrete peaks corresponding to 5-6, 7-9, and 14-16 S, indicating that at least one growing strand of the replicating molecule is produced discontinuously. In the electron microscope, many of the molecules appeared as partially supercoiled structures containing two open-circular branches of equal length, of less than 20% to more than 90% replicated. Branched open-circular molecules were not observed to any significant extent without prior treatment to induce single-strand scissions. The parental strands of the replicating molecules were determined to be covalently closed, but the superhelical density of the DNA was shown to be progressively decreased as replication proceeded.
The area-length method is widely used in the determination of left ventricular volume. Although previous studies have reported that this technique overestimates true volume (TV), it is unknown ...whether this overestimation is the same at different volumes. In the present study, with the use of 10 postmortem human hearts, left ventricular volumes were determined by contrast x-ray biplane cine ventriculography (LVA), biplane radionuclide (LVR), and absolute-counts (LVC) technetium scans, and the results were correlated with TV. LVA correlated well with TV (r = 0.98). LVR correlated well with TV (r = 0.97), and LVR also correlated well with LVA (r = 0.96). Both area-length techniques (LVA and LVR) resulted in overestimation of TV with an upward shift of the regression line of 30.4ml +/- 3.8 (SEM) for LVA and 28.5 +/- 4.4 for LVR. The percentage of overestimation error was significantly greater at smaller left ventricular volumes (error = 33% at TV = 30ml and 10% at TV = 100ml, p less than 0.001). LVC correlated well with TV (r = 0.99), TVA, and LVR but underestimated TV. Thus left ventricular volumes can be reliably obtained from LVR and LVA by means of the area-length method and from LVC. When the area-length method is utilized, the percentage of error in the determination of left ventricular volume is proportional to 1/TV.
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