Thirty-two canine mammary tubulopapillary carcinomas and 14 simple adenomas were studied by immunohistochemistry for the expression of UDP-galactose:ceramide galactosyltransferase (UGT8). The majority of tissue specimens (57%) representing adenomas had no or weak reaction with anti-UGT8 antibodies (0-2 pts according to IRS scale) in comparison to the majority of carcinomas (90%) which stained w...

BACKGROUND Platelet-activating factor (PAF) is a phospholipid mediator with potent inflammatory activities. PAF stimulates IgA synthesis by B cells while IgA aggregates enhance PAF production by neutrophils and mesangial cells. These results led us to investigate blood PAF levels and plasma acetylhydrolase (AHA, the PAF catabolic enzyme) activity in patients with idiopathic IgA nephropathy (IgA...

To evaluate clinical effectiveness and safety of 2 different detoxification treatment protocols, a chart analysis of hospital inpatients consecutively admitted for alcohol withdrawal during one year was undertaken. Records of 33 patients receiving symptom-triggered treatment (using a modified version of the revised Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment for Alcohol Scale) were compared with t...

PURPOSE To investigate by laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) the density of presumed epithelial, presumed goblet, and presumed inflammatory cells in the tarsal conjunctiva of healthy young and older subjects and in patients with Sjögren's syndrome (SS). To evaluate the interobserver variability and to compare the measured densities with known age-related and SS-related changes. METHODS...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate motor behavior in children after traumatic brain injury (TBI) with quantitative instrumented measures of gait and of functional hand movements (reaching, grasping) and with clinical assessments. DESIGN Case-control study. SETTING Tertiary pediatric trauma rehabilitation center in Germany. PARTICIPANTS Twenty children (age range, 6-13 y) with moderate or severe TBI we...

AIM The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is a difference in pain and distress response of the child when using two different computer-controlled local analgesic delivery systems, the Sleeper One(®) and the WAND(®), and whether this was influenced by the anxiety level of the child. METHODS This randomised controlled trial was conducted among 112 children (56 girls) aged 4...

To analyse the influence of the sex of the transmitting grandparents on the occurrence of the congenital form of myotonic dystrophy (CDM), we have studied complete three generation pedigrees of 49 CDM cases, analysing: (1) the sex distribution in the grandparents' generation, and (2) the intergenerational amplification of the CTG repeat, measured in its absolute and relative values, between gra...

To investigate labour-associated changes in production of activin and related hormones by gestational tissues we prepared extracts from amnion, choriodecidual and placental tissues delivered at term before labour (TNL; n=15), at term after spontaneous labour (TSL; n=15) or preterm (PTD; n=31) and measured concentrations of inhibin A, activin A and follistatin by ELISA. Activin concentrations in...

PURPOSE To examine whether patients with glaucoma exhibit differences in visually guided reaching-and-grasping (prehension) behavior compared with normally sighted control subjects. METHODS Sixteen patients with glaucoma and 16 control subjects with no ocular disease participated. Participants were required to reach out and precision grasp one of two cylindrical objects placed on a table top ...

OBJECTIVE This aim of the study is to investigate whether there are possible plasma urotensin-II (U-II) and neurokinin B (NKB) level changes in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) or not and plasma urotensin-II (U-II) and neurokinin B (NKB) level changes in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and stable coronary artery disease (CAD) and to evaluate whether there is any r...