bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Microsatellite Alterations in African Americans with Head and Neck Cancer
Authors: Yoo George H. , Nguyen Nghia X. , Du Wei , Schwartz Ann G. , Land Susan , Lin Ho‐Sheng , Kewson Danny , Murphy Leslie L. , Cilluffo Dave , Ensley John F. , Tainsky Michael A. 
Published: August 2004

AbstractObjective: To determine the genetic differences between African Americans (AA) and Non‐African Americans (NAA) with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).Methods: DNA was obtained from tumor tissues and peripheral blood from 18 AA and 19 NAA patients with HNSCC. Microsatellite analysis using a fluorescent technique was performed on chromosomal arms 1p, 3p, 4q, 9p, 13q, and 17p. Statistical analyses were performed on the molecular and clinical outcome data.Results: Based on the Surveillance, Epidemiologic, and End Result (SEER) data from southeast Michigan, the incidence rate of HNSCC in AA has been higher than for NAA, and the overall 5‐year relative survival rate is lower for AA than NAA (36.2% vs. 47.6%). In this study, we found that the rate of loss of heterozygosity of chromosomal arms 1p, 3p, 4q, 9p, 13q, and 17p ranged from 68.8% to 83.3% for HNSCC in AA and from 66.7% to 90.0% in NAA. The difference in the rates of microsatellite alterations in chromosomal arms 3p, 4q, and 9p between AA and NAA were between 12.5% and 20% and were not statistically significant.Conclusion: The incidence and clinical outcomes for AA with HNSCC are different from that of NAA in southeast Michigan. In our group of patients with HNSCC, differences in rates of microsatellite alterations and survival were found between AA and NAA; however, these differences were not statistically significant. We conclude that genetic difference, as determined by the rates of microsatellite alterations, is not predictive of outcome difference between AA and NAA HNSCC patients.
Tracheal Agenesis in Newborns
Authors: Lander Timothy A. , Schauer Galen , Bendel‐Stenzel Ellen , Sidman James D. 
Published: August 2004

AbstractObjectives/Hypothesis: A series of three newborns with tracheal agenesis is described. The preferred methods of diagnosis, description of the clinical course, and a review of the pertinent embryology, associated anomalies, and clinical management are presented.Study Design: A retrospective study of a clinical series of referred patients from 2002 to 2003 who were seen at a single institution.Methods: Chart review for clinical course and pathological specimens was performed in all cases. Three patients were identified with tracheal agenesis.Results: All three newborns died within 48 hours of birth. All of the children underwent emergency laryngoscopy and neck exploration. Gross and microscopic pathological examination was accomplished on all patients.Conclusion: Although tracheal agenesis is rare, it may be more common than previously thought. The diagnosis is not straightforward, and the prognosis is grim. The embryology of the trachea and other foregut derivatives is closely related, and associated birth defects are common.
U.S. Reinsurance Prices, Financial Quality, and Global Capacity
Authors: Weiss Mary A. , Chung Joon‐Hai 
Published: August 2004

AbstractThe puzzle of underwriting cycles and insurance crises in property‐liability insurance has led to numerous economic hypotheses and analyses, yet no single theory seems capable of explaining all of its aspects. Reinsurance is hypothesized to be a potential factor in observed cycles in the primary market; despite this, few underwriting cycle studies focus on reinsurance. The purpose of this research is to investigate determinants of reinsurance prices in the U.S. Nonproportional reinsurance is highlighted, since it is designed to cover the tail of the loss distribution and is considered to be relatively riskier than proportional reinsurance as a result. Separate samples of professional U.S. reinsurers for property and for casualty are studied, based upon the reinsurers' writings of property versus casualty nonproportional reinsurance. The sample period is 1991–1995. The results support both the capacity constraint hypothesis and the risky debt hypothesis, and this is the first research to support both. A major innovation in this study is the use of capacity variables that are broken down by major region of the world.
Mechanistic and genetic overlap of barley host and non‐host resistance to Blumeria graminis
Authors: TRUJILLO MARCO , TROEGER MARCUS , NIKS RIENTS E. , KOGEL KARL‐HEINZ , HÜCKELHOVEN RALPH 
Published: August 2004

SUMMARYNon‐host resistance of barley to Blumeria graminis f.sp. tritici (Bgt), an inappropriate forma specialis of the grass powdery mildew fungus, is associated with formation of cell wall appositions (papillae) at sites of attempted fungal penetration and a hypersensitive cell death reaction (HR) of single attacked cells. Penetration resistance and HR are also typical features of race‐non‐specific and race‐specific resistance of barley to the appropriate Blumeria graminis f.sp. hordei (Bgh), raising the question of whether genotypic differences in the cellular response of barley to Bgt are detectable. First, we analysed fungal penetration frequencies and HR in different barley accessions known to show altered non‐host resistance. In genotypes with limited resistance to inappropriate cereal rust fungi, we concomitantly detected low penetration resistance to Bgt and significant differences of HR rates during attack from Bgt. Second, we tested barley mutants known to show altered host responses to Bgh. The rar1‐mutation that suppresses many types of race‐cultivar‐specific resistances did not influence the non‐host response of the Bgt‐isolate used in this study. However, mutants of Ror1 and Ror2, two genes required for full race non‐specific penetration resistance of mlo‐barley to barley powdery mildew fungus, exhibited altered defence response to Bgt, including higher frequencies of fungal penetration. On these mutants, growth of the inappropriate fungus was arrested subsequent to penetration by HR. Together, the data show that barley defence response to the wheat powdery mildew fungus is determined by similar factors as race‐specific and race‐non‐specific resistance to appropriate Bgh.
Functional characterization of muscarinic receptor subtypes in human duodenal secretion
Authors: Larsen R. , Hansen M. B. , Bindslev N. , Mertz‐Nielsen A. 
Published: August 2004

AbstractAim:  Acetylcholine (ACh) stimulates ion secretion in the small intestine and colon. The purpose of the present study was to characterize the ACh‐induced electrogenic ion transport in human duodenum and determine the muscarinic receptor subtypes functionally involved.Methods:  Biopsies from the second part of duodenum were obtained from 28 patients during endoscopy. Biopsies were mounted in modified Ussing chambers with air‐suction for measurements of short‐circuit current by a previously validated technique. Short‐circuit current was measured after application of chloride/bicarbonate transport inhibitors bumetanide, 4‐acetamido‐4′‐isothiocyanostilbene‐2,2′‐disulfonic acid (SITS), diphenylamine‐2‐carboxylate (DPC), and acetazolamide. 4‐diphenylacetoxy‐N‐methylpiperidine methiodide (4‐DAMP) and two mamba toxins MT3 and MT7 were used to characterize the mAChR receptor subtypes involved. The effects of transport inhibitors and receptor antagonists were measured by comparing two consecutive responses of ACh on short‐circuit current in the same biopsy specimen.Results:  Bumetanide and 4‐DAMP significantly inhibited ACh‐induced short‐circuit current, whereas SITS, DPC, acetazolamide, mamba toxin MT3, and mamba toxin MT7 all failed to show any significant effect.Conclusion:  In conclusion, our results indicate that muscarinic receptor subtype M3 acts as the main mediator of bumetanide‐sensitive ACh‐induced secretion in human duodenum.
A critical comparison of drug therapies in currently used therapeutic strategies for variceal haemorrhage
Authors: Nevens F. 
Published: August 2004

SummaryVasoactive drugs are safe and easy to administer, and universal treatment is the first‐line approach for all patients with suspected variceal bleeding. There are strong arguments that the combination of vasoactive drugs, started as soon as possible, and endotherapy later on is the best therapeutic option, particularly in cases of ongoing bleeding at the time of endoscopy. The main action of vasoactive drugs is to reduce variceal pressure. This can be achieved by diminishing the variceal blood flow and/or by increasing resistance to variceal blood flow inside the varices. Changes in variceal pressure parallel changes in portal pressure. Drugs for the treatment of variceal bleeding can therefore be assessed by measuring the changes in portal pressure, azygos blood flow and variceal pressure. Vasoactive drugs can be divided into two categories: terlipressin (Glypressin®), and somatostatin and its analogues, especially octreotide. Terlipressin significantly reduces portal and variceal pressure and azygos flow, is superior to placebo in the control of variceal haemorrhage and improves mortality. It is beneficial when combined with sclerotherapy. It also has the advantage that it might preserve renal function, one of the most important factors affecting the outcome of cirrhosis. As such, terlipressin is the most potent of the various vasoactive drugs. Somatostatin significantly reduces portal and variceal pressure and azygos flow, is superior to placebo in controlling variceal haemorrhage, and improves the success of sclerotherapy. The effect of octreotide is well established for preventing the increase in portal pressure after a meal (similar to blood in the intestines) though the effect of ocreotide on variceal pressure is controversial.
Hepatorenal syndrome – definitions and diagnosis
Authors: Moreau R. , Lebrec D. 
Published: August 2004

SummaryHepatorenal syndrome (HRS) is a severe complication of cirrhosis that develops in the final phase of the disease. Two types of HRS exist. Type 1 is defined by a rapid reduction of renal function and in type 2 HRS the reduction of renal function is slowly progressive. Type 1 HRS is diagnosed when the serum creatinine level increases by more than 50% of the baseline value to above 133 µmol/L. According to the International Ascites Club, HRS is defined by the presence of five criteria: (1) severe cirrhosis; (2) glomerular hypofiltration; (3) no other functional or organic causes; (4) failure of plasma volume expansion; (5) no proteinuria. Additional diagnostic criteria may be present. The diagnosis of HRS may be difficult in patients with severe cirrhosis. Other types of acute renal failure may occur. For example, ischaemic or toxic tubular necrosis or sepsis may cause renal failure in these patients. Furthermore, uncontrolled HRS may lead to ischaemic tubular necrosis; thus, these patients must be managed as soon as possible in an intensive care unit.
Pathogenesis and pathophysiology of hepatorenal syndrome – is there scope for prevention?
Authors: Møller S. , Henriksen J. H. 
Published: August 2004

SummaryThe hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) is a functional impairment of the kidneys in chronic liver disease caused by a circulatory failure. The prognosis is poor, particularly with type 1 HRS, but also type 2, and only liver transplantation is of lasting benefit. However, recent research into the pathophysiology of ascites and HRS has stimulated new enthusiasm in their prevention and treatment. Patients with HRS have hyperdynamic circulatory dysfunction with reduced arterial blood pressure and reduced central blood volume, owing to preferential splanchnic arterial vasodilatation. Activation of potent vasoconstricting systems, including the sympathetic nervous and renin‐angiotensin‐aldosterone systems, counteracts the arterial vasodilatation and leads to a pronounced renal vasoconstriction with renal hypoperfusion, a reduced glomerular filtration rate, and intense sodium‐water retention. Thus prevention of HRS should seek to improve liver function, limit arterial hypotension and central hypovolaemia, and reduce renal vasoconstriction and the renal and interstitial pressures. Portal pressure can be reduced with β‐adrenergic blockers and transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS). Precipitating events, like infections, bleeding, and postparacentesis circulatory syndrome, should be treated to avoid further circulatory failure. Improvement in arterial blood pressure and central hypovolaemia can be achieved with vasoconstrictors, such as terlipressin (Glypressin®), and plasma expanders such as human albumin. In the future endothelins, adenosine antagonists, long‐acting vasoconstrictors, and antileukotriene drugs may play a role in preventing and treating HRS.
Anesthetic implications of Leigh's syndrome
Authors: Shear Torin , Tobias Joseph D. 
Published: August 2004

SummaryLeigh's syndrome (LS) is a mitochondrial disorder characterized by progressive neurodegenerative changes with loss of developmental milestones, abnormalities of central control of respiration, and metabolic derangements. The primary genetic defect involves the respiratory chain complex and pyruvate dehydrogenase complex resulting in abnormal mitochondrial function and defective oxidative phosphorylation. While most patients have respiratory and neurological impairment, involvement of the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems may also occur. The authors present the use of spinal anesthesia for muscle biopsy in a 19 month old with LS and review the potential anesthetic implications of this syndrome.
Transanal endoscopic microsurgery: clinical and functional results
Authors: Dafnis G. , Påhlman L. , Raab Y. , Gustafsson U.‐M. , Graf W. 
Published: August 2004

AbstractObjective  Transanal endoscopic microsurgery (TEM) has become increasingly common in the management of rectal adenomas and also in selected cases of rectal carcinomas. The aim of this study was to assess the results in a consecutive series of patients after introducing the TEM technique.Patients and methods  All 58 patients operated with TEM from January 1996 to January 1999 were evaluated in a retrospective review. Forty‐eight patients answered a clinically validated questionnaire a median of 22 months after TEM. Eighty patients who had undergone transanal excision and 12 who had undergone York Mason's procedure served as a reference group with respect to recurrence rates.Results  The complication rate was 5% (immediate) and 14% (long‐term). The overall 30‐day mortality rate was zero. An impairment of continence was seen in 18 (37%) patients. Of these, all 18 experienced varying degree of incontinence to liquid stool, 14 also to flatus and 5 of them even to solid stool. The recurrence rate was 11% in adenomas and 14% in cancers; T1, 1 (10%) recurrence and T2, 1 (50%) recurrence. There was a correlation between operating time and impairment of continence as well as recurrence rate.Conclusion  TEM is a safe procedure, having a low recurrence rate and an acceptable functional outcome.
‘An investigation of the nervous control of defecation’ by Denny‐Brown and Robertson: a classic paper revisited
Authors: Vilensky J. A. , Bell D. R. , Gilman S. 
Published: August 2004

AbstractIn 1935 two young neurologists, Derek Denny‐Brown and E. Graeme Robertson, published an article explaining the mechanisms underlying human defaecation based on a manometric study in patients with sacral root and spinal cord lesions, and normal subjects. This article is still routinely cited in studies of rectal and sphincter ani function. Unfortunately, however, the article itself is not written well, being composed of long convoluted sentences and containing 79 often indecipherable figures. Difficult‐to‐understand articles were common to the publications of Denny‐Brown, who became one of the most prominent neurologists of the twentieth century. In accord with our prior work explaining Denny‐Brown and Robertson's earlier paper on micturition, we provide here what we hope is a clear explanation of the methods and results in their study on defaecation.
Transanal endoscopic microsurgery: indications and results after 100 cases
Authors: Palma P. , Freudenberg S. , Samel S. , Post S. 
Published: August 2004

AbstractObjective  Transanal endoscopic microsurgery (TEM), a minimally invasive technique has been employed in the excision of benign and well‐selected malignant rectal tumours since June 1998. We present a prospective descriptive study and analyse the currently accepted indications.Patients and methods  Over a 4‐year period 100 patients underwent TEM for treatment of rectal tumours located between 4 and 18 cm from the anal verge.Results  TEM was performed in 71 cases for adenomas, 20 potentially curative excisions for pre‐operative staged low‐grade carcinoma, 3 palliative procedures for advance carcinoma, 5 carcinoids and 1 solitary ulcer. The local complication rate included wound breakdown in 7 patients, three of them requiring ileostomy. Conversion to laparotomy was performed in two patients. Five adenomas recurred and were successfully treated by TEM. Of the cancers, four patients required immediate salvage therapy by means of total mesorectal excision. Three patients underwent palliative TEM procedures combined with radiotherapy. A single cancer recurrence was treated by means of abdomino‐perineal resection after radiotherapy.Conclusions  TEM appears to be an effective method of excising benign tumours and selected T1 carcinomas of the rectum. The superior exposure of tumours higher in the rectum combined with the greater precision of excision make this minimally invasive technique an attractive surgical approach.
Parents and partners in crime: a six‐year longitudinal study on changes in supportive relationships and delinquency in adolescence and young adulthood
Authors: Meeus W. , Branje S. , Overbeek G.J. 
Published: August 2004

Background:  This study sought the answer to three questions: 1. Is having an intimate partner associated with the level of delinquency? 2. Does the quality of the relationship with an intimate partner, operationalised as partner support, predict the level of delinquency? 3. Does a relationship with an intimate partner or age moderate the association between parental support and delinquency?Method:  Data from a three‐wave, six‐year longitudinal study of 1302 adolescents and young adults, aged 12–23 at wave 1, were used.Results:  1. Univariate latent growth curve analysis showed that, as predicted, having an intimate partner does not lead to less criminality among young adults over the age of 20. We found no support for the hypothesis among the group of 12‐ to 20‐year‐old adolescents, since the group of mid‐adolescents who consistently have a partner is more criminal than the other groups. 2. Our findings show that partner support is negatively related to criminality in both 12‐ to 20‐year‐olds and 21‐ to 23‐year‐olds. The longitudinal effect of partner support is also uni‐directional: partner support T1 certainly has an impact on criminality T3, but the reverse is not true. In both groups the influence of partner support is also greater than that of parental support. 3. Having an intimate partner moderates the association between parental support and delinquency, but in an age‐specific manner. Parental support has no bearing on criminality when adolescents and young adults continuously have an intimate partner. Parental support does, however, cause a reduction in the level of criminality in adolescents and young adults who have never had a partner and adolescents who only have a partner at time 3.Conclusions:  We interpret our results in terms of shifts in the relational system: if an adolescent finds a partner, that partner takes over the role of the parents in reducing criminality; if not, the parents remain important in doing so.
No Exit: An Evaluation of Measures of Physician Attrition
Authors: Rittenhouse Diane R. , Mertz Elizabeth , Keane Dennis , Grumbach Kevin 
Published: August 2004

Objective. To validate physicians' self‐reported intentions to leave clinical practice and the American Medical Association (AMA) Masterfile practice status variable as measures of physician attrition, and to determine predictors of intention to leave, and actual departure from, clinical practice.Data Sources. Survey of specialist physicians in urban California (1998); the AMA Physician Masterfile (2001); and direct ascertainment of physician practice status (2001).Study Design. Physicians' intention to leave clinical practice by 2001 (self‐reported in 1998) was tested as a measure of each physician's actual practice status in 2001 (directly ascertained). Physician practice status according to the 2001 AMA Masterfile was also tested as a measure of physicians' actual practice status in 2001. Multivariate regression was used to predict both physicians' intentions to leave clinical practice and their actual departure.Data Collection/Extraction Methods. AMA Masterfile data on 2001 practice status were obtained for 967 of 968 physician respondents to the 1998 survey. Actual practice status for 2001 was directly ascertained for 957.Principal Findings. The sensitivity of Masterfile practice status as a measure of actual departure from clinical practice was 9.0 percent, and the positive predictive value was 52.9 percent. Allowing for a two‐year reporting lag did not change this substantially. Self‐reported intention to leave clinical practice had a sensitivity of 73.3 percent and a positive predictive value of 35.4 percent as a measure of actual departure from practice. The strongest predictor of both intention to leave clinical practice and actual departure from practice was older age. Physician dissatisfaction had a strong association (OR=5.6) with intention to leave clinical practice, but was not associated with actual departure from practice.Conclusions. Our findings call into question the accuracy of both AMA Masterfile data and physicians' self‐reported intentions to leave as measures of physician attrition from clinical practice. Research using these measures should be interpreted with caution. Self‐reported intention to leave practice may be more of a proxy for dissatisfaction than an accurate predictor of actual behavior.