bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Total Antioxidant Levels are Low During Active TB and Rise with Anti‐tuberculosis Therapy
Authors: Wiid I. , Seaman T. , Hoal EG , Benade AJS , Van Helden Paul D. 
Published: March 2004

AbstractIn tuberculosis, oxidative stress is a result of tissue inflammation, poor dietary intake of micronutrients due to illness, free radical burst from activated macrophages, and anti‐tuberculosis drugs. These free radicals may in turn contribute towards pulmonary inflammation if not neutralized by antioxidants. The total antioxidant status (TAS) of individuals is a function of dietary, enzymatic, and other systemic antioxidants and is therefore an indicator of the free radical load. Our aim was to evaluate the TAS of healthy and M. tuberculosis‐infected persons from a high TB incidence community, as well as tuberculosis patients at various stages of antituberculosis drug treatment and to correlate results with plasma micronutrient levels. Blood plasma samples from TB infected patients and following antituberculosis drug treatment were assayed for TAS, vitamins A, E and Zinc. Statistical analysis of results was by one‐way ANOVA and the Tukey multiple comparison post test. Active TB patients showed a significantly lower TAS (P < 0.001) compared to the community controls. We also show that TAS values increase during therapy. Results correlated with micronutrients vitamin A and zinc but vitamin E remained unaffected. We suggest that total antioxidant status of TB patients should be considered for more effective disease control and that diets low in antioxidants may render individuals susceptible to tuberculosis.
IUBMB Life, 56: 101‐106, 2004
White blood cell‐containing allogeneic blood transfusion, postoperative infection and mortality: a meta‐analysis of observational ‘before‐and‐after’ studies
Authors: Vamvakas E. C. 
Published: March 2004

Background and Objectives  An association of white blood cell (WBC) reduction with decreased mortality was reported by one observational, before‐and‐after study. A meta‐analysis was undertaken to examine whether this finding is supported by all the evidence currently available from before‐and‐after studies, and whether these studies support an association of WBC reduction with a decreased risk of postoperative infection.Materials and Methods  Observational, before‐and‐after studies were retrieved that reported on postoperative infection and/or mortality between January 1997 and June 2003. Six studies met the criteria for meta‐analysis. Unadjusted summary odds ratios (ORs) of postoperative infection or mortality in patients transfused after (compared with before) WBC reduction were calculated across the studies if the hypothesis of homogeneity was not rejected. Adjusted summary ORs were calculated across three studies that had reported multivariate analyses.Results  There was an unadjusted association of WBC reduction with a decreased risk of postoperative infection [summary OR = 0·93; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 0·88–0·99; P < 0·01] that did not persist following adjustment for confounding factors (summary OR = 0·94; 95% CI, 0·85–1·04; P > 0·05). There was neither an unadjusted nor an adjusted association of WBC reduction with decreased mortality (summary OR = 0·94; 95% CI, 0·71–1·23; P > 0·05; and OR = 0·92; 95% CI, 0·80–1·05; P > 0·05, respectively).Conclusions  An association of WBC reduction with decreased mortality was not detected across the results available from all before‐and‐after studies. An unadjusted association of WBC reduction with a decreased risk of postoperative infection exists, but this was not detected across the three studies that reported multivariate analyses.
Intravenous immunoglobulin products contain neutralizing antibodies to vaccinia
Authors: Goldsmith J. C. , Eller N. , Mikolajczyk M. , Manischewitz J. , Golding H. , Scott D. E. 
Published: March 2004

Background and Objectives  Individuals with primary or secondary immune‐deficiency diseases may be at risk for vaccinia infection if widespread smallpox‐immunization programmes are implemented in the United States of America (USA) for bioterrorism preparedness. The objective of this study was to determine whether commercial immune globulin (intravenous, human) products contain biologically active antibodies to vaccinia that have the potential to protect people, with immune deficiencies, from complications of vaccinia.Materials and Methods  Eight currently United States (US)‐licensed and two European intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) products were tested in a vaccinia plaque‐reduction neutralization assay. The in vivo activity of five of these lots was assessed in severely immune‐deficient mice.Results  All tested products contained neutralizing anti‐vaccinia activity, in vitro and in vivo.Conclusions  The use of IVIG by individuals with inherited or acquired humoral immune deficiencies may provide some protection if they are inadvertently exposed to vaccinia.
In vitro study of a triple‐secured von Willebrand factor concentrate
Authors: Mazurier C. , Poulle M. , Samor B. , Hilbert L. , Chtourou S. 
Published: March 2004

Background and Objectives  Patients suffering from von Willebrand disease who are not responsive to desmopressin require substitutive treatment. This study was part of the development of a second‐generation plasma‐derived von Willebrand factor (VWF) concentrate, the manufacturing process of which includes two complementary viral‐inactivation/elimination steps that are effective against non‐enveloped viruses.Materials and Methods  VWF was purified from solvent/detergent‐treated cryoprecipitate through a combination of anion‐exchange and affinity chromatography. The VWF preparation was diluted and filtered through filters with pore size of 35 nm. After concentration and formulation, the product was freeze‐dried and further heated at 80 °C for 72 h. Tests were performed to evaluate the effects of nanofiltration and dry heating on VWF multimeric structure and function.Results  Nanofiltration and dry heating of the formulated product increased viral safety but did not modify VWF multimeric structure. Furthermore, these steps did not alter the ability of VWF to bind to platelet glycoprotein Ib, collagen and Factor VIII.Conclusions  We have perfected a large‐scale manufacturing process to produce a human plasma‐derived VWF concentrate that boasts high specific activity and is very safe for the treatment of patients with von Willebrand disease.
Weakened expression of ‘e’ owing to concomitant occurrence of Cys16 and Val245 (VS antigen)
Authors: Rodrigues A. , Rios M. , Costa F. F. , Saad S. T. O. , Pellegrino J. , Castilho L. 
Published: March 2004

Background and Objectives  The 48 G>C transversion in exon 1 of the RHCE gene leads to Trp16Cys, usually present in the conventional RHCE Ce, while Trp16 is associated with RHCE ce. The presence of Cys16 in RHCE ce is associated with the R0 (Dce) haplotype in Africans, leading to a weak ‘e’ antigen expression on red blood cells (RBCs). VS is a common red cell antigen in individuals of African descent and results from a single point mutation in exon 5 of the RHCE (733C>G), leading to Leu245Val substitution; VS positivity is also associated with weak expression of ‘e’. This study investigated the association of Cys16 and/or VS with the RHCE ce alleles in a cohort of sickle cell disease (SCD) patients phenotyped as R0r or R0R0 and rr.Materials and Methods  DNA samples from 58 SCD patients were tested for the 48 G>C transversion, encoding Cys16, by allele‐specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We also amplified exon 5 of the RHCE by PCR and subjected the amplified product to restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis, using BfaI, in order to determine the VS status. Further cDNA analysis was performed on three samples to verify whether the mutations were located on the same or on different alleles.Results  Fifty‐six of the 58 SCD patients studied (97%) were heterozygous for 48G/48C (Cys16). Of these, 18 (32%) were also heterozygous for 733C/G (245Val). All of these 18 samples showed weak ‘e’ expression on RBCs when tested with at least one monoclonal antibody to e antigen. cDNA sequencing of three of 18 patient samples showed that the genes encoding Cys16 and Val245 (VS) were on different alleles.Conclusions  We found a high incidence of Cys16 associated with the RHCE ce in our SCD cohort. A high percentage of these patients were also found to be heterozygous for VS. cDNA analysis showed that, in at least three samples, the two mutations were on different alleles, with consequent weakening of expression of the e antigen on RBCs.
Restriction in the repertoire of the immunoglobulin light chain subgroup in pathological cold agglutinins with anti‐Pr specificity
Authors: Leo A. , Kreft H. , Hack H. , Kempf T. , Roelcke D. 
Published: March 2004

Background and Objectives  In cold agglutinin disease, monoclonal red blood cell autoantibodies, termed cold agglutinins, induce haemolysis in patients exposed to the cold. Commonly, these autoantibodies are directed against the developmentally regulated I/i blood groups. A second blood group system, the Pr system (located on glycophorins), is involved less frequently. Anti‐Pr cold agglutinins recognize either alpha 2,3‐ or alpha 2,6‐linked N‐acetylneuraminic acid as the immunodominant group. Cold agglutinins of anti‐I/i specificity show a remarkable restriction in their genomic repertoire of the immunoglobulin heavy and light‐chain immunoglobulin‐variable domain (i.e. exclusive use of VH4‐34 in heavy chains). For anti‐Pr cold agglutinins, preliminary data on the repertoire of the light‐chain variable domain indicate a preference for the subgroup Vkappa IV. To elucidate restrictions in the light‐chain variable‐domain subgroup repertoire of anti‐Pr cold agglutinins systematically, and to discuss these results in the context of their anti‐Pr1–3 subclassification and immunodominant sialic acid, light chains in 13 anti‐Pr cold agglutinins were investigated.Materials and Methods  The anti‐Pr light chains were isolated using temperature‐dependent absorption/elution techniques. Subsequently, they were subjected to N‐terminal Edman degradation, and the light chain Vkappa subgroup was affiliated using the Kabat database.Results  Five of 13 (38%) light chains belonged to Vkappa IV, five of 13 (38%) to Vkappa I and three of 13 (23%) to Vkappa III. Anti‐Pr with Vkappa IV subgroup light chains exclusively recognized alpha 2,3‐linked N‐acetylneuraminic acid.Conclusions  Including data from the literature, the repertoire of the light‐chain variable domain in pathological anti‐Pr cold agglutinins exhibits a clear bias towards the use of the single germline gene‐derived subgroup, Vkappa IV (eight of 17 or 47%). The association of Vkappa IV subgroup light chain‐containing anti‐Pr cold agglutinins with binding to alpha 2,3‐, but not alpha 2,6‐linked N‐acetyneuraminic acid raises speculations about a possible role of subgroup‐derived determinants in anti‐Pr binding.
Distribution of a bovine spongiform encephalopathy‐derived agent over ion‐exchange chromatography used in the preparation of concentrates of fibrinogen and factor VIII
Authors: Foster P. R. , Griffin B. D. , Bienek C. , McIntosh R. V. , MacGregor I. R. , Somerville R. A. , Steele P. J. , Reichl H. E. 
Published: March 2004

Background and Objectives  The risk of haemophiliacs contracting variant Creutzfeldt‐Jakob disease (vCJD) via treatment with factor VIII concentrates is not known. Therefore, in order to determine the extent to which the vCJD agent might be removed during the preparation of factor VIII concentrate, the partitioning of a bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)‐derived agent was measured over the main purification step used to prepare the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service high‐purity factor VIII concentrate (Liberate®).Materials and Methods  Murine‐passaged BSE (strain 301V), in the form of a microsomal fraction prepared from infected brain, was used to ‘spike’ a solution of factor VIII of intermediate purity. The ‘spiked’ starting material was subjected to solvent–detergent treatment and then to anion‐exchange chromatography with Toyopearl DEAE‐650M. All fractions were tested for 301V infectivity using a murine bioassay, including the procedures used to clean the ion‐exchange media after use.Results  BSE 301V infectivity was reduced by 2·9 log10 in the fibrinogen fraction and by 2·7 log10 in the factor VIII fraction. Over 99% of the added 301V infectivity remained bound to the ion‐exchange column after elution of factor VIII. A large quantity of infectivity was subsequently removed by washing the ion‐exchange media with 2 m NaCl. No further BSE 301V infectivity was detected in column eluates after treatment with 0·1 m NaOH or a second wash with 2 m NaCl.Conclusions  Results using a BSE‐derived agent suggest that vCJD infectivity would be substantially removed by the ion‐exchange process used in the preparation of fibrinogen and factor VIII concentrate. Although 301V infectivity remained bound to the ion‐exchange matrix following elution of factor VIII, this appeared to be eliminated by the procedure used for cleaning the ion‐exchange media after each use.
Occult hepatitis B virus infection: implications in transfusion
Authors: Allain J.‐P. 
Published: March 2004

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) presents a higher residual risk of transmission by transfusion than hepatitis C virus (HCV) or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). While most infectious blood units are removed by screening for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), there is clear evidence that transmission by HBsAg‐negative components occurs, in part, during the serologically negative window period, but more so during the late stages of infection. Donations negative for HBsAg, but positive for HBV DNA, with or without the presence of HBV antibodies, correspond to ‘occult’ HBV infection (OBI). The frequency of OBI depends on the relative sensitivity of both HBsAg and HBV DNA assays. It also depends on the prevalence of HBV infection in the population. OBI may follow recovery from infection, displaying antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen (anti‐HBs) and persistent low‐level viraemia, escape mutants undetected by the HBsAg assays, or healthy carriage with antibodies to hepatitis B e antigen (anti‐HBe) and to hepatitis B core antigen (anti‐HBc). Over time, in the latter situation, anti‐HBe and, later, anti‐HBc may become undetectable. The critical question is whether or not OBI is infectious by transfusion. All forms have been shown to be infectious in immunocompromised individuals, such as organ‐ or bone marrow‐transplant recipients. In immunocompetent recipients, there is no evidence that anti‐HBs‐containing components (even at low titre) are infectious. Anti‐HBc only, with HBV DNA, can be associated with infectivity, as can rare cases of HBV DNA without any serological HBV marker. If HBV nucleic acid amplification technology (NAT) is considered, the OBI viral load would usually be < 500 IU/ml, making testing of plasma pools unsuitable unless the sensitivity of NAT significantly increases by genome enrichment or test improvement.
Impressions of difference: the painted canvases of Helen McNicoll
Authors: Huneault Kristina 
Published: March 2004

This paper examines the works of Canadian impressionist painter Helen McNicoll (1879–1915), analysing them as creative inventions that mediate the irreducible gap between cultural symbolization and experience. McNicoll was a painter of women and girls, and the essay centres on the difference that gender makes in her canvases. Femininity is not the works' only operative axis of distinction, however. McNicoll's nationality and, most significantly, her deafness, conjoined with gender as constitutive and structurally overlapping elements of her pictorial production. The artist's applications of paint to canvas are visible renderings of an ambiguous relation to symbolization wrought by this conjunction. In this context, McNicoll's choice of pictorial style is especially apposite, and the paper explores the way in which impressionism's ideal of direct correspondence between experience and representation resonated forcibly with the ideologies of femininity and language available to a deaf woman painter at the beginning of the twentieth century. Kristina Huneault is Associate Professor and Graduate Programme Director in the Department of Art History at Concordia University in Montreal. She is the author of Difficult Subjects: Working Women and Visual Culture, Britain 1880–1914 (Ashgate, 2002), and is currently working on a book that examines visual inscriptions of gender in art by nineteenth‐century Canadian women.
‘To stand and see within’: expressionist space in Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's Rhine Bridge at Cologne
Authors: Simmons Sherwin 
Published: March 2004

This essay examines Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's Rhine Bridge at Cologne, one in a series of cityscapes that Kirchner painted during 1914–15, all of which treat monuments and spaces that had become important symbols within the German imagination. The painting's relationship to a discourse about a ‘modern Gothic’ style, as manifested in the 1912 Sonderbund chapel and a regional expressionist movement, are discussed. This relationship is shown to involve a broader concern about the ‘problem of individuation’ in modern life that was addressed in the theoretical writings of Wilhelm Worringer, Martin Buber and Georg Simmel. Kirchner's painting gave spatial form to this problem through the juxtaposition of modern steel bridge and Gothic cathedral and the empathic projection of the viewer into a space within which individual expression intersected with public discourse. Sherwin Simmons is Professor of Art History at the University of Oregon. He has recently considered Red Tower in Halle, another of Kirchner's cityscapes, in an article published in Res 40 (Autumn 2001). He is currently completing Kunst oder Kitsch? Art and Mass Culture in Germany, 1900–1920.
Tactility: The Interrogation of Medium in Art of the 1960s
Authors: Potts Alex 
Published: March 2004

This article intervenes in current debate about medium by looking back to the 1960s, a moment located on the cusp between medium‐based and post‐medium conceptions of art. It examines a body of sculptural work where tactile qualities were given priority to the point where the formal values constituting sculpture as a medium were effectively negated. This situation illuminates a larger split emerging in the art world between the focus on materials and physical processes and the impulse to be liberated from the constraints of medium specificity. Such a split, it is argued, relates to divided perceptions of economy at the time when a preoccupation with the materials and processes of industrial production coexisted with a new focus on consumerism. What implications does the subsequent intensification of a consumer‐orientated economy have for understandings of the materiality of the art work in a post‐medium art world? Alex Potts is Professor and Chair of the Department of History of Art, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is an editor of History Workshop Journal. His recent publications include The Sculptural Imagination. Figurative, Modernist, Minimalist (2000), and Flesh and the Ideal. Winckelmann and the Origins of Art History (1994 and 2000). He is currently working on a book about the European and American art worlds in the 1950s and early 1960s.
The methodological quality of trials affects estimates of treatment efficacy in functional (non‐ulcer) dyspepsia
Authors: Abraham N. S. , Moayyedi P. , Daniels B. , Veldhuyzen Van Zanten S. J. O. 
Published: March 2004

SummaryAim : To evaluate treatment efficacy using objective quality criteria.Methods : A systematic review was performed of randomized controlled trials of endoscopically investigated dyspepsia (1979–2003) using the Jadad score and Rome II guidelines. The Jadad score differentiated studies as ‘high quality’ (score 4–5/5) vs. ‘poor quality’ (score 1–3/5). Three key Rome II guidelines on study design (cut‐off of 0/3 or > 0/3) were also compared with the Jadad score.Results : Poor quality trials suggested a benefit of prokinetic therapy [relative risk (RR) of remaining dyspeptic, 0.47; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.39–0.56), which was not confirmed in high quality trials (RR, 1.0; 95% CI, 0.84–1.19). There was a marked benefit of H2‐receptor antagonist therapy in poor quality trials (RR, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.61–0.76), but a marginal benefit in good quality trials (RR, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.79–0.97). Trial quality did not affect the small statistically significant benefit seen with Helicobacter pylori eradication. Two high quality trials suggested a limited benefit with the use of proton pump inhibitors, with no poor quality trials to provide a comparison. Separation of the studies by the Rome II criteria had a similar impact on the calculated treatment estimates.Conclusions : The magnitude of benefit of prokinetic and H2‐receptor antagonist therapies reported in previous meta‐analyses has been over‐estimated. The quality of trials has an impact on the efficacy estimates of treatment. The Rome II criteria for study methodology may be appropriate for judging study quality.
The risk of congenital abnormalities in children fathered by men treated with azathioprine or mercaptopurine before conception
Authors: Nørgård B. , Pedersen L. , Jacobsen J. , Rasmussen S. N. , Sørensen H. T. 
Published: March 2004

SummaryBackground : Immunosuppressive therapy with azathioprine and mercaptopurine is commonly used in patients with various chronic diseases. The few existing data on the reproductive safety of these drugs after paternal use before conception are inconclusive.Aim : To examine the risk of congenital abnormalities in children fathered by men exposed to azathioprine or mercaptopurine before conception.Methods : This was a Danish population‐based cohort study, based on data from the Prescription Database, the Medical Birth Registry and the Hospital Discharge Registry of North Jutland County, Denmark. Fifty‐four exposed pregnancies, in which the father filed a prescription for azathioprine or mercaptopurine (between 1 January 1991 and 31 December 2001) before conception, were included. The controls comprised 57 195 pregnancies with no paternal azathioprine or mercaptopurine use.Results : Four children with congenital abnormalities (underlying paternal diseases: glomerulonephritis and severe skin disease) were found in 54 exposed pregnancies (7.4%), compared with 2334 (4.1%) in controls. The adjusted odds ratio for congenital abnormalities in children fathered by men treated with azathioprine or mercaptopurine was 1.8 (95% confidence interval, 0.7–5.0).Conclusions : Our data may indicate that paternal use of azathioprine or mercaptopurine before conception is associated with an increased risk of congenital abnormalities. However, more data are needed to determine whether the association is causal.