bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Short‐term methotrexate therapy in psoriasis: a study of 197 patients
Authors: Kumar Bhushan , Saraswat Abir , Kaur Inderjeet 
Published: March 2003

AbstractMethotrexate (MTX) is one of the most effective antipsoriatic drugs available. Although it is undeniably hepatotoxic, it can be used safely in most patients with severe psoriasis if established guidelines are followed. Current opinion on the monitoring of hepatic damage is divided, however, and the need for repeated liver biopsies during MTX therapy is being re‐examined. We have used MTX in a short‐term protocol in our patients with psoriasis for the past 20 years, and have recently attempted to minimize or eliminate the need for liver biopsies using this regimen.Data on 244 psoriatics who were given MTX from 1981 to 2000 have been reviewed. Our protocol entailed the use of weekly oral MTX at the full therapeutic dose during episodes of peak disease activity, with tapering off of MTX when the disease subsided in response to treatment combined with natural/seasonal remission. Intensive topical and heliotherapy were encouraged throughout to facilitate the earliest possible drug withdrawal and the longest possible drug‐free interval before the next relapse. Strict inclusion criteria were applied before starting MTX.A total of 243 cycles of MTX therapy have been given to 197 evaluable patients. More than 75% improvement occurred in 88% of patients in 8.5 ± 5.1 weeks. The mean cumulative dose was 709.3 ± 369.2 mg and the mean duration of follow‐up was 16.5 ± 9.1 months. Fifteen (6.1%) patients had serious adverse effects requiring the cessation of therapy. Only three patients had deranged liver function tests. Thirty‐four pre‐MTX and 13 post‐MTX liver biopsies were taken, which revealed grade I or II changes that were nonprogressive.Our experience with short‐term MTX therapy has enabled us to safely administer MTX to our patients with minimal recourse to liver biopsy. In developing countries, where advanced noninvasive methods for the assessment of liver damage are unaffordable or unavailable, this interrupted, short‐term regimen may present an acceptable and safe method of using MTX in carefully selected patients with severe psoriasis.
Detection of human herpesvirus 7 in pityriasis rosea by nested PCR
Authors: Karabulut Ayse A. , Koçak Mukadder , Yilmaz Nezihe , Eksioglu Meral 
Published: March 2003

AbstractBackground Clinical presentation, immunologic, light microscopic, and electron microscopic studies suggest a viral etiology for pityriasis rosea (PR).Objective To evaluate whether human herpesvirus 7 (HHV‐7) is an etiologic factor for PR.Patients and methods Twenty‐one PR patients (12 female, nine male) aged between 12 and 52 years, whose diagnoses were confirmed clinically and histopathologically, were included in the study. The duration of the disease was questioned. Tissue samples of 5‐mm punch biopsy material were collected from the patients and from six healthy volunteers (three female, three male) as the controls. Nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with specific primers for HHV‐7 DNA sequences (OPERON technologies Inc., HV‐7S/HV‐8A external sences and HV‐10S/HV11A internal sences) was performed on each tissue sample. Polymerase chain reaction products were analyzed by electrophoresis on 2% agarose gels. After molecular weight markers (Haφ174) had been placed and visualized on an ultraviolet transilluminator, the gels were immersed and photographs were taken.Results The mean age was 29.86 ± 11.77 for the PR patients and 25.33 ± 11.69 for the controls. The mean duration of the disease was 16.28 ± 15.74 days. Human herpesvirus 7 DNA sequences were detected in six of the PR patients (28.57%). The mean duration of the disease was calculated as 11.67 ± 9.85 for the HHV‐7‐positive patients (patient nos. 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9) and 18.13 ± 17.05 for the HHV‐7‐negative patients, and there was no statistically significant differences in either of the groups (U = 29.5, W = 50.5, P = 0.2241, using the Mann–Whitney U and Wilcoxon's rank sum W‐tests). Nested PCR was negative for HHV‐7 in all of the specimens from the controls. There was no statistically significant difference for the presence of HHV‐7 DNA sequence between the PR patients and the controls (P = 0.2843, Fisher's exact two‐tail analysis test).Conclusion Our results failed to support a possible role for HHV‐7 in the pathogenesis of PR.
Imiquimod; an international update on therapeutic uses in dermatology
Authors: Tyring Stephen , Conant Marcus , Marini Mario , Van Der Meijden Willem , Washenik Ken 
Published: March 2003

AbstractImiquimod, the first member of a new class of immune response modifiers, is approved for the treatment of external genital and perianal warts. The clinical effect of imiquimod stems from cytokine‐induced activation of the immune system. Topical application of imiquimod elevates the production of cytokines, including the principal cytokine for antiviral activity, interferon‐α. This is the initial event in an immunological cascade resulting in the stimulation of the innate immune response as well as the cell‐mediated pathway of acquired immunity. This immune modification mediates the indirect antiviral, antiproliferative and antitumor activity of imiquimod in vivo. These properties highlight the potential of imiquimod not only as an effective treatment for genital warts, but also as a treatment for other cutaneous viral infections and cutaneous neoplasms.
Cutaneous extramedullary hematopoiesis in idiopathic myelofibrosis
Authors: Rogalski Christina , Paasch Uwe , Friedrich Thomas , Haustein Uwe‐Frithjof , Sticherling Michael 
Published: March 2003

A 67‐year‐old German woman presented with a 2‐month history of indolent erythematous macules and livid papulonodules of 0.5–1.5 cm in diameter scattered on her abdomen (Fig. 1). On physical examination, the patient was alert, the liver was palpable 3 cm below the right costal margin, and the spleen was enlarged 3 cm below the left costal margin. There was no lymphadenopathy.Clinical lesions with extramedullary hematopoiesis on the abdomenimageLaboratory findings disclosed the following abnormalities: hemoglobin, 10.6 g/dL; hematocrit, 32.4%; white blood cell count, 4.600/mm3 myelocytes, with 15.2% lymphocytes, 74.1% neutrophils, 6.7% monocytes, and 3.6% eosinophils. Repeated bone marrow biopsy specimens showed severe myelofibrosis and osteosclerosis.Histologic examination of an incisional skin biopsy specimen revealed a mixed dermal infiltrate containing numerous histiocytic and myelocytic cells that resembled atypical megakaryocytes. Cells of the erythroid series were absent. The giant cells were labeled with CD61, thereby supporting the megakaryocytic lineage. The naphthol As‐D chloracetate reaction was positive on myelocytic cells of the infiltrate indicating granulocytopoiesis (Fig. 2).Mixed dermal infiltrate composed of histiocytic, myelocytic, and multinuclear cells. Multinuclear cells were labeled with CD61 (upper right inset) and were negative for naphthol As‐D chloracetate reaction, which detected myelocytic cells (lower left inset)imageThe patient had received electron‐beam irradiation 8 months previously, and had been treated with hydroxyurea (Litalir®, 500 mg/day) for 8 months before the manifestation of myelofibrosis on the skin.Two months after her first visit to our out‐patient clinic, the eruptions expanded, and electron‐beam irradiation was considered, but not performed, because of the progress of the disease. The patient's course was complicated by severe bone pain, the development of anemia (2.6 g/dL), a blast crisis with 80% undifferentiated, myelocytic blasts, and thrombocytopenia (26 × 109/L). Symptomatic treatment, such as several blood transfusions and analgesic agents, did not stabilize the situation. During this stage of the illness, the skin alterations remained unchanged.Sixteen months after the first diagnosis of myelofibrosis, the patient died due to conversion into chronic myelogenous leukemia, as shown by repetition of the bone marrow aspiration and the peripheral blood count.
Demographic features and seasonal variations in patients with acne vulgaris in Saudi Arabia: a hospital‐based study
Authors: Al‐Ameer Ali M. , Al‐Akloby Omar M. 
Published: March 2003

AbstractAim To review the demographic features and seasonal variations of acne vulgaris in patients diagnosed at the Dermatology Outpatient Clinic, King Fahad Hospital of the University (KFHU), Al‐Khobar, Saudi Arabia.Methods Two hundred and twenty cases (142 females, 78 males; mean age, 14.8 and 16.3 years, respectively) seen between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2000 were studied.Results Patients suffering from acne vulgaris made up 19.6% of the new cases seen at the clinic. The male to female ratio was 1 : 1.8. The mean age of onset was 16.3 ± 2.1 years for males and 14.8 ± 3.9 years for females (P = 0.003). The largest numbers of patients were seen during the cold months of the year (November to February).Conclusions Acne vulgaris constituted nearly one fifth of all visits to the dermatologist with female predominance. It appears nearly one and a half years earlier in females than in males. Seasonal variations were observed in acne as the condition exacerbates in winter, while if often improves during the summer months.
Post‐kala‐azar dermal leishmanasis occurring after 10 years of treated kala azar
Authors: Mittal Rachna , Behl Pran N. , Srivastava Govind 
Published: March 2003

Post‐kala‐azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) as the name suggests, develops usually after 1–2 years of treated kala azar (KA).1 Infrequently, cases may be seen later than 2 years. A case of PKDL occurring after 10 years of treated KA is herein reported. Such a long disease‐free interval may be forgotten by the patient, and if not carefully elicited in the history, the diagnosis of PKDL may be missed.
Comparing the campaigning profile of maternity user groups in Europe – can we learn anything useful?
Authors: Tyler Suzanne 
Published: March 2003

Objective  To compare the extent to which women in three European countries were able to exert influence over the organization and delivery of maternity policy and the factors likely to determine their success. Design  Semi‐structured interviews used to collect data, which was analysed in a framework that emphasized the importance of contextual environment. Setting and participants  Representatives of 19 lay maternity user organizations in England, the Netherlands and Germany interviewed during 1996 and 1997. Variables studied  Each interviewee was asked to provide details of their aims and objectives, activities and networks and perception of success. Four areas of contextual environment were used to account for variations. Main outcome measure  Self‐reported accounts of success in influencing policy agenda, credibility with opinion formers, campaigning activities and political networking were compared between and across countries. Results  Marked differences between both the aspirations and the achievements of groups in the three countries. Conclusions  Understanding the differences between countries in relation to user involvement entails locating research within the social, political and cultural context of health‐care, consumerism and citizen participation.
Exaptation and the evolution of dealation in insects
Authors: Roff Derek A. 
Published: March 2003

AbstractThis paper presents the results of an empirical test of the hypothesis that the evolution of dealation, or self‐inflicted removal of wings, is favored in some insect species by the pre‐existence of a physiological response of enhanced reproduction following dealation. Two Orthopteran species that do not naturally shed their wings are studied, Teleogryllus oceanicus and Gryllus firmus. The hypothesis that enhanced reproduction following dealation is accompanied by histolysis of the wing muscles is also examined. Dealation increases the rate of egg production in both species. However, total fecundity is not increased by dealation. Wing muscle histolysis is increased by dealation and there is a significant correlation between the degree of histolysis and cumulative egg production to days 4 and 7. It is suggested that Orthoptera are “preadapted” for the evolution of dealation and that ecological factors rather than physiological are most important in determining its appearance in various species.
What controls haploid—diploid ratio in the red alga, Gracilaria verrucosa?
Authors: Destombe Christophe , Valero Myriam , Vernet Philippe , Couvet Denis 
Published: March 2003

AbstractThe conditions for maintenance of a haploid—diploid life cycle in the species Gracilaria verrucosa were studied. This species is a red alga, where haploid plants have separate sexes. In the two natural populations studied, male and female haploid individuals were in equal proportions, and the frequency of diploid individuals reached 0.5.A two‐fold advantage in viability for diploid relative to haploid juveniles was observed in the field. This advantage can account for a frequency of 0.5 of diploid individuals in natural populations. Different types of anomalies in the reproduction of diploid individuals were observed, all of which lead to a reduction of the haploid stage.
Hybridization between Pied and Collared Flycatchers—sexual selection and speciation theory
Authors: Alatalo Rauno V. , Eriksson Dag , Gustafsson Lars , Lundberg Arne 
Published: March 2003

AbstractThe Pied Flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca and the Collared Flycatcher F. albicollis hybridize frequently on the islands of Gotland and Öland in the Baltic. Hybrids have highly reduced fertility, but introgression is likely to occur. Mating is incompletely species‐assortative and mixed pairs are common. In Central Europe, Pied Flycatcher males are brown in areas of sympatry, and thus have less resemblance to the black Collared Flycatcher males. It has been suggested that females could use male colour to increase the probability of assortative mating, and hence that a speciation process by reinforcement might be taking place. However, we found no indications that the colour of male Pied Flycatchers had an influence on their risk of disassortative mating, and therefore reinforcement probably cannot explain the geographical pattern of colour variation in Pied Flycatcher males. The song and the white collar of Collared Flycatcher males are features more likely to serve in species recognition. The songs of the two species differ greatly, but in areas of sympatry, “mixed” singing by Pied Flycatcher males was common, and this is likely to increase the risk of hybridization. It seems that interactions between the two species are far more complex than predicted by the theory of speciation by reinforcement.
Remating and male‐derived nutrients in Drosophila melanogaster
Authors: Chapman Tracey , Trevitt Sara , Partridge Linda 
Published: March 2003

AbstractLaboratory natural selection and environmental manipulations were used to investigate the importance of male‐derived nutrients to female Drosophila melanogaster. No evidence for the importance of such nutrients was found. Females from the same wild type base stock exposed as adults to low quality food did not show elevated fecundity or survival when they remated more frequently, and on high quality food the females showed a ‘cost of mating’ in reduced survival. Laboratory evolution on low quality food did not lead to elevated rates of remating by females; females from each selection regimen remated more frequently than one another when kept on the food type to which they had been exposed for the previous 5 years, on which they also showed higher fecundity than one another. Even under conditions of extreme nutritional stress, when females were exposed to short term (4‐day) cycle of exposure to very low and high quality food, they remated more frequently immediately after exposure to high quality food. The results of this last experiment suggested that, under these circumstances, current nutrition, fecundity or rate of sperm usage was more important than number of sperm in store or cumulative fecundity in determining the probability that a female would remate.
A correlated response of a parasite’s virulence and life cycle to selection on its host’s life history
Authors: Koella  , Agnew  
Published: March 2003

Abstract
We demonstrate a correlated response of the virulence and the mode of transmission of the microsporidian parasite Edhazardia aedis to selection on the age at pupation of its host, the mosquito Aedes aegypti. We selected three lines of mosquitoes each for early or late pupation and exposed the larvae after zero, two and four generations of selection to a low and a high concentration of the parasite’s spores. Before selection the parasites induced a similar level of mortality in the six lines; after four generations of selection mortality was higher in the mosquitoes selected for late pupation than in those selected for early pupation. Overall, parasite-induced mortality was positively correlated with the mean age at pupation of the matching uninfected line. When they died, mosquitoes selected for early pupation harboured mostly binucleate spores, which are responsible for vertical transmission. Mosquitoes selected for late pupation were more likely to harbour uninucleate spores, which are responsible for horizontal transmission. The parasite enhanced this tendency for horizontal transmission by prolonging the larval period in the lines selected for late pupation, but not in the ones selected for early pupation. These results suggest that the genetic basis of the mosquito’s age at pupation helps to determine the parasite’s mode of transmission: parasites in rapidly developing mosquitoes are benign and transmit vertically, while parasites in slowly developing mosquitoes are virulent and transmit horizontally. Thus, as the host’s life history evolves, the parasite’s performance changes, because the host’s evolution changes the environment in which the parasite develops.
Heritability of directional and fluctuating asymmetry for mandibular characters in random-bred mice
Authors: Leamy  
Published: March 2003

Abstract
In bilateral characters, two kinds of asymmetries are common: fluctuating asymmetry (FA), or nondirectional variation between left and right sides, and directional asymmetry (DA), in which one side is consistently larger than the other. FA has been extensively used as a measure of developmental stability because of its presumed environmental basis whereas DA has not typically been recommended because it has been presumed to have at least some genetic basis. To test these two hypotheses, heritabilities were calculated via parent–offspring regression for both DA and FA in 10 triply measured mandible characters in random-bred mice. Midparent estimates of heritabilities of DA in the 10 characters were quite low (mean = 0.06), but significant for one character as well as the sum of the DA values over all characters (0.21). Midparent estimates of heritability of FA in the 10 characters also were low (mean = 0.03), but not significant for any individual character or the sum of the FA values over all characters. Heritabilities of developmental stability calculated from heritabilities and repeatabilities of FA in the mandible characters were higher in magnitude (mean of midparent estimates = 0.45), but all still were not statistically significant. It was concluded that both hypotheses were supported, but that genetic variation in DA was so small that the potential for DA as an indicator of developmental stability should be explored.
Assortative pairing with respect to parasite load in the beetle Timarcha maritima (Chrysomelidae)
Authors: Thomas  , Oget  , Gente  , Desmots  , Renaud  
Published: March 2003

Abstract
Because of their effects on host reproductive behaviour, parasites are theoretically expected to create sometimes assortative mating among hosts, with heavily parasitized individuals pairing together and lightly parasitized ones pairing among themselves. We investigated the influence of protozoan gut parasites on the pairing pattern of the chrysomelid beetle Timarcha maritima. In the field, fecundity was negatively correlated with the parasite load of females, unpaired males were significantly more heavily infected than paired ones and, among pairs, males and females were matched for parasite load. Mate choice experiments in the laboratory showed that males have some ability to avoid heavily infected partners when given the choice between two females. Male competitiveness, measured as their mobility, was also negatively correlated with parasite load. These results indicate that parasite-related assortative pairing in this beetle could result from parasitized females being less fecund and parasitized males less competitive.
Environmental dependence of inbreeding depression and purging in Drosophila melanogaster
Authors: Bijlsma  , Bundgaard  , Van Putten  
Published: March 2003

Abstract
Elimination or reduction of inbreeding depression by natural selection at the contributing loci (purging) has been hypothesized to effectively mitigate the negative effects of inbreeding in small isolated populations. This may, however, only be valid when the environmental conditions are relatively constant. We tested this assumption using Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism. By means of chromosome balancers, chromosomes were sampled from a wild population and their viability was estimated in both homozygous and heterozygous conditions in a favourable environment. Around 50% of the chromosomes were found to carry a lethal or sublethal mutation, which upon inbreeding would cause a considerable amount of inbreeding depression. These detrimentals were artificially purged by selecting only chromosomes that in homozygous condition had a viability comparable to that of the heterozygotes (quasi-normals), thereby removing most deleterious recessive alleles. Next, these quasi-normals were tested both for egg-to-adult viability and for total fitness under different environmental stress conditions: high-temperature stress, DDT stress, ethanol stress, and crowding. Under these altered stressful conditions, particularly for high temperature and DDT, novel recessive deleterious effects were expressed that were not apparent under control conditions. Some of these chromosomes were even found to carry lethal or near-lethal mutations under stress. Compared with heterozygotes, homozygotes showed on average 25% additional reduction in total fitness. Our results show that, except for mutations that affect fitness under all environmental conditions, inbreeding depression may be due to different loci in different environments. Hence purging of deleterious recessive alleles can be effective only for the particular environment in which the purging occurred, because additional load will become expressed under changing environmental conditions. These results not only indicate that inbreeding depression is environment dependent, but also that inbreeding depression may become more severe under changing stressful conditions. These observations have significant consequences for conservation biology.