tbuckley/cabot-search huggingface dataset:
CONTRIBUTIONS OF PURE SCIENCE TO PROGRESSIVE MEDICINE
Authors: WILLIAM J. MAYO
Journal: JAMA (1925)

Archeologists in search of evidence of the development of the sciences have earnestly studied the meager historical records of Egypt's ten thousand years, and, while relics of interest in the general arts and sciences have been found, comparatively little of value from the standpoint of medicine has been unearthed, perhaps because of the eight complete reversions to barbarism which buried the seats of Egyptian culture in the sands of time. It was not until the fourth century before the Christian era that the ancient Greeks, largely through the contributions of two men, gave evidence of a love for medical science. We look back to Hippocrates as the founder of clinical medicine. He was one of the first to free himself from the shackles of superstition. Observing carefully the manifestations of disease, in the light of the knowledge extant, he critically traced, so far as he was able, various disease processes
Developing DNA vaccines that call to dendritic cells
Authors: Michele A. Kutzler, David B. Weiner
Journal: Journal of Clinical Investigation (2004)

DNA vaccination is a novel immunization strategy that has great potential for the development of vaccines and immune therapeutics. This strategy has been highly effective in mice, while less immunogenic in nonhuman primates and humans. Enhancing DNA vaccine potency remains a challenge. It is likely that APCs, and especially DCs, play a paramount role in the presentation of vaccine antigen to the immune system. A new study reports the synergistic recruitment, expansion, and activation of DCs in vivo in a mouse model through covaccination with plasmids encoding macrophage inflammatory protein-1α (MIP-1α), fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 ligand (Flt3L), and the DNA vaccine. Such cooperative strategies delivering vaccine in a single, simple platform result in improved cellular immunity in vivo, including enhanced tetramer responses and IFN-γ secretion by antigen-specific cells.
Website of the week: Personality types
Authors: C. Martyn
Journal: BMJ (2003)

A paper in this week's BMJ (p 429) suggests that medical students who scored highly in tests that measure the personality trait of conscientiousness tended to do better in their preclinical work. It is interesting, though, that the same trait does not predict success in clinical studies. The authors say that scores for conscientiousness could aid selection for interview but it is not clear quite how this suggestion follows from the results. Few will consider that marks in preclinical assessments constitute an adequate criterion for judging whether the right people are being trained as doctors.

The website of the American Psychological Association contains a discussion of how personality influences ability to discharge a task (http://helping.apa.org/work/personal.html). It is not really surprising that conscientiousness (being responsible, dependable, organised, and persistent) predicts performance in many jobs from managerial to semiskilled. But for other occupations, particularly those that require creativity, conscientiousness may be a liability, rather than an asset.

Trait theories depend on the idea that personality can be measured by a series of binary oppositions. Eysenck thought that two oppositions, extroversion to introversion and neuroticism to stability, were enough. But others have added agreeableness to antagonism, conscientiousness to undirectedness, and openness to non-openness to make the five-factor model or “big five” dimensions of personality: www.personalityresearch.org/bigfive.html explains the deep theoretical divide between these terms.

In the Christmas BMJ, Laporte argued that PowerPoint was taking over from journals as the preferred method of scientific communication (BMJ 2002;325:1478-81). Certainly PowerPoint lectures on the web are a useful resource for learning. Wanting to know a little more about structural equation modelling—the statistical technique used in this week's BMJ paper on predictors of medical student performance—it was easy to find an accessible explanation (www.jeremymiles.co.uk/misc/fun/index.htm). However, the site's title, Fun with Structural Equation Modelling, may say something about the personality traits of statisticians.
High cardiorespiratory fitness is an independent predictor of the reduction in liver fat during a lifestyle intervention in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Authors: K Kantartzis, C Thamer, A Peter, J Machann, F Schick, C Schraml, A Konigsrainer, I Konigsrainer, S Krober, A Niess, A Fritsche, H-U Haring, N Stefan
Journal: Gut (2008)

<h3>Objective:</h3> Lifestyle intervention with diet modification and increase in physical activity is effective for reducing hepatic steatosis in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, for a similar weight loss, there is a large variability in the change in liver fat. We hypothesised that cardiorespiratory fitness may predict the response to the intervention. <h3>Design:</h3> Longitudinal study with increase in physical activity and diet modification. <h3>Setting:</h3> University teaching hospital. <h3>Patients:</h3> 50 adults with NAFLD and 120 controls at risk for metabolic diseases. <h3>Main outcome measures:</h3> Total-, subcutaneous abdominal- and visceral adipose tissue by magnetic resonance tomography, liver fat by 1HMR spectroscopy and cardiorespiratory fitness (VO<sub>2,max</sub>) by a maximal cycle exercise test at baseline and after 9 months of follow-up. <h3>Results:</h3> In all subjects total-, subcutaneous abdominal- and visceral adipose tissue decreased and fitness increased (all p&lt;0.0001) during the intervention. The most pronounced changes were found for liver fat (−31%, p&lt;0.0001). Among the parameters predicting the change in liver fat, fitness at baseline emerged as the strongest factor, independently of total- and visceral adipose tissue as well as exercise intensity (p = 0.005). In the group of subjects with NAFLD at baseline, a resolution of NAFLD was found in 20 individuals. For 1 standard deviation increase in VO<sub>2,max</sub> at baseline the odds ratio for resolution of NAFLD was 2.79 (95% confidence interval, 1.43–6.33). <h3>Conclusions:</h3> Cardiorespiratory fitness, independently of total adiposity, body fat distribution and exercise intensity, determines liver fat content in humans, suggesting that fitness and liver fat are causally related to each other. Moreover, measurement of fitness at baseline predicts the effectiveness of a lifestyle intervention in reducing hepatic steatosis in patients with NAFLD.
Role of Delayed Imaging to Differentiate Intense Physiological 18F FDG Uptake From Peritoneal Deposits in Patients Presenting With Intestinal Obstruction
Authors: Anand Zade, Nilendu Purandare, Venkatesh Rangarajan, Sneha Shah, Archi Agarwal, Mukta Kulkarni, Ashish Kumar Jha
Journal: Clinical Nuclear Medicine (2012)

One of the main limitations of 18F-fluoro-2-deoxy-glucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG PET/CT) is false-positive tracer uptake by physiological and inflammatory conditions. Continuing FDG accumulation occurs in tumors, but not in inflammatory lesions, and dual time-point FDG PET can be useful for differentiating benign from malignant conditions. Experience is rather limited, and its application in the assessment of tumors inside peritoneal cavity has been rarely reported. We present 2 cases where dual time-point FDG PET imaging proved essential in differentiating intense physiological tracer uptake from peritoneal deposits in patients with intestinal obstruction.
Parathyroid Hormone Levels is Increased in Ischemic Cerebrovascular Events and Related with Decreased Aortic Distensibility
Authors: Hakan Altay, Ali Çoner, Semih Giray, Çağatay Andıç, Volkan Çamkıran, Saif Hamad, Haldun Müderrisoğlu
Journal: Journal of the American College of Cardiology (2013)
A New Method of Obtaining Rectal Mucosal Biopsy During Rigid Sigmoidoscopy
Authors: G. Öksüzoğlu, S. Arslan, A. Kadayifci, M. Arslan, G. Tatar, Y. Üstündağ, H. Şimşek, B. Sivri, B. Kayhan
Journal: Endoscopy (1997)
Charities say southern Sudan faces a health crisis and record malnutrition
Authors: P. Moszynski
Journal: BMJ (2003)

As hopes of an end to the 20 year civil war in Sudan were raised by new talks taking place in Kenya this week, charities reported that the health situation in the south was deteriorating.

As Dr John Garang, leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement met Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, vice-president of Sudan, diplomats and analysts saod the prospects for peace have never been better. But observers from charities and non-governmental organisations said that the country was facing a whooping cough outbreak, many cases of preventable blindness and record malnutrition.

An estimated 175 children have died of whooping cough during a recent outbreak in southern Sudan. Almost 1000 suspected cases have been seen so far, a spokesman for the charity Tearfund said last week. More than 850 cases have been confirmed. A mass treatment and prevention campaign is being carried out in …
THE DEFECTIVE DELINQUENT CLASS DIFFERENTIATING TESTS
Authors: GUY G. FERNALD
Journal: American Journal of Psychiatry (1912)

The task of collecting data, devising processes and making the computations involved in the presentation of the findings from this first group of subjects has been of course somewhat onerous, especially as a mass of experimental work was done which proved beside the mark, e. g., the correlation of "time" and "work"in the timed tests; but the time required for examining individual subjects by this method now that this foundation group of scores and the computations are available is but little if any more than an equally searching examination without the tests would require; and there can be no doubt that by the use of these tests the examiner's knowledge of his subject's mentality is greatly broadened. The tests of the retained list can be given in an hour unless the subject stands unusually long in the Achievement Capacity Test. The computations are simple when one is familiar with the method and do not require ten minutes if one wishes only to ascertain the relative standing of a new subject to the existing group. [See table in the PDF file] In the above table the actual scores of the "efficiency" column are simply compared with the scores of the group of 100, test by test as given in Table II where identical or very closely approximate scores will be found. The corresponding transmutation value is then found in Table III and for the array thus secured the measures are calculated. The new subject's median of course determines his relative standing in Table VI. So 8o minutes is ample time in which to apply the tests and find the standing of a subject with relation to the group to which it is then ready to be added. If all alienists dealing with defectives were using this or some similar system which had become standardized the recorded data would have great scientific value. 1. The responsibility of defective delinquents is limited. Therefore they should be committed to a suitable institution instead of being sentenced for punishment with fully equipped misdemeanants. 2. The differentiation of mental defectives of the highest grade is based solely on the measurement of mental characters. 3. Mental characters capable of expression may be measured by applying uniformly properly adapted psychological tests. 4. Cases of moral perversion, sexual deviation, degeneracy, insanity, etc., are not to be diagnosticated by tests adapted to differentiate defectives, but require other and appropriate means of investigation. 5. By computations based on the efficiency scores obtained from the application of appropriate psychological tests the relative standing of each subject of a group may be mathematically determined. 6. The group of scores and computations presented may serve as a nucleus to which new scores may be added, each in its relative standing, by alienists using the same tests and methods of computation.
Helicobacter pylori-related diffuse large B-cell lymphoma of the stomach: a distinct entity with lower aggressiveness and higher chemosensitivity
Authors: Kuo Sh, Yeh Kh, Chen Lt, Lin Cw, Hsu Pn, Hsu C, Wu Ms, Tzeng Ys, Tsai Hj, Wang Hp, Cheng Al
Journal: Blood Cancer Journal (2014)

We recently showed that Helicobacter pylori (HP)-positive gastric 'pure' diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) may respond to HP eradication therapy. However, whether these HP-related 'pure' DLBCL of the stomach may differ fundamentally from those unrelated to HP remains unclear. In this study, we compared the clinicopathologic features of these two groups of patients who had been uniformly treated by conventional chemotherapy. Forty-six patients were designated HP-positive and 49 were HP-negative by conventional criteria. HP-positive patients had a lower International Prognostic Index score (0-1, 65% vs 43%, P=0.029), a lower clinical stage (I-IIE1, 70% vs 39%, P=0.003), a better tumor response to chemotherapy (complete pathologic response, 76% vs 47%, P=0.004) and significantly superior 5-year event-free survival (EFS) (71.7% vs 31.8%, P<0.001) and overall survival (OS) (76.1% vs 39.8%, P<0.001). To draw a closer biologic link with HP, HP-positive tumors were further examined for CagA expression in lymphoma cells. Compared with CagA-negative cases (n=16), CagA-positive cases (n=27) were associated with high phosphorylated SHP-2 expression (P=0.016), and even better 5-year EFS (85.2% vs 46.3%, P=0.002) and OS (88.9% vs 52.9%, P=0.003). HP-related gastric 'pure' DLBCL may be a distinct tumor entity, which is less aggressive, and responds better to conventional chemotherapy.
954 RISK FACTORS OF AMINOTRANSFERASE ELEVATION IN A POPULATION OF VIRUS-FREE BLOOD DONORS. A MULTICENTRE STUDY
Authors: F. Morisco, A. Mele, G. Taliani, A. Smedile, S. Caronna, G. Niro, M. Levrero, M.T. Fiorillo, M.E. Tosti, T. Stroffolini, N. Caporaso
Journal: Journal of Hepatology (2008)
Fostering High-Value, Cost-Conscious Care
Authors: Ronald N. Levy
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (2012)

Letters19 June 2012Fostering High-Value, Cost-Conscious CareRonald N. Levy, MDRonald N. Levy, MDFrom New York, NY 10016.Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-156-12-201206190-00020 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail TO THE EDITOR:I read the article by Qaseem and colleagues (1) with interest. Regarding their criticism of diagnostic tests, should there be fuller disclosure on the question of “whether a test provides health benefits that are worth their cost?”Positive test results can save lives, so should critics of tests consider cost and also disclose what they estimate to be the value of lives saved?In many cases, negative test results reduce worry and increase quality of life. Should advocates of “less testing” disclose what value they ascribe to relieving patient fear and enhancing quality of life?Telling a ...References1. Qaseem A, Alguire P, Dallas P, Feinberg LE, Fitzgerald FT, Horwitch C, et al. Appropriate use of screening and diagnostic tests to foster high-value, cost-conscious care. Ann Intern Med. 2012;156:147-9. [PMID: 22250146] LinkGoogle Scholar2. Landro L. What if the doctor is wrong? Wall Street Journal. 17 January 2012. Accessed at online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203721704577159280778957336.html on 17 January 2012. Google Scholar Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: From New York, NY 10016.Disclosures: None disclosed. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsSee AlsoAppropriate Use of Screening and Diagnostic Tests to Foster High-Value, Cost-Conscious Care Amir Qaseem , Patrick Alguire , Paul Dallas , Lawrence E. Feinberg , Faith T. Fitzgerald , Carrie Horwitch , Linda Humphrey , Richard LeBlond , Darilyn Moyer , Jeffrey G. Wiese , and Steven Weinberger Fostering High-Value, Cost-Conscious Care Amir Qaseem , Patrick Alguire , and Steven Weinberger Fostering High-Value, Cost-Conscious Care Frank J. Rybicki , Michael A. Bettmann , Paul A. Larson , and Harvey L. Neiman Fostering High-Value, Cost-Conscious Care Zackary D. Berger and Fostering High-Value, Cost-Conscious Care James R. Johnson Fostering High-Value, Cost-Conscious Care Zackary D. Berger and Metrics 19 June 2012Volume 156, Issue 12Page: 903KeywordsComaConflicts of interestDisclosureDrugsFearPatient advocacyQuality of lifeSurgery ePublished: 19 June 2012 Issue Published: 19 June 2012 CopyrightCopyright © 2012 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF DownloadLoading ...
Incidence of Coeliac Disease in the West of Ireland
Authors: M. Mylotte, B. Egan-Mitchell, C. F. McCarthy, B. McNicholl
Journal: BMJ (1973)

During an 11-year period the incidence of coeliac disease presenting in children in the West of Ireland has been found to be 1 in 597. When allowance is made for presentation of the disease in adult life the incidence may be as high as 1 in 303. These figures are much higher than those reported for Britain.
A Case of Bleeding from the Trachea, Simulating Pulmonary Haemorrhage
Authors: E. T. Wilson
Journal: BMJ (1884)

of them that they would not eat the fleslh of bears, and that they were -rather sought by the bears than the bears by theni, and that they re- -mained lethar ically in their hut, during most of the winter.Sir John Ross has stated that, in 1633-4, seven Russian ship--wrecked seamen remained a year in Spitzbergen, as Pelham's party did in 1630-1; but the manner in which they were housed, the foodl they had, and the results as to scurvy, are not iioted by hint.And again, ho states that in 1743-9, sit Russian sailors were left at Spitzbergel, and remained there six years.WeU may rest assured that the flesh of reindeer, bears, seals, and birds was then as obtainable as it was be- Lforo and has been since then.In what then, it may niow be asked, (lid their conditions differ from those of the Alert and Discoveny's crews, kept for an equal period of one winter within decks, breathing an atmosphere, always impure, and the snore so while crowded together at night ?Else how can it be satisfactorily explained that, in so many instances of the most extreme ex- posure in Arctic regionis, imen do escape scurvy, as in the instances of Hayes's party from Kane's ship, in 1854, in Smnith's Sound ; of Hull's, *in 1872, in thc same place ; of the Ilhn&t's crew, on the east coast of 'Greenland, through the witnter of 1871-2, while they were (Irifting 41,00 miles on the ice through eight moithis, none of wlhom had any 'other shelter than was afforded them by tents or huts, living mostly in the open air, and subsisting chiefly on the animal food tley couldl obtain by exertion of their muscular systemiis?Do not these instances indicate, I would ask, that in Arctic regions Europeans are more healthy when they are of necessity assimilated to the nativos in their conditions of living, than wlhen they are cooped( up and breathing an impure atmosplhere generated between the decks ot a ship?Even Ross fotind, so early as 1834, that, after his people -had suffered greatly by scurvy thlrouh two winters, the last of four, they all improved remarkably in their last four montlis, while thev were living in tents, or travelling on sledges ashore, and in boats afloat, when, in all human probability, another winiter passed in a ship would have proved fatal to them all.Anid, lastly, where the Rira's crew survivedl a winter, in 1881-2, in huts in health, the crew of the Tegethoff, in 1872-4, confined to their ship driftiun, in the ice, althouigh they were not without the flesh of bears
Analysis of the interaction site for the self superantigen Mls-1a on T cell receptor V beta.
Authors: A M Pullen, J Bill, R T Kubo, P Marrack, J W Kappler
Journal: The Journal of Experimental Medicine (1991)

Superantigen bound to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) products have been shown to stimulate T cells in a V beta-specific manner. Mouse T cells bearing V beta 8.1 usually respond to the self superantigen, Mls-1a, whereas T cells bearing V beta 8.2a do not. Previously, using site-directed mutational analysis, we identified the residues of natural variants of T cell receptor (TCR) V beta 8.2 that conferred Mls-1a reactivity. These residues are predicted to lie on a beta-pleated sheet of the TCR V beta element, well away from the expected binding site for antigen and MHC proteins. This study was undertaken to determine the effect of glycosylation on this beta-pleated sheet on Mls-1a reactivity and to map the extent of the interaction site on V beta 8.2 for Mls-1a. to Mls-1a, as well as to peptides derived from the conventional protein antigen, chicken ovalbumin. Here we demonstrate that first, N-linked carbohydrate on the lateral surface of V beta blocks the interaction of the TCR V beta with the self superantigen, Mls-1a, but has no effect on the TCR interaction with peptide antigen and MHC, second, that the interaction site for Mls-1a extends over the surface of the solvent-exposed beta-pleated sheet on the side of the TCR, and third, that mutations which affect both superantigen and peptide antigen reactivity lie at the beginning of the first complementarity determining region of V beta, consistent with models of the trimolecular complex of TCR-peptide-MHC.
The effect of tacalcitol (1,24(OH)2D3) on cutaneous inflammation, epidermal proliferation and keratinization in psoriasis: a placebo-controlled, double-blind study
Authors: M.J. PGERRITSEN, J.B. MBOEZEMAN, I.M.J.J. VAN VLIJMEN-WILLEMS, P.C.M. VAN DE KERKHOF
Journal: British Journal of Dermatology (1994)

Summary The aim of the present study was to discover to what extent 1.24(OH)2D3 ointment (tacalcitol; 4 μg/g) can modulate epidermal proliferation and keratinization, and several aspects of inflamation. Ten patients with psoriasis vulgaris were included in a placebo-controlled, double-blind study, using 1,24(OH)2D3 ointment (4μg/g). Before, and after 8 weeks of treatment, punch biopsies were taken from lesions treated with the active agent and placebo-treated lesions. An immunohistochemical study was carried out using monoclonal antibodies against the hyperproliferation-associated keratin 16, against cycling nuclei, filaggrin, involucrin, T lymphocytes, Langerhans cells, CD14 and polymorphonuclear leucocytes (PMN). The Wilcoxon test for matched pairs was used for statistical analysis of results. The biopsies from the lesions treated with the active agent showed a statistically significant change towards normalization of all aspects of inflammation studied, and of epidermal proliferation and keratinization, but there did not appear to be any effect on Langerhans cells. The only parameter which showed a significant alteration in the placebo-treated lesions was the number of cycling nuclei in the epidermis (P≤0.02). However, the biopsies from the plaques treated with the active agent showed a greater decrease of cycling cells (decrease: Mactive=70, Mplacebo=53) and a lower P-value (≤0.01). We therefore conclude that at the cell biological level 1.24(OH)2D3 ointment (4μg/g) has a substantial effect on several cell types, with regard to inflammation, epidermal proliferation and keratinization, with the exception of Langerhans cells.