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Effective surface cooling of the kidney during vascular anastomosis decreases the risk of delayed kidney function after transplantation.

The aim of the prospective study was to assess the exact kidney temperature and the effect of surface cooling of the kidney during the time of vascular anastomosis. Twenty-two renal graft recipients were incorporated into our study. We used an electronic temperature measurer provided with a needle-shaped probe pierced into the body of the kidney. The temperature was recorded every 5 min. The mean temperature of the kidney at the beginning of anastomosis (T0) was 8.87 +/- 3.97 degrees C and 17.95 +/- 5.1 degrees C at the end (Tend). The striking finding of this study was that the mean Tend delayed kidney function-negative in [ATN(-)] recipients was significantly lower than in the ATN(+) group; respectively, 14.86 +/- 3.6 degrees C and 19.71 +/- 5.07 degrees C. Therefore, we have divided all recipients according to Tend (< 15 degrees C and > 15 degrees C) in an attempt to assess the direct influence of kidney temperature on early graft function. In nine cases, a temperature below 15 degrees C was recorded and in 13 cases it exceeded 15 degrees C at the end of anastomosis. The mean cold ischemia time and anastomosis time were not different in these recipients. Delayed graft function occurred in 14 recipients; in 3 of 9 (33.3%) recipients from group Tend < 15 degrees C; and in 11 of 13 (85%) from group Tend > 15 degrees C. One case of primary non-function was observed (Tend > 15 degrees C). This study documents the value of effective cooling of the kidney during the time of vascular anastomosis. Since in most clinical reports the significance of the second warm ischemia was assessed only by the duration of the anastomosis, without measurement of the actual organ temperature, this may explain the different findings in our studies.

Adult↗

The geometric pattern of a pillared substrate influences the cell-process distribution and shapes of fibroblasts.

Fibroblasts alter their shape, direction of movement, cytoskeleton arrangement, and focal contact when placed upon square array pillars. We prepared pillars of 1 microm diameter, separated by 3 microm, and having 1, 5, and 10 microm heights using substrates displaying identical surface chemistry. When cells seeded initially onto the tops of the pillars, fibroblasts subsequently were immobilized in situ by several pillars that visibly protruded through, but did not pierce, the cell bodies. The cytoplasma then migrated outward with long straight lamella along the interval of the pillars and formed several discrete attachment zones at their side walls - the value of their form index (FI) was as high as 35 - which altered the cellular shape entirely. Most of the cells interacted with the pillar substrate by spreading preferentially in a particular direction, but some of them had the ability to undergo coincident two-direction (x and y) migration; right-angle turn orientations led to the growth of dramatic cellular morphologies. Interestingly, this fibroblast's behavior variation was gradually in proportion to the pillar height of substrate. Our results confirm that cellular migration and cellular shape are both strongly affected by the geometry of the growth microenvironment.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

Morphometry of the adult human earlobe: a study of 547 subjects and clinical application.

The purpose of this study was to define the factors that influence earlobe length and to establish a standard for adult earlobe length by sex and age. The study sample consisted of 547 adult subjects older than 20 years of age. A randomized, prospective design was used. Patients with malignancies, previous surgery or trauma to the earlobe, or congenital earlobe anomalies were excluded. The following variables were studied: sex; age; ethnic origin; skin complexion; height, weight, and body mass index; and piercing. Pearson's correlation, analysis of variance, t test, and multiple regression analysis were used for the statistical analysis. There were 383 women (70 percent) and 164 men (30 percent) aged 20 to 80 years. The average length of the left earlobe was 1.97 cm (SD, 0.42 cm), and that of the right earlobe, 2.01 cm (SD, 0.42 cm) (p < 0.0001). A post hoc test revealed a statistically significant difference among the three age groups (20 to 40 years, 40 to 60 years, and >60 years) in both men and women. Pendulous earlobes were significantly longer and less symmetrical than nonpendulous ones by t test. In men, nonpierced left earlobes were longer than pierced lobes; in women, there was no significant difference between pierced and nonpierced ears. Pearson's correlation tests for weight, height, and body mass index showed that only weight had a significant effect on earlobe length, and only in women. Analysis of variance for ethnic origin and skin color revealed a longer left earlobe in Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews compared with Ethiopian, Asian, and American Jews and Arabs and a short earlobe in blacks compared with dark and fair-skinned people. On multiple regression analysis, sex and age were the only factors that contributed to earlobe length. A table of average earlobe length by age was formulated on the basis of the authors' findings. These data, together with the knowledge that earlobe length changes little in women over 40, that earlobes are not symmetrical, and that right and left nonpendulous earlobes are symmetrical in individual patients and shorter than pendulous earlobes, can assist the plastic surgeon in deciding on the proper time for loboplasty. The preferable technique is creating a nonpendulous earlobe to minimize the chances of further elongation with time.

Adult↗

Monitoring and educational feedback to improve the compliance of tattooists and body piercers with infection control standards: a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: Blood-borne viruses, which present a grim health and economic burden for both developed and developing countries, can be transmitted through tattooing and piercing. Limited data exist concerning intervention strategies for increasing skin penetration operators' compliance with infection control standards. We evaluated the efficacy and acceptability of an educational feedback intervention for tattooists and piercers. METHODS: A randomized controlled trial was conducted in Sydney, NSW, Australia, among 37 tattooing and body-piercing premises in 2002. RESULTS: No effects were found in terms of improved knowledge. There was a significantly greater increase in the experimental group in the perceived risk of being detected and penalized for noncompliance. There was a significantly greater improvement in the demonstration of 2 of 3 infection control procedures and a nonsignificant trend toward greater improvement in inspection scores in the experimental group. The odds of compliance were significantly higher in the experimental group for 2 of the 3 demonstration practices and in 2 of 5 observed infection control practices. CONCLUSION: The findings contribute new information concerning alternative approaches to increasing tattooists and piercers' infection control compliance with regulations/guidelines.

Communicable Disease Control↗

Public health 3: Legal regulation of tattooing and body art.

District nurse Mandy Grey is currently treating a thirteen year old girl who has a seriously infected tattoo on her buttock and infected tongue and nipple piercing all of which were performed at a local tattoo parlour. The teenager wanted the tattoo and piercing as all her friends have had similar body art and she felt pressured into having the same. Sister Grey wonders how this ever popular and increasingly intimate form of bodily adornment is regulated.

Adolescent↗

Dental and oral complications of lip and tongue piercings.

Piercing of the tongue and perioral regions is an increasingly popular expression of body art, with more patients coming in for a routine check-up with tongue and/or lip piercings. Several complications of oral piercing have been reported, some of which are life-threatening. In the present clinical survey the prevalence of both tongue and lip piercing complications in oral health was assessed in a group of 50 patients. The most common dental problem registered was chipping of the teeth, especially in association with tongue piercing. Gingival recession was seen as a result of lip piercing with studs. Post-procedural complications included oedema, haemorrhage and infection. Therefore, dentists and oral and maxillofacial surgeons should be given more authority to advise patients with oral and facial piercings or those who plan to acquire this type of body art.

Adolescent↗

Ear piercing affects earprints: the role of ear piercing in human identification.

Previous research conducted into the use of the human ear in the field of forensic identification has focused upon the use of grids and manual methods to measure and catalogue the different anatomical features of the ear. To date, few have considered the importance of the presence of ear piercings and their possible role in human identification. This study aims to highlight the common distribution of piercings of both ears in both genders and to explore the effect of piercings on earprints. The presence of a piercing may, in part, help to explain why partial and not whole earprints are sometimes recovered from a scene of crime (suggesting that the offender's ears may be pierced). The presence of piercings through the tragus and the superior part of the helix are shown to be infrequent and thus may be used to assist the identification of a body, due to its relative rarity with respect to piercings found in other areas of the ear.

Adult↗

Body modification and substance use in adolescents: is there a link?

PURPOSE: To describe the characteristics of body modification among adolescents and to determine whether adolescents who engage in body modification are more likely to screen positive for alcohol and other drug problems than those who do not. METHODS: Adolescents aged 14 to 18 years presenting to an urban adolescent clinic for routine health care completed a questionnaire about body modification and a substance use assessment battery that included the 17-item Problem Oriented Screening Instrument for Teenagers Alcohol/Drug Use and Abuse Scale (POSIT-ADS). Body modification was defined as piercings (other than one pair of bilateral earlobe piercings in females), tattoos, scarification, and branding. Problem substance use was defined as a POSIT-ADS score > or =1. Data were analyzed using logistic regression to determine whether the presence of body modification was an independent predictor of problem substance use. RESULTS: The 210 participants had a mean (+/- SD) age of 16.0 (+/- 1.4) years and 63% were female. One hundred adolescents (48%) reported at least one body modification; girls were more likely than boys to have body modification (59% vs. 28%, p < or = .0005). Ninety (42%) reported piercings, 22 (10%) tattoos, 9 (4%) scarification, and 1 (< 1%) branding; 21 (10%) had more than one type of body modification. These were in a variety of locations, most commonly the ear and the nose (piercings) or the extremities (tattoos). One-third of the sample (33%) screened positive for problem substance use on the POSIT-ADS questionnaire. Controlling for age, adolescents with body modification had 3.1 times greater odds of problem substance use than those without body modification (95% CI 1.7, 5.8). CONCLUSIONS: Body modification was associated with self-reported problem alcohol and other drug use among middle adolescents presenting for primary care. More research is needed to determine the clinical and sociocultural significance of body modification and its relationship to substance use in this population.

Adolescent↗

Carcinogenicity and acute toxicity of dimethylnitrosamine in rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri).

Four-week-old rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) were fed diets containing 0, 3, 50, 200, 400, and 800 ppm dimethylnitrosamine (DMN) for 52 weeks. At the end of 52 weeks, the fish were fed a control diet without DMN for an additional 26 weeks. Samples were taken at 26, 52, and 78 weeks to determine tumor incidence. A dose-related carcinogenic response was established from these results, and an equation was derived to relate the level of the carcinogen to the hepatocellular carcinoma incidence. From a published dose-response study that used outbred Porton rats, a second equation was derived for comparison. Rats and trout were approximately equal in their sensitivity to DMN carcinogenesis. The median lethal dose after ip injection of DMN was 1,770 mg/kg body weight in rainbow trout. Relative to the range of 15-50 mg/kg body weight reported for several mammalian species, trout were resistant to the acute toxicity of DMN.

Animals↗

Costly traumatic insemination and a female counter-adaptation in bed bugs.

Male bed bugs pierce females through the body wall and inseminate directly into the body cavity. It has previously been shown that such traumatic insemination carries costs for females, and sexual conflict regarding the mode of insemination should thus propel male-female coevolution. Since males accumulate sexually antagonistic adaptations, females should evolve counter-adaptations that efficiently abate the costs to females of sexual interactions. Yet, unambiguous experimental evidence for female counter-adaptations is lacking. In bed bugs, the spermalege (a highly modified region of the abdomen where the male usually pierces the female) may represent a female counter-adaptation. We assess the female costs of traumatic insemination by varying the rate of insemination on the one hand, and the rate and mode of piercing trauma to females on the other. Our results show that female mating costs are not extreme-elevated mating rate shortened female lifespan but had no significant effect on lifetime egg production. More importantly, additional abdominal piercing in the spermalege had no effect on females whereas even a very low rate of such piercing outside the spermalege reduced female lifetime egg production by 50%. Thus, females are well counter-adapted to the intrusive mode of insemination exhibited by male bed bugs and the costs of elevated mating are comparable with those in other insects, as predicted by theory. We therefore demonstrate that the spermalege efficiently reduces the direct costs of piercing trauma to females, and hence provide experimental evidence for a female counter-adaptation to a sexually antagonistic male trait.

Adaptation, Biological↗

Muscle glycogen repletion after exercise in trained normal and diabetic rats.

We hypothesize that training results in a faster and greater repletion of glycogen in skeletal muscles of normal and diabetic rats. Normal male Sprague-Dawley rats (100-140 g) were divided into two groups--one to train by treadmill running for 10 wk and the other to remain sedentary. Forty-eight hours after the last training session the rats of both groups were exercised to exhaustion. One subgroup of each was fed oral glucose (3 g/kg) at exhaustion and killed 60 min later. The other was killed at exhaustion. The glycogen concentration of soleus, plantaris, and red and white gastrocnemius was determined in all rats. The trained group had higher glycogen levels after glucose feeding in all muscles (P less than 0.002) and repleted their muscle glycogen more rapidly (P less than 0.05). However, in diabetic rats (45 mg streptozotocin/kg body wt) the trained and sedentary rats have similar glycogen levels and glycogen repletion rates in all muscles. Compared with the normal trained rats, the diabetic trained rats had slower glycogen repletion rates (P less than 0.05).

Animals↗

[Teenagers with piercing and tattooing].

BACKGROUND: The search for social identity seems important to young people's efforts at finding a social practice that fulfills their own needs. "Body art", i.e. tattoos and piercing, could be understood as a way of demonstrating a personal identity, though it is doubtful whether this practice over time could fill such needs in a modern society. This study addresses the question of whether young people that acquire tattoos or piercings have special characteristics in terms of social integration and behaviour. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A cross-sectional questionnaire was administered to junior high school students (6th, 8th and 10th grade, age 11-15) in a Norwegian town (population: 40,000). A total of 1237 students filled in the questionnaire. The social integration and health-impacting behaviour of those with body art was compared to those without. Adjustments were made for age and sex through linear and logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Teenagers with body art are just as active in their spare time as their peers without such decorations and they are just as close to and trusting of their friends (relational quality), but they are more integrated with their friends in terms of time spent with them (relational quantity). Teenagers with body art see themselves as less well integrated in school than their peers. Moreover, they assess the support they get from their parents and their closeness to them lower than do those without body art. Having body art is strongly associated with health-compromising behaviour. INTERPRETATION: Health-promoting efforts in schools would benefit from recognition of young people's need for expressing their personal identity and that so-called risk behaviour may be an expression of personal identity. A focus on mastering experiences and inter-generational dialogue could be as fruitful as a focus on risk behaviour.

Adolescent↗

Accumulation of mercury in the tissues of the common octopus Octopus vulgaris (L.) in two localities on the Portuguese coast.

Mercury concentrations were measured in tissues of 12 individuals of Octopus vulgaris, captured by the commercial fishery at two points along the Portuguese coast, Viana do Castelo and Cascais, in spring 2002. Concentrations were determined in six tissues (digestive gland, branchial hearts, gills, mantle, arms, and gonads). Correlations between mercury concentrations in different tissues were examined as were correlations between mercury levels and total length, mantle length, weight, gonadosomatic index, digestive gland index, and state of maturation. Differences between sexes and localities were analysed. The concentration of mercury in the digestive gland (Viana, 0.58+/-0.08, and Cascais, 3.43+/-2.57 mg/kg dry weight) was higher than in the other tissues, and values were generally similar to those recorded in previous studies on octopods. Arm muscle contained most of the mercury with 56% of the total body burden followed by the digestive gland with 31%, mantle with 11%, gills with 0.8%, gonad with 0.5%, and branchial heart with 0.2%. In all tissues, mercury concentrations were slightly higher in samples from Cascais than in Viana do Castelo, which is consistent with higher concentrations recorded in seawater at Cascais. Levels of mercury determined in octopus were within the range of values legally defined as safe for human consumption.

Animals↗

The body as art.

For millennia people have altered the appearance of their bodies with cosmetics, jewellery, tattoos, piercings, and other surgical procedures. It would appear that they wish to conform to a perceived 'ideal body', although the actual appearance of such a body is subject to temporal, cultural and geographical change. In contemporary society the media are largely responsible for providing the yardsticks against which individual body shape is measured. Today the desired form is generally young, slim, tanned and blemish-free. Sadly, dissatisfaction with body image can be the source of great unhappiness and may even lead to suicide. Interested scholars have debated the meaning of beauty for centuries but it seems that every human society has its own standards. At the simplest it would appear that youth and symmetry are the most highly prized ingredients. There is no doubt that those who fit the conventional standards of attractiveness are treated better by society. Individuals have an inalienable right to their own body appearance, and to alter it as they see fit, however such modifications may not always be in their own best interests. Practitioners of cosmetic procedures must be alert to clients with histories of weight fluctuation, unrealistic body image, or low self-esteem. Psychological disorders may present with dysmorphophobic symptoms. Doctors providing cosmetic services need to be adept at diagnosing psychological illness.

Art↗

Delay in brain growth induced by alcohol in artificially reared rat pups.

The effect of alcohol on body and brain growth of the neonatal rat was examined. An artificial rearing procedure was used to administer a milk formula containing 2.8% alcohol to rat pups during days 4-10 postpartum. Mean blood alcohol levels taken at hourly intervals between feelings at the end of the second day of exposure ranged between 151 and 163 mg/dl. Body growth in both groups of artificially reared pups was similar to that of the suckle control pups. Gross measurements indicated that while alcohol exposure did not arrest body growth, it did arrest several parameters of brain growth. There were deficits in brain weight and volume and in the brain weight to body weight ratio. Furthermore, there were sex-related differences. The brain weight to body weight ratio was significantly decreased in females and there was also a trend toward a greater deficit in brain volume as well. However, deficits in gross measures were not reflected in the development of the hippocampal formation. Areal measurements of the hippocampus and dentate gyrus failed to indicate any differential effects on the growth of the pyramidal and granule cell layers, or their dendritic fields and corresponding Timm-stained sublaminae, due to the alcohol exposure. These data suggest that the blood alcohol concentrations reached in the present study may be near the threshold dose for producing deficits in brain growth, and that the females have a lower threshold than the males.

Animals↗

On the importance of using multiple methods of dietary assessment.

BACKGROUND: Plasma carotenoid concentrations reflect intake of vegetables and fruits, the major food sources of these compounds. This study compared the ability of 2 measures of dietary intake (24-hour diet recalls and food frequency questionnaires [FFQs]) to corroborate plasma carotenoid concentrations in a subset of women participating in a diet intervention trial. METHODS: Plasma carotenoid concentrations and dietary intakes, estimated from 24-hour diet recalls and FFQs, were examined at baseline and 1 year later in a subset of 395 study participants (197 intervention and 198 comparison group). We used longitudinal models to examine associations between estimated intakes and plasma carotenoid concentrations. These analyses were stratified by study group and adjusted for body mass index (BMI), plasma cholesterol concentration, and total energy intake. We conducted simulations to compare mean-squared errors of prediction of each assessment method. RESULTS: In mixed-effects models, the estimated carotenoid intakes from both dietary assessment methods were strongly associated with plasma concentrations of alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, and lutein. Furthermore, modeling the 2 sources of intake information as joint predictors reduced the prediction error. CONCLUSION: These findings underscore the importance of using multiple measures of dietary assessment in studies examining diet-disease associations.

Adult↗