DNA content and cell proliferation were studied retrospectively in 125 patients presenting from 1974-1981 with rectal adenocarcinoma. The presence of DNA aneuploidy or a high level of cell proliferation were associated with a poor prognosis and when combined were the best predictor of survival after Dukes's stage excluding all other pathological assessments investigated. High cell turnover was significantly associated with an infiltrative pattern of growth, an observation that might explain the poorer prognosis of this pattern in rectal adenocarcinomas.

A random sample of 140 elderly people aged over 75 was selected from the age-sex register of an urban general practice to assess the provision and use of aids and adaptations in their homes. Many ofthe aids that the elderly had were faulty, including half of the walking aids and 15% of hearing aids, reading spectacles, and dentures, and up to halfofthe aids were not used. Yet despite this underuse there were many disabled elderly people who required aids for the bath and toilet.

Flow cytometric analysis was performed retrospectively on material from 76 patients having potentially curative resection for gastric carcinoma between 1968 and 1984. The prognostic significance of DNA aneuploidy was compared with that of conventional histological grading and staging of the tumour. The presence of DNA aneuploidy was associated with a significantly poorer prognosis when compared with diploid tumours (P less than 0.02), but was not found to be predictive of survival when the presence of lymph node metastases (P less than 0.0001) and resection margin involvement (P less than 0.003) were allowed for using multiple regression analysis. When intestinal and diffuse types of gastric carcinoma were analysed separately, DNA aneuploidy was associated with a significantly shorter survival only in patients with intestinal type tumours.

Summary Ninety cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma diagnosed prior to the use of modern therapeutic regimens and 88 cases treated with such chemotherapy were studied using conventional morphology and flow cytometry. DNA aneuploidy as determined by flow cytometry was more common among high grade (38%) than low grade (19%)

The effect of dietary sodium on the urine dopamine excretion of eight hypertensive patients and six matched controls was studied under metabolic balance conditions over a 2 week period during which dietary sodium intake was increased from 20 to 220 mmol/day. The control group showed the expected increase in dopamine excretion in response to sodium but the hypertensive patients showed an initial fall followed by a return to baseline values. Neither group showed a rise in blood pressure but the hypertensive patients showed a greater weight gain on salt loading, although this change was not significant. The cumulative sodium balance was greater and more prolonged in the hypertensive patients, although this difference also did not attain statistical significance. This defect in dopamine mobilization may be important in relation to renal sodium handling by patients with essential hypertension.