There is a clear and consistent disagreement in reported mortality rates between hospital-based and population-based studies of elective surgery for AAA. Prospective studies give the best documentation of postoperative morbidity.

No abstract

Cellulose-degrading cultures of the white-rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium produce two extracellular cellobiose-oxidizing enzymes, cellobiose oxidase and cellobiose:quinone oxidoreductase. These two enzymes bind strongly to microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) in the pH range 4-7; above neutral pH their affinity for MCC decreases. Cellulose-bound enzymes could not be eluted with phosphate buffer (20 mM, pH 6) containing polyols (10%), KC1 (1 M), urea (1 M) or 1% ionic or non-ionic detergent. TRIS or borate buffer at pH 9 eluted 30%-35% of the cellobiose-oxidizing enzyme activity. The celluloseimmobilized enzymes oxidized cellobiose actively, suggesting that the catalytic sites are not involved in cellulose binding. These results suggest that the cellobiose-oxidizing enzymes of P. chrysosporium may be organized into two domains: a cellulose-binding domain and a catalytic domain.

This study was unable to confirm a benefit of earlier anti-TNF treatment on IBD disease complications. This could be explained by more aggressive treatment earlier in disease, resulting in fewer IBD complications. However, it seems more likely that inappropriate selection of patients for therapy leads to suboptimal treatment and subsequently suboptimal outcome.

In this cohort, 31% of the patients with CD had complicated disease at diagnosis, 39% had ileocolonic disease, 9.5% had perianal disease, and in 4% the upper gastrointestinal tract was involved. Most patients with UC suffered from left-sided colitis (51%). Severe endoscopic lesions were reported in 34% of the patients with CD and 26% of the patients with UC. Three percent of the patients with IBD had extraintestinal manifestations.