At the German Antarctic research station (70°S, 8°W), long-term observations of the chemical and radio-chemical composition of atmospheric particulate matter were started in spring 1983. Based on the analysis of high-volume aerosol filters sampled continuously for nearly 5 years, concentration records of the following aerosol components are presented here: (a) major ions (sea-salt, sulfate, nitrate); (b) cosmogenic 7 Be and terrigeneous 210 Pb; (c) trace elements (crustal Mn, heavy metal Pb). All species mentioned, with the exception of stable and radioactive Pb, show annual cycles. The maximum occurs in austral summer for 7 Be, sulfate, and crustal Mn. For sea-salt, however, the maximum is found in local autumn, and for nitrate in local spring. In local summer, the enhanced 7 Be to 210 Pb ratio is attributed to intenser large scale vertical mixing. The pattern of total sulfate seems to be controlled by the nss-sulfate production from marine organo-sulfur species during local summer, whereas in polar night, nss-sulfate shows very low or even negative concentration. Crustal aerosol (indicated by Mn) shows a mean summer contribution of 16 ng/SCM which exceeds the mean winter level by more than a factor of two. Based on a mean wash-out ratio of 0.27• 10 6 observed for 210 Pb bearing aerosol particles, a Pb snow concentration of 3.0 pg/g is deduced from the mean air concentration of 11 pg/SCM.

At the German Antarctic research station (709, 8"W), long-term observations of the chemical and radio-chemical composition of atmospheric particulate matter were started in spring 1983. Based on the analysis of high-volume aerosol filters sampled continuously for nearly 5 years, concentration records of the following aerosol components are presented here : (a) major ions (sea-salt, sulfate, nitrate); (b) cosmogenic 7Be and terrigeneous 210Pb; (c) trace elements (crustal Mn, heavy metal Pb). All species mentioned, with the exception of stable and radioactive Pb, show annual cycles. The maximum occurs in austral summer for 7Be, sulfate, and crustal Mn. For sea-salt, however, the maximum is found in local autumn, and for nitrate in local spring. In local summer, the enhanced ' Be to 210Pb ratio is attributed to intenser large scale vertical mixing. The pattern of total sulfate seems to be controlled by the nss-sulfate production from marine organo-sulfur species during local summer, whereas in polar night, nss-sulfate shows very low or even negative concentration. Crustal aerosol (indicated by Mn) shows a mean summer contribution of 16 ng/SCM which exceeds the mean winter level by more than a factor of two. Based on a mean wash-out ratio of 0.27.106 observed for 210Pb bearing aerosol particles, a Pb snow concentration of 3.0 pg/g is deduced from the mean air concentration of 11 pg/SCM.

Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in serum has recently been introduced into the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system for cutaneous melanoma because of its prognostic value. We hypothesised LDH to be of value in discriminating melanoma patients entering AJCC stage IV from patients staying in AJCC stages I, II or III. Lactate dehydrogenase was compared to the acute phase protein C-reactive protein (CRP), which we observed to reflect the course of melanoma metastasis in a previous report. In this prospective study, we measured LDH and CRP in the serum of 91 consecutive melanoma patients progressing into AJCC stage IV in comparison to 125 patients staying in AJCC stages I, II or III. Comparing distributions of the parameters by median values and quartiles by Mann -Whitney test, LDH was not significantly elevated in patients entering AJCC stage IV melanoma (P ¼ 0.785), whereas CRP was (Po0.001). Analysing the sensitivity and the specificity jointly by the areas under the receiver operating characteristics curves (ROC-AUC), LDH did not discriminate between the defined groups of patients (AUC ¼ 0.491; 95% confidence interval, 0.410, 0.581), whereas CRP did (AUC ¼ 0.933; 95% confidence interval, 0.900, 0.966; Po0.001). Upon logistic regression analysis to calculate the ROC-AUC values upon the predictive probabilities, LDH provided no additional information to CRP. Choosing a cutoff point of 3.0 mg l À1 , CRP yielded a sensitivity of 0.769 together with a specificity of 0.904 in diagnosing AJCC stage IV entry. Altogether, for first diagnosing AJCC stage IV melanoma, CRP is the superior serum marker when compared to the conventional LDH.

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