The results of this survey indicate that medical educators face several challenges, with a particular need for more academic recognition, funding and academic qualifications in medical education.

Microarray analysis of rejected kidneys may help to define different entities of transplant nephropathy, reflecting the multifactorial cause of chronic rejection.

We report on the requirements that have to be met to combine a standard- dose chemotherapy regimen with broad antitumor activity with the mobilization of peripheral blood hematopoietic progenitor cells. Thirty- two cancer patients were given a 1-day course of chemotherapy consisting of etoposide (VP16), ifosfamide, and cisplatin (VIP; n = 46 cycles), followed by the combined sequential administration of recombinant human interleukin-3 (rhIL-3) and recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (rhGM-CSF). Control patients received GM-CSF alone or were treated without cytokines. Maximum numbers of peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPC) were recruited on day 13 to 17 after chemotherapy, with a median of 418 CD34+ cells/microL blood (range, 106 to 1,841) in IL-3/GM-CSF-treated patients, 426 CD34+/microL (range, 191 to 1,380) in GM-CSF-treated patients, and 46 CD34+/microL (range, 15 to 148) in patients treated without cytokines. In parallel, there was an increase in myeloid (10,490 colony-forming unit-granulocyte-macrophage [CFU-GM]/mL blood; range, 1,000 to 23,400), as well as erythroid (10,660 burst-forming unit-erythroid [BFU-E]/mL blood; range, 3,870 to 24,300) and multipotential (840 CFU-granulocyte, erythrocyte, monocyte, megakaryocyte [GEMM]/mL blood; range, 160 to 2,070) progenitor cells in IL-3 plus GM-CSF-treated patients. In GM-CSF-treated patients, significantly less precursor cells of all lineages were mobilized, particularly multipotential progenitors (400 CFU-GEMM/mL blood; range, 200 to 2,150). Only small numbers of CD34+ cells and clonogenic progenitor cells could be recruited in intensively pretreated patients. Our data document that after standard-dose chemotherapy-induced bone marrow hypoplasia, IL-3 plus GM-CSF can be used to recruit PBPC, which might shorten the hematopoietic recovery after high-dose chemotherapy in chemosensitive lymphomas or solid tumors.

In the study presented here, peripheral blood specimens obtained from patients with atherosclerosis were examined for the presence of Chlamydia pneumoniae to determine whether these specimens can be used for routine testing. Chlamydia pneumoniae DNA was detected in 7 of 56 patients with carotid stenosis and in three of four patients with other atherosclerotic diseases, but it was not detected in any of 50 healthy controls or in any of 59 age- and gender-matched patients suffering from other nonatherosclerotic diseases. IgG antibodies indicative of an active Chlamydia pneumoniae infection were detected by microimmunofluorescence in two of nine PCR-positive patients but in none of 41 PCR-negative patients. Four of nine serum samples obtained from PCR-positive patients contained IgA antibodies compared to 5 of 41 samples obtained from PCR-negative patients.

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