No abstract

In recent studies, sputum smear cell counts were found to be reproducible and usefully applied to research in asthma and other airway conditions. However, cell definition on the smears is poor, and the procedure is tedious and has limited utility. The objective of this study is to improve the methods of sputum examination. The subjects used in this study were people with bronchitis or asthma from whom sputum could be obtained. By inverted microscopy, portions of fresh sputum were selected to exclude salivary contamination. These portions were exposed to different volumes of dithiothreitol for varied time intervals. We used the resulting cell suspensions to perform total cell counts and prepare cytospins for differential cell counts and immunohistochemical stains for GM-CSF, EG2, TNF alpha and IL-8. Cytospins were compared with smears for differential cell counts on the same sputum specimens. Excellent cell dispersion and definition in cytospins could be observed. The time required for differential cell counting on cytospins was reduced and cytospin counts were more reproducible than smears. Greater duration of treatment of sputum with dithiothreitol tended to increase total cell counts and significantly decreased EG2 staining but had no effect on differential cell counts or the cytokine cell components. Therefore the proposed method of sputum examination involving cell dispersion and use of cytospins overcomes a number of the disadvantages of the examination of smears.

There is a high rate of needlestick injuries in the daily routine of a hospital. The rate of such injuries depends on the medical discipline. Implementation of safety devices will lead to an improvement in medical staff's health and safety.

OBJECTIVE.The flow pattern in hepatic veins depends on cardiac physiology and liver histology. The aim of our study was to determine the dependence of the flow pattern of he patic and portal veins in relation to histologic features in patients with chronic hepatitis C. SUBJECTS AND METHODS.In 135 patients with chronic hepatitis C, the Doppler sonography spectrum of the right hepatic vein was classified as triphasic, biphasic, or monophasic. The flow of theportalvein wascharacterizedaccordingto theundulation(veloc itYm@min). A liver biopsy was performed during sonography, and biopsy specimens were semiquantitatively evaluatedon a histologicactivity index anda scoreof the hepaticfat con tent. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to identify the histologic features that might contribute to the type of flow pattern. RESULTS.The hepatocyte fat content was the only variable associated with an indepen dent effect on the type of flow pattern (monophasic versus triphasic; odds ratio, 16.26; 95% confidence interval, 6.38â€"41.45; p < .0001). A pronounced undulation in the portal vein was associated with portal inflammation but not with other parameters of the histologic activity in dex or the intrahepatic fat deposition. The normal triphasic Doppler sonography waveformof hepaticveinsvanesaccordingto changes in the central venous pressure. During atrial and ventricular diastole, two portions of the signal (phase I and phase II) reflect the hepatofugalflow to the heart, while during atrial contraction a third portion (phase ifi) representsa short interval of reversedflow [1,10]. Conflicting data have been reported concerning changes of the flow pattern in rela tion to chronic liver disease. A few studiessug gested that liver fibrosis or cirrhosis and transplant rejection may reduce undulation of the hepatic flow pattern [2][3][4]7]. The possible contribution of inflammatory changes and mtra hepaticfat depositionhasneverbeensystemati cally investigated.To address thesequestions, chronichepatitis C is an attractiveclinical model [11â€"13] be causethe diseasecan causethe completehisto logic spectrum of inflammatory and fibrotic changes[14â€"17] andcan lead to variable intra hepaticfat deposition [3,18]. In the present study, we examined 135 patients with chronic hepatitis C and 75 age-and sex-matched healthy subjectsusing B-mode and duplex