Hepatitis C virus infection rate in volunteer blood donors from the Western Cape - comparison of screening tests and peR

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Magrita Prinslo (1896), Magdalena Retief (1938) and Mies Julie (2012): from historical Afrikaner Mothers of the Nation to a modern Afrikanermeisie (girl): a postcolonial reading of Farber’s Mies Julie

Afrikaans and Theory of Literatur

Between text and stage: the theatrical adaptations of J.M. Coetzee’s Foe

Several of J.M. Coetzee’s novels have been adapted successfully for the stage, both as theatrical and operatic versions, but these adaptations have not received much critical attention. This article examines the ways in which Peter Glazer and Mark Wheatley have adapted Coetzee’s novel Foe (1986), resulting in two different and distinct stage productions, performed in the US and the UK respectively. In order to explore the complex relationship between the published text and the play versions, the article will ground itself in theories of adaptation, drawing extensively on work by Linda Hutcheon and Robert Stam and Alessandra Raengo. One of the key ideas in adaptation theory is that adaptive fidelity to the source text is neither possible nor desirable, but that adaptation is a more complex, multi-layered intertextual and intermedial interplay of fictional material. The article discusses the two play scripts and analyses the adaptive choices which underpin them and how these structure their meaning-making. Finally, the article also suggests that these scripts can be used to throw more light on Coetzee’s enigmatic novel.DHE

Anti-Müllerian Hormone Serum Concentrations of Women with Germline BRCA1 or 2 BRCA2 Mutations

Study funding/competing interest(s): kConFab is supported by a grant from the Australian National Breast Cancer Foundation, and previously by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Queensland Cancer Fund, the Cancer Councils of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia, and the Cancer Foundation of Western Australia. KAP is an Australian National Breast Cancer Foundation Practitioner Fellow. JLH is a NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow. MH is a NHMRC Practitioner Fellow. RA reports personal fees from Roche Diagnostics & Beckman Coulter outside the submitted work and CS reports other from Melbourne IVF outside the submitted work. The remaining authors have nothing to declare and no conflicts of interest.Study question: Do women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations have reduced ovarian reserve, as measured by circulating anti-müllerian hormone (AMH) concentration?  Summary answer: Women with a germline mutation in BRCA1 have reduced ovarian reserve as measured by AMH.  What is known already: The DNA repair enzymes encoded by BRCA1 and BRCA2 are implicated in reproductive aging. Circulating AMH is a biomarker of ovarian reserve and hence reproductive lifespan.  Study design, size, duration: Cross-sectional study of AMH concentrations of 693 women at the time of enrolment into the Kathleen Cuningham Foundation Consortium for research into Familial Breast Cancer (kConFab) cohort study (recruitment from 19/08/1997 until 18/9/2012). AMH was measured on stored plasma samples between November 2014 and January 2015 using an electrochemiluminescence immunoassay platform.  Participants/materials, setting, methods: Eligible women were from families segregating BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations and had known mutation status. Participants were aged 25 to 45 years, had no personal history of cancer, retained both ovaries and were not pregnant or breastfeeding at the time of plasma storage. Circulating AMH was measured for 172 carriers and 216 non-carriers from families carrying BRCA1 mutations, and 147 carriers and 158 non-carriers from families carrying BRCA2 mutations. Associations between plasma AMH concentration and carrier status were tested by linear regression, adjusted for age at plasma storage, oral contraceptive use, body mass index and cigarette smoking.  Main results and the role of chance: Mean AMH concentration was negatively associated with age (P < 0.001). Mutation carriers were younger at blood draw than non-carriers (P ≤ 0.031). BRCA1 mutation carriers had, on average, 25% (95% CI: 5% - 41%, P = 0.02) lower AMH concentrations than non-carriers and were more likely to have AMH concentrations in the lowest quartile for age (OR 1.84, 95% CI: 1.11-303, P=0.02). There was no evidence of an association between AMH concentration and BRCA2 mutation status (P = 0.94).  Limitations, reasons for caution: The clinical implications of the lower AMH concentrations seen in BRCA1 mutation carriers cannot be assessed by this study design.  Wider implications of the findings: Women with a germline mutation in BRCA1 may have reduced ovarian reserve. This is consistent with other smaller studies in the literature and has potential implications for fertility and reproductive lifespan. Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Hepatitis C virus infection rate in volunteer blood donors from the Western Cape : comparison of screening tests and PCR

INTRODUCTION: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody seroprevalence studies overestimate the true infection rate. No data exist on the incidence of HCV or its clinical features in blood donors of sub-Saharan Africa. AIMS: To establish the true incidence of HCV infection in volunteer blood donors in the Western Cape, and compare risk factors and clinical and biochemical features of viraemic and non-viraemic subjects. METHODS: All donors attending the Western Province Blood Transfusion Service between December 1992 and August 1994 were screened prospectively for anti-HCV using the Abbott second-generation assay. Positive donors were evaluated clinically and biochemically. Their sera were examined for HCV-RNA by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). RESULTS: Of 66314 donors screened, 275 (0.41%) were anti-HCV-positive. Of these 13.6% were PCR-positive (0.056% of all donors). PCR-positive patients had more risk factors for HCV acquisition (P < 0.01), symptoms of hepatitis (P = 0.02) and clinical signs of liver disease (P = 0.05) and higher alanine (P < 0.0001) and aspartate aminotransferase levels (P < 0.0001) than PCR-negative donors. However, clinical and biochemical features did not discriminate adequately between PCR-positive and negative donors. Liver biopsies performed in 9 of 13 PCR-positive cases showed mild inflammation, but no cirrhosis