Multimodal imaging of the disease progression of birdshot chorioretinopathy

PURPOSE: To study outer retinal deterioration in relation to clinical disease activity in patients with birdshot chorioretinopathy using fundus autofluorescence and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT). METHODS: A single-centre retrospective cohort study was carried out on 42 eyes of 21 patients with birdshot disease, using a multimodal imaging approach including fundus autofluorescence, OCT, fluorescein angiography and indocyanine green angiography in combination with a patient chart review. The patients' overall clinical activity of retinal vasculitis during the follow-up period was determined by periods of clinical activity as indicated by fluorescein angiography and associated treatment decisions. Image analysis was performed to examine the spatial correspondence between autofluorescence changes and disruption of the photoreceptor inner segment ellipsoid zone on OCT. RESULTS: Three common types of outer retinal lesions were observed in fovea-centred images of 43% of patients: circular patches of chorioretinal atrophy, ellipsoid zone disruption on OCT, and outer retinal atrophy on autofluorescence and OCT. There was good spatial correspondence between ellipsoid zone disruption and areas of diffuse hyper-autofluorescence outside the fovea. Interestingly, the ellipsoid zone disruption recovered in four out of seven patients upon intensified therapeutic immunosuppression. CONCLUSION: Most patients only developed peripapillary atrophy and occasional perivascular hypo-autofluorescence. A multimodal imaging approach with autofluorescence imaging and OCT may help to detect ellipsoid zone disruption in the central retina of patients with birdshot disease. Our results suggest that ellipsoid zone disruption may be related to both the activity and duration of retinal vasculitis, and could help to determine therapeutic success in birdshot disease

High intrinsic apoptosis, but not radiation-induced apoptosis, predicts better survival in rectal carcinoma patients.

Contains fulltext : 142643.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)PURPOSE: An important feature of malignant tumors is the disturbance in the balance between proliferation and cell death. We evaluated the relevance of intrinsic and radiation-induced apoptosis and proliferation for prognosis in rectal cancer patients. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Patients were selected from a study that randomized for preoperative radiotherapy (RT). Apoptosis and proliferation were scored using specific antibodies in immunohistochemistry. The number of positive cells per square millimeter of carcinoma cells was determined in 98 randomly selected tumors, of which 45 had been irradiated. For the survival analyses, a cohort of 104 patients without positive circumferential resection margins was selected. RESULTS: In nonirradiated patients, high levels of intrinsic apoptosis correlated with better local control (p = 0.04) and better cancer-specific survival (p = 0.02). RT increased the median amount of apoptosis from 10.8 to 21.5 cells/mm(2) (p = 0.004), but this was not predictive for survival. The amount of proliferative cells was not altered after RT and had no influence on prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: Intrinsic apoptosis correlated with both local control and cancer-specific survival, but proliferation was not predictive for prognosis. However, although RT increased apoptosis, its prognostic value was lost after RT. This is possibly because in rectal cancer, the proliferative status of tumors is always high and the aggressiveness of the tumor is determined by the number of "spontaneous" apoptotic tumor cells

ADAM Report #5 (March 1995)

ADAM REPORT # 5, March 1995 1. Features of Enterprise Agreements 2. Training and Skill Formation 3. Evaluating Enterprise Agreement

Soldatforskning : Recension av Sveriges släktforskarförbund årsbok 1988 Båtsmän, ryttare & soldater

Torpundersökningar är på modet - i varje fall i Östergötland. Så kan man sammanfatta resultatet av en nyligen genomförd undersökning av hembygdsföreningarnas verksamhet. Särskilt soldater och soldattorp synes fascinera människor. Wilhelm Mobergs bild av den indelte soldaten lever tydligen i många människors minnen. Men det är, om man studerar agrarhistoria, sakligt sett riktigt att lägga stor vikt vid de indelta soldaternas betydelse. De intog, en särställning på landsbygden. Deras roll i förändringsprocessen på landsbygden under 1800-talet hai under senare tid uppmärksammats alltmer. I arbetet för rösträtt, sjukkassor, begravningskassor, handelsföreningar var i varje fall i östgötabygder de indelta soldaternas engagmenag av stor betydelse.Tidskriften Kronos: historia i skola och samhälle gavs ut vid Linköpings univeristet mellan åren 1988-1991.</p