Extraintestinal Manifestations of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Extraintestinal manifestations (EIM) in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are frequent and may occur before or after IBD diagnosis. EIM may impact the quality of life for patients with IBD significantly requiring specific treatment depending on the affected organ(s). They most frequently affect joints, skin, or eyes, but can also less frequently involve other organs such as liver, lungs, or pancreas. Certain EIM, such as peripheral arthritis, oral aphthous ulcers, episcleritis, or erythema nodosum, are frequently associated with active intestinal inflammation and usually improve by treatment of the intestinal activity. Other EIM, such as uveitis or ankylosing spondylitis, usually occur independent of intestinal inflammatory activity. For other not so rare EIM, such as pyoderma gangrenosum and primary sclerosing cholangitis, the association with the activity of the underlying IBD is unclear. Successful therapy of EIM is essential for improving quality of life of patients with IBD. Besides other options, tumor necrosis factor antibody therapy is an important therapy for EIM in patients with IBD

New results on cyclopolymerization kinetics of dimethyldiallylammonium chloride

During the cyclopolymn. of pure dimethyldiallylammonium chloride (I) [7398-69-8] using O-free water as solvent and K2S2O8 (II) as initiator, the rate of polymn. was 0.75 order in II concn., 2nd order in I concn., 0.5 order in I cation concns., and 0.5 order in Cl- concn. [on SciFinder (R)

Determination of conversion during homogeneous phase polymerization

The conversion of monomers during radical polymn., e.g., cyclopolymn. of diallyldimethylammonium chloride [7398-69-8] in water, is detd. continuously by detg. the change of d. of the soln. with an app. which detects changes in the frequency of elec. stimulated vibrations of the ends of a glass polymn. tube contg. the soln. The frequency of vibration is controlled by the soln. d. which changes with increasing conversion of monomer. The app. dets. d. changes of +-4 mg/cm3 for water. [on SciFinder (R)

High-molecular-weight, water-soluble polyammonium compounds

The title polymers of dialkenyldialkylammonium compds., useful in the coating and prepn. of paper, are prepd. in high space-time yield by the continuous or batch addn. of H2O-insol. azo compd. initiators in MeOH or DMF to aq. monomers. Thus, adding ten 2-mL portions of 0.01M methanolic AIBN [78-67-1] at 30 min intervals to 1 mol diallyldimethylammonium chloride as a 48% aq. soln. contg. 10 mg Chelaplex stirred at 80 Deg and stirring 90 min at 80 Deg gave a 96% conversion to a polymer [26062-79-3] with relative viscosity (1% NaCl) 1.85. [on SciFinder (R)

High-molecular-weight, water-soluble polyammonium compounds

The title polymers, useful in coatings, paper manuf., etc., are prepd. by polymg. H2O-sol. di-2-alkenyldialkylammonium compds. in aq. solns. contg. peroxydisulfates, basic N compds., and pH control agents. Thus, a soln. 2.8 M in (CH2:CHCH2)2NMe2+ Cl-, 0.02 M in (NH4)2S2O8, 0.07 M in NaOH, and 0.02 M in Et3N [121-44-8] was stirred gently in air at 45 Deg for 10 h to give a polymer [26062-79-3] having relative viscosity (1% NaCl) 2.00, compared with 1.21 when polymd. under N with 10 ppm Chelaplex III in place of NaOH and amine. [on SciFinder (R)

Textile finishing

The antistatic and hydrophilic properties of acrylic, polyamide, and polyester fibers were improved by treatment with a polymerizable vinyl monomer contg. an ammonium group and a polymerizable monomer contg. a carboxyl or sulfo group and irradiating. Thus, a polyamide textile was padded with an mixt. of (CH2:CHCH2)2N+Me2 Cl- [7398-69-8] 25, CH2:CHCO2H [79-10-7] 5, and H2O 75 parts and irradiated with an electron beam, the unfixed monomer removed by washing, and the textile dried to give a fabric with moisture regain 5.5% and elec. resistance 8.2 * 1010 W (9.8 * 1010 W after 20 machine washes). [on SciFinder (R)

Modelling non-symmetric collagen fibre dispersion in arterial walls

New experimental results on collagen fibre dispersion in human arterial layers have shown that the dispersion in the tangential plane is more significant than that out of plane. A rotationally symmetric dispersion model is not able to capture this distinction. For this reason, we introduce a new non-symmetric dispersion model, based on the bivariate von Mises distribution, which is used to construct a new structure tensor. The latter is incorporated in a strain-energy function that accommodates both the mechanical and structural features of the material, extending our rotationally symmetric dispersion model (Gasser et al. 2006 J. R. Soc. Interface 3, 15–35. (doi:10.1098/rsif.2005.0073)). We provide specific ranges for the dispersion parameters and show how previous models can be deduced as special cases. We also provide explicit expressions for the stress and elasticity tensors in the Lagrangian description that are needed for a finite-element implementation. Material and structural parameters were obtained by fitting predictions of the model to experimental data obtained from human abdominal aortic adventitia. In a finite-element example, we analyse the influence of the fibre dispersion on the homogeneous biaxial mechanical response of aortic strips, and in a final example the non-homogeneous stress distribution is obtained for circumferential and axial strips under fixed extension. It has recently become apparent that this more general model is needed for describing the mechanical behaviour of a variety of fibrous tissues

Unknown primary of the head and neck: A long-term follow-up

BACKGROUND: A diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma of an unknown primary (CUP) is a major burden for patients. Because the location of the primary tumor is unclear, patients remain fearful of recurrence, which aggravates the uncertain prognosis of the disease. This study evaluates factors associated with long-term recurrence-free and overall survival of patients with CUP of the head and neck. Additionally, patient survival rates are compared with those of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). METHODS: A total of 293 consecutive patients operated on between January 1999 and December 2009 with at least a 5-year follow-up (survival permitting), were evaluated retrospectively. RESULTS: Twenty-six patients with a CUP of the head and neck were identified. Patients with CUP had a low overall survival rate, comparable with that of patients with pN + HNSCC, and recurrent disease occurred with a similar likelihood as in patients with pN + HNSCC. The median recurrence-free survival in the CUP group was 28.5 months compared with 48 months in the whole of the HNSCC group. The median overall survival of the CUP group was 56 months versus 65 months for the HNSCC group. Extracapsular spread was the only independent prognostic factor for overall survival for CUP patients. CONCLUSION: Patients diagnosed with CUP syndrome have a poorer prognosis for overall survival compared with other HNSCC patients. Postoperative radiotherapy diminished disease recurrence and improved overall survival. Omission of postoperative radiotherapy resulted in a very high recurrence rate (75%) for CUP patients. Based on these results we suggest postoperative radiotherapy including the oral mucosa for all patients, regardless of histopathological results, possible favorable nodal disease, or favorable lymph node ratios