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Each year on the third Monday in April, athletes, volunteers and spectators alike celebrate the running of the Boston Marathon. With a course that spans eight cities and towns over 26.2 miles, the Marathon is an annual large-scale event that requires state-wide efforts to ensure the health and well-being of all participants. No stranger to events of this magnitude, Boston also hosts one of the nation‘s largest New Year’s Eve celebrations, is home to a wide variety of St. Patrick‘s Day events, including the annual South Boston parade, and is renowned for its nationally broadcast Independence Day festivities. This document outlines how Tufts Medical Center (Tufts MC), a 415-bed academic medical facility in the heart of downtown Boston, manages large-scale planned events such as the Boston Marathon from an individual hospital administration perspective. This well-tested but dynamic response strategy to events of this size is a product of robust hospital preparations, streamlined operations and liaising with external agencies. Successful implementation of this plan allows for accommodation of a greater than 40 per cent increase in Emergency Department (ED) daily volume: flexibility utilised not only on Marathon Monday, but also during additional large-scale events in Boston throughout the year.

The differentiation between radiation-induced changes and tumor recurrence is a major pitfall of magnetic resonance imaging, which can be overcome by the use of PET. Although amino-acid PET tracers showed several advantages over 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose in neurooncology, studies comparing these 2 types of radiopharmaceuticals in previously irradiated brain metastases are lacking. Here, we demonstrated a mismatch between 3,4-dihydroxy-6-[18F]-fluoro-l-phenylalanine (F-DOPA) and FDG in the first report of a previously irradiated brain metastasis undergoing a longitudinal evaluation by sequential double tracer PET imaging.

Follicular lymphomas (FLs) are neoplastic counterparts of normal germinal center (GC) B cells. FLs are characterized by t(14;18) with deregulation of the Bcl-2 (BCL2) gene. The presence of t(14;18) and overexpression of Bcl-2 is necessary, but not sufficient, to cause this disease. An array containing 588 complementary DNAs (cDNAs) was used to compare the gene expression between GC B cells and FL cells. To specifically monitor genes expressed in normal GC B and FL cells and not the entire tissue compartment, normal and malignant B cells were purified from tissues. Using the array, 37 genes were up-regulated and 28 were down-regulated in FL cells as compared to normal GC B cells. The expression level of each differentially expressed gene was verified by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Following these studies 24 genes were up-regulated and 8 genes down-regulated with a P value less than .1. Included among the genes that were up-regulated in FLs were cell cycle regulator proteins CDK10, p120, p21CIP1, and p16INK4A; transcription factors/regulators Pax-5 and Id-2, which are involved in normal B-cell development; and genes involved in cell-cell interactions, tumor necrosis factor, interleukin-2Rγ (IL-2Rγ), and IL-4Rα. Among the genes that were down-regulated in FLs wereMRP8 and MRP14, which are involved in adhesion. Interestingly, several of these genes are localized within chromosomal regions already described to be altered in FLs. These findings provide a basis for future studies into the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of FL and may lead to the identification of potential therapeutic targets as well as antigens for immunotherapeutic strategies.

Recent studies suggest that tumor necrosis factor (TNF) family members such as TNFα and lymphotoxin αβ (LTα1β2) are important in the development of follicular dendritic cells (FDCs) and maintenance of FDC function. In this study we used FDC-like cells (FDC-LC) cultured from normal human tonsil and investigated the effects of TNF and LTα1β2 on expression of adhesion molecules and the production of cytokines and chemokines. TNF and LTα1β2 both increased the expression of VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 on FDC-LC. In addition, IL-4 with LTα1β2 synergistically increased the expression of VCAM-1, but not ICAM-1. Cytokine IL-6 and IL-15 mRNAs were induced following stimulation with TNF and LTα1β2. These two cytokines were present in FDC-LC supernatants by ELISA and increased following TNF and LTα1β2 stimulation. We also examined FDC-LC for chemokines, which affect B cells, including IL-8, SDF-1, MIP3β/ELC, and BCA-1/BLC. SDF-1 mRNA and protein were expressed by FDC-LC, and following stimulation with TNF and LTα1β2, decreases in both were observed. Therefore, TNF and LTα1β2, which are produced by activated B cells, increased the expression of adhesion molecules and cytokines from FDC-LC, potentially providing key signals to support germinal center B cell survival and differentiation. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

The dentate nucleus of the cerebellum may appear as hyperintense on unenhanced T1 magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of the brain. Recently, T1 signal hyperintensity has received attention owing to data on the association of this finding with the history of multiple injections of gadolinium-based contrast agents, specifically gadodiamide, in patients with multiple sclerosis and brain metastases.

The poem "Archive" by Gregory Carideo is presented. First Line: It gradually became mine. I didn't like it on him and I don't like it; Last line: similar and still make me feel like one of those crazy Texan cowboys.

The patient herein described, with diffuse scleroderma treated with cortisone, obtained prompt relief and improvement initially; subsequently a pronounced hypertension and hypertensive encephalopathy developed, followed by rapid death in uremia. Although it is admittedly difficult to implicate cortisone as the cause of her death, the rapidity with which the clinical picture changed and the findings at autopsy make it imperative for one to weigh the use of this drug and probably allied compounds in the treatment of certain collagen diseases. At the time of this writing, only the reports of Bayles and his associates1 and Hines and his co-workers2 have appeared describing four and two cases, respectively, of scleroderma improved by cortisone and adrenocorticotropic hormone therapy. However, they reported return of symptoms two to three weeks after discontinuance of therapy. They gave no further reports of follow-up.REPORT OF CASEA 41 year old white housewife had noted

The article reports on the postal operations performed by navy storekeepers (SKs) at Fleet and Industrial Supply Center (FISC) Jacksonville's Naval Air Station (NAS) Jacksonville detachment in Florida.