Changes in urinary magnesium, citrate, and oxalate levels due to cola consumption

The serum concentration and urinary excretion of four potential stone constituents: calcium, oxalate, phosphate, and uric acid; and of two potential inhibitors of urinary stone formation, citrate and magnesium, were studied before and during ingestion of a carbonated cola beverage. Four participants, after baseline serum determinations, abstained for forty-eight hours from cola consumption and then attempted to drink 3 quarts per day of cola in the following forty-eight hours. One participant failed to drink more than two quarts per day of cola. In all 4 participants twenty-four-hour urinary excretion of magnesium decreased by an average of 2.6 mg. In the 3 participants who succeeded in drinking 3 quarts of cola per day, twenty-four-hour urinary excretion of oxalate increased an average of 8.3 mg and excretion of citrate decreased an average of 122 mg. These results demonstrate changes in urine constituents which could contribute to enhanced kidney stone formation in patients who drink large quantities of cola-flavored carbonated beverages.

Exact random-walk models in crystallographic statistics. VII. An all-space-group study of the effects of atomic heterogeneity on the P.D.F.'s of magnitude of [E]

Exact expressions have been found for the probability density functions (p.d.f.'s) of the magnitude of the normalized structure factor for all the two-dimensional and most three-dimensional space groups [Part VI: Rabinovich, Shmueli, Stein, Shashua & Weiss (1991). Acta Cryst. A47, 328-335]. The results of that investigation are used in the present article to examine some effects of atomic heterogeneity, in the various space-group symmetries, on the p.d.f.'s. Some typical comparisons are made between p.d.f.'s based on the central limit theorem and p.d.f.'s computed from exact formulae. In addition, the exact results are compared to histograms of simulated values of magnitude of [E]. It is found that the p.d.f.'s for some space groups are influenced rather strongly by the presence of outstandingly heavy scatters, but they are quite insensitive to the presence of such scatterers in other space groups. The often made general statement 'The presence of outstandingly heavy scatterers may invalidate the indications of Wilson's statistics' is made more precise here, insofar as it depends on the particular space group.

Exact random-walk models in crystallographic statistics. VI. P.D.F.'s of magnitude of [E] for all plane groups and most space groups

An exact calculation of the probability density function (p.d.f.) of magnitude of [E], the magnitude of the normalized structure factor, can be developed in terms of Fourier and Fourier-Bessel series whose coefficients can be expressed in terms of the characteristic function. This article provides the formulae for atomic contributions to such characteristic functions. The results presented in this study are applicable to all the plane groups and to 206 three dimensional space groups. Only the space groups isomorphous to the cubic point groups 432, 43m and m3m were omitted due to the complexity of the resulting expressions and the small deviations of the corresponding densities from the central-limit-theorem approximation, which have been observed in simulations for extreme atomic heterogeneities. Representative derivations illustrating the problems and techniques of their solution are provided. All the theoretical results have been computed numerically and compared with simulated distributions. Some results of these computations are illustrated in the accompanying paper, Part VII of this series [Rabinovich, Shmueli, Stein, Shashua & Weiss (1991). Acta Cryst. A47, 336-340].

von Hippel-Lindau disease: inadequacy of angiography for identification of renal cancers

Selective renal angiograms were retrospectively evaluated for the identification of renal cell cancers in patients with von Hippel-Lindau disease (VHL). Seven patients underwent angiography and surgery because of solid or complex renal masses identified at cross-sectional imaging. Nine kidneys underwent detailed examination by the surgeon and by a pathologist. There were 31 renal cancers. Angiography had enabled identification of only five cancers (16%), and six others (19%) had been suspected. Cancers detected angiographically were larger than those not detected (P less than .05). Solid tumors tended to appear less hypervascular than expected and occasionally had the angiographic appearance of atypical cysts. There were no false-positive angiograms. Angiography revealed only one cancer not previously suspected and changed the surgeon's approach for only one kidney (11%). The sensitivity and specificity of angiography were 35% and 100%, respectively. In these patients, selective renal angiography is not helpful for the detection or exclusion of cancer in a kidney. It does not have a limited role for vascular mapping prior to partial nephrectomy or tumor enucleation.

Molecular analysis of genetic changes in the origin and development of renal cell carcinoma

Renal cell carcinoma has been characterized by an abnormality on the short arm of chromosome 3 which suggests the presence of a tumor suppressor gene at this location. In order to more precisely define the location of the renal cell carcinoma gene and to differentiate molecular changes occurring in early stages of renal neoplasia versus those occurring later in malignant progression, DNA from normal and tumor tissue from 60 patients with various stages of renal cell carcinoma was analyzed for loss of alleles at different chromosomal loci. In tumor tissue from 51 of 58 evaluable patients (88%) there was loss of heterozygosity at one or more of 10 loci tested on chromosome 3 independently of tumor stage. Analysis of the genotypes identified the distal portion of 3p bounded by D3S2 and D3S22 (3p21-26) as the region of the disease gene. In tumor tissue from patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma, we found loss of heterozygosity on chromosome 11p in 5 of 21 (24%), on chromosome 13 in 3 of 9 (33%), and on chromosome 17 in 2 of 19 (11%). We found no loss of heterozygosity at the loci on chromosomes 11, 13, or 17 in tumor tissue from patients with localized renal cell carcinoma (N = 5). These data suggest the existence of a tumor suppressor gene on chromosome 3p which may be essential to the genesis of sporadic renal cell carcinoma and that other tumor suppressor genes are associated with progression of this malignancy.

Suramin in adrenal cancer: modulation of steroid hormone production, cytotoxicity in vitro, and clinical antitumor effect

Suramin, a drug known to have antiparasitic effects, has been previously shown to have adrenocorticolytic activity in primates. We now confirm preferential accumulation of this compound in the normal adrenal gland, evaluate its in vitro effect against two human adrenocortical carcinoma cell lines (SW-13 and NCI-H295), and report the clinical activity of suramin in 17 patients with metastatic adrenocortical carcinoma. Inhibition of colony formation occurred in both adrenal cell lines in vitro at concentrations that are clinically achievable in humans. In addition, suramin concentrations as low as 100 micrograms/mL were able to inhibit glucocorticoid, mineralocorticoid, and androgen production by the NCI-H295 cell line. Of 16 patients with adrenocortical carcinoma now evaluable for tumor response, 2 achieved a partial response, 2 had a minor response, and 5 remained with stable disease for periods ranging from 3-10 months; the remainder progressed. One of 7 patients with excessive steroid hormone production achieved a partial normalization of her steroid levels for the duration of suramin therapy in the setting of radiographic disease stabilization. An additional patient treated off-study for lack of radiographically measurable disease, achieved complete normalization of plasma aldosterone levels. We conclude that suramin preferentially accumulates in adrenal cells, induces cytotoxicity and significant down-regulation of steroid hormone production in vitro, and has some therapeutic efficacy as a single agent in patients with metastatic adrenocortical carcinoma.

Exact random-walk models in crystallographic statistics. V. Non-symmetrically bounded distributions of structure-factor magnitudes

Derivations of exactly formulated Fourier-series representations of probability density functions (p.d.f.'s) of the magnitude of the structure factor are based on the fact that the structure factor and its real and imaginary parts are bounded. In some situations the bounds of the real and imaginary parts of the structure factor are different, and this gives rise to modified forms of the p.d.f.'s. Three physical examples that call for such modifications are investigated: (i) effect of dispersive scatterers on the p.d.f. of a centrosymmetric structure factor, (ii) effect of the presence of a centrosymmetric fragment in the asymmetric unit of a non-centrosymmetric space group, and (iii) effect of heavy scatterers in special positions of a non-centrosymmetric space group, where the imaginary part of the trigonometric structure factor for these special positions vanishes by symmetry. The general form of an exact Fourier p.d.f., taking account of such modifications, is derived, and expressions for Fourier coefficients are obtained for selected examples of the above three situations. It is seen that the effects of pseudocentrosymmetry may be most pronounced and those of dispersion are significant mainly in the range of small values of the structure factor.

Approximate theory of photon migration in a two-layer medium

We recently examined properties of the surface emission profiles of particles (photons) injected into a turbid medium consisting of two layers [R. Nossal, J. Kiefer, G. H. Weiss, R. F. Bonner, H. Taitelbaum, and S. Havlin, "Photon Migration in Layered Media," Appl. Opt. 27, 3382-3391 (1988)]. The two layers differ in the coefficient that appears when internal absorption is modeled in terms of Beer's law. The model relates to the injection of laser radiation into tissue for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. Results of our earlier work were derived from extensive computer simulations. In the present paper we discuss a simple analytical approximation to the surface intensity profile valid when the absorptivity of the upper layer is greater than that of the lower.

Influence of path length on remote optical sensing of properties of biological tissue

A photon migration model is applied to the analysis of remote-sensing techniques that use light to probe the properties of biological tissues. Specific consideration is given to the effect of photon path length on the signals obtained from laser Doppler detection of blood flow in tissue microvasculature. We show how changes in blood volume or variation in spacing between delivery and detecting fibers might affect the measurements. We also examine how changes in path length can affect parameters determined by time resolved optical spectroscopy of blood oxygenation. Anisotropies in the angular distribution of scattered photons are taken into account.

Exact conditional distribution of a three-phase invariant in the space group P1. I. Derivation and simplification of the Fourier series

An exact expression is derived for the conditional probability density function of a three-phase invariant and the general result is applied to the space group P1. The expression for the conditional density is given in terms of a sixfold Fourier series. A straightforward numerical evaluation of this series, without further analysis, is extremely time consuming. Much of the present paper is therefore devoted to an exposition of symmetries hidden in the various summations. The computational effort required for the evaluation of the above expression is thereby reduced to manageable proportions in a number of interesting cases. Results of numerical computations of the exact conditional density are given in the second paper in this series. It is also shown that the exact expression for the conditional probability reduces to that given by Cochran [Acta Cryst. (1955), 8, 473-478].