Mutagenicity and antibacterial activity of hydroxamic acids

Hydroxamic acids demonstrated mutagenic and antibacterial activities. These activities appear to be dependent on the hydroxamic acid function and are probably due to the interaction with deoxyribonucleic acid.

Mutagenic activity of carcinogenic and noncarcinogenic nitrofurans and of urine of rats fed these compounds

The nitrofurans, 2-(2-furyl)-3-(5-nitro-2-furyl)acrylamide (AF-2), N-[4-(5-nitro-2-furyl)-2-thiazolyl]formamide (FANFT), nitrofurantoin, 5-nitro-2-furoic acid, 5-nitro-2-furamidoxime, 5-nitrofurfurylidene diacetate and the urine of rats fed these compounds, were assayed for mutagenic activity in Salmonella typhimurium strains TA100 and TA100FR1. All the nitrofurans were mutagenic in the order: AF-2 and FANFT greater than nitrofurantoin greater than 5-nitro-2-furamidoxime greater than 5-nitrofurfurylidene diacetate greater than 5-nitro-2-furoic acid. Strain TA100 was more sensitive than TA100FR1 to the mutagenic influence of these nitrofurans. Only the urine of rats fed AF-2, FANFT and nitrofurantoin had mutagenic activity. Again, TA100 was more sensitive than TA100FR1. The mutagenicity of the urine was not increased by treatment with beta-glucuronidase. AF-2, 2-amino-4-(5-nitro-2-furyl)thiazole (deformylated product of FANFT) and nitrofurantoin were excreted in the urine of rats fed these compounds; whereas the other nitrofurans were not excreted.

Epidemic pleurodynia (Bornholm disease) outbreak in Singapore. A clinical and virological study

In 1974, an outbreak of Bornholm disease occurred in Singapore. The period 1st May to 31st July was delineated for study. From the clinical presentation 53 patients were placed into two categories "typical Bornholm disease" and "atypical Bornholm disease". The clinical features of only those in the "typical Bornholm disease" group including those with positive Coxsackie B3 virus isolation were described. The virological studies, both faecal isolation for virus and serology were correlated with clinical diagnosis. Fever and characteristic abdominal or chest pain appear to be constant features of Bornholm disease. Positive faecal virus isolation are significantly high in the "typical Bornholm disease" group. Bornholm disease could be diagnosed clinically with fair accuracy. The importance of diagnosing Bornholm disease is emphasized.

A pneumatically operated femoral artery compressor

A readily assembled, inexpensive pneumatically operated femoral artery compressor for use in transfemoral arteriography is described. This device is effective in controlling post-procedure bleeding and oozing around the catheter during the procedure.

A new biopsy needle and its clinical use

A new aspirating and severing soft tissue biopsy needle that is small, disposable, relatively simple (3 components), and very thin-walled has been used percutaneously for many lesions of the chest, abdomen, pelvis, extremities, subcutaneous masses, and lytic spinal bodies. In the vase majority of instances, the tissue cores were sufficient for regular histologic cell block preparation. Among the 143 pulmonary biopsies, the diagnostic accuracy was 89 per cent. There were 16 cases of post-biopsy small pneumothorax, 6 cases of large pneumothorax, and 9 incidences of mild hemoptysis of no consequence. Of the 81 nonpulmonary biopsies, 71 (88 per cent) were diagnostically accurate; and there were no complications.

Enteric virus isolation in different cell cultures

The need for establishing an optimum tissue culture cell line for isolation of enteric viruses prompted a comparative study of cell lines for the isolation of enteric viruses from rectal swab specimens. The viruses isolated included all three types of poliovirus, 12 types of echovirus, seven types of group A and two of group B coxsackievirus, 24 strains of adenovirus, and eight untyped agents which probably represent new enteroviruses. One hundred positive isolations were made from 387 rectal swab specimens; 86 were obtained in human kidney cultures. This was almost twice the number obtained with monkey kidney and more than one-and-a-half times that obtained with human lung cells (WI-38). A diploid human epithelial cell line (Attleson) was tested and was found to be inferior to both monkey kidney and WI-38 cells for enteric viruses. Human kidney cells were particularly useful for group A coxsackieviruses and adenoviruses.