We have investigated the presence of disease related prion protein (PrP) in appendix samples obtained at necropsy from four neuropathologically confirmed cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). PrP was detected in only one vCJD appendix, at a level lower than found in a diagnostic tonsil biopsy sample obtained from the same patient. The single PrP positive appendix, but not the other...

OBJECTIVE To compare the bacteriologic findings in ethmoidal biopsy specimens and nasal lavage samples from healthy control patients and from patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) with nasal polyps (CRSNP+) and without nasal polyps (CRSNP-). DESIGN Comparative microbiologic investigation. SETTING University hospital. PATIENTS The study included 31 CRSNP+ patients, 13 CRSNP- patients,...

BACKGROUND Propionibacterium acnes has recently been implicated as a cause of chronic prostatitis and this commensal bacterium may be linked to prostate carcinogenesis. The occurrence of intracellular P. acnes infection in prostate glands and the higher frequency of P. acnes-positive glands in radical prostatectomy specimens from patients with prostate cancer (PCa) than in those from patients w...

A simple test based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect capripoxvirus DNA in tissue culture supernatants and biopsy samples. The identity of the PCR products was confirmed by restriction enzyme analysis. The test has greater sensitivity and good specificity compared to an antigen trapping enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay which uses a detector antibody raised against a rec...

Amyloidosis is usually diagnosed through the histological examination of biopsy samples. However, its quantitative evaluation can be difficult. In this study, we immunochemically measured amyloid A (AA) proteins in biopsy samples taken from the stomachs of patients with AA amyloidosis. Samples were treated with guanidine and were subjected to an enzyme immunoassay for serum amyloid A. The resul...

BACKGROUND An approach to the study of the pharmacokinetics of drugs in the lung is to measure their concentrations in bronchial biopsy specimens. The main criticism of this technique is that bronchial biopsy specimens consist of more than one tissue type and that drugs are often not distributed evenly. The morphology of bronchial biopsy specimens and the distribution of water between the extra...