Negative affectivity, restriction of emotions, and site of metastases predict mortality in recurrent breast cancer.

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether negative affectivity and restriction of emotions predict survival time with recurrent breast cancer. METHODS: Thirty-two patients with recurrent breast cancer, diagnosed 6-19 months earlier and stabilized using surgical, medical and/or radiation therapies, were enrolled. Cox regression survival analyses, including initial severity of metastases (RR=4.3 [1.3-14.3]; p=0.02), were used to explore the association of psychological variables with survival. RESULTS: Low chronic anxiety in the context of low emotional constraint predicted low mortality (RR 0.07 [0.01-0.52]; p=0.007). However, patients with low chronic anxiety scores but with high constraint had higher mortality (RR=3.7 [1.2-11.5; p=0.02). High chronic anxiety, with or without high constraint, also predicted earlier death, as did high control of feelings. CONCLUSION: An integrated model of negative affectivity in the context of restriction of emotions appears to strengthen the prediction of survival based on severity of breast cancer metastases.

Exercise-induced asthma and the asthmatic athlete.

Almost all asthmatics involved in moderate to heavy exercise will experience exercise-induced asthma (EIA). Up to 14% of athletes exhibit EIA, symptoms of which include dyspnea, coughing, chest tightness and wheezing. Education, warm-up exercises and pre-treatment with the appropriate medications can enable an athlete to excel and even win a gold medal in the 1996 Olympic games.

The role of a documented allergic profile as a risk factor for radiographic contrast media reaction.

To determine the relevance of a documented allergic profile as a predisposing factor in radiographic contrast media (RCM) reaction, we investigated its incidence among 100 subjects who underwent RCM studies. Fifty of these subjects reacted to RCM (reactors) and 50 were non-reactors (controls). All 100 subjects completed an allergy questionnaire, allergy skin testing, and in vitro assay to common allergens. Sixty-eight percent of reactors and 30% of controls had a positive history of allergy/hypersensitivity (P less than .001). Fifty-six percent of reactors and 24% of controls had positive skin test (P less than .005). These data suggest that allergic individuals are at twice the risk for developing adverse RCM reaction as compared with non-atopic subjects.

Correlation between Seralyzer reflectance photometer theophylline assay and an Emit assay.

Recently a method for theophylline assay on the Ames Seralyzer was introduced. We compared the interday variability of this method to the established interday variability of an enzyme multiplied immunoassay (Emit) technique used in the service laboratory of a hospital. Control sera and calibrator prepared to known concentrations (10, 15, and 25 micrograms/mL) were assayed singly daily for ten days with the Seralyzer machine. Assays were done singly to simulate the in-office use of the machine. Their respective coefficients of variations (CVs) were 6.96%, 5.50%, and 5.23%, which compared favorably with the established CVs for the Emit of 6.7%, 5.8%, and 6.1% respectively at comparable test concentrations. Two hundred and fifty-one sera were assayed in parallel on both machines in eight batches. Linear regression analysis of these data showed a slope of 0.995, intercept of 0.468, and a correlation coefficient of 0.945. These data suggest that the Seralyzer values compared favorably with the Emit values.

Classes of unitarizable derived functor modules.

For a real semisimple Lie group G, the description of the unitary dual remains an elusive question. One of the difficulties has been the lack of technique for constructing unitary representations. Unitary induction from parabolic subgroups of G yields unitary representations by the very definition of these representations. However, not all unitary irreducible representations of G are obtained by this type of induction. In addition, we need derived functor parabolic induction [ef. Vogan, D. (1981) Representations of Real Reductive Lie Groups (Birkhäuser, Boston)] to describe all irreducible representations of G. For this second type of induction, the obvious analogues from parabolic subgroup induction regarding unitarity are false. In this announcement, we describe a setting where derived functor parabolic induction yields unitary representations of G. These results include proofs of unitarity for some of the representations conjectured to be unitary by Vogan and Zuckerman [(1983) Invent. Math., in press] and also proofs of unitarity for some which lie outside the domain described in those conjectures.

Adverse drug reactions. A brief refresher on an ever-present hazard.

Adverse drug reactions are a major medical problem. There is a tendency on the part of the patient, and often the physician, to attribute almost any untoward reaction to an "allergy," while in reality there are numerous other possible causes. Despite the broad spectrum of clinical presentations and mechanisms of action, drug reactions are treated essentially by avoidance or discontinuation of the offending drug or drugs.

On the algebraic construction and classification of Harish-Chandra modules.

Let G be a connected real semisimple Lie group. In this article a functor is defined which assigns to each irreducible finite dimensional representation of a Cartan subgroup of G a Harish-Chandra module for G. This functor is described by an explicit construction of modules and a sufficient condition is given for the image module to be irreducible. In the case when G is a linear group, this functor is used to exhibit all irreducible Harish-Chandra modules of G.