MicroRNA miR-181a correlates with morphological sub-class of acute myeloid leukaemia and the expression of its target genes in global genome-wide analysis.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short single-stranded RNAs that have a potentially important role in gene regulation. Using a quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction assay specific to the mature miRNA, the expression level of a selected group of haematopoietic tissue-specific miRNAs was measured across a set of 30 primary adult acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) with a normal karyotype. The expression levels of each miRNA were correlated with the genome-wide mRNA expression profiles in the same leukaemias. This revealed that miR-181a correlated strongly with the AML morphological sub-type and with the expression of genes previously identified through sequence analysis as potential interaction targets. Three other miRNAs, miR-10a, miR-10b and miR-196a-1, showed a clear correlation with HOX gene expression.

Myelodysplastic syndrome associated with trisomy 2.

Clinical course and cytogenetic analysis suggest that myelodysplasia (MDS) is one step in a multistep model of malignant transformation of haematopoietic stem cells to acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). We report a further case of MDS associated with trisomy 2, and comment on the significance of the cytogenetic abnormality, which as a sole abnormality only occurs in MDS, but is found in combination with other chromosomal abnormalities in AML. Previous reports on balanced and unbalanced chromosomal abnormalities associated with therapy related MDS and therapy related AML suggest that trisomy 2 is an early chromosomal abnormality in leukaemogenesis.

Why do patients default from follow-up at a genitourinary clinic?: a multivariate analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Firstly to compare the proportion of patients defaulting from follow up at a genitourinary medicine clinic with those attending other hospital based clinics. Secondly to determine which factors are associated with non attendance at a city centre genitourinary medicine clinic. METHODOLOGY: The proportion of patients who defaulted at a genitourinary medicine clinic, a general medical clinic, a general surgical clinic and a dermatology clinic during March 1995 were compared. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed comparing attenders and non attenders at the genitourinary medicine clinic with respect to time of appointment, diagnosis, previous contacts with clinic staff, potential domestic commitments and patient demographics in a prospective case control study. RESULTS: The default rate at the genitourinary medicine clinic was 15% compared with 13%, 15% and 14% for medical, surgical and dermatology clinics respectively. Patients who defaulted from the genitourinary medicine clinic (167) were compared with 172 attenders and significant differences found for timing of appointments, area of residence, frequency of counselling by the health advisor and age of the patient. Other factors such as the diagnosis, whether a woman had children, sexual orientation, whether negative results had been given over the phone, source of referral, sex of patient, employment status and the weather were not found to be significantly associated with defaulting from an appointment. CONCLUSIONS: The time of the appointment and being seen by a health advisor were the only variables identified over which the clinic has control and therefore could potentially reduce non attendance rates.

Reversible renal failure in renal transplant patients receiving oral acyclovir prophylaxis.

Two children who developed acute renal failure in the immediate post-renal transplantation period are presented. Each was immunosuppressed with cyclosporin and was also receiving oral acyclovir for prophylaxis against cytomegalovirus infection. Renal biopsy findings suggested drug toxicity. Discontinuation of acyclovir coincided with reversal of renal impairment. As cyclosporin levels were at the lower end of the therapeutic range, we believe acyclovir to be the likely causative agent.