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Aim-To detect the presence or absence of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in cervical lesions ranging from normality to invasive malignancy. Methods EBV. In these, however, the evidence is less conclusive and the consistency of the association has yet to be established.Invasive carcinoma of the cervix is one of the commonest malignant tumours of the female genital tract. Much controversy surrounds its aetiology. The possibility of a sexually transmissible infectious carcinogen in the genesis of cervical neoplasia has received widespread attention. Possible agents include the herpes viruses, Chlamydia trachomatis, the human papillomaviruses (HPV), especially types 16 and 18, and cytomegalovirus.The association between EBV and the human uterine cervix is, as yet, not very well defined. Sixbey et al showed that cultured ectocervical epithelial cells can be infected with EBV.' These authors also showed late viral antigens and EBV DNA in the exfoliating cells but not in the attached epithelial monolayer, thus suggesting an association between viral replication and epithelial differentiation. Infectious EBV capable of transforming B lymphocytes has been isolated from cervical washings from women recovering from infectious mononucleosis and from EBV seropositive women who had no clinical or serological evidence of acute EBV infection.9 This suggests that the cervix could be a site for chronic viral shedding in a manner similar to that which occurs in the nasopharynx. These studies show both in vitro and in vivo evidence for EBV replication in the cervix. In contrast to the nasopharynx, where there is a close association between epithelial and lymphoid tissues, no such association exists in the cervix, suggesting that cervical epithelium may be a primary site of EBV infection.

A large cohort of rhesus-negative women in Ireland were inadvertently infected with hepatitis C virus following exposure to contaminated anti-D immunoglobulin in 1977-8. This major iatrogenic episode was discovered in 1994. We studied 36 women who had been infected after their first pregnancy, and compared them to an age- and parity-matched control group of rhesus-positive women. The presence of hepatitis C antibody was confirmed in all 36 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and by recombinant immunoblot assay, while 26 (72%) of the cohort were HCV-RNA-positive (type 1b) on PCR testing. In the 20 years post-infection, all members of the study group had at least one pregnancy, and mean parity was 3.5. They had a total of 100 pregnancies and 85 of these went to term. There were four premature births, one being a twin pregnancy, and 11 spontaneous miscarriages. One miscarriage occurred in the pregnancy following HCV infection. There were two neonatal deaths due to severe congenital abnormalities in the PCR-positive women. Of the children born to HCV-RNA positive mothers, only one (2.3%) tested positive for the virus. Significant portal fibrosis on liver biopsy was confined to HCV-RNA-positive mothers apart from one single exception in the antibody-positive HCV-RNA-negative group. Comparison with the control group showed no increase in spontaneous miscarriage rate, and no significant difference in obstetric complications; birth weights were similar for the two groups.

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The major US potato varieties grown in various locations were analyzed for their contents in water-soluble vitamins both at harvest time and during subsequent storage. Compositional ranges of each vitamin were quite large. Only a few varietal and location effects were detected. In the case of ascorbic acid, what appeared to be a location effect could likely have been the result of differences in harvest time of the samples. Prolonged storage had little overall effect on thiamine and riboflavin. It resulted in a sharp initial decrease in ascorbic acid, significant decreases in niacin and folic acid, and a significant and large increase in Vitamin B.6. Storage temperature in the range of 38"-45°F did not affect the vitamin composition, nor did reconditioning of the tubers at room temperature following cold storage.

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Ninety-four H & E-stained slides of malignant melanoma were circulated to 6 pathologists in 2 university departments. For each slide, the growth phase of the lesion, Breslow thickness, and Clark level were determined by each observer. The aims of the study were to evaluate agreement between nonspecialist pathologists in identifying the vertical growth phase in malignant melanoma and to compare agreement for the growth phase with agreement for Breslow thickness and the Clark level. Our results show that although overall agreement for the growth phase is moderate, agreement between experienced observers is good. In fact agreement for the growth phase among this group was equal to the agreement for Breslow thickness. Overall agreement for Breslow thickness also was good but for the Clark level was only fair. These findings suggest that if the predictive value of the vertical growth phase proves to be robust, it will be used with an acceptable level of accuracy in routine diagnostic practice.