Maurit Beeri, MD, Ziv Haramati, MD, JJT. Azaria Rein, MD and Amiram Nir, MD
Background: Parental knowledge of their child’s heart disease, while often overlooked, contributes to compliance and reduces anxiety. Prior studies have shown that 36% of parental diagnostic descriptions are incorrect.
Objectives: To assess parental knowledge and attitudes among outpatients at a hospital pediatric cardiology clinic.
Methods: Seventy-four families completed a questionnaire in which they described their child’s condition and stated their attitude towards dental hygiene and future prenatal diagnosis.
Results: Eighteen percent of the parents failed to describe their child’s malformation correctly. We found that parental understanding of the heart defect correlated with parental education. Future prenatal diagnosis was considered by 88% of families, and termination of pregnancy by 40%. Only 40% of children were aware of their heart problem. Children of parents who were ignorant about the condition tended to lack knowledge themselves. An additional finding was that 68% of Jewish families turn to non-medical personnel for medical advice - an interesting finding not hitherto addressed.
Conclusions: Ignorance of their child’s problem did not correlate with its severity or complexity but rather with parental background: the less educated the parent, the more likely was the problem perceived incorrectly.
Marina Leitman, MD, Eli Peleg, MD, Simcha Rosenblat, MD, Eddy Sucher, MD, Ruthie Wolf, Stanislav Sedanko, Ricardo Krakover, MD and Zvi Vered, MD
Boaz Amichai, MD, Marcelo H. Grunwald, MD and Lesley Brenner, BSc
Boaz Amichai, MD, Marcelo H. Grunwald, MD and Lesley Brenner, BSc
Cancer is a multi-step disease involving a series of genetic alterations that result in the loss of control of cell proliferation and differentiation. Such genetic alterations could emerge from the activation of oncogenes and the loss or malfunctioning of tumor suppressor gene activity. Our understanding of cancer has greatly increased through the use of DNA tumor viruses and their transforming proteins as a biological tool to decipher a cascade of events that lead to deregulation of cell proliferation and subsequent tumor formation. For the past ten years our laboratory has focused on the molecular biology of the human neurotropic papovavirus, JCV. This virus causes progressive multifocal Ieukoencephalopathy, a fatal neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system in immunocompromised patients. JCV is a common human virus that infects more than 80% of humans but does not induce any obvious clinical symptoms. The increased incidence of acquired immune deficiency syndrome and the use of immunosuppressive chemotherapy have dramatically raised the incidence of PML. The coincidental occurrence of malignant astrocytes and oligodendrocytes in PML patients, coupled with the induction of glioblastoma in JCV-intected nonhuman primates, provides intriguing speculation on the association between JCV and CNS malignancies. In this report we discuss clinical data and laboratory observations pointing to the direct involvement of JCV in cancer.
Adam Mor, MD and Yoseph A. Mekori, MD
Rasmi Magadle, MD, Paltiel Weiner, MD, Alexander Sozkover, MD and Noa Berar-Yanay, MD
Elizabeth Fireman, MD, Mordechai R. Kramer, MD, Nathan Kaufman, MD, Joachin Muller-Quernheim, MD and Yehuda Lerman, MD, MPH
Jonathan M. Lehmann, MB, Bchir, Ali Shnaker, MD, Daniel Silverberg, MD, Kati Dayan, MD and Misha Witz, MD
Eliad Karin, MD, Riad Haddad, MD and Hanoch Kashtan, MD
Eitan Scapa, MD, Eli Yona, MD and Lily Amram, MD
Asher Ben-Arieh, PhD and Yehuda L. Danon, MD
Cancer is a multi-step disease involving a series of genetic alterations that result in the loss of control of cell proliferation and differentiation. Such genetic alterations could emerge from the activation of oncogenes and the loss or malfunctioning of tumor suppressor gene activity. Our understanding of cancer has greatly increased through the use of DNA tumor viruses and their transforming proteins as a biological tool to decipher a cascade of events that lead to deregulation of cell proliferation and subsequent tumor formation. For the past ten years our laboratory has focused on the molecular biology of the human neurotropic papovavirus, JCV. This virus causes progressive multifocal Ieukoencephalopathy, a fatal neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system in immunocompromised patients. JCV is a common human virus that infects more than 80% of humans but does not induce any obvious clinical symptoms. The increased incidence of acquired immune deficiency syndrome and the use of immunosuppressive chemotherapy have dramatically raised the incidence of PML. The coincidental occurrence of malignant astrocytes and oligodendrocytes in PML patients, coupled with the induction of glioblastoma in JCV-intected nonhuman primates, provides intriguing speculation on the association between JCV and CNS malignancies. In this report we discuss clinical data and laboratory observations pointing to the direct involvement of JCV in cancer.
Ariel Miller, MD, PhD, Alastair Compston, PhD FRCP and Ronald Martin, MD