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Objective: To explore the motivations, experiences and views of female regular sunbed users aged 15-17 and consider the implications of legislation seeking to restrict sunbed use among the under-18s. Design Qualitative study of 12 focus groups., Method: Participants were recruited opportunistically through community and social networks, around tanning salons, leisure and educational facilities in six English towns and cities. Interviews were transcribed, a thematic framework generated and a validation exercise conducted. Setting Urban communities in England. Participants Sixty-nine female regular sunbed users aged 15-18., Results: Respondents consistently valued tanning and attached considerable personal and social importance to it. They showed an awareness of the risks of sunbed use that they accepted, downplayed and/or ignored. While experiences and responses to supervision varied, respondents were resistant to any measures that restricted their use and expressed willingness to find ways around such restrictions., Conclusions: The sunbed users interviewed in this study attached considerable significance to tanning, rationalized the risks of sunbed use and expressed their determination to continue using them. The impact of legislation to limit sunbed access may be weakened without requirements to ensure supervision of salons.

To determine the best method for detecting HCV infection in immunosuppressed patients, stored frozen serum from 101 liver transplant recipients was tested for hepatitis C virus. Each sample was tested by four assays. HCV RNA was detected by both polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and branched DNA signal amplification. Antibody to HCV was determined using second-generation enzyme-linked immunoassay (EIA) and recombinant immunoblot assay. Forty one transplant recipients met the working definition for true positives of HCV infection. Of these "true positives," 98% were positive by HCV RNA PCR assay, 88% by b-DNA signal amplification assay, 88% by anti-HCV EIA, and 63% demonstrated two or more reactive bands on recombinant immunoblot. Five of 57 (9%) HCV-antibody negative recipients had HCV RNA detected by both methods. Of 44 HCV enzyme-linked immunoassay (EIA) repeatedly reactive samples, the recombinant immunoblot was negative in 2 and indeterminate in 13. HCV RNA was present in 9 of 13 recombinant immunoblot indeterminate sera. Nine EIA repeatedly reactive sera were negative by both tests for HCV RNA. In liver transplant recipients, HCV infection is best determined by measurement of HCV RNA. Antibody formation may be delayed or suppressed in a minority of patients despite > 10(9) equivalents/L (> 10(6)/mL) of HCV RNA in serum. Recombinant immunoblots with a single reactive band pattern often indicate HCV infection in immunosuppressed patients.

Cerebral phaeohyphomycosis (also referred to as cerebral chromomycosis), one of the diseases caused by the dematiaceous (black) fungi, is most commonly caused by Cladosporium trichoides (referred to by some as Xylohypha bantiana) and is a rare disease, with 31 culture-proven cases reported to date. Although most cases have occurred in immunocompetent hosts, recent experimental evidence suggests that host immunosuppression may predispose patients to the disease. The authors report a case of fatal cerebral phaeohyphomycosis in a liver transplant patient, the first to occur in a transplant patient of any type, to the best of the authors' knowledge. This case provides support for the hypothesis that immunosuppressed patients may be at increased risk for development of this disease.

An anti-kidney antibody was demonstrated by the indirect immunofluorescence method in the serum of patients with primary tumours of the liver or kidney. The distribution of fluorescence in rabbit kidney was consistent with that of antibody to collecting ducts. The anti-collecting duct antibody (anti-CDA) could be absorbed from serum by normal adult rabbit or human kidney tissue and by one of three specimens of renal-cell carcinoma tissue. Anti-CDA differed from anti-mitochondrial antibodies and from anti-liver/kidney microsomal antibody in the pattern of fluorescent staining obtained with rabbit kidney. Two-hundred sera from patients with cancer and other diseases and forty-three from healthy hospital personnel were tested for anti-CDA. Eleven of the twenty-five positive sera were from patients with primary cancer of the liver or urinary tract, and all but six of the remainder were from patients with tumours involving the liver or with liver disorders that may be associated with nodular hyperplasia or tumour.

Serum from 491 patients with cancer and from 151 patients of comparable age without recognized cancer was tested by indirect immunofluorescence for antibodies to ovarian antigens. Circulating antibody to the cytoplasm of rabbit ova was found in from 19 to 47% of patients with cancer of the ovary, endometrium, kidney, bladder or testis, or with lymphoma, and in only 3-3% of control patients. Antibodies to thecacell antigens were not more common in patients with cancer than in other patients, but within the group of cancer patients, such antibodies were, in all but one case, associated with cancer of the genito-urinary tract or with lymphoma. The anti-theca-cell antibodies observed produced a staining pattern indistinguishable from that obtained with the serum of patients with Addison's disease but were not, in the cancer patients, associated with antibodies to adrenal tissue. Tests for antibody to the cytoplasm of ova were more frequently positive in patients with progressive cancers than in patients successfully treated by surgery or radiation, and were seen in patients in whom cancer had recurred following removal of the organ of origin. These findings suggest that the antigen or antigens that evoke antibody to the cytoplasm of ova arise from tumour cells rather than from damage to normal tissue by surgery, tumour invasion or radiation.