Dr Greg Kline And Calgary

KEISSER: Call being answered to save LBUSD's sports program

Today's local-and-vocal middle school, college campus and professional diamond edition of The Sporting Muse:

The drive to save the Long Beach Unified School District middle school sports program has been one of the fastest 0-to-100 sprints you'll ever see.

The program, which was originally axed by the district for 2011-12, was given a second chance when Superintendent Chris Steinhauser found half of its needed $380,000 and a fund-raising effort was created to try and cover the other half.

After raising $20,000 at last weekend's Middle School Cross-Country Championships, the AES Power Plant matched that figure and, with other donations from BP and Nancy Foster, wife of Mayor Bob Foster, they've created $100,000 and now feel confident of reaching their goal.

The deadline to save the program is June 30, but it may be moved back if the Long Beach Education Foundation (LBEF), which has organized fund-raising efforts, gets close to its goal.

Donations can be made at the LBUSD website (select middle schools from the menu) and by check to the LBEF, 1515 Hughes Way, Long Beach, CA 90810.

There's no guarantee of funding from the district beyond 2011-12, so this is an effort that may unfortunately become a year-round effort.

With 26 middle schools and more than 3,000 participants, it's worth it.

The count is now up to 40 - as in 40 former Dirtbags who have reached the major leagues with Arizona calling up relief pitcher Bryan Shaw this week.

There have now been 14 former Dirtbags in the majors in 2011, a year after having 16, the most of any university. Shaw joins pitcher Adam Wilk (Detroit) as debutantes in 2011. Long Beach State never counts Greg Dobbs among its alumni since he stayed a year then transferred, but he would make it 41 if they did.

The spotlight players in the majors are Troy Tulowitzki, Jered Weaver, Evan Longoria, Danny Espinosa and Jason Giambi. Others include Jeremy Reed (since sent to the minors by Minnesota), Bobby Cramer (Oakland), Jason Vargas (Seattle), John Bowker (Pittsburgh), Cesar Ramos, Vance Worley, Marco Estrada, Wilk and Shaw.

Giambi has just 10 hits as a sub for Colorado, but six of them have been home runs. He has 421 in his career, 44th on the all-time list.

Albert Pujols is already 43rd with 422.

Cramer has made just five relief appearances with the A's but has a 1.08 ERA and has made six starts for their Sacramento farm team.

Bowker had 17 at-bats with the Pirates but is hitting .

Rare Causes of Calcitriol-Mediated Hypercalcemia: A Case Report ...

Department of Medicine (M.K., G.K.), University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 4J8; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (F.G.), University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 2N1; Department of Orthopaedic Surgery (M.H.), University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095-7358; and Department of Clinical Neurosciences (C.W.), University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 2T9 Abstract

Context: Calcitriol-mediated hypercalcemia resulting from elevated extrarenal 25-hydroxyvitamin D-1α-hydroxylase (1α-hydroxylase) activity has not previously been described in giant cell polymyositis.

Case: We report an unusual case of hypercalcemia due to disseminated granulomatous disease in a 62-yr-old woman with profound proximal muscle weakness and weight loss. She was initially diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency myopathy with a low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D; serum calcium at this time was low-normal. Vitamin D 3000 IU daily was prescribed. One month later, blood work showed new hypercalcemia and hypercalciuria with normalized 25-hydroxyvitamin D. 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D was high-normal, despite a suppressed PTH, undetectable PTHrP, and essentially normal renal function. Her hypercalcemia resolved, and her strength improved only after prednisone was added to bisphosphonate therapy. Two weeks later, she died from acute congestive heart failure.

Methods and Results: Autopsy revealed a disseminated giant cell myositis affecting skeletal, cardiac, and gastrointestinal smooth muscle. Immunohistochemistry localized 1α-hydroxylase to the inflammatory infiltrates in skeletal and cardiac muscle.

Evidence: A review of English publications in Medline and Embase, including a reference search of retrieved articles, revealed that calcitriol-mediated hypercalcemia has been described in over 30 conditions, most of which are granulomatous in nature, ranging from inflammatory conditions and foreign body exposures to infections and neoplasms.

Conclusions: Hypercalcemia resulting from autonomous 1α-hydroxylase activity may be unmasked by low-dose vitamin D supplementation and should not be excluded from the differential diagnosis of nonparathyroid causes if the serum calcitriol is inappropriately normal, rather than frankly elevated.

The IUPsyS directory, major research institutes and departments of psychology

Canadian Who's Who/1987

Scott's Canadian sourcebook

Canadian Who's Who, 1992

Canadian almanac & directory