We described a rare case of a 20-year-old woman with an ovarian immature teratoma who resumed regular spontaneous menses after more than 5 years of chemotherapy-induced amenorrhoea. Efforts to ...reverse chemotherapy-induced ovarian failure can be continued even after persistent menstrual dysfunction of 5 or more years.
The measurement of flow velocity (FV) in coronary artery bypass grafts using a Doppler guidewire has provided useful clinical and physiologic information. The recently developed transcutaneous ...Doppler echocardiography is a noninvasive technique to measure FV and FV reserve (FVR) in the right gastroepiploic artery (GEA) graft. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether transcutaneous Doppler echocardiography accurately measures FV and FVR in the right GEA graft in a clinical setting.
In 33 patients who underwent graft angiography for the assessment of the right GEA graft, FV in the right GEA graft was measured by transcutaneous Doppler echocardiography under the guidance of color flow Doppler imaging at the time of examination using a Doppler guidewire. FV in the midportion of the right GEA graft was measured at baseline and during hyperemic conditions using both transcutaneous Doppler echocardiography and a Doppler guidewire.
There were excellent correlations between the value of FV obtained by transcutaneous Doppler echocardiography and those obtained with the Doppler guidewire (averaged peak velocity: y = 0.95 x + 1.46, r = 0.98, standard error of the estimate SEE = 2.94 cm/s; averaged systolic peak velocity: y = 0.94 x + 1.18, r = 0.97, SEE = 3.15 cm/s; diastolic peak velocity: y = 0.97 x + 1.62, r = 0.98, SEE = 4.40 cm/s; averaged diastolic peak velocity: y = 0.95 x + 1.75, r = 0.98, SEE = 3.60 cm/s). The FVR as determined by transcutaneous Doppler echocardiography showed a good correlation with that determined using the Doppler guidewire method (y = 0.90 x + 0.21, r = 0.92, SEE = 0.31).
Transcutaneous Doppler echocardiography proved to be an accurate noninvasive method to measure FV and FVR in the right GEA graft.
To elucidate the modulatory role of histamine-degrading enzymes in airway constrictor responses in mycoplasmal infection, we studied hamster tracheal segments under isometric conditions in vitro. ...Nasal inoculation with
Mycoplasma pneumoniae potentiated the contractile responses to histamine but not to methacholine. Pretreatment of tissues with the histamine
N-methyltransferase inhibitor SKF 91488 abolished the infection-induced potentiation, whereas, the diamine oxidase inhibitor aminoguanidine had no effect. The histamine
N-methyltransferase but not diamine oxidase activity in tracheal tissues was decreased in infected animals. These results suggest that
M. pneumoniae causes airway hyperresponsiveness to histamine probably through a reduction of endogenous histamine
N-methyltransferase activity.
A 79-year-old man was admitted because of consciousness disturbance on August 9, 2002. He had been diagnosed as having chronic myeloid leukemia in 1999, and since then, he had continued to take ...hydroxyurea (1500 mg/day) orally. On admission, his serum sodium concentration was as low as 119 mEq/L, while urinary sodium excretion was high. Based on the blood picture and lack of hepatosplenomegaly, we considered that the leukemia was still in the chronic phase. Because of normal blood level of the antidiuretic hormone (ADH) concentration and sufficient urine volume, the syndrome of inappropriate ADH secretion (SIADH) was unlikely, and sodium-losing nephropathy was suspected. After discontinuation of hydroxyurea, the urinary sodium excretion decreased and the patient's consciousness became clear concomitantly with improvement in the serum Na level. This patient appears to be the first case of hyponatremia caused by hydroxyurea.
To determine whether mycoplasma infection produces airway hyper-responsiveness to tachykinins and bradykinin and, if so, to elucidate the role of neutral endopeptidase (NEP), isolated hamster ...tracheal segments were studied under isometric conditions in vitro. Nasal inoculation with Mycoplasma pneumoniae potentiated contractile responses to neurokinin A and bradykinin, causing a leftward shift of the dose-response curves to a lower concentration by 1 log unit for each agonist, whereas there was no response with acetylcholine. Pretreatment of tissues with the NEP inhibitor phosphoramidon augmented neurokinin A- and bradykinin-induced contractions in saline-treated control tissues, but did not further potentiate the responsiveness in M. pneumoniae-infected tissues. NEP activity in the tracheal epithelium, but not in epithelium-denuded tissues, was decreased in infected animals. These results suggest that M. pneumoniae infection causes airway bronchoconstrictor hyper-responsiveness to neurokinin A and bradykinin and that this effect may be associated with an inhibition of epithelial NEP activity.
The present study was designed to verify the effect of L-carnitine intake on postprandial hunger feeling in young healthy females. With double-blind, crossover design (1 wk washout), 12 females ...(21.3+-0.3 y) consumed a placebo or L-carnitine containing (300 mg per meal) formula diet as breakfast after overnight fasting. Satiety scores (visual analog scales; VASs), salivary cortisol, serum carnitine concentrations, blood glucose, and autonomic nervous system activity by means of heart rate variability power spectral analysis were measured before and after feeding for 6 h at intervals. Our data suggest that hunger feeling tended to be reduced by L-carnitine intake, involving the level of serum total-carnitine concentrations. Moreover, lower level of salivary cortisol concentrations was shown after L-carnitine containing meal (at 30 min and 2 h), however, the link between the salivary cortisol level and the reduction of hunger feeling was not fully understood.
A 77-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital because of pneumonia and heart failure in July 2002. She had been diagnosed as having with Sézary syndrome in 1993, and had been treated with a ...combination of prednisolone, methotrexate, and cyclosporin A with subsequent stable disease but persistent generalized erythroderma. On admission, the white blood count was 23.9 X 10(9)/L with 28% Sézary cells, and serum creatinine levels were within normal limits. One month after admission, the pneumonia and heart failure improved remarkably with antibiotics and diuretics. However, at the same time, her renal function deteriorated with increasingly high serum creatinine levels. She died of anuria in September, 2002. An autopsy showed marked perivascular and peritubular infiltration of abnormal lymphocytes with degenerative nephrotubuli in the kidneys. This patient may be the first reported case of Sézary syndrome with renal failure caused by leukemic infiltration.
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