Wound,pressure ulcer and burn guidelines – 4: Guidelines for the management of connective tissue disease/vasculitis-associated skin ulcers

The Japanese Dermatological Association prepared guidelines focused on the treatment of skin ulcers associated with connective tissue disease/vasculitis practical in clinical settings of dermatological care. Skin ulcers associated with connective tissue diseases or vasculitis occur on the background of a wide variety of diseases including, typically, systemic sclerosis but also systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), dermatomyositis, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), various vasculitides and antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (APS). Therefore, in preparing the present guidelines, we considered diagnostic/therapeutic approaches appropriate for each of these disorders to be necessary and developed algorithms and clinical questions for systemic sclerosis, SLE, dermatomyositis, RA, vasculitis and APS.     

The thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC) level in serum at an early stage of a drug eruption is a prognostic biomarker of severity of systemic inflammation

Background

In severe drug eruptions, precise evaluation of disease severity at an early stage is needed to start appropriate treatment. It is not always easy to diagnose these conditions at their early stage. In addition, there are no reported prognostic biomarkers of disease severity in drug eruptions. The aim of this study was to test whether the thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC) level in serum at an early stage of a drug eruption can serve as a prognostic biomarker of systemic inflammation.

The first recognized patient withLegionella pneumophila serogroup 9 pneumonia in Japan

A 77-year-old female was admitted because of high fever, cough and sputum. She had been receiving corticosteroid therapy for 4 years for multiple myeloma and was immunosuppressed. A physical examination on admission showed coarse crackles in the right lower lung field, a chest radiograph showed consolidation in the right middle and lower lung fields, and a blood gas analysis revealed marked hypoxemia. The patient was diagnosed as having refractory pneumonia associated with acute respiratory failure and treated with intravenous cefmetazole followed by imipenem. On hospital day 5, erythromycin therapy was started because of a poor response to the previous antibiotics. The patient became afebrile on the tenth day and was in good health on day 15. A sputum culture on day 4 revealed aLegionella organism on Wadowsky-Yee-Okuda medium, which was subsequently confirmed to beLegionella pneumophila by a DNA hybridization test. This strain was identified at the Centers for Disease Control (Atlanta, GA, USA) by slide agglutination asL. pneumophila serogroup 9. Although our patient's symptoms are not apparently different from those caused by other serogroup strains ofL. pneumophila, this is the first recognized patient with culture-provenL. pneumophila serogroup 9 pneumonia in Japan. The clinical course of the disease and the diagnostic difficulties in identifying this type of pneumonia are discussed.     

Comparison of [123I]metaiodobenzylguanidine kinetics with heart rate variability and plasma norepinephrine level

Background  [¹²³I]Metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) imaging has been used to assess cardiac sympathetic nerve abnormalities. We evaluated the clinical significance of myocardial MIBG imaging as a measure of cardiac sympathetic nervous system function by comparing it to heart rate variability and plasma norepinephrine level. Methods and Results  In 211 subjects, we analyzed heart rate variability with 24-hour electrocardiography, performed scintigraphy with MIBG, and measured plasma norepinephrine levels. Time and frequency domain measures of heart rate variability were calculated with the Marquette heart rate variability program (Marquette Electronics, Milwaukee, Wis.). Early and late myocardial MIBG uptakes were measured at 15 and 150 minutes after injection, respectively. MIBG clearance rate from the heart and heart-to-lung and heart-to-mediastinum ratios of MIBG activities were calculated. On the whole, heart rate variability, including low-frequency power, correlated positively, but modestly so, with late MIBG uptake and negatively with MIBG clearance rate. The plasma norepinephrine level correlated negatively with late MIBG uptake and with heart rate variability, including low-frequency power, and positively with MIBG clearance rate. Similar correlations were also observed in patient subgroups with coronary artery disease, diabetes mellitus, and renal failure, but these correlations were weak (R ²<0.5). Conclusions  Increased cardiac sympathetic nervous system activity may be associated with increased myocardial MIBG clearance and decreased heart rate variability, including low-frequency power. Because these associations were not strong, however, the combination of heart rate variability with MIBG may allow an interactive assessment of the cardiac autonomic nervous system.     

Mortality and morbidity after spinal surgery in patients with Parkinson's disease: a retrospective matched-pair cohort study

Background Context

There is a lack of information about postoperative outcomes and related risk factors associated with spinal surgery in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD).

32例国产人工髋关节翻修手术的临床体会

目的：探讨国产人工髋关节翻修原因。方法：回顾总结32例人工髋关节翻修中发现的问题,分析翻修原因。结果：32例中术前诊断松动16例,脱位4例,深部感染2例,白磨通3例,断柄2例,髋周及股部疼痛4例,股骨柄穿通皮质1例。26例取出假体顺利,6部部分骨长入珍珠面而取出假体困难。25例作全髋置换翻修,4例臼怀松动或位置不良致脱位仅翻修髋臼,1例股骨柄穿通皮质更换双动头,2例因深部感染严重而作单纯假体取出、清创术。全组病例经6个月－5年随访,Harris评分术前平均43分,术后平均81分,平均增加38分。结论：目前翻修病例仍以国产人工关节为主。翻修原因主要是：人工关节质量因素和手术技术因素。造成假体过早松动或种种其它并发症,最终失败。提示国产人工关节质量需改进,需相应配套器械,手术操作技术有待提高。     

Establishment of a near-triploid human B-cell lymphoma cell line with t(14;18) and a p53 gene point mutation

We report a rare large B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma having a characteristic near-triploid cell population with add(17)(p22) and t(14;18)(q32;q21) translocation. We also established and characterized a new cell line (TK cell) derived from the present lymphoma. A codon 180 mutation (GAG --> GAT) in the p53 gene was detected. t(14;18)(q32;q21) was revealed juxtaposition of the bcl-2 and JH genes. Immunoprecipitation analyses of p53 and bcl-2 revealed that abnormality of the p53 protein and aberrant bcl-2 expression, which may protect cells from apoptosis, may be critical to the development of leukaemogenesis exhibiting near-triploid chromosomes.