High Efficacy of Disopyramide in the Management of Ventricular Fibrillation Storms in a Patient with Brugada Syndrome

The patient was a 57‐year‐old man with Brugada syndrome, who had been implanted with a implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). The frequency of ventricular fibrillation (VF) started to increase about 4 years after ICD implantation, occurring, at worst, six times in one night. Immediately after starting oral administration of disopyramide, VF stopped occurring. He then discontinued taking disopyramide, but immediately after the discontinuation VF started occurring again, so he restarted taking disopyramide. Thereafter, VF completely stopped occurring. Findings observed in our case suggest that disopyramide could be added in our arsenal of medications for treating arrhythmic storms in patient with Brugada syndrome. (PACE 2010; 33:e53–e56)     

Clinically isolated cerebellar metastasis of renal pelvic urothelial cancer

A 70-year-old man who had undergone radical surgery for renal pelvic transitional cell carcinoma 9 months previously developed solitary cerebellar metastasis. Despite neurosurgical removal, the patient died and post-mortem pathological examination revealed microscopic metastatic lesions within microvessels of the lung. No other lesion, including local residual cancer, was detected.     

Heterogeneity of HL—A Specificities Shown by Platelet Complement-Fixation

Six sets of unrelated healthy individuals, phenotypically "identical" in each set for the four antigens of the two HL—A segregant series, were tested with 153 antiplatelet antisera by microcomplement-fixation. In five of the six sets the results unequivocally show that the individuals were not identical by complement-fixation reactions. It is proposed that sera which manifest nonidentity between individuals within these sets identify either "variants" of the known HL—A antigens or antigens of a third segregant series of the HL—A system or of a non-HL—A system. Accurate and complete matching for HL—A antigens among unrelated individuals will require further definition of specificities.     

Low HL—A2 Frequency and Periodontitis1

The frequency of HL-A2 was significantly low (21%) in patients with periodontitis when compared to controls who were free of periodontal disease (61%). The effect was most pronounced in females in whom HL-A2 was present in 12.5% (2 out of 16). This finding suggests that genes controlling susceptibility to microbial agents may be linked to the HL-A LOCUS.     

Interspecies-specific Ovarian Autoantigens Involved in Neonatal Thymectomy-induced Murine Autoimmune Oophoritis

PROBLEM: Thymectomy of mice on day 3 after birth (3d-Tx) gives rise to the appearance of a particular type of ovarian lesion known as experimental autoimmune oophoritis (AIO). METHOD: In the present study, the spleen cells from BALB/c mice having undergone 3 day-Tx AIO were fused with X63-Ag8-6.5.3 myeloma cells, and a number of hybridoma clones producing autoantibodies against ovarian tissue were established. RESULTS: On the basis of immunohistochemical and protein-chemical analysis, two independent clones, designated as T2.2 and S1.6, were found to react with interstitial tissues surrounding the follicles. These monoclonal antibodies showed broad cross-species reactivity, in that they recognized similar antigenic macromolecules in the rat, pig, human, and mouse. The antigenic determinants were strongly resistant to heat and acid, especially to the treatment of periodic acid, indicating that the antigenic determinants had no relation with carbohydrate components. CONCLUSIONS: By antibody affinity chromotography, two kinds of autoantigens were identified. SDS-PAGE, under reduced or nonreduced conditions, revealed an 80/85 kDa protein for T2.2, and an 82 kDa for S1.6, respectively.     

Estimation of usefulness of N-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate-lipiodol mixture in transcatheter arterial embolization for urgent control of life-threatening massive bleeding from gastric or duodenal ulcer

We estimated the usefulness of a mixture of N-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate (NBCA) with lipiodol for transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) used to control massive bleeding from gastric or duodenal ulcer. Thirty patients who had gastric or duodenal ulcers and massive bleeding that was uncontrollable by endoscopic procedures were included in this study. All patients were subjected to TAE (without NBCA in 23 and with NBCA in seven patients). Coils and/or gelfoam were also used. The achievement of haemostasis, occurrence of rebleeding and the time taken for TAE were compared between patients who received TAE without and with NBCA. Eighteen of 23 patients (78.3%) who received TAE without NBCA and six of seven patients (85.7%) who underwent TAE with NBCA achieved complete haemostasis without rebleeding. The time for TAE was significantly shorter in patients who received NBCA compared with those who did not (P= 0.0095). TAE using NBCA or a combination of NBCA and coils achieved a rapid, complete embolization regardless of vascular distribution or arterial diameter. Thus NBCA is considered to be useful as a secondary embolization material in TAE that is urgently conducted to control massive bleeding from gastric or duodenal ulcers.     

HL—A Typing in Asian Indians

HL—A typing in 80 Asian Indians has shown differences in the frequencies of some HL—A antigens as compared with American Caucasians. These include the absence of Te54 (= W14 = Maki) and Te64, and significantly low frequencies for HL—A2 and HL—A8.