Clinical and manometric evaluation of anorectal function following low anterior resection with low anastomotic line using an EEA™ stapler for rectal cancer

Anorectal function was evaluated in eight patients who had low anterior resection of the rectum with a low anastomotic line, using an EEA^™ stapler, with determination of function based on periodic manometric studies and clinical symptoms. Immediately following surgery all patients suffered from frequent bowel actions and soiling. These symptoms improved with time and most patients could enjoy almost normal daily life by the sixth postoperative month. One month after surgery, anal canal resting pressure and maximum squeeze pressure were significantly reduced and rectoanal inhibitory reflex was absent; neither showed a distinct tendency to improve thereafter. Rectal sensation and reservoir capacity, which also were seriously impaired, recovered satisfactorily by the time of the six-month examination. This suggests that an improvement of clinical symptoms following this operation is dependent upon the recovery of reservoir capacity and sensation of the neorectum, and that this operative procedure is a functionally acceptable option for low rectal cancer.     

Gorog Thrombosis Test: analysis of factors influencing occlusive thrombus formation.

We used the Gorog Thrombosis Test to analyze the factors influencing the occlusion time, which represents platelet activation and subsequent occlusive thrombus formation, in 132 healthy Japanese volunteers (116 men, 16 women; mean age, 45.0 +/- 12.0 years). The Gorog Thrombosis Test was designed to evaluate platelet aggregation and thrombolytic activity under a high shear stress condition (175 dynes/cm) in a native blood sample in vitro. The mean +/- SD occlusion time was 154.8 +/- 64.7 s (men, 153.4 +/- 64.2 s and women, 165.4 +/- 56.5 s). The occlusion time was inversely correlated with von Willebrand factor ristocetin cofactor activity (VWF:Rco) (r = -0.242, P = 0.0055) and von Willebrand factor antigen (r = -0.230, P = 0.0080). The mean occlusion time in the group with VWF:Rco of at least 170% (137 s) was significantly shorter than that in the group with VWF:Rco less than 170% (156 s, P < 0.05). Platelet counts, other coagulation markers and smoking showed no significant correlations with occlusion time. Red blood cells (r = -0.177, P = 0.0365), hemoglobin (r = -0.191, P = 0.0245) and hematocrit (r = -0.182, P = 0.0329) also showed inverse correlations with the occlusion time. This report is the first to clearly demonstrate the role of von Willebrand factor in the formation of occlusive thrombi in the Gorog Thrombosis Test.     

A report on two siblings with vitamin D resistant rickets treated with 1 alpha-hydroxy-vitamin D3 until completion of the growth]

The treatment of vitamin D resistant rickets still raises much controversy. This report describes out experiences on 1 alpha OHD3 treatment in two siblings from childhood till completion of the growth. The treatment began from age 3 and 8 in these two patients respectively. The daily doses were necessary to maintain the healing and increased during the growth period so that the doses per body weight were virtually constant at 1 microgram/kg/day. Under this regimen, the improvement of rickets was recognized in the radiogram, and the lower leg deformity corrected. In one case the bone biopsy confirmed the improvement of disturbed calcification. The final height was 152.5 cm (-0.8 SD) and 149 cm (-1.4 SD) respectively suggesting the effectiveness of 1 alpha OHD3 on the growth promotion. Around the closure of growth plate, the regimen induced hypercalcemia. Thereafter the doses were reduced to one fourth or one fifth of those in the growth period.     

Toluene vapor exposure and urinary excretion of hippuric acid among workers in China.

A factory survey was conducted in three provinces in China from 1985 to 1989. The time-weighted average toluene concentrations in breathing zone air were monitored by diffusive sampling, whereas hippuric acid (HA) concentrations in shift-end urine samples were measured by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Exposed workers (456 men and women) were those for whom toluene (up to 548 ppm toluene) accounted for greater than or equal to 90% of total exposure (by vapor concentration in ppm), whereas 517 nonexposed controls were recruited from the same factories or from factories of the same region. There was a linear correlation between the intensity of toluene exposure and HA concentration in the shift-end urine. Comparison of the results with findings in the literature shows that the toluene-induced increase in urinary HA concentration among workers in China is significantly smaller than the published values, whereas HA concentrations in urine samples from nonexposed controls are comparable to the levels previously reported.     

Human monocyte antigens in a random sample from Japan.

We studied a random sample of Japanese and compared both Japanese and German monocyte antigen frequencies and performed a segregation analysis in Japanese families. In Japanese, the following gene frequencies were established: 0.1033 for HMA-A1; 0.0299 for HMA-A3; 0.0033 for HMA-A6; 0.1521 for HMA-B2. Data on the gene frequency in Germans were presented by Rose. In this comparison, the frequency for HMA-B2 in Japanese is more than two times higher; for antigen HMA-A6, the Japanese is a fifth of the German quantity. The antigen HMA-B4 was not found in Japanese. The results we obtained from family analysis confirmed an unambiguous autosomal, codominant inheritance of the examined HMA antigens.     

Cutaneous thermal-cooling and -warming detection thresholds in distal extremities of normal subjects]

The cutaneous thermal-cooling and -warming detection thresholds were evaluated on the dorsal side of the right distal forearm and on the dorsum of the right foot in 134 normal subjects (66 men and 68 women) without sensory symptoms and signs, aged from 11 to 87 years by using a Thermal Threshold Tester (Vickers Medical International, England). The normative data for the clinical evaluation of the severity and the pathologic process of the sensory disturbance of the patients were obtained. The data obtained included 1) the mean of each threshold and 2) its upper limit value of 95% confidence interval for each decade. The mean of each threshold was significantly increased with aging (P less than 0.0001). Therefore, the cutaneous thermal-cooling and -warming detection thresholds of the patients with sensory disturbances should be compared with the normative data adjusted for the age of each subject obtained in this study. Based on the evaluation, repeated six times for three weeks, of each threshold of six volunteers (ages from 21 to 66), high reliability of each threshold (intraclass correlation coefficient from 0.78 to 0.96) was observed.     

Evidence that neurofibrillary tangles undergo glial modification

Summary Ghost tangles, neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) emerging into extracellular space, appear to be subjected to some microglial association in addition to an invasion of astrocytic processes. Our findings lead us to speculate that the NFTs undergo structural and immunocytochemical modification. Electron microscopic observation of the NFTs in the vascular region indicated either the discharge of NFTs into the vessel or formation of NFTs in the astrocytic end-foot.     

Extracellular or ghost Pick bodies and their lack of tau immunoreactivity: a histological,immunohistochemical and electron microscopic study

Histological, immunohistochemical, and electron microscopic evidence of an extracellular, or ghost Pick body has been found in the granular cell layer and, rarely, in the pyramidal cell layer of the hippocampus of an autopsy case of Pick's disease. The ghost Pick body appeared as a blurred, weak argyrophilic mass in the neuropil, and it was composed of accumulated fibrillary structures, 13 nm in diameter, intermingled with glial filament bundles. These ghost Pick bodies did not react with anti-tau and antiubiquitin antibodies, but did react weakly with antiglial fibrillary acidic protein antibody, whereas intracytoplasmic Pick bodies were strongly immunolabeled with anti-tau but only weakly with anti-ubiquitin anti-bodies. These results suggest that the Pick body is discharged into the neuropil after destruction of the mother neuron, loses its immunoreactivity to certain tau and ubiquitin antibodies during this process (thereby inducing a glial reaction) and remains in the neuropil as a ghost Pick body.     

Glial localization of four‐repeat tau in atypical progressive supranuclear palsy

In the present case, a patient in whom limb apraxia and asymmetrical parkinsonism developed suggesting corticobasal degeneration, is reported. Neuropathologic examination revealed numerous tufted astrocytes in the precentral cortex in addition to the characteristic pathologic findings of PSP. Therefore, on the basis of clinicopathologic features, atypical progressive supranuclear palsy was diagnosed. In addition, the brain tissue of the present patient was investigated with an antibody specific for four‐repeat tau (4R‐tau). In the precentral cortex, numerous tau‐positive tufted astrocytes, pretangles, and threads were positive for 4R‐tau. Using a confocal microscopy we demonstrated that tufted astrocytes positive for 4R‐tau were adjacent to astrocytes positive for GFAP. The present findings suggest that accumulation of four‐repeat tau in astrocytes is a degenerative process rather than a reactive process.