Electrical properties of glassy-carbon electrodes

Some electrical properties of the glassy-carbon electrode are presented. The electrode impedance is inversely proportional to the measurement frequency. The glassy-carbon electrode has pH sensitivity. The polarisation characteristic is given. To analyse these results, it is better that the adsorption of ions on the surface of the electrode is taken into consideration. This is inferred from XPS spectra.     

MRI accurately depicts underlying DCIS in a patient with Paget's disease of the breast without palpable mass and mammography findings

Breast-conserving therapy must be carefully indicated amongpatients with Paget's disease of the breast, because the diseaseis often associated with an underlying in situ or invasive carcinoma,even when there are no palpable mass or mammography findings.We report a 52-year-old woman who complained of skin color changeof her right nipple for 11 months. No mass was palpable in herbreasts, and mammography did not show any density or calcification.Nipple biopsy revealed Paget's disease of the breast with ductalcarcinoma in situ (DCIS) in the breast epithelium just beneaththe nipple. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the breast demonstrateddiffuse segmental enhancement in two different quadrants. Accordingto the pattern of enhancement, the lesions depicted by MRI werediagnosed as an extensively spreading type of DCIS. Based oninformed consent, the patient received a total mastectomy. Thehistopathological examination demonstrated non-invasive ductalcarcinoma with comedo-necrosis. The histological mapping withsubserial sectioning demonstrated an extent of the lesions thatcorresponded accurately to the lesions defined by MRI. We concludethat MRI may play an important role in selecting candidatesfor breast-conserving therapy out of those patients with mammaryPaget's disease with no clinical evidence of an underlying breastcarcinoma.     

Combination immunotherapy using autologous tumor-stimulated lymphocytes and trastuzumab (Herceptin) for the patients with recurrent breast cancer

PURPOSE: We report two patients with refractory recurrent breast cancer (HER2/neu: +) postoperatively, who had failed response to the available conventional chemotherapy of CAF (cyclophosphamide, adriamycin, 5-fluorouracil) and docetaxel, etc. They markedly responded to the combination immunotherapy using intraperitumoral injections of autologous tumor cell-stimulated T lymphocyte (AuTL) and trastuzumab (Herceptin), an anti-HER2 monoclonal antibody. METHODS: AuTLs were administrated directly into the recurrent tumor by intraperitumoral injections biweekly and trastuzumab was infused systemically every week. The treatments were repeated for 6 and 11 injections in the patients, respectively. The total administered T cells had reached to 3.8 x 10(9) and 6.4 x 10(9), respectively. The dosage of trastuzumab was 2 mg/kg in each patient. RESULTS: The carcinomatous pleural effusion had disappeared and was well controlled in patient 1 and a marked regression in injected fields in comparison to the size of the recurrent tumor before treatment was observed in patient 2. The tumor marker proteins (CEA, CA15-3, TPA) had also decreased significantly. The adverse effects of the immunotherapy were tolerable with grades 1-2 infusion reaction of fever, tachycardia and hypotension, but no cardiac dysfunction was observed. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical responses of recurrent breast cancer were observed in two patients after receiving the intra-peritumoral AuTL injection plus trastuzumab immunotherapy. These results showed that refractory recurrent breast cancer may be controlled effectively and safely by repeating the cellular immunotherapy combined with trastuzumab and suggested utility of combining these agents in clinical trial.     

Advanced chemoresistant breast cancer responding to multidisciplinary treatment with hyperthermia, radiotherapy, and intraarterial infusion

We employed multidisciplinary therapy, consisting of hyperthermia, radiotherapy, and intraarterial infusion, for a patient with progressive advanced breast cancer that was resistant to epirubicin hydrochloride and cyclophosphamide (EC) therapy as well as being resistant to docetaxel hydrate, and obtained a good therapeutic response. Because estrogen and progesterone receptors were both negative and HER2 was 3(+), administration of trastuzumab was started, and this patient has shown no signs of recurrence at 33 months after our treatment. The results suggested that our multidisciplinary therapy can be an effective method for the treatment of progressive breast cancer showing resistance to major chemotherapy agents such as anthracyclines and taxanes.     

The long-term effects of transluminal balloon angioplasty for vasospasms after subarachnoid hemorrhage: analyses of cerebral blood flow and reactivity

BACKGROUND: Transluminal balloon angioplasty (TBA) has come into wide use for management of symptomatic cerebral vasospasm after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). The long-term effects of TBA in this clinical context on cerebral blood flow (CBF) and the functional properties of the arterial wall after aneurysmal SAH remain controversial. We therefore studied these effects. METHODS: All patients underwent unilateral TBA. Xenon-enhanced computed tomography was performed for an average of 18 days after TBA to measure CBF and cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR). Cerebral blood flow and CVR were compared between the side of TBA and the contralateral side. RESULTS: Nineteen vascular territories were treated successfully with TBA in 12 patients. Angiographic improvement of vasospasm was demonstrated in all 12 patients, and 9 (75%) patients showed neurological improvement. After balloon angioplasty, global CBF was 35.1 +/- 8.2 mL/100 g per minute, with CBF on the side with TBA (37.8 +/- 10.3 mL/100 g per minute) being essentially the same as that on the other side (P = .0671, paired Student t test). Likewise, reactivity to acetazolamide did not differ significantly between sides (P = .0817). CONCLUSION: Transluminal balloon angioplasty increased proximal vessel diameters but showed no significant influence on CBF or vascular reactivity 3 weeks later. Benefits presumably were short term, but the procedure was clinically safe.     

Biological transmission of arboviruses: reexamination of and new insights into components, mechanisms, and unique traits as well as their evolutionary trends

Among animal viruses, arboviruses are unique in that they depend on arthropod vectors for transmission. Field research and laboratory investigations related to the three components of this unique mode of transmission, virus, vector, and vertebrate host, have produced an enormous amount of valuable information that may be found in numerous publications. However, despite many reviews on specific viruses, diseases, or interests, a systematic approach to organizing the available information on all facets of biological transmission and then to interpret it in the context of the evolutionary process has not been attempted before. Such an attempt in this review clearly demonstrates tremendous progress made worldwide to characterize the viruses, to comprehend disease transmission and pathogenesis, and to understand the biology of vectors and their role in transmission. The rapid progress in molecular biologic techniques also helped resolve many virologic puzzles and yielded highly valuable data hitherto unavailable, such as characterization of virus receptors, the genetic basis of vertebrate resistance to viral infection, and phylogenetic evidence of the history of host range shifts in arboviruses. However, glaring gaps in knowledge of many critical subjects, such as the mechanism of viral persistence and the existence of vertebrate reservoirs, are still evident. Furthermore, with the accumulated data, new questions were raised, such as evolutionary directions of virus virulence and of host range. Although many fundamental questions on the evolution of this unique mode of transmission remained unresolved in the absence of a fossil record, available observations for arboviruses and the information derived from studies in other fields of the biological sciences suggested convergent evolution as a plausible process. Overall, discussion of the diverse range of theories proposed and observations made by many investigators was found to be highly valuable for sorting out the possible mechanism(s) of the emergence of arboviral diseases.     

Stroke-like episode involving a cerebral artery in a patient with MELAS

This report describes a patient with mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes who exhibited a segmental vascular narrowing in the crural segment of the right posterior cerebral artery by magnetic imaging angiography in the acute phase of the first stroke-like episode. The vascular stenosis almost improved on the subsequent neuroimaging study. This result suggested that major cerebral arteries might be occasionally involved in a stroke-like episode in MELAS (mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes).     

Dental enamel pitting in tuberous sclerosis complex

We studied pitting of the dental enamel in cases of tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), by staining defect sites. Many pits were found in the enamel of the TSC patients, especially on the labial surface of the incisors. Although the pathogenesis is unclear, pits of this type have been reported in TSC patients, but in the author's experience, have never been observed in cases of other diseases. On the basis of the results in this study and those previously published, we conclude that dental enamel pitting is a finding which suggests the diagnosis of TSC.