Anomalous coronary artery origin associated with bicuspid aortic valve in a patient with rheumatic mitral stenosis: a case report

A rare case of an anomalous left coronary artery arising from the right sinus of Valsalva associated with bicuspid aortic valve is presented. This case is unique because these congenital anomalies were associated with rheumatic mitral stenosis. This anomalous coronary origin was found at catheterization before balloon mitral valvuloplasty. The clinical significance of this finding is discussed.     

Tumor fibroso solitario del paladar blando

The solid fibrous solitary tumour of the oral cavity is an extremely rare entity. It is also of complicated diagnosis because of its extensive morphologic diversity (especially when there is a small amount of biopsied tissue) and because of its similarity to many mesenchymal injuries, mostly with hemangiopericytoma. The prognosis is reserved because of the few cases reported, mainly depending on tumour location and size.     

Enfermedad de Hodgkin y cáncer de mama bilateral

A woman diagnosed at the age of 15 of a Hodgkin’s disease, mixed cellularity, received thoracic radiotherapy. At the age of 17 was treated again with radiotherapy because of recurrence. At 30 years old, she was treated of a second recurrence with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. After seven years of complete remission, she was diagnosed a breast carcinoma, and a year later it was detected a second contralateral carcinoma, treated both of them with radical surgery and hormonotherapy. The possibility of developing long-term radiation-induced mammary neoplasms in young women previously irradiated for a Hodgkin’s disease is discussed.

     

Neither the Bvg− Phase nor the vrg6 Locus of Bordetella pertussis Is Required for Respiratory Infection in Mice

In Bordetella species, the BvgAS sensory transduction system mediates an alteration between the Bvg⁺ phase, characterized by expression of adhesins and toxins, and the Bvg⁻ phase, characterized by the expression of motility and coregulated phenotypes in Bordetella bronchiseptica and by the expression of vrg loci in Bordetella pertussis. Since there is no known environmental or animal reservoir for B. pertussis, the causative agent of whooping cough, it has been assumed that this phenotypic alteration must occur within the human host during infection. Consistent with this hypothesis was the observation that a B. pertussis mutant, SK6, containing a TnphoA insertion mutation in a Bvg-repressed gene (vrg6) was defective for tracheal and lung colonization in a mouse model of respiratory infection (D. T. Beattie, R. Shahin, and J. Mekalanos, Infect. Immun. 60:571–577, 1992). This result was inconsistent, however, with the observation that a Bvg⁺ phase-locked B. bronchiseptica mutant was indistinguishable from the wild type in its ability to establish a persistent respiratory infection in rabbits and rats (P. A. Cotter and J. F. Miller, Infect. Immun. 62:3381–3390, 1994; B. J. Akerley, P. A. Cotter, and J. F. Miller, Cell 80:611–620, 1995). To directly address the role of Bvg-mediated signal transduction in B. pertussis pathogenesis, we constructed Bvg⁺ and Bvg⁻ phase-locked mutants and compared them with the wild type for their ability to colonize the respiratory tracts of mice. Our results show that the Bvg⁺ phase of B. pertussis is necessary and sufficient for respiratory infection. By constructing a strain with a deletion in the bvgR regulatory locus, we also show that ectopic expression of Bvg⁻ phase phenotypes decreases the efficiency of colonization, underscoring the importance of Bvg-mediated repression of gene expression in vivo. Finally, we show that the virulence defect present in strain SK6 cannot be attributed to the vrg6 mutation. These data contradict an in vivo role for the Bvg⁻ phase of B. pertussis.     

Prostatic stromal hyperplasia with bizarre nuclei.

Prostatic stromal hyperplasia with bizarre nuclei is an uncommon variant of nodular hyperplasia that may be confused with mesenchymal malignancy but that can usually be distinguished by the degenerative character of the nuclear changes, absent to negligible mitotic rate, and relatively sparse cellularity. We report a case in a 73-year-old man and review six other cases, which, to our knowledge, are the only ones that have been reported previously.     

Prospective study of the pituitary-ovarian function after tubal sterilization by the Pomeroy or Uchida techniques

Surgical sterilization has become one of the most widely used methods of fertility regulation in the world. A common concern is the not yet clarified possible disturbance of the ovarian function resulting from the surgical procedure. A prospective study was carried out to contribute toward answering this question. Twenty subjects were enrolled in a longitudinal study of ovarian endocrine function before, and 2 and 6 months after, tubal ligation. The Pomeroy technique, which may compromise ovarian circulation, and the Uchida technique, which is free of this risk, were used randomly. Eight women who underwent to the Pomeroy technique and 9 who underwent the Uchida technique completed the protocol. Luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, estradiol, and progesterone were measured daily from days 10 through 18 of the cycle and every other day until the onset of the next menses. No change in any of the hormones studied was observed, with the exception of a significant increase in progesterone 2 months after tubal ligation by the Uchida technique.