Rehabilitation of patients with chronic respiratory disease

The difficulties that face the patient with chronic respiratory disease are complex and interrelated. Caring for such patients requires a holistic approach, including psychologic support and education of patient and family, combined with physical therapy, administration of bronchodilators, and oxygen therapy.     

Anaesthesia for renal transplantation--5 years' experience

Two hundred and seventy patients underwent anaesthesia for 280 renal transplants between October 1977 and October 1982. Their medical records were studied retrospectively. These patients were representative of the end-stage chronic renal failure population, with the usual high incidence of cardiovascular and biochemical abnormalities. Most received general anaesthesia, with an intravenous barbiturate, muscle relaxant, narcotic and volatile supplement sequence being the most common. There were no intra-operative deaths. One postoperative death was felt to be influenced by the anaesthetic management. Four patients had life-threatening cardiac complications and a further four required postoperative respiratory support, three for delayed recovery of neuromuscular function and one for "recurarisation". Less serious complications were considerably more common. General anaesthesia utilising suxamethonium and tubocurarine as the relaxants and halothane as the volatile supplement is least likely to result in complications. Changes to this anaesthetic sequence are likely with the introduction of new agents.     

Concomitant chemo/radiotherapy for advanced carcinoma of the head and neck

Giving chemotherapy and radiotherapy simultaneously (concomitant therapy) is one approach to improving results in advanced head and neck cancer. To assess the feasibility of one such regimen, 25 patients with advanced squamous carcinoma of the head and neck were treated with a continuous intravenous infusion of 5-fluorouracil, 1 g/m2 per 24 h for Days 1-5 (105 h) and mitomycin-C 14 mg/m2 intravenously on Day 3 during the first week of radiotherapy. Twenty had Stage IV disease; four Stage III; and one Stage II. Ages ranged from 21 to 73 years (median 60 years). The tumours involved were as follows: oral cavity (6); nasopharynx (8); oropharynx (5); secondary node from unknown primary (3); hypopharynx (2); paranasal sinus (1). Radiotherapy was delivered as 10 Gy per week (total dose 60-70 Gy). Chemotherapy was well tolerated and all received the intended dose. Mild nausea occurred in five patients and three experienced transient vomiting. A generalized "early" mucositis affected 16 out of 25 (64%), caused interruption of radiotherapy in three patients, and is thought to be chemotherapy related. Twenty-two patients received the dose of radiotherapy intended, and two stopped prematurely at 53 and 56 Gy. Three episodes of neutropaenic infection occurred. Two recovered uneventfully, but one toxic death occurred in a patient with alcoholic cirrhosis. A complete response was seen in 21 (84%). For 17 patients with non-nasopharyngeal carcinoma the 2-year survival is 40%, 24% disease free. The concomitant use of 5-fluorouracil, mitomycin and radiotherapy is well tolerated in this group of patients.     

Limitations of the clonal agar assay for the assessment of primary human ovarian tumour biopsies.

114 biopsy specimens from 70 patients with ovarian carcinoma at all stages of disease were submitted for assessment of clonogenic capacity in agar. A highly significant correlation was found between agar clonogenicity and patient survival after biopsy. However, problems related to inherent tumour heterogeneity, quality of sample and tissue disaggregation indicate that this technique may have limited applicability in the routine assessment of patients. Only 41 biopsy specimens (36%) from 31 patients (44.3%) complied with the prerequisite criteria for agar clonogenic assessment, namely: (a) the confirmed presence of malignant cells in the biopsy, (b) the ability to prepare a single-cell suspension, and (c) adequate viable cell numbers for assay. Furthermore, although the dominant patterns of agar clonogenic growth could be identified and correlated with stage of disease, the heterogeneity in both initial clonogenic capacity and "self-renewal" capacity assessed by the ability of primary clones to propagate in liquid culture and reclone in agar was too inconsistent for the assay to be used as a prognostic index for the individual patient.     

Studies on the stimulation and suppression of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) synthesis in lymph node cells of mice bearing progressively growing tumours.

Host responsiveness to a progressively growing methylcholanthrene (MC) induced tumour (MC6/2) was studied at varying intervals following subcutaneous (s.c.) tumour implantation by monitoring the in vitro incorporation of tritiated thymidine (3H-TdR) into lymph node cells (LNC) undergoing stimulation in vivo and concurrently determining the total numbers of the lymphoid cells present in these organs at each of the time intervals. It was found that an initial period of rapidly increasing stimulation of DNA synthesis in lymph nodes was soon followed by the onset of a stage of decrease of this activity. Within limits, the larger the tumour inoculum the stronger the initial response. The suppression of stimulation of DNA synthesis that ensued appeared to be directly related to the tumour mass and to the dose of tumour cells implanted. The total numbers of the cells accumulating in nodes also increased initially but remained elevated during the subsequent period of tumour growth. Continued presence of the tumour was essential for the increased DNA synthesis in lymph nodes since tumour removal leads to a rapid decrease to levels found in tumour-free animals. These findings demonstrate that the failure to eradicate an antigenic tumour by its host may not be solely due to "desensitizing" and "blocking" factors but that other important mechanisms are also involved. We suggest that the inability to reject the tumour in this situation is dependent in considerable measure on the development of a state of hyporeactivity in the host due to the partial inhibition of the DNA synthetic response, possibly in T cells of the tumour host, due to "suppressor factor(s)" interacting with the immunocompetent cells.     

Successful immunosuppressant therapy of severe progressive cerebellar degeneration and sensory neuropathy: a case report

A 56 year old woman had a 19 month history of a severe subacute progressive cerebellar degeneration, peripheral sensory neuropathy, and urinary incontinence. She was confined to a wheelchair, needed assistance with eating, and her speech was almost unintelligible. No underlying cancer was found despite repeated investigations, and no autoantibodies were demonstrated. She received a 3-month course of intensive immunosuppressant therapy with intravenous immunoglobulin 400 mg/kg per day for 5 days every month, oral cyclophosphamide 50 mg twice or three times a day to maintain the total lymphocyte count between 500 and 750/mm(3), and prednisone 60 mg per day. She experienced dramatic subjective and objective improvement. The dysarthria and the upper extremity dysmetria disappeared, and she regained the ability to write and cook. The lower extremity ataxia improved and she became able to walk with a cane. Urinary incontinence disappeared. A trial of intensive immunosuppressant treatment is worth considering in a patient with a clinical syndrome resembling paraneoplastic disorders, even if an underlying neoplasm and autoantibodies are not demonstrated.     

D-dimer assay for deep vein thrombosis: its role with colour Doppler sonography

AIM: To evaluate the role of a negative D-dimer assay in the initial management of patients with clinically suspected deep venous thrombosis (DVT), using colour Doppler ultrasound as the primary diagnostic technique. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A double-blind prospective trial was performed on 143 patients with clinically suspected DVT. All patients underwent a D-dimer assay prior to anticoagulant therapy. DVT was confirmed or excluded by diagnostic colour Doppler ultrasound within 24 h of presentation. RESULTS: In nearly one-third of the cases (31.8%), Doppler ultrasound was positive. The D-dimer assay demonstrated a sensitivity of 97.7% with only one false-negative, but the specificity was low at 48.9% with 45 false-positive results. The positive predictive value for D-dimer assay was 48.8%, whilst the important negative predictive value was 98%. CONCLUSION: If D-dimer was used to screen for DVT, and patients with negative results were not imaged, then the imaging workload could be reduced by 35%. In this study one small calf vein thrombus would have been missed by adopting this practice.Bradley, M. (2000). Clinical Radiology 55, 525-527.