Cutaneous mastocytosis associated with a mixed germ cell tumour of the ovary: report of a case and review of the literature

A 10-year-old girl with a mixed germ cell tumour of the ovary, treated by surgery and chemotherapy, developed cutaneous mastocytosis approximately 8 months after starting chemotherapy. This is the sixth report of a germ cell tumour associated with mastocytosis. c-kit receptor point mutations, including Asp816Val and Val560Gly were absent in a biopsy specimen obtained from lesional skin.     

Pediatric admission for vaccine preventable diseases: a 5-year survey from 1994 to 1998 in Aichi Prefecture

Several infectious childhood diseases can be prevented by vaccination. A survey of hospital admissions for such diseases was conducted in Aichi Prefecture over 5 years beginning in 1994. A questionnaire was sent annually to hospitals with 100 or more beds to obtain information on pediatric patients requiring hospitalization for 10 vaccine preventable diseases. Information was obtained on 3,953 patients. Most admissions were for measles (49%), followed by mumps, chickenpox, pertussis, rubella, and tuberculosis. Over half of the patients were under 3 years old, with 20% aged under 12 months, 25% aged from 12 months to 2 years, and 10% aged from 2 to 3 years. The average hospital stay was longest for tuberculosis and pertussis, and was around 1 week for the other diseases. Familial transmission was the most common source of infection identified. The only death was an unvaccinated patient with measles pneumonia. Sequelae were reported at the time of discharge in 15 patients (0.4%), and were permanent in some cases. Some 96% of the patients surveyed were unvaccinated against the disease causing hospitalization. The fact that there were 14 patients with sequelae and the one patient who died were unvaccinated, emphasizes the need to promote vaccination.     

A case of eosinophilic fasciitis without skin manifestations: a case report in a patient with lupus and literature review

Clinical Rheumatology - Eosinophilic fasciitis (EF) is a rare connective tissue disease that causes inflammation and fibrosis of the fascia, inducing pain and motor dysfunction. Characteristic skin...     

Safety and efficacy of lenvatinib by starting dose based on body weight in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma in REFLECT

Journal of Gastroenterology - REFLECT was an open-label, phase 3 study comparing the efficacy and safety of lenvatinib versus sorafenib in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma...     

gp130 signaling pathways: Recent advances and implications for cardiovascular disease

gp130 was initially identified as a signal-transducing receptor component that associates with the interleukin 6 receptor (IL-6R) when the receptor is occupied by interleukin 6 (IL-6). It has been revealed that the receptor complexes for IL-6, IL-11, leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), oncostatin M (OM), and ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) utilize this gp130 protein as a common signal-transducing component, explaining how these cytokines mediate overlapping biological function. Recent observations with mice lacking gp130 or having continuously activated gp130 protein have disclosed an important biological function of gp130 in cardiovascular system: the former mice show extremely hypoplastic development of the ventricular myocardium at 16.5 days postcoitum (dpc), and the latter exhibit hypertrophy of myocardium. These cardiovascular abnormalities are considered to be the results of the perturbation of gp130, which also transduces the signal of cardiotrophin-1 (CT-1), a recently isolated factor causing hypertrophy in cultured cardiomyocytes and having sequence similarity with IL-6, IL-11, LIF, CNTF, and OM. In fact, CT-1 shares gp130 with these cytokines as a critical signaling component. Besides various well-established mechanisms by which cardiac growth and development are regulated, a gp130 signaling may be a newly discovered mechanism that regulates these events.