Frontal impairment and hypoperfusion in neuroacanthocytosis

Cerebral blood flow tomography, by xenon 133 inhalation or HMPAO (99mTc-d, l-hexamethyl-propylene amine oxime) technetium Tc 99m injection, revealed a severe hypoperfusion in both frontal lobes of a 40-year-old woman with confirmed neuroacanthocytosis. This finding occurred in conjunction with neuropsychological deficits consistent with selective frontal lobe dysfunction. This observation is the first documentation of this type of dementia in neuroacanthocytosis.     

Urinary detected renal antigens in the early diagnosis of kidney graft rejection.

The determination of renal antigens in the urine with an immunoassay, based on monoclonal antibodies (moabs), is a noninvasive test system for the analysis and monitoring of renal injury. New moabs allowing an immunohistologic dissection of the human nephron were generated by a direct intrasplenic immunization of mice with pathologic urine samples. A sandwich enzyme immunoassay was developed to quantitate renal cell membrane antigens in the urine samples. A sandwich enzyme immunoassay was developed to quantitate renal cell membrane antigens in the urine. While antigen excretion in healthy individuals is low, preliminary data of a clinical investigation suggest the usefulness of these assay systems in diagnosis of tubular injury in human kidney transplant recipients. The immunoassay can provide very early hints of renal graft rejection prior to the appearance of clinical symptoms or the detection by routine clinical laboratory investigations.     

Cholesterol-based personal risk assessment in coronary heart disease

Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES II) 1976-1980, we demonstrate how cross-sectional total serum cholesterol surveillance data can be used by an individual to assess current and future personal cholesterol risk status. We propose statistical models, based on a person's current measured cholesterol level and the relationship between cross-sectional age and cholesterol percentile estimates, that will allow prediction of future cholesterol levels or the age at which specified cholesterol risk levels will be reached if no cholesterol-altering intervention is taken. These models incorporate the observed variation in the NHANES II data and expected intraperson biological variation and intralaboratory analytical variation. We illustrate the adequacy of the models using data from the longitudinal Framingham Study.     

Influence of different preservation solutions and intentional hemodilution of recipient on viability of preserved and transplanted rat kidneys

Abstract. A total of 81 rat kidney grafts, flushed out and cold stored in either Sacks' or University of Wisconsin (UW) solution, were transplanted into hemodiluted (Hct = 30%± 4%) or untreated (Hct = 43%± 3%) recipients. The cold ischemia times (CIT) used were 24 and 36 h. One week after transplantation, the surviving recipients ( n = 67) were contralaterally nephrectomized. The experiment was terminated after a total period of 4 weeks, and the percentage of surviving animals was determined for each treatment. Data was pooled and the results show that grafts cold stored in UW solution were viable to a significantly greater extent and after longer CIT than grafts cold stored in Sacks' solution (47% vs 23%; P < 0. 05). Recipient hemodilution did not improve graft viability (39% vs 32%; NS). Kidneys cold stored for 24 h were viable to a greater extent than kidneys with a CIT of 36 h (50% vs 15%; P < 0. 01).     

Antisilicotic activity of fractions of the copolymer of ethylene glycol vinyl glycidyl ether and N-vinylpyrrolidone

Translated from Khimiko-farmatsevticheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 23, No. 6, pp. 711–713, June, 1989.     

Complete excision of acoustic neurinoma. Preservation of the facial nerve and hearing

Using microtechniques, total removal of acoustic neuromas with facial nerve preservation is possible today in most cases. The next barrier of operative treatment is hearing preservation which is routinely attempted, with the help of intraoperative brainstem auditory evoked responses monitoring. The present series deals with 176 operations performed sub-occipitally in 159 patients from 1970 up to 1985. Twelve patients were operated upon 29 times. According to the W.T. Koos classification, there were 16 type II, 39 type III and 121 type IV neuromas. Ten patients died postoperatively. In seven of these, death was related to surgery, in two it was caused by respiratory failure. In the last patient unexplained sudden death occurred. 169 patients had no facial weakness preoperatively, in 158 of these the facial nerve was anatomically preserved (93.5%). Facial nerve function was judged by evaluation of function of face at least 12 months after operation. Up to 36 months after surgery, a good facial result may be expected in cases where the facial nerve was macroscopically spared at completion of removal. Functional results have been reviewed in 151 patients according to the J.W. House's International Evaluation System, with an excellent or good result in 66 (44%), fair in 65 (43%), bad or poor in 20 (13%). The anatomical preservation of the cochlear nerve could be achieved in 80 patients of the group of 169 in whom the auditory function had not been damaged by a previous operation. In fact, the auditory function preservation could be reasonably attempted in 79 patients: showing a hearing loss below 70 dB on tone audiometry, whatever may be the result of speech discrimination score. 59 patients (75%) of this later group had their auditory nerve preserved, 14 (18%) showed preserved hearing function postoperatively, 10 of these with a speech discrimination score over 50%. Two of these showed an improvement of preoperative hearing, two others showed a total recovery of hearing function after removal.