Pneumothorax preceding pulmonary blastoma in a child

Serial plain radiographic, ultrasound and CT findings of an unusual case of pulmonary blastoma are described with a review of the literature.     

Effect of endothelin-1 on tumor arteries in patients with colorectal cancer

Endothelin-1 is an endothelium-derived vasoconstrictor peptide whose plasma levels are increased in patients with colorectal cancer, and which may be involved in tumor blood flow regulation. To study whether response to this peptide is altered in tumor arteries, mesenteric arteries supplying blood flow to colorectal tumors, and mesenteric arteries far from said tumors were obtained from 13 patients undergoing colectomy; mesenteric arteries were also obtained from patients with diverticulitis (n = 4) or inflammatory bowel disease (n = 3). Arteries were prepared for isometric tension recording in an organ bath, and in this preparation it was found that endothelin-1 induced contraction in all three types of arteries, but that sensitivity to this peptide was greater in arteries supplying blood flow to the tumor than in arteries far from the tumor or arteries from patients without cancer. These results suggest that endothelin-1 may regulate blood flow to colorectal tumors by inducing a greater contraction in tumor-supplying arteries than in non-tumor arteries.     

Humoral immune response of patients with dental trauma and consequent replacement resorption

Abstract –  Replacement dental resorption may be a consequence of trauma and may cause dental transplants or reimplants to fail. Previously, we demonstrated the participation of the immunopathological response in inflammatory dental resorption. The induction mechanisms of the two types of dental resorption are well known to be different. The aim of the present study was to observe the immune response of patients who suffered dental trauma with subsequent replacement dental resorption. Four patients with replacement radicular resorption and four healthy individuals with no evidence of radicular resorption participated in the study. The results of ELISA demonstrated that serum from patients with replacement dental resorption contained larger amounts of IgG and smaller amounts of IgM anti-total human-dentin extract and anti-fractions of extract than did serum from control individuals. These results signal the hypothesis that dentin is immunogenic and the serological profile of patients with replacement dental resorption may be identified through biochemical analysis of their blood. Precise screening by this method may allow early diagnosis of dental resorption before it becomes visible radiographically.     

Bronchial migration of pulmonary arterial coil

Transcatheter embolization was performed with stainless steel coils in a patient with bilateral pulmonary arterial aneurysms of unknown etiology. After a successful initial procedure, endobronchial migration of one of the coils was found which required surgical treatment. Indications of embolization and different types of materials are discussed.     

Electrophysiological analysis of cultured fetal mouse dorsal root ganglion neurons transgenic for human superoxide dismutase-1, a gene in the Down syndrome region of chromosome 21

Our recent whole cell patch-pipette studies have shown that human trisomy 21 (Down syndrome) cultured fetal dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons have accelerated rates of action potential depolarization and repolarization, with reduced spike duration, compared to control neurons. Similar observations were made using DRG neurons from the trisomy 16 mouse, an animal model of trisomy 21. In this study we have used transgenic mice in order to investigate the relationship between excess gene dosage and neurophysiological abnormalities. DRG neurons which possessed additional copies of the gene for human superoxide dismutase-1 (SOD), a gene from the Down syndrome region of chromosome 21, were compared to normal neurons. No electrophysiological differences were found between the two groups of neurons, indicating that increased dosage of the SOD gene alone is not causal to action potential dysfunction found in trisomy 21 and trisomy 16 neurons.