Rare variants of Hodgkin's disease of the thymus: Report of two cases and proposal for effective clinical management

We treated two patients with rare variants of Hodgkin's disease of the thymus. One was a 17-year-old girl with a thymoma-like shadow on the chest X-rays, an increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate and an elevated eosinophile count. Pathologically, a mixed cellularity variant of thymus Hodgkin's disease was evident. The other patient was 22-year-old girl with evidence of mediastinal tumor on the chest X-rays. Pathological examination revealed Hodgkin's disease of the lymphocyte predominance variety. She also had Von der Haeve syndrome. In both cases, Hodgkin's disease was suspected by scintiscanning, using three kinds of radioisotope,²⁰¹Thallium-chloride,⁶⁷Garium-citrate and⁷⁵Selenomethionine. Radical excision of the lesion plus preoperative and postoperative irradiations were carried out. Both are well 6 and 5 years after the treatment, respectively. We propose a new diagnostic procedure and a method of treatment for such patients.     

Detection of Rotavirus from Stools by Latex Agglutination Test

Latex agglutination (LA) reagents were prepared using antisera against human rotaviruses (Wa and S2 strains). A commercially available LA test (Rotalex) using antisera against calf rotavirus was also used. Semititrations of rotavirus antigens were compared by three LA tests on 110 stools of children with acute gastroenteritis which had been previously determined rotavirus-positive by electron microscopy and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of genome RNA. LA tests showed diversity of subgroups. The three LA tests reported in this study are concluded to be useful for clinical application in spite of a few exceptions in semititration.     

Leptin gene and leptin receptor gene polymorphisms are associated with sweet preference and obesity

Leptin is an adipocyte-secreted hormone that regulates food intake and body weight, and that was recently reported to suppress sweet sensitivity in an animal model. We investigated the associations among sweet preference, obesity, and polymorphisms of the leptin gene (LEP) or leptin receptor gene (LEPR). A total of 3,653 residents randomly selected from among the citizens of Suita City, Osaka, Japan were enlisted as subjects, in whom we investigated sweet preference, clinical characteristics, including obesity and serum leptin level, and the polymorphisms of LEP and LEPR (G-2548A and A19G for LEP; R109K, R223Q, and rs3790439 for LEPR). We determined the associations among the parameters using logistic regression analysis, in order to consider potential confounding factors for sweet preference and/or obesity. The LEP A19G and LEPR R109K polymorphisms were associated with sweet preference, whereas the serum leptin level was not. Further, the LEPR 109KK genotype was found to be associated with obesity along with sweet preference. In conclusion, our results are the first to show associations of LEP and LEPR polymorphisms with sweet preference, and may provide useful information for diagnosis and treatment of lifestyle-related diseases.     

Usefulness of the Newly Proposed International Classification of Epilepsies, Epileptic Syndromes, and Related Seizure Disorders (1989): A Trial on Adult Patients in a Neuropsychiatric Clinic

Abstract: The utility of the "International Classification of Epilepsies, Epileptic Syndromes, and Related Seizure Disorders," proposed by ILAE in 1989, was investigated in a neuropsychiatric clinic with a patient population numbering 300. Two hundred and three patients (67.7%) had localization-related epilepsies (LRE), including one idiopathic case. Sixty-six patients (22%) had generalized epilepsies, 50 idiopathic, 2 Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, and 14 symptomatic. Thirty-one patients (10.3%) with generalized tonic-clonic seizures occurring only during sleep had the epilepsies undetermined whether they are focal or generalized. In the symptomatic LRE cases, 34 cases could not be classified, and 7 of the cases with frontal lobe epilepsies were difficult to subtype. Eleven of the symptomatic LRE cases had some independent seizures, multiple foci in surface EEGs and were intractable. These cases may be defined as "multifocal epilepsies."     

Comparative studies on activities of antimicrobial agents against causative organisms isolated from urinary tract infections (1985). II. Background of patients

We have investigated relationships between patients' backgrounds and isolates from urinary tract infections in reference to various conditions, such as sexes, age distribution by sex, species of causative organisms by sex, age distribution according to species and types of infections, species and infections before and after treatment with antibacterial agents, and species and detected places. As for the relationship between sexes and types of infections, although simple urinary tract infections were consistently found at about 20% in men and at about 80% in women between 1981 and 1983, these infections were seen at 24.4% in men and at 75.6% in women in 1984, and at 26.6% and at 73.4% in 1985, indicating slight decreases in the ratio of women. By contrast, complex urinary tract infections were found in men at about 60-70% from 1981 up to 1985, regardless of the presence or absence of indwelling catheter. There were no noticeable changes according to age during this 5-year period in incidences of infections including simple urinary tract infection and complex urinary tract infection with or without indwelling catheter. Thus, backgrounds of patients with urinary tract infections, including sex, age and simple or complex infections, were fairly consistent throughout this period, while there were relatively large changes in species of isolates. Enterococcus faecalis was isolated at about 8% of both men and women in 1982 and 1983, but its isolation rates were increased to 22.5% of men and 17.9% of women in 1984. In 1985 this species was isolated in 14.9% of men and 7.6% of women, and in 11.2% of all patients. Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus spp. and Enterococcus spp. were detected at rates of 3.2%, 8.1%, 0.7% and 1.0%, respectively, and 24.2% of isolated strains were Gram-positive organisms. When species of isolates before treatment with antibacterial agents and their isolation rates were analyzed, it was found that the isolation rate of E. faecalis increased dramatically in 1983, and that this tendency was still seen in 1984. The isolation rate of Gram-positive organisms was 25% in 1984 and 24.3% in 1985. Escherichia coli was consistently isolated at about 40%, but, as far as simple urinary tract infections are concerned, its isolation rate decreased by about 10% in 1985, compared to 1982 and 1983. These results suggested that causative organisms for simple urinary tract infections became similar to those for complex urinary tract infections. In other words, isolates obtained from complex urinary tract infections before treatment were similar to those of simple infections.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

Rapid, nonradioactive detection of mutations in the human genome by allele-specific amplification

A simple, rapid, nonradioactive method has been developed to facilitate the direct detection of point mutations that cause genetic disease. The method operates on the basis of the specific amplification of a target allele by the polymerase chain reaction with extension primers designed such that their 3' end is placed at the mutation site. When this base is complementary to that of the specific allele, the DNA segment is amplified; when it is not complementary, the polymerase chain reaction cannot proceed. When alpha 1-antitrypsin (alpha 1AT) deficiency was used as a model, the technique of allele-specific amplification was capable of selective detection of five different mutations that cause the alpha 1AT deficiency state, including three different naturally occurring single-base substitution mutations (alleles Z, S, and Nullbellingham), an insertion mutation (Nullmattawa), and a deletion mutation (Nullgranite falls). Double-blind evaluation of 47 samples of genomic DNA demonstrated 100% accuracy of the method. The technique of allele-specific amplification is rapid, simple, and does not require the existence of a convenient restriction endonuclease site or the use of radioactive materials, and thus should have broad applicability for the detection of known genetic diseases in a highly sensitive and specific fashion.     

Prognostic significance of febrile episodes in lung cancer patients receiving chemotherapy

The prognostic significance of neutropenic fever in lung cancer patients receiving chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy was investigated. Male patients and patients with squamous cell lung cancer had a higher incidence of febrile episodes than female patients and patients with other cell types, but the differences were not significant. Patients with a poor performance status had a significantly higher incidence of febrile episodes. An indwelling central venous catheter was an important risk factor for febrile episodes, indicating that bacteremia was one of the major causes of fever. The median survival time of the patients who developed febrile episodes during chemotherapy was significantly shorter than that of patients without fever (6.1 vs 12.0 months), whether or not cases of early death within 3 months were excluded (8.9 vs 13.1 months). The prevention of infectious complications during anticancer treatment by the use of rh G-CSF and the early initiation of antimicrobial chemotherapy, although the results are inconclusive, may be worthwhile.     

The molecular genetics of rheumatoid arthritis disease gene

Rheumatoid arthritis(RA) is a chronic polyarthritis of unknown etiology affecting approximately 1% of the population worldwide. Previous studies have shown that the ratio of the risk for siblings of patients with the disease versus the prevalence of that disease in the general population (lambda s) is much greater in RA, suggesting that genetic factors may be involved in familial clustering. Using microsatellite marker analysis and sib-pair linkage study, we have identified three chromosome regions D1S214/253, D8S556 and DXS1232/984 as candidate loci for RA disease genes. In this article, we review the molecular genetic findings on the RA disease genes located respectively at each of the above chromosome regions. We show that the death receptor 3(DR3) gene, a Fas family member, containing nucleotide polymorphism is the candidate disease gene located at D1S214/253. We also identify the mutant forms of angiopoietin-1(Ang-1) and Dbl proto-oncogenes respectively as the candidate genes located at D8S556 and DXS1232/984. We surmise that these mutations are responsible for the impairment of apoptosis induction, angiogenesis and leukocyte function in the patients, which may predispose to autoimmunity.     

Thermal control of drug release by a responsive ion track membrane observed by radio tracer flow dialysis

The combination of a responsive hydrogel with a rigid porous supporting structure yields a membrane with high mechanical strength and high on-off-permeability ratio. A membrane consisting of an ion track filter with a thermally responsive lining was prepared by penetrating a 19 μm thick foil of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) with swift heavy ions at a fluence of 5·10⁵ ions/cm², followed by etching of the ion tracks to generate an ion track filter with 2.9 μm pore diameter, onto which a thin layer of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (NIPAAm) hydrogel was grafted. It was revealed that the mass flow of various molecules (water, chloride⁻, choline⁺, insulin, and albumin) through the membrane could be thermally controlled. The on-off-permeability ratio ranged between 3 and 10 increasing with molecular weight. Over a storage time of 5 months the permeabilities varied up to a factor of 2.6, while the on-off-permeability ratio and temperature sensitivity remained practically constant.