Carcinoma of the anal gland: Case report and review of the literature

Anal gland cancer is often insidious in its presentation with no evidence of an intraluminal mass. It is frequently slow-growing and often thought to be a perirectal or ischiorectal abscess. Repeated incision and drainage is performed until a biopsy reveals the diagnosis. A very wide resection is then necessary to totally remove the tumor.     

Effects of variations in temperature on impulse conduction along nonmyelinated axons in the mammalian brain

The effects of changes in brain temperature on conduction velocity and minimal interspike interval were examined in nonmyelinated callosal axons in awake and in barbiturate-anesthetized rabbits. These two parameters exhibited different sensitivities to brain temperature. For a range of 4.0°C, increases in brain temperature resulted in a decrease of approximately 2.5%/°C in antidromic latency and in a decrease of approximately 10%/°C in minimal interspike interval. Significant variations in conduction velocity and interspike interval can therefore be expected to occur with normally occurring changes in brain temperature. These variations may have implications for mechanisms of neural coding.     

Help-seeking mothers and their children

Forty-three mothers sought help with management of childhood behaviors. Presenting complaints in half or more of the families included stubbornness, talking back to parents, disobedience and other traits indicative of parent-child interaction difficulties. Pretreatment behavioral observations revealed that mothers shared common characteristics of being low in positive warmth and high in negative and oppositional responses. The children were observed to share common traits of little independent play, frequent frustration, and either ignored their mothers or were verbally and physically oppositional. Behavioral counselling and monitored rehearsal served to reverse many of the behaviors. Almost all mothers reported reduction in problem behaviors. Mothers varied widely in attributing usefulness to different program components.This study was supported by Grant #19642 from the National Institute of Mental Health.     

On the brain of a scientist: Albert Einstein

Neuron:glial ratios were determined in specific regions of Albert Einstein's cerebral cortex to compare with samples from 11 human male cortices. Cell counts were made on either 6- or 20-micron sections from areas 9 and 39 from each hemisphere. All sections were stained with the Klüver-Barrera stain to differentiate neurons from glia, both astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. Cell counts were made under oil immersion from the crown of the gyrus to the white matter by following a red line drawn on the coverslip. The average number of neurons and glial cells was determined per microscopic field. The results of the analysis suggest that in left area 39, the neuronal: glial ratio for the Einstein brain is significantly smaller than the mean for the control population (t = 2.62, df 9, p less than 0.05, two-tailed). Einstein's brain did not differ significantly in the neuronal:glial ratio from the controls in any of the other three areas studied.     

The Reaction of three Purified Lectins with Guinea Pig Lymphocytes

Three purified phytohemagglutinins, LcH-A, LcH-B, and AbH bind to guinea pig lymphocytes, the first two stimulating lymphocytes in culture and the last causing no stimulaton. By fluorescence microscopy essentially every examined lymphocyte isolated from various lymphoid organs bound both LcH-A and AbH. From the fact that both the stimulant (LcH-A) and the nonstimulant (AbH) showed similar microscopic staining patterns, it is suggested that the type of staining pattern seen is not directly related to the stimulation process. Although LcH-A and LcH-B have very similar specificities, they have subtly different lymphocyte stimulating properties, the former being a better stimulant for blood and lymph node cells and the latter a better stimulant of thymus cells. Despite the fact that AbH is not a stimulator of guinea pig lymphocytes, it could, under certain conditions, significantly affect the stimulation of guinea pig lymphocytes by LcH-A.     

Unstable Coronary Artery Disease: Comparison of Medical and Surgical Treatment

In eighty-eight patients with arteriographic findings of obstructive coronary artery disease and the clinical picture of unstable angina pectoris, a decision on operative or nonoperative management was made by the attending physician. Fifty-three of them subsequently underwent aortocoronary saphenous vein bypass grafting and 35 were continued on a program of medical therapy. A marked difference in the course after the first 30 days was noted, with most of the surgically managed patients being either asymptomatic or greatly improved following coronary artery bypass. Two-thirds of the medically treated patients had persistent severe angina pectoris and none was asymptomatic in a follow-up period averaging 20 months. There were 2 late deaths in the medical group and none in the surgical group.These findings indicate that coronary artery bypass operations can be performed with low risk during the unstable phase of coronary artery disease and that relief of angina can be anticipated. In contrast, nonoperative management of unstable coronary artery disease carries an appreciable risk of death or myocardial infarction, and the majority of patients treated nonoperatively continue to experience angina.