Self-biting induced by activation of L-type calcium channels in mice: serotonergic influences

The L-type calcium channel activator +/-Bay K 8644 has recently been shown to provoke self-injurious biting in young mice. Since the serotonergic systems have been implicated in the expression of self-injurious behavior in both humans and animals, the present studies tested whether drugs influencing serotonin systems could modify the ability of +/-Bay K 8644 to cause this behavior. The ability of +/-Bay K 8644 to provoke self-biting behavior was increased by the serotonin uptake inhibitor fluoxetine or the monoamine oxidase inhibitor clorgyline. On the other hand, the ability of +/-Bay K 8644 to provoke self-biting was decreased by depletion of serotonin with p-chlorophenylalanine or 5,7-dihyroxytryptamine. These results suggest that the ability of +/-Bay K 8644 to provoke self-injurious behaviors may be mediated by serotonergic influences.     

Evaluation of the prognostic factors after thymoma resection

We discuss the prognostic factors of thymoma clinicopathologically. Regarding the survival rate by the clinical stage classification of Masaoka, significant correlation was made between stage I and stage III (P < 0.05) and stage I and stage IVa (P < 0.03). The tumor resectability was classified into complete and incomplete resection, and a significant difference was shown by the survival rate of the complete resection at P < 0.0001. Regarding the survival rate by the invasive organ of the tumor, significant correlation was made between no invasion and the great vessel invasion (P < 0.0004) and between invasion except for the great vessel and great vessel invasion (P < 0.004). As for the histological type, the tendency in which the epithelial cell type predominancy increased with the progress of the clinical stage was shown. A significant correlation was not shown in the evaluation by adjuvant therapy. However, recently we have done chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy periodically for invasive thymoma.     

A case of Down syndrome with ventricular septal defect and hemodynamical Eisenmenger syndrome

A 10 month-old infant with Down syndrome having ventricular septal defect and pulmonary hypertension performed cardiac catheterization, which resulted in a slight increase in the pulmonary vascular resistance from 10.8 to 11.3 unit.m2. Lung biopsy findings showed at most an early grade 2 Heath-Edwards classification, and an index of pulmonary vascular disease of 1.1, both of which indicated operability for total correction. He underwent surgical correction and the pulmonary arterial pressure significantly decrease. Although he suffered chylothorax in 5th postoperative day, he did not developed pulmonary hypertension crisis.     

Hand-assisted laparoscopic adrenalectomy to a solitary adrenal metastasis from lung cancer

A 75-year-old man with right chest pain was diagnosed with primary lung cancer in the right apical portion, and was treated with chemoradiotherapy because of a synchronous left adrenal tumor of 1.6 cm. Since the adrenal tumor did not increase in size for three months and there were no other relapses, the right upper lobectomy of the lung with the excision of the chest wall was performed. Afterward, an enlargement of the left adrenal tumor was encountered; he was admitted to our hospital for an operation. For the metastatic adrenal tumor from lung cancer, we performed a hand-assisted laparoscopic adrenalectomy. He recovered rapidly and returned to the previous hospital in two weeks after the operation. After the first report in 1992, the laparoscopic adrenalectomy has been established as the curative operation to adrenal benign tumor. The indication is being expanded to the malignancy because of the improvement of operation techniques and advancement of the operation equipments. We conclude that the laparoscopic adrenalectomy for malignant tumor is a safe, curative, and clinically useful surgical technique.     

A case of phyllodes tumor of the breast with a lesion mimicking fibroadenoma

We report a case of phyllodes tumor (PT) with multiple lesions partly mimicking fibroadenoma (FA). A 43-year-old woman was referred to our institute because of a left breast mass which was diagnosed as FA clinically. During the follow-up, the mass gradually enlarged and excisional biopsy was performed to rule out malignant lesion. On histological examination, the tumor consisted of three different components; a lesion diagnosed as FA, another lesion as benign PT, and the other lesion as borderline PT. Finally, the tumor was diagnosed as borderline PT. Stromal cellularity may vary from area to area in any given PT. If there are some disagreements among the findings of imagings and cytology for the diagnosis of FA, as was seen in our case, the possibility of coexistence of PT should be considered.     

Electron microscopic study of sebaceous epithelioma.

A case of sebaceous epithelioma on the scalp of a 50 year old female was reported. Using an electron microscope, cells from the tumor were classified into 5 stages according to their development. Furtheremore, our investigation indicate that lipid synthesis was activated in sebaceous epithelioma cells rather than in normal sebaceous cells, and can apparently be distinguished from lipid-droplet formation by degradation. These sebaceous epithelioma cells also possessed the ability to secrete which suggests that these tumor cells originated from germinative cells of the sebaceous gland rather than epidermal basal cells.