The effect of tumor necrosis factor on human sperm motility in vitro

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF alpha) is present in elevated levels in peritoneal fluid from infertile women with endometriosis. The effect of TNF alpha on human sperm motility in vitro was evaluated utilizing peritoneal fluid from infertile women with minimal endometriosis containing 0, 100, 400, or 800 U of TNF alpha/ml as well as similar concentrations of recombinant human TNF alpha. No reduction in progressive and total motility was found at recombinant TNF alpha concentrations of 100 U ml. However, 500 and 1000 U of recombinant TNF alpha/ml caused a significant reduction in progressive and total sperm motility after 4 and 21 hours of incubation when compared with controls. Similarly, peritoneal fluid containing 100 U of TNF alpha/ml did not significantly reduce progressive and total sperm motility after either 4 or 21 hours of incubation; but peritoneal fluid containing 400 U of TNF alpha/ml reduced progressive sperm motility after 4 and 21 hours and total sperm motility after 21 hours of incubation. Peritoneal fluid with a TNF alpha concentration of 800 U/ml caused a significant reduction in both progressive and total sperm motility after 4 and 21 hours when compared with controls of TNF alpha-negative peritoneal fluid. The addition of polyclonal rabbit anti-TNF alpha antibody or 30-min heat inactivation at 56 C of TNF alpha-positive peritoneal fluid reversed the inhibitory effect on sperm motility. The ability of TNF alpha to cause a significant reduction of sperm motility in vitro suggests that this may be a mechanism for the infertility observed in women with minimal endometriosis.     

Femoral artery compression device for outpatient angiography

To avoid late bleeding from the femoral artery puncture site after outpatient femoral angiography, a compression device was designed to exert continuous pressure over the groin, even when the patient is upright. It has been successfully used in more than 2,000 arterial catheter procedures. The device can also help prevent bleeding in patients who are at increased risk because of hypertension or anticoagulant therapy.     

Nasal and Nasopharyngeal Angiocentric T-Cell Lymphomas

Thirty patients (24 men and 6 women) with a median age of 44.5 years who had angiocentric T-cell lymphoma were studied. The neoplastic cells in each had a T-cell phenotype. Epstein-Barr virus RNA was detected in the neoplastic cells in 29 of 30 patients. The most common presenting symptom was nasal obstruction followed by purulent rhinorrhea. Patients with early presentation had only a friable nasal or nasopharyngeal mucosa; late clinical signs included septal perforation in 40%. Twenty-one of 30 patients received radiation therapy as initial treatment; 22 of 30 patients achieved a complete remission. Fifteen patients relapsed: 10 with local recurrence and 5 with systemic disease. In long-term follow-up, 10 patients were alive and disease free, 6 patients died of unrelated causes, and 12 patients died of disease.     

Numbers of host "helper" T cells and proliferating cells predict survival in diffuse small-cell lymphomas

Diffuse small-cell lymphomas of B-lineage comprise a group of immunophenotypically related lymphoid malignancies that display variable clinical aggressiveness. We compared a variety of clinical, pathologic, and immunologic characteristics of 64 B-lineage diffuse small-cell lymphomas to patient survival in an effort to define prognostically relevant subtypes of these neoplasms. Neither clinical parameters nor histological subclassification correlated with patient outcome. In contrast, three immunologic features of these lymphomas showed a statistically significant relationship with actuarial survival. Neoplasms that manifested greater than or equal to 25% Ki-67+ cells (proliferation-associated antigen), less than 25% Leu 4+ cells (pan-T antigen), or less than 15% Leu 3+ cells (helper/inducer T-subset antigen) were associated with significantly decreased patient survival as compared to neoplasms with the reverse phenotype (P = .02, P = .003, P = .0005, respectively). Leu 3 findings were of particular importance in initial biopsies (P = .0007), while the Ki-67 findings were significant regardless of time of biopsy (P = .01 for biopsies at diagnosis and P = .004 for other biopsies). These data indicate that immunologic analysis can demonstrate subsets of diffuse small-cell lymphoma with different biologic potential, and suggest that such analysis be included in the routine work-up of patients with this type of neoplasm.