Syphilis. Symptomatologie

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Hemangiomas of the external auditory canal:a literature review and two new case reports

Aim  

The aim of this paper is to present two case reports of patients with hemangiomas of the external auditory canal, and to overview all cases published in English language literature so far.     

The Effect of Maternal Dose on Lead Retention in Suckling Rats

Lead (Pb) transfer from mother to litter was investigated at the late stage of lactation after a single intraperitoneal injection of 2.0 μg Pb/ml marked with ²⁰³Pb . After 48 hr almost 20% of the maternal dose of ²⁰³Pb was found in the litter, and about 0.6 and 0.2% of the injected dose was found in the liver and kidneys of suckling rats, respectively. Similar whole-body retention was observed earlier in suckling rats after a 20 times lower dose of stable lead was injected intravenously into their mothers.     

Protocols of antithrombotic therapy in a University Cardiocenter

This article presents local protocols for antithrombotic therapy used in a tertiary care institution—the cardiocenter of a university hospital. The protocols were discussed in detail among the whole team of physicians of the cardiocenter. This article addresses cardiac conditions requiring hospitalization whenever antithrombotic therapy is indicated. These protocols do not include antithrombotic therapy in other medicinal disciplines (e.g., orthopedics, surgery). These protocols are mostly based on the current guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). The partial differences between the ESC guidelines and this text are usually based on the results of the latest clinical trials, which have not yet been included in the ESC guidelines.     

Dipeptidyl peptidase IV in mammalian lungs

Endothelial cells of the pulmonary circulation are equipped with an ectoenzyme protease system on their luminal surface. The membrane-bound proteases act on the circulating polypeptides and cleave certain peptide bonds in their structure, thus modifying their biological properties. We studied the enzyme dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DP-IV) in mammalian lungs in order to elucidate its contribution to the aforementioned proteolytic processing. We have found that lungs of mammalian species posses DP-IV with different levels of specific activity. In rat lungs the specific activity of DP-IV progressively increased during development between the 18th fetal and the 70th postnatal days. Human embryonal and fetal lungs had significantly higher specific activity of DP-IV compared with the lungs of adult individuals. The enzyme in lungs was mainly membrane bound and was solubilized by some detergents, but not with papain and trypsin. The Triton X-100-solubilized DP-IV from rat lung lysosomal-microsomal membranes migrated during electrophoresis on continuous 4–30% gradient polyacrylamide gel at native apparent M_r values of 260 000 and 490 000. Using a histochemical technique we found the enzyme activity of DP-IV in the capillary bed of the lung alveolar septa only. Four aminoacyl-L-proline-4-nitroanilide substrates for DP-IV were cleaved rapidly during one passage through isolated perfused blood-free rat lungs. The perfusion profiles of cleavage of these substrates were largely coincident with that of Blue Dextran 2 000, a compound, which is unlikely to leave the intravascular space. Taken together, the data suggest that DP-IV operates in vivo as a membrane-bound ectoenzyme on the luminal surface of pulmonary endothelial cells and that it may cleave certain circulating polypeptides.     

The effects of long-term oral administration of L-arginine on the erectile response of rabbits with alloxan-induced diabetes

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of the long-term oral administration of L-arginine on the impaired neurogenic and endothelium-dependent relaxation responses of corpus cavernosum smooth muscle from alloxan-induced diabetic rabbits. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-two New Zealand white rabbits were used in four groups of eight each. In group 1, the rabbits received no treatment after the induction of diabetes with alloxan hydrochloride given intravenously; in group 2, L-arginine (1 mg/mL) was administered orally after the induction of diabetes; in group 3, 6 U/day of insulin was injected subcutaneously; group 4 was maintained with no treatment (as litter-mate controls) for 8 weeks. Thereafter, the rabbits were killed by exsanguination and the penis removed en bloc. The reactivity of corpus cavernosum strips from the penis was then assessed in organ chambers. RESULTS: Relaxation and contraction responses of corpus cavernosum strips to sodium nitroprusside and potassium chloride, respectively, were similar in all groups. Relaxation responses of corpus cavernosum strips elicited by electrical field stimulation and carbachol from rabbits in group 1 were less than in controls; the responses to carbachol were not significantly impaired in group 2 and 3, whereas responses to electrical field stimulation were impaired in both groups when compared with the control group. CONCLUSION: The impairment of endothelium-dependent and nerve-mediated relaxation by diabetes appears to involve an alteration in nitric oxide/cyclic GMP pathway. Administration of oral L-arginine increased endothelium-dependent relaxation, probably through activating nitric oxide synthase. Additionally, decreasing elevated blood glucose concentration and advanced glycosylation products by insulin treatment protected endothelium-dependent relaxation, whereas neither L-arginine nor insulin treatment restored impaired neurogenic relaxation.