Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas located in the abdomen in children

Long-term results of treatment of 126 cases of abdominal non-Hodgkin's lymphomas under 14 years are discussed. Survival doubled (from 24 to 49%) on application of modern methods of complex treatment. Such factors as stage, general symptoms, biologic activity and localization within the abdominal cavity at presentation were found to be of the highest prognostic value.     

The development of bone sarcoma in rats injected with strontium-89 and the effect of strontium-89 on the offspring of such rats

Summary Sr⁸⁹ was administered intraperitoneally to rats. In 50% of those which survived for 180 days and longer bone sarcoma appeared (mainly in the femur and tibia), and some of them developed multiple tumors. The tumors were most commonly revealed 8–9 months after the beginning of the experiment. The mortality rate, as well as the loss of hair in the rats which developed no tumors, was greatest at the same periods of time (i.e., during the 8th–9th month). The progeny of rats treated with Sr⁸⁹ (the first and the second generation) was usually born with skeletal anomalies; the autograms of these animals showed the presence of strontium. By checking the activity of milk and blood it was established that Sr⁸⁹ passes from the mother to the progeny through the placenta.Presented by Active Member AMN SSSR A. D. Timofeevskii Translated from Byulleten Èksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny Vol. 49, No. 4, pp. 93–95, April, 1960     

Prevalence of diagnosed diabetes in circumpolar indigenous populations.

The prevalence of diagnosed diabetes in several genetically closely related indigenous populations in the circumpolar arctic and subarctic regions of Russia, Alaska and Canada is compared. The age-standardized (to the IARC's hypothetical world population) prevalence ranged from 1.8/1000 among the Chukchi and Eskimo of Chukotka, 3.6 and 7.9/1000 among the Eskimos/Inuit of the Canadian Northwest Territories (NWT) and Alaska respectively, 7.1, 9.3 and 18.6/1000 among Athapaskan Indians in the NWT, Yukon and Alaska respectively, to a high of 22.7/1000 among the Aleuts in Alaska. All are below the US all-race prevalence of 23.5/1000 and far below the extreme high prevalence reported from many North American Indian tribes. As a group, such arctic and subarctic peoples have a much shorter and less intense history of European contact and acculturation. Environmental factors are also likely to be responsible for the current differences between these indigenous populations in the circumpolar region, assuming that they share susceptibility genes for diabetes inferred from their close genetic relationships based on markers in other loci. Formal surveys of glucose tolerance and potential risk factors such as diet, physical activity, obesity, insulin resistance and genetic admixture in the circumpolar region would improve knowledge of the aetiology of diabetes in genetically and culturally diverse human populations.     

Muscle-eye-brain disease (MEB)

Clinical features of a rare congenital myopathy, muscle-eye-brain (MEB) disease, are described in 19 patients. The pedigree data suggest an autosomal recessive inheritance. The patients presented with congenital hypotonia and muscle weakness. Serum CK was elevated, EMG was myopathic and muscle biopsy showed slight or moderate changes compatible with muscular dystrophy. Ophthalmological findings included severe visual failure and uncontrolled eye movements associated with severe myopia. The flash VEPs were exceptionally high, whereas non-corneal ERG was unrecordable. The EEG showed progressive abnormalities after the age of 6 months. Psychomotor development was slow during the first years of life, and mental retardation was severe. Most patients began to deteriorate around age 5 years. This change included spasticity and joint contractures. CT scans showed ventricular dilatations and abnormally low white matter density in several patients. Spasticity, high VEPs and ocular manifestations differentiate MEB from the Fukuyama type congenital muscular dystrophy.