Parotid gland leiomyosarcoma in a child: an extremely unusual neoplasm.

We report the case of an 8-year-old boy with a parotid mass diagnosed to be a leiomyosarcoma. Considering the unresectable extent of the mass, the patient was subjected to radiotherapy. The patient developed distant metastasis following the course of radiotherapy and was put on chemotherapy. The child was lost to further follow up. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case in the English-language literature of such an entity in the pediatric age group.     

Macroglossia and amyloidoma of the buttock: evidence of systemic involvement in dialysis amyloid

A 48-year-old male on cuprophane haemodialysis for 18 years, with a history of dialysis arthropathy and recurrent carpal tunnel syndrome developed macroglossia and bilateral buttock tumoral masses. The tongue and buttock masses were biopsied. Histology of both biopsies showed amyloid deposits of the beta 2-microglobulin (B2M) variety. Amyloidomas in the gluteal region and macroglossia have not been previously described in amyloid derived from B2M. These findings suggest that systemic B2M amyloidosis can have a similar tissue distribution to AL amyloidosis. This case also stresses the importance of inspection of the tongue, and palpation of the gluteal region for masses, in the assessment of patients with dialysis arthropathy.     

Human immune response to outer membrane protein CD of Moraxella catarrhalis in adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Moraxella catarrhalis is a common cause of lower respiratory tract infection in adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The antibody response to outer membrane protein (OMP) CD, a highly conserved surface protein of M. catarrhalis under consideration as a vaccine antigen, was studied in adults with COPD following 40 episodes of infection or colonization. Following infection or colonization, 9 of 40 patients developed new serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) to OMP CD, as measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Adsorption assays revealed that a proportion of the serum IgG was directed toward surface-exposed epitopes on OMP CD in six of the nine patients who developed new IgG to OMP CD. Immunoblot assays with fusion peptide constructs indicated that the new antibodies that developed after infection or colonization recognized conformational epitopes, particularly in the carboxy region of the protein. Three of 28 patients developed new mucosal IgA to OMP CD in sputum supernatants. This study establishes that OMP CD is a target of a systemic and mucosal immune response following infection and colonization in some patients with COPD.     

Immunoblot analysis of the serological response in Hantavirus infections

Sera from patients with nephropathia epidemica (NE) or Korean hemorrhagic fever (KHF) were tested for specific antibody response to antigens of H?lln?s virus and Hantaan virus strain 76-118. A Vero E6 derived cell line persistently infected with H?lln?s virus strain B1, and Vero E6 cells freshly infected with Hantaan virus type strain 76-118 were used as antigens in the immunofluorescence assay (IFA) and the immunoblot. Blots were prepared from whole cell lysates. The convalescent-phase sera of NE patients tested in this study regularly revealed a marked reaction with a 52 kilodalton (Kd) protein of H?lln?s virus and a 50 Kd protein of Hantaan virus. A convalescent serum from a patient with Korean hemorrhagic fever and a rat antiserum against Hantaan virus could recognize the 50 Kd band of Hantaan virus but showed no apparent reactivity with the 52 Kd component of H?lln?s virus in the standard dilutions. Some sera could additionally identify minor bands in the 55 Kd and/or 67 Kd region of the blots. A one-way cross reactivity between Hantaan and H?lln?s viruses was also evident from the results of the immunofluorescence assays in that NE convalescent sera reacted with both viruses, whereas KHF convalescent or anti-Hantaan sera gave strongly positive results with Hantaan virus but only faint reaction with H?lln?s virus.     

Decision and forecast horizons in a stochastic environment: A survey

This paper constructs a unified framework to survey most of the work done to date on decision

1 decision horizon replaces the term planning horizon used in the literature in the context of this paper. This is done because of an alternate and more popular use of the term planning horizon as simply the given length of the horizon in a finite horizon problem.

and forecast horizons in a stochastic environment. The paper is divided into sections by type of model. For each model type, the issues of existence of these horizons and of derivation of sufficient conditions for their determination are studied. Appropriate examples are presented.     

Pharmacokinetics of vindesine bolus and infusion

Summary The pharmacokinetics of vindesine were investigated during treatment of 15 patients with progressive malignancies refractory to conventional treatment. Patients were administered one of three IV dose schedules: 3.0 mg/m² bolus injection, 1.2 mg/m²/day infusion for 5 days, or 2.0 mg/m²/day infusion for 2 days. Concentrations of the drug in the serum and urine were determined by radioimmunoassay. Serum concentrations were highest (5×10^-7 M) in patients receiving a bolus injection, but fell to nondetectable levels by 48 h in four of five patients (terminal t_1/2 15.0±9.4 h). Compared with bolus injection, 1.2-to 1.4-fold greater areas under the blood concentration curve were observed during infusions of 2.0 mg/m² and 1.2 mg/m². Whereas steady-state concentrations (1×10^-8 M) were maintained throughout the infusion of 1.2 mg/m²/day progressively increasing serum levels were observed during the infusion of 2.0 mg/m²/day. Serum concentrations fell rapidly following discontinuation of the 2.0-mg/m² infusion, but were somewhat more sustained in the 1.2-mg/m² infusion group. The average urinary excretion was similar for each dose-schedule (8%–11% of the total dose). The pharmacokinetics of vindesine are influenced by variations in dose schedule.