Survival of an extensively burned infant following purulent pericarditis

This is a report of the treatment and survival of an extensively burned infant following purulent pericarditis with massive pericardial effusion due to Staphylococcus aureus. A 2-year-old boy fell into a bathtub and suffered scalds covering at least 70 per cent of the body surface area. Pericarditis with massive pericardial effusion was diagnosed on post-burn day 36. As conservative treatment was ineffective pericardiotomy and pericardial drainage were carried out. Whole body oedema disappeared promptly and entirely and the patient was discharged from hospital with healed burns and free of cardiac symptoms.     

The Body at War

Abstract

The criteria certifying atomic bomb disease adopted by the Japanese government are very different from the actual state of the survivors. The criteria are based on epidemiological research by the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, the successor to the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC). The ABCC studied only the effects of primary radiation from the atomic bombing on the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and ignored the damage from residual radiation. Analysis of the incidence of acute radiation disease, the rate of chromosomal aberrations, and the relative risks of chronic disease among the survivors, shows that the effects of residual radiation from fallout exceeds that of primary radiation in the area more than 1.5–1.7 km distant from the hypocentre of the Hiroshima bombing. The effects of internal exposure due to intake of tiny radioactive particles are more severe than those of external exposure, explaining the difference between the official criteria and the actual state of the survivors.     

Recurrent Hepatitis B and D Virus Infection in a Liver Transplant Recipient

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis delta virus (HDV) co-infections progress rapidly and lead to cirrhosis. In Japan, the prevalence of HBV and HDV co-infected patients is low. Therefore, there are few reports of patients with HBV and HDV co-infection having undergone liver transplantation. Herein, we report a rare case of recurrence of HBV and HDV in a 41-year-old man who underwent living donor liver transplantation 4 years prior.     

Tooth enamel ESR doses and cytogenetic doses of Nagasaki atomic-bomb survivors in comparison with DS02R1 doses

Abstract

Purpose: Cancer risks for Nagasaki survivors once appeared to be lower than for Hiroshima survivors. The possibility that this was due to overestimation of the doses for the Nagasaki survivors was tested by measuring biological doses of Nagasaki survivors and comparing them with DS02R1 individual doses as previously done for Hiroshima survivors.

Materials and methods: The electron spin resonance (ESR) method and cytogenetic method were used to estimate radiation doses for 24 Nagasaki survivors, and the results were compared to calculated DS02R1 doses.

Results: Six factory workers and 10 other survivors showed ESR or cytogenetically estimated doses that were in reasonably good agreement with their DS02R1 doses, while one factory worker was found to have an ESR dose estimate of nearly one half of the DS02R1 dose to the eye lens (a proxy organ for teeth). A few outliers were also observed.

Conclusions: Although apparently lower cancer risks were observed in the past for Nagasaki survivors when compared to Hiroshima survivors, the present results do not indicate the existence of a trend that DS02R1 doses are overestimated when compared with biologically estimated tooth or cytogenetic doses. This observation is in line with the recent disappearance of the city difference in cancer risks.     

Diversity in intracortical remodeling in the human femoral bone: A novel view point with the morphological analysis of secondary osteons

Introduction

In humans, intracortical bone remodeling is performed by a basic multicellular unit (BMU) composed of osteoclasts and osteoblasts penetrating through cortical bones. As a result, secondary osteons and their boundaries, cement lines, can be observed on the transverse section. There have been few reports mention whether there is diversity within a single individual and on the relevance to bone remodeling. The purpose of this study is to investigate the morphological diversity of secondary osteons in human femoral bone and to examine the relationship with bone remodeling.

A solitary neurilemmoma of the clitoris

Neurilemmoma of the female genital tract is extremely rare. Presented is the case of a 84-year-old woman with a gradually enlarging clitoral mass. After simple excision, the mass proved to be a neurilemmoma originating from the clitoris histologically.     

Childhood leukemia: Epidemiological investigation and effectiveness of treatment in Nagasaki over the past 12 years

An epidemiological investigation of childhood leukemia was performed in Nagasaki Prefecture. The objective of this investigation was to analyze the disease as a whole by studying (i) the incidence classified by year, sex, area and disease type, (ii) age of onset, (iii) effectiveness of treatment, (iv) prognosis, and (v) possible association with the atomic bombing in 1945. The annual incidence was 3.0 per 100 000 children under 15 years of age, lower than the national average. There was no significant change in the annual incidence for 12 years. No increase in incidence was observed in Nagasaki City and its surrounding areas. There was no obvious difference in age of onset and incidence by sex from those previously reported. Acute lymphocytic leukemia accounted for a large part of childhood leukemia. There was no increase in the incidence of acute non-lymphocytic leukemia, but its familial occurrence and accumulation were observed. The rate of first complete remission and the number of long-term survivors increased with the improvement of treatment for acute leukemia. The influence of the atomic bomb was not clear when the incidence of disease types was compared between areas. The comparison of the disease type ratio in patients of the second and third generations of atomic bomb victims with that of patients without a family history of atomic bomb exposure also did not show an obvious influence of the bomb.     

Erythrocyte glutathione reductase activity and acquired trisomy #8 in various hematologic disorders

The gene for erythrocyte glutathione reductase (E-GR) activity has been assigned to chromosome #8. In the present series, we examined the E-GR activity in 14 cases with chronic myelodysplastic syndrome (CMS, preleukemia), atypical acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), or chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), with and without acquired trisomy #8. No difference in the incidence of high levels of this enzyme was found between two groups, i.e., those with and without trisomy #8 suggesting the existence of a complex regulatory system in addition to chromosome #8.