The lymphocyte: monocyte ratio: B- and T-cell ratio after radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery.

Differential white blood cell counts were taken from 42 previously untreated patients with mammary carcinoma who received radiotherapy, 10 patients with Stage III mammary carcinoma who received chemotherapy, 19 patients previously treated by a simple mastectomy, and 42 untreated patients. The percentage of B- and T-cells in the peripheral blood also was measured. Severe lymphopenia was seen in patients treated with radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The percentage of B- and T-cells remained constant before and after radiotherapy, and there was no selective depression of T-cells. The monocyte count, 3 months after radiotherapy, was significantly higher than the pre-treatment mean count. The percentage of B- and T-cells in the peripheral blood remained unchanged before and after treatment with chemotherapy. The mean lymphocyte counts following surgery were slightly higher than the control values whereas the monocyte counts were slightly lower than the control values. Surgery did not appear to influence the percentages of B- and T-cells in the peripheral blood.     

Large bowel stenosis in rats after fractionated local irradiation

After local irradiation of the distal large bowel rats may develop fatal large bowel stenosis within 200 days. The incidence rises steeply with dose. The LD50 for single dose irradiation is 20 Gy. The tolerance of the large bowel to local irradiation depends strongly on dose fractionation. Extending the intervals between the fractions and decreasing the dose per fraction both have a pronounced dose-sparing effect.     

Arsenic, cadmium and lead in medicinal herbs and their fractionation

Arsenic, cadmium and lead were determined for quality control monitoring purposes of Bulgarian herbs and their infusions by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. Twelve samples of yarrow (Achillea millefolium), 18 of chamomile (Flores Chamomillae), 8 of bearberry leaves (Folia uvae ursi), 24 of peppermint (Mentha piperitae folium), 10 of hibiscus (Hibiscus sabdariffa), 14 of oregano (Origanum vulgare) and 12 of thyme (Thymus serpyllum) were analyzed. The studied toxic elements were present in the medicinal plants (12-225 microg/kg As, 15-268 microg/kg Cd, 0.2-8.6 mg/kg Pb). Arsenic was found in all herbal infusions at levels up to 0.4 microg/l. Cadmium was present in infusions of chamomile, hibiscus, peppermint and thyme at levels up to 0.7 microg/l. Lead was detected only in hibiscus infusions (2-3 microg/l). It was established that the major part of arsenic and lead in herbal infusions existed in biomacromolecular fraction. Cadmium appears to be present mainly in cationic form at pH 1 (stomach acidity), but at pH 7.6 (intestine acidity) there is a non-cationic fraction as well.     

The dominant morphology of fractionated atrial electrograms has greater temporal stability in persistent as compared with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation

Background

Measurements of both the dominant frequency (DF) and the time series morphology of complex fractionated atrial electrograms (CFAE) are useful to distinguish persistent from paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF). In this study, an algorithm was devised to extract morphologic components according to frequency, and its usefulness for distinguishing CFAE was shown.

Method

CFAE of length 16 s were obtained at two sites each from the four pulmonary vein ostia (PV), and from anterior and posterior left atrial free wall (FW), in nine paroxysmal and 10 longstanding persistent AF patients. The DF was computed for each of two 8 s CFAE segments in each 16 s recording. Each CFAE segment was then transformed into a set of basis vectors, which represent electrogram morphology at each frequency. The dominant morphology (DM) is defined as the ensemble average of sequential signal segments, with the segment length equal to the period at the DF. The DMs of the two 8 s pairs were correlated. Normalized correlation coefficients were tabulated for all data, and separately for PV and FW. The means and coefficients of variation of the DM correlation coefficients were then plotted, and a linear discriminant function was used to classify persistent versus paroxysmal AF data. For comparison with DM results, CFE-mean and interval confidence level (ICL) were also calculated for persistent versus paroxysmal AF data.

Results

Mean correlation of the DM, 1st 8 s versus 2nd 8 s data, was 0.62+0.22 for persistent versus 0.50+0.19 for paroxysmal CFAE for all recording sites (p<0.001). At single anatomical locations, correlation was greater in persistents than paroxysmals at all sites, but achieved significance only at the left superior (p<0.001) and right superior (p<0.05) PV. Spatial variation in correlation coefficient was greater in paroxysmal than persistent AF (not significant). Using the means of DF correlation coefficients, 17/19 patients were classified correctly. The CFE-mean parameter averaged 89.01±20.99 ms in persistents versus 93.96±33.81 ms in paroxysmals (p<0.05), while ICL averaged 94.54±18.52 deflections/8 s for persistents versus 90.70±19.28 deflections/8 s for paroxysmals (p<0.05).

Conclusions

In CFAE recordings, the DM parameter was found to have greater temporal morphologic variation in paroxysmal as compared with persistent AF data (p<0.001). In contrast, only moderate significance between paroxysmal versus persistent AF data was found when using the of CFE-mean and ICL parameters (p<0.05). The DM parameter may thus be useful as a new measure to discern both temporal and spatial variations in CFAE in paroxysmal versus persistent AF recordings.     

茯苓酸性多糖分级提取及其抗肿瘤活性比较

目的：以不同碱度分级提取茯苓酸性多糖,进行抗肿瘤活性比较研究,以期探讨茯苓酸性多糖的构效关系。方法：将茯苓饮片分别用70％乙醇和水提取后的药渣,依次用0．1—1．0mol·L^-1 10个梯度氢氧化钠（NaOH）溶液分级提取,得到10种茯苓酸性多糖组分提取物;采用MTT法测定对HepG2肿瘤细胞抑制率,比较10种分级酸性多糖体外抗肿瘤活性大小。结果：0．9和1．0mol·L^-1 NaOH提取的茯苓酸性多糖对肿瘤细胞抑制率最高。结论：茯苓酸性多糖抗肿瘤活性与其酸性强弱相关。     

Distribution of perfluorooctanesulfonate and perfluorooctanoate into human plasma lipoprotein fractions

Some cross-sectional epidemiological studies have reported positive associations of serum concentrations of non-high density lipoprotein cholesterol with serum perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA). However, the strength of the reported associations is inconsistent for exposure-response across three orders of magnitude of serum PFOS and/or PFOA concentrations. These positive associations are unexpected based on toxicological/mechanistic studies, suggesting that the associations may have a biological, rather than a causal, basis. This study tested the hypothesis that PFOS and PFOA distribute into serum lipoprotein fractions such that increases in serum lipoproteins would result in corresponding increases in serum concentrations of PFOS and PFOA. Based on observed binding of PFOS and PFOA to isolated β-lipoproteins in physiological saline (96% and 40% bound, respectively) in preliminary experiments using ultrafiltration and LC-MS/MS methods, binding to human donor plasma lipoprotein fractions was investigated by two density gradient methods. The majority of PFOS and PFOA recovered masses were found in lipoprotein-depleted plasma. Plasma density gradient fractionation data suggested that maximally 9% of PFOS distributes to lipoprotein-containing fractions, yet only 1% or less of PFOA is so distributed. These data do not support a strong role for plasma lipoprotein fractions in explaining the inconsistent dose-response associations reported in cross-sectional epidemiological studies.     

Long-term follow-up results of postoperative radiation therapy for Cushing’s disease

Objectives Radiotherapy is currently used in patients with residual or recurrent pituitary adenomas after surgery. However, there is little information of long-term outcome of patients with Cushing’s disease following radiotherapy. We assessed the long-term efficacy and toxicity of conventional radiotherapy in the control of Cushing’s disease after unsuccessful transsphenoidal surgery. Patients and Methods Forty patients with Cushing’s disease were treated with conventional external beam radiotherapy at our Institution between 1988 and 2002. The median age was 38. All patients received radiotherapy following unsuccessful surgery or at tumour recurrence to a dose of 45–50 Gy in 25–28 fractions. The persistence of active disease after surgery was diagnosed by the increased high plasma cortisol levels, high 24 h urinary cortisol levels and absence of cortisol suppression after administration of dexamethasone. Results The 5 and 10 year local tumour control was 93% and the 5 and 10 year survival was 97 and 95%. Normalization of plasma cortisol was seen in 28% of patients at 1 year, 73% at 3 years, 78% at 5 years and 84% at 10 years. The average timing to remission was 24 months. The most common side effect was hypopituitarism that increased progressively during the follow-up, being present in 62% and in 76% of patients at 5 and 10 years after RT. There were no other serious complications as radiation induced optic neuropathy or second tumours. Conclusion Radiotherapy is effective in the long-term tumour- and hormone hypersecretion control of ACTH-secreting pituitary adenomas, however with a high prevalence of hypopituitarism. At the moment, it remains an important treatment option after failure of surgery.