A comparison of problems reported by persons with cancer and their same sex siblings

Problem reporting rates of 180 persons with cancer (PWC) were compared with those of their closest in age same sex cancer-free siblings living outside their households for the same time periods. PWC had significantly higher reporting rates for physical, activities of daily living, nutrition, and emotional problems and a significantly lower rate for family problems. Sibling problem reporting rates, which indicate the likelihood that PWC would have experienced similar problems without a diagnosis of cancer, were highest for physical, emotional, employment, and family problems suggesting that noncancer factors are especially likely to play a role in those types of problems. Regression analyses showed that female and younger PWCs tended to report more problems than their siblings suggesting that they were more affected by cancer and its treatments than were other types of PWC.     

Perforated colorectal neoplasms: correlation of clinical, contrast enema, and CT examinations

Results of clinical, contrast enema (CE), and computed tomographic (CT) examinations in 39 patients with perforated colorectal neoplasms were retrospectively reviewed. Twenty patients were toxemic at initial presentation, but in only four patients was the diagnosis of perforated colorectal neoplasm initially suspected clinically. CE study was performed in 22 patients and enabled the diagnosis of perforated neoplasm in 11 cases, neoplasm alone in eight, and neither neoplasm nor perforation in three. CT was performed in 38 patients and enabled the diagnosis of perforated neoplasm in 36; pericolic phlegmon but no mass lesion was evident in two. In 16 patients, CT also demonstrated metastatic disease. Because of its reliability in establishing the diagnosis and staging the extent of the inflammatory and neoplastic disease, CT is indicated in cases of suspected or proved perforated colorectal neoplasm and in cases in which CE study findings are indeterminate or suggestive of perforated neoplasm.     

S-adenosylmethionine increases erythrocyte ATP in vitro by a route independent of adenosine kinase

The mechanism by which S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) and adenosine (Ado) increase ATP levels in intact human erythrocytes in vitro has been compared. The use of erythrocytes from healthy controls and from subjects totally deficient in adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APRT), plus inhibitors of adenosine kinase (AK) and adenosine deaminase (ADA) separately and together, has enabled us to demonstrate that this increment in ATP levels occurred via totally different metabolic routes. The results show that: (i) whilst the Ado-induced increment in ATP was AK dependent, that produced by SAM was independent of AK; and (ii) the SAM-induced increment in ATP was totally dependent on APRT and that some of the increment produced by Ado might also be APRT dependent. The above data are consistent with the metabolism of SAM to ATP by a route recently identified by us whereby ATP is formed from deoxyadenosine: namely binding to the enzyme S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase with subsequent release of adenine and further conversion to ATP via APRT.     

5 beta-pregnan-3 beta-ol-20-one, a specific antagonist at the neurosteroid site of the GABAA receptor-complex.

Studies were made on the potentiation of [3H]flunitrazepam binding to rat brain membranes by gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), pentobarbitone and pregnanolone (5 beta-pregnan-3 alpha-ol-20-one). Epipregnanolone, the 3 beta isomer of pregnanolone, inhibited competitively the potentiation by pregnanolone with a Ki of 10.5 microM without affecting that of GABA. The potentiation by pentobarbitone was slightly enhanced. Epipregnanolone alone showed only slight potentiation of benzodiazepine binding. These findings demonstrate that epipregnanolone is a specific antagonist of the neurosteroid site of the GABAA receptor and raise the possibility of a physiological role for 3 beta-hydroxysteroids in modulating this receptor.