GLUCOCORTICOID-UNRESPONSIVE FEVER IN A PATIENT WITH WEBER-CHRISTIAN DISEASE

SUMMARY Weber-Christian disease, a disease of unknown aetiology, is characterised by relapsing febrile episodes and systemic panniculitis. Glucocorticoid therapy is often useful during acute phases of the disease. This report describes a patient in whom hyperpyrexia did not respond to high-dose glucocorticoid treatment, yet did respond to a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID).     

Aortic valve replacement with fresh or cryopreserved aortic allograft--initial experience in Japan]

Aortic allograft valves were harvested from non-infected (bacterial or viral) cadavers within 24 hours of death with a family consent, and were sterilized by 4 degrees C antibiotic solution for 48 hours. Then, the allograft was preserved in the 4 degrees C nutrient medium (fresh; TC-199, calf serum and HEPES buffer) or in liquid nitrogen (-196 degrees C) after freezing to -80 degrees C by a programmed freezer. 10% dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) was used for cryopreservation. Following germ-free confirmation, aortic allograft valves were implanted in 5 patients having aortic regurgitation with good results. Three fresh and two cryopreserved allograft valves were used. Although the follow-up term is very short (maximum 1 year) at the present time, the valve function is quite satisfactory, confirmed by cardiac catheterization and echocardiography. This is the first report in Japan with regard to cryopreservation of allograft valves and clinical use of fresh or cryopreserved valves. We believe that realization and progress of allograft preservation by cryo-technique and establishment of the tissue bank are important for the development of cardiovascular surgery in Japan.     

An ultrastructural study on anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction using autogenous patellar tendon grafts in dogs

An ultrastructural study was undertaken concerning morphological changes within the autografted patellar tendon (PT) after being transplanted to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in mongrel dogs. After 4 weeks, the arrangements of both large and small collagen fibrils in the PT graft became disordered, and the number of inflammatory cells increased. However, the same PT grafts revealed postsurgical signs of newly-produced collagen fibrils around activated fibroblasts at 12 to 24 weeks. At 52 weeks after the transplantation, small collagen fibrils increased in both number and density, showing a remarkable morphological similarity to the collagen fibrils of normal ACL. These data indicate that the characteristics of the PT graft eventually resemble those of a normal ACL. This paper was presented in part at the Combined Meeting of the Orthopedic Research Societies of the USA, Japan and Canada in Banff, Alberta, Canada, October, 1991.