OVERHEATING IN BED AS AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN MANY COMMON DERMATOSES

Background. Extensive questioning of patients with a wide variety of skin disorders led to the impression that nocturnal overheating was probably an important factor in the initiation and the perpetuation of many skin disorders. Methods. In order to test the hypothesis, 12 “clean-skinned” subjects (6M/6F) aged 18 to 45 years were monitored electronically every 30 seconds during an 8 hour sleep period (2300 to 0700 hours), sleeping under a standard 10 tog duvet. Results. All the subjects were too hot by 3 to 4°C. All showed changes in their EEG patterns with reduced REM sleep, increased awakenings, and all showed changes in their sleep stage patterns. In addition, they all showed evidence of increased sweating in the “heat-sink” area. Conclusions. The mechanisms where by such changes could be implicated in the precipitation and perpetuation of skin disease are discussed. “Lifestyle” modification as a very effective, noninvasive, therapeutic regime is recommended. Further research along these lines would probably be very valuable and instructive.     

Aortopulmonary window with patent ductus arteriosus and interrupted aortic arch: A case report

Indian Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery -     

Extraperitoneal endometriosis: a diagnosis to be considered

Summary BACKGROUND: Endometriosis is a relatively common pathology in women of childbearing age and of low parity but rarely shows extraperitoneal involvement. The main aim of this paper is to raise the attention of specialists to the necessity of carrying out penetrating diagnosis of nonspecific extraperitoneal masses occurring in women of reproductive age. METHODS: We performed a retrospective review of six patients diagnosed with extraperitoneal endometriosis who were treated at the Vega Baja University Hospital (Spain) during the last 5 years. RESULTS: Surgical treatment had positive results in five patients. The preoperative diagnosis was correctly made in only two patients. The accurate aetiology of endometriosis remains unknown and diagnosis is based on clinical and cytopathological findings. CONCLUSIONS: Surgical treatment of extraperitoneal endometriosis is recommended. However, postoperative follow-up is obligatory and hormonal suppressive therapy may be necessary. Medical treatment with gestagens, Danazol, or agonists of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone are ineffective in endometriomas which are bigger than 2 cm.      

Lectin histochemistry in mucinous and serous ovarian neoplasms.

The lectin-binding properties of 44 cases of serous and mucinous ovarian cystadenoma, tumor of low malignant potential (LMP), and invasive carcinoma were examined histochemically. Wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), concanavalin A (con A), Ulex europaeus agglutinin I (UEA-I), peanut agglutinin (PNA), Ricinus communis agglutinin I (RCA-I), soybean agglutinin (SBA), and Robina pseudoaccacia (RPA) were employed. All the lectins examined were bound to neoplastic epithelial cells of benign and malignant tumors, but none bound exclusively to ovarian tumor cells. Different lectin-binding patterns between serous and mucinous neoplasms were observed, with the exception of RPA. UEA-I, con A, RPA, and PNA in serous neoplasms and UEA-I, RPA, and WGA in mucinous neoplasms demonstrated lectin-binding properties of LMP tumors intermediate between those of cystadenoma and invasive carcinoma. These findings indicate that serous and mucinous ovarian neoplasms contain different glycoconjugates, that malignant transformation of the neoplasms is associated with alteration of these glycoconjugates, and especially that LMP tumors have a different composition of cellular glycoconjugates from that of invasive ovarian carcinoma.     

Generation of murine triomas secreting bi-specific monoclonal antibodies that recognize HBsAG ad and ay subtypes.

We report the generation of murine triomas by fusing splenocytes from mice previously immunized with HBsAg ay-subtype and a hybridoma, secreting anti-HBsAg ad-subtype monoclonal antibody, which was rendered HGPRT- by induced mutagenesis with N-methyl-N'nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine. The fusion yielded a 83.8% of hybrids showing the antigen specificity of the parental hybridoma and a 16.1% of bi-specific monoclonal antibodies. One of them, coded as 1C8A5, showing a heavy chain isotype (IgG1/IgG2b) was used as capture reagent in an ultramicro-ELISA. As little as 0.78 I.U. of both HBsAg ad- and ay-subtypes could be realiably detected.     

Pharmacokinetics of varying doses of nicotinamide and tumour radiosensitisation with carbogen and nicotinamide: clinical considerations.

Plasma concentrations, after administration of varying doses of nicotinamide, were measured in CBA male mice using a newly-developed high performance liquid chromatography assay. In all dose groups, peak levels were observed within the first 15 min after an i.p. administration of 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 or 0.5 mg g-1 of nicotinamide. There was a clear dose-dependent increase in plasma concentration with increasing dose, with almost a five-fold lower concentration (1.0 vs 4.9 mumol ml-1) achieved with a dose of 0.1 mg g-1 compared with 0.5 mg g-1, respectively. The half-life of nicotinamide increased from 1.4 h to 2.2 h over the dose range (P < 0.01). Comparisons with previous pharmacokinetic data in humans show that clinically-relevant oral doses of 6 and 9 g in humans give plasma levels slightly higher than those achieved at 1 h with doses of 0.1 to 0.2 mg g-1 in mice. Tumour radiosensitisation with carbogen alone, and with carbogen combined with varying doses of nicotinamide (0.05 to 0.5 mg g-1), was investigated using a 10-fraction in 5 days X-ray schedule. Relative to air-breathing mice, a statistically significant increase in sensitisation was observed with both a local tumour control and with an in vivo/in vitro excision assay (P < or = 0.007). With the local control assay, a trend was observed towards lower enhancement ratios (ERs) with decreasing nicotinamide dose (from 1.85 to 1.55); carbogen alone was almost as effective as when combined with 0.1 mg g-1 of nicotinamide. With the excision assay, ERs for carbogen combined with nicotinamide increased with decreased levels of cell survival. At a surviving fraction of 0.02, enhancement ratios of 1.39-1.48 were obtained for carbogen plus 0.1 to 0.3 mg g-1 of nicotinamide. These were lower than those seen with the two higher doses of 0.4 to 0.5 mg g-1 (ERs = 1.63-1.69).