Congenital diaphragmatic defects that present late.

Twenty two patients (age range: 1 month to 11 years) were treated for congenital diaphragmatic defects (excluding hiatus hernia) in the six year period 1983-8. Presenting features were failure to thrive (n = 7), abdominal pain and vomiting (n = 4), chronic respiratory symptoms (n = 3), and inability to wean from ventilatory support (n = 3). The defect was an incidental finding in five patients. Operative repair was performed with no mortality or serious postoperative morbidity. Dramatic improvement occurred in 15 of the 17 symptomatic patients. Awareness of the differential diagnosis should avoid delay in diagnosis or inappropriate treatment. Surgical correction is strongly recommended in all cases.     

Early treatment of juvenile xanthogranuloma of the iris with subconjunctival steroids.

Five infants with biopsy proved juvenile xanthogranuloma of the iris were reviewed. Early treatment with subconjunctival injection of steroids and topical steroid drops resulted in regression of the lesion in four patients. One patient, reviewed at the age of 8 months after glaucoma which had developed secondary to the iris xanthogranuloma, had been treated by surgery alone: the visual outcome was very poor.     

Endothelial and smooth muscle properties of coronary and mesenteric resistance arteries in spontaneously hypertensive rats compared to WKY rats

Summary— To investigate if the functional alterations observed in resistance arteries of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) were also present at the coronary level, in vitro experiments were performed in mesenteric resistance arteries (MRA) and in right (RIC) and left interventricular coronary (LIC) arteries taken from 15–25-week-old SHR and age-matched Wistar Kyoto rats WKYs. Using a passive extension protocol, internal diameters corresponding to 100 mmHg intraluminal pressure (D₁₀₀) were determined and vessels were set up to a normalized internal diameter (0.9 D₁₀₀). SHR mesenteric resistance arteries had a significantly smaller diameter compared to WKY arteries, whereas both types of SHR coronary arteries had a greater diameter compared to those of WKY rats. In arteries in the absence of contracting agonist, nitro-L-arginine (NOLA, 100 μM) induced a progressive rise in basal tone, which could be reversed by subsequent addition of L-arginine (100 μM) but not D-arginine (100 μM). When expressed as percent of maximal contractions induced by agonists (noradrenaline, NA [10 μM] in MRA; serotonin, 5-HT [10 μM], in RIC and LIC), these contractions were significantly stronger in WKY compared to SHR coronary and mesenteric resistance arteries. In NA-precontracted MRA and 5HT-precontracted coronary arteries in the presence of indomethacin (10 μM), the magnitude of acetylcholine-induced maximal relaxations (expressed as percent of maximal contractions induced by agonists) was greater in WKY compared to SHR arteries. After a 30-min incubation period, NOLA (100 μM) completely inhibited relaxations induced by acetylcholine (0.01–10 μM) in all types of precontracted arteries. Subsequent additions of sodium nitroprusside, (SNP, 10 μM) induced complete relaxations in all preparations. These results show that a basal release of NO or NO-like compound by endothelial cells is present in isolated mesenteric resistance and coronary arteries of WKY rats and SHRs. The contribution of endothelium-derived relaxing factor-nitric oxide (EDRF-NO) to arterial tone was lower in MRA compared to coronary arteries in both strains and in SHR compared to WKY arteries. In the SHR preparations, the impaired relaxation induced by acetylcholine appeared to be due to a functional alteration of the endothelium in the presence of normal reactivity of the smooth muscle cells.     

麦冬类中药组织切片计算机三维重建图鉴

利用计算机技术实现麦冬类中药组织连续切片三维重建与动态显示,为计算机辅助生药学鉴定和教学提供了新的三维图像技术和研究资料。     

表小檗碱对α受体的作用

表小檗碱(epiberberine,EB)是从湖北产黄连(Coptis chinensis Franch)中提取的一种生物碱,属苯喹嗪类原小檗碱,对其药理作用的研究资料甚少,未见其对α肾上腺素体作用的报道。资料表明,许多原小檗碱类化合物有α受体阻滞作用,为从该类化合物中选择     

Experience with the P.A.S.-PORT Venous Access Device in Patients with Gynecologic Malignancies

Experience with the P.A.S.-PORT, a peripherally implanted central venous access device, is evaluated in a retrospective review of 154 patients from July 1991 to June 1994. Blood could not be aspirated from six patients. Complications included temporary minor thrombophlebitis in seven patients (4.5%), symptomatic axillary or subclavian vein thrombosis in five patients (3.2%), clotted port in two patients (1.2%), port pocket cellulitis in two patients (1.2%), and fungal sepsis in two patients (1.2%). In six patients (3.8%) the P.A.S.-PORT had to be removed because of complications. The P.A.S.-PORT facilitated delivery of chemotherapy, parenteral nutrition, blood products, antibiotics, hydration, and blood sampling. It was demonstrated that the P.A.S.-PORT may be inserted and used with a low incidence of complications in gynecologic cancer patients.     

Renal angiomyolipoma: 6 case reports and literature review

We report 6 cases of renal angiomyolipomas and review the pertinent literature concerning this disease. One case involved the rare association of tuberous sclerosis and pregnancy. Another patient without tuberous sclerosis had renal cell carcinoma and later suffered a contralateral angiomyolipoma. The pathological conditions of renal angiomyolipomas with and without tuberous sclerosis are discussed. Since angiomyolipomas present with multiple clinical similarities to renal cell carcinoma, the primary task for the clinician is to differentiate this hamartoma from carcinoma. The distinguishing characteristics and the clinical management of renal angiomyolipomas are discussed.     

Human peripheral monocytes express putative receptors for neuroexcitatory amino acids.

Human peripheral mononuclear cells responded chemotactically to 4-carboxyl-L-glutamic acid. The maximal chemotactic response occurred at 0.1 nM. No chemotactic response was found with neutrophils or fetal bovine fibroblasts. Glutamic acid, a neuroexcitatory dicarboxylic amino acid and the parent compound of 4-carboxyglutamic acid, did not stimulate chemotaxis in any of the cells tested. However, it functioned as an antagonist to 4-carboxyglutamic acid (ED50 approximately 2 pM; ED100 approximately 10 pM). In contrast to the lack of response to glutamic acid, its dicarboxylic cyclic analogue, kainic acid, excited a chemotactic response in mononuclear cells. The data suggest that mononuclear phagocytes have receptors for dicarboxylic neuroexcitatory amino acids, and we speculate that 4-carboxyglutamic acid, a tricarboxylic acid, may have a previously unrecognized role as a neuroexcitatory amino acid.     

A mathematical model of volatile release in mouth from the dispersion of gelled emulsion particles.

This paper presents a mathematical model of in-mouth volatile release from gelled emulsion particles dispersed in a continuous aqueous phase. Data based on APCI MS-Breath analysis is presented to demonstrate the effect of particle size, oil content and oil-water partition coefficients. It is shown that in-mouth release of aroma from the dispersion of gelled emulsion particles follows a two-component kinetic equation with fast and slow components. Both the fast and slow rate constants depend on the particle size, oil content and oil water partition coefficient of the aroma. The relative amount of aroma contributing to the fast and slow components also depends on the size of the particles. In order to understand this unexpected behaviour, an analytical model was developed that considers the interplay between the mass transfer of flavour across the interface of the particles and that across the air-liquid interface. Analytical expressions for the two rate constants and the relative ratio of aroma contributing to the fast component have been derived. From this model, three regimes of in-mouth release of aroma from the dispersion of gelled emulsion particles were identified including, the emulsion regime, the transition regime and the gel particle regime. In the emulsion regime, changes in the size of gelled emulsion particles had negligible impact on the overall release. In the transition regime, the release was controlled by the interaction of flavour transfer from the particles with that across the air-water interface. In the gel particle regime, aroma release at long times was governed by the particles and that at short times was governed by the air-water interface, and the two processes were fully decoupled. A simple relationship was derived for the critical size above which the release of aroma from the dispersion of gelled emulsion particles is affected by the size of the particles.