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A 57-year-old woman was admitted owing to epigastric pain.Abdominal computed tomography demonstrated a tumor in the origin of the jejunum.After an endoscopic biopsy, we diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.We treated her with CHOP chemotherapy because pancreaticoduodenectomy is highly invasive.After 1 course of chemotherapy, the tumor was reduced.However, she developed a jejunal stenosis; therefore, we performed laparoscopic gastrojejunostomy.Furthermore, she developed perforated peritonitis on the sixth day after the surgery, and therefore, an emergency partial jejunum resection was performed.Histopathologically, viable lymphoma cells were not found in the resected intestine.She had a complete response 10 months after the surgery.Chemotherapy may cause intestinal stenosis and perforation requiring surgery; therefore, decisions about surgical procedures must be made carefully.

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) is a curative therapy for hematologic ma- lignancies. However, there are some potentially fatal complications, including graft-versus-host disease or infections, and transplant-related mortality is still high. One of the life-threatening complications related to allo-HSCT is cardiotoxicity. There are several causes of cardiotoxicity, such as pre-transplant chemothera- py, conditioning chemotherapy, cytokine storms due to sepsis or allogeneic immune reactions, rapid altera- tion of body fluid, and ischemic heart disease caused by transplant-associated thrombotic microangiopathy or calcineurin inhibitors. Echocardiography is a very useful and convenient method when assessing the cardiac function in daily clin- ics. The ejection fraction is a useful surrogate marker of the cardiac systolic function, and the trans-mitral valve inflow pattern is a useful surrogate marker of the cardiac diastolic function. There are several causes of cardiotoxicity during the course of allo-HSCT. In the pre-phase of allo-HSCT, the cumulative dose of anthracycline before transplantation is correlated with the rate of cardiac complications. In the acute phase of allo-HSCT, we should bear in mind cyclophosphamide-induced cardiotoxicity. Since these cardiotoxicities sometimes cannot be detected in the cardiac systolic function but can in the diastolic one, we should evaluate the cardiac diastolic function such as trans-mitral valve inflow pattern with echocar- diograms. In addition, some types of conditioning chemotherapies could have significant impacts on cardiac functions even in the chronic phase of allo-HSCT. In conclusion, it is very important to assess cardiac systolic and diastolic functions using echocardiograms for the improved management of cardiotoxicity in allo-HSCT recipients. [Review].

A 42-year-old woman with a history of old myocardial infarction was admitted to our hospital with complaints of worsening orthopnea. Doppler echocardiography exhibited severe functional mitral valve regurgitation. Because of the tethered mitral valve, we performed mitral valve annuloplasty concomitantly with papillary muscle relocation procedure. The patient recovered well. Postoperative echocardiography had not exhibited recurrent mitral valve insufficiency. Moreover, postoperative left ventricular torsion using 2-dimentional speckle tracking imaging, improved at rest and at peak exercise, and this findings suggest that the reversal of left ventricular remodeling in relocation patients following preserved and connected mitral subvalvular apparatus may result from restoration of the global sequence of left ventricular twist mechanics. The analysis of left ventricular torsion may provide a more comprehensive evaluation of left ventricular mechanics and may help understand the effects of papillary muscle relocation with preserving mitral subvalvular apparatus.

Objectives: The feasibility of detecting persistent regional left ventricular abnormal relaxation due to myocardial ischemia using strain echocardiography several minutes after exercise was investigated., Methods: Consecutive 27 patients (mean age 65 +/- 9 years, 21 males, 6 females) with suspected coronary artery disease were enrolled. Strain echocardiographic images were acquired at the mid segments of the left ventricular wall before and 5 min after exercise in the apical long-axis, two-chamber and four-chamber views. Strain curves were obtained at each segment, and peak values of strain at the closure of aortic valve (A) and at one third of diastolic duration (B) were measured. Strain diastolic index (SDI) was calculated as (A - B)/A X 100%. The ratio of SDI before exercise to that after exercise was defined as the SDI ratio and compared with exercise thallium-201 single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) as the reference standard to detect myocardial ischemia., Results: A total of 162 segments were evaluated. Based on the results of exercise SPECT, 119 segments were classified as non-ischemic segments, and 43 as ischemic segments. Ischemic segments showed significant decreases in SDI before and after exercise, whereas non-ischemic segments showed no significant differences in SDI before and after exercise. SDI ratio was significantly decreased in ischemic segments, but not in non-ischemic segments. SDI ratio with a cut off value of 0.51 had a sensitivity of 91% and a specificity of 89% to detect myocardial ischemia in the receiver-operating characteristics. Conclusions. Strain echocardiography can provide quantitative assessment of myocardial ischemia by detecting post-ischemic regional left ventricular delayed relaxation even 5 min after exercise.

A 79-year-old woman was admitted for exertional dyspnea in September 2001. She had begun to experience unusual fatigue from the age of 40 years. Cardiac examination revealed a single S2, Levine grade II/VI presystolic murmur in the 5th left sternal border, and a right parasternal impulse. Echocardiography showed dilated right chambers and absence of pulmonary valve leaflets. Doppler echocardiography at the pulmonary annulus revealed a 'to and fro' pattern. Cardiac catheterization indicated the same diastolic pressures in the pulmonary artery and right ventricle. The diagnosis was absent pulmonary valve syndrome. Administration of a diuretic agent resulted in almost immediate improvement of symptoms. Absent pulmonary valve syndrome, generally associated with tetralogy of Fallot, often causes severe respiratory failure or right heart failure during infancy. A case of such long survival without associated cardiac anomalies is very rare.

Diagnostic ability of endoscopic sphincter of oddi manometry for 112 patients with biliopancreatic diseases (including 12 patients of normal) was evaluated. The presence of abnormal high pressure was recognized in 50% of suspected sphincter of oddi dysfunction (SOD). 56% of cholecystolithiasis, 67% of cholecystocholedocholithiasis and 50% of pancreatic stones. Many patients with abdominal pain of suspected SOD or stones of biliopancreatic ducts were considered to have possibility of the complication of papillary stenosis. It was thought that endoscopic sphincter of oddi manometry was a useful method of confirming the presence of SOD.

Background: Two-dimensional (2D) echocardiography is routinely used in evaluating patients with mitral valve prolapse but requires a systematic examination for accurate assessment of the involved lesion of mitral valve prolapse, because the sonographer is required to mentally reconstruct two-dimensional images into three dimensions. Recently, freehand three-dimensional (3D) echocardiography has been introduced in the clinical setting for three-dimensional visualization of the mitral valve apparatus., Objectives: To evaluate the accuracy of the freehand 3D echocardiography system in assessing the involved lesion in patients with mitral valve prolapse., Methods: This study consisted of 25 consecutive patients (15 men, 10 women, mean age 55 +/- 17 years) with mitral valve prolapse who were scheduled for 3D echocardiography. Mitral valve was reconstructed in the view from the left atrium (surgeon's view) by 3D echocardiography. The location of the involved lesion in mitral valve was classified as the medial, middle and lateral portions of the anterior leaflet, and the medial, middle and lateral scallops of the posterior leaflet, respectively. The results by 3D echocardiography were compared with those of 2D echocardiography as the clinical standard., Results: An adequate three-dimensional display of the entire mitral valve for analysis of the involved lesion could be reconstructed in all 25 patients (feasibility 100%). The sensitivity of 3D echocardiography for detecting the lesions at the medial, middle and lateral portions of the anterior leaflet was 80%, 100% and 75%, and the medial, middle and lateral scallops of the posterior leaflet was 100%, 100% and 0%, respectively. The specificities were 100% at all locations in the mitral valve., Conclusions: These results indicate that freehand 3D echocardiography is useful for assessment of the involved lesion of the mitral valve in patients with mitral valve prolapse.

Left ventricular(LV) diastolic dysfunction with preserved LV systolic function is common among patients with hypertension, especially with LV hypertrophy. Doppler echocardiography is one of the most useful clinical tools for the evaluation of diastolic function. Mitral inflow and pulmonary venous flow velocities are used not only for the assessment of diastolic function but also for predicting prognosis. Recently, tissue Doppler echocardiography has been also applied to evaluate diastolic function. Accurate assessment of diastolic function has been demonstrated by measuring both mitral annulus and mitral inflow velocity. In this article, We review the diagnosis of diastolic dysfunction by Doppler echocardiography using mitral inflow velocity, pulmonary venous flow velocity and mitral annulus velocity measured by tissue Doppler imaging.

A 55-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of progressive dyspnea. Chest radiography showed interstitial shadows in the upper lobe. The pathological diagnosis of lung biopsy specimens obtained from upper and middle lobes by video-assisted thoracoscopy was non-specific interstitial pneumonia, group 2. Administration of glucocorticoids improved the symptoms, the chest radiography findings, and the serum KL-6 level. This patient may belong to the new category of idiopathic interstitial pneumonia, though he exhibited several features of idiopathic pulmonary upper lobe fibrosis originally described by Amitani et al.

We report here two interesting cases of systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE) accompanied by antiphospholipid syndrome nephropathy(APSN). These cases satisfied the criteria for SLE established by the American College of Rheumatology 1997 and also satisfied the criteria for antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) established by the Sapporo International Workshop of APS 1998. Both cases had high blood pressure with elevated plasma renin activity, proteinuria and renal dysfunction. Their biopsied renal specimens showed the characteristic findings for APSN, such as mesangial proliferation, double contours, thickening of the capillary loops, and intimal hyperplasia, but there was no evidence for immune complexes in the glomeruli, which were examined by the indirect immunofluorescence methods and the electron microscopy method. These results indicated that their renal dysfunction was caused by APSN, but not by immune complex nephritis. In addition to treatment with prednisolone, they were administered anticoagulants(warfarin, or aspirin, or heparin) for APSN and an angiotensin II receptor blocker, candesartan, for the hypertension. Subsequently, their conditions recovered with the improvement of renal function and hypertension. Our experiences suggest that anticoagulant therapy in addition to corticosteroids offers advantages in the treatment of patients with SLE accompanied by APSN and renal dysfunction.

Objectives: Patients with electrocardiography (ECG) abnormalities sometimes present without obvious symptoms or abnormal physical findings. In some cases, echocardiography fails to reveal abnormalities compatible with the ECG findings because of poor echocardiographic image quality. New intravenous contrast agents now enable opacification of the left ventricular cavity in the clinical setting. The usefulness of left ventricular opacification (LVO) by ultrasonic contrast agent was examined in asymptomatic patients with negative T waves on ECG., Methods: Thirty-four consecutive patients (23 males, 11 females, mean age 68 +/- 10 years) with negative T waves without symptoms or abnormal physical findings underwent routine transthoracic echocardiography and LVO by intravenous injection of Levovist using harmonic imaging., Results: Without LVO, abnormal echocardiographic findings compatible with the negative T waves were identified in 22 (65%) of the 34 patients. With LVO, the endocardial border of the left ventricle was observed in all patients and findings compatible with negative T waves were detected in 32 (94%) of the 34 patients, which was significantly higher than that without LVO (chi 2 = 9.79, p = 0.0055). Furthermore, LVO revealed additional findings in nine patients such as mural thrombus or apical thinning. In total, LVO revealed abnormal apical findings in 22 patients (65%), which was significantly higher than that without LVO (chi 2 = 10.0, p = 0.0013)., Conclusions: LVO is useful for identifying abnormal findings, especially in the apex in asymptomatic patients with negative T waves on ECG.

Coronary flow velocity recordings were obtained in three patients with ampulla (Takotsubo) cardiomyopathy using Doppler guide wire. Immediately after admission, coronary angiography demonstrated no significant stenosis and normal coronary flow in the epicardial coronary artery. Left ventriculography showed abnormal wall motion of the left ventricle mimicking ampulla shape in all patients. The coronary flow velocity pattern was normal, but coronary flow reserve of the left anterior descending coronary artery was decreased by adenosine administration in all patients. The coronary flow reserve in the left circumflex and right coronary artery also decreased. Cardiac catheterization was performed during the follow-up period in two patients. Left ventriculography revealed almost normal wall motion of the left ventricle. The coronary flow reserve normalized in one patient.

Between February 1997 and March 1999, 79 consecutive CT-guided automated needle biopsy procedures were performed in 78 patients (79 small pulmonary nodules measuring 20 mm or less in diameter). In 69 (87%) of 79 lesions, sufficient material for histologic diagnosis was obtained. We evaluated the factors affecting diagnostic accuracy in CT-guided automated needle biopsy. Lesion diameter, depth from skin, chronic pulmonary disease and location were analyzed. The diameter of the lesion was a significant factor contributing to diagnostic accuracy (p = 0.0108). Pneumothorax occurred in 18 cases (23%). In 5 cases (6%), chest tube placement was necessary. Postbiopsy hemoptysis or hemosputum occurred in 23 cases (29%). In conclusion, lesion diameter was a critical factor in diagnostic accuracy. CT-guided automated needle biopsy is a feasible, useful and safe technique for the histological diagnosis of small lung lesions, but especially those larger than 8 mm in diameter.

Objectives: This study compared the hyperemic responses to adenosine triphosphate (ATP) administered by intravenous and by intracoronary injection in patients with impaired coronary microcirculation., Methods: The hyperemic responses to intravenous and intracoronary administration of ATP in 107 patients (mean age 63 +/- 10 years, 77 males, 30 females) with impaired coronary circulation [including myocardial infarction (n = 68), cardiomyopath (n = 20) and diabetes mellitus (n = 11)] were compared by measurement of coronary flow reserve (CFR) using the Doppler guide wire. Patients with chest pain syndrome were used as the normal controls. The coronary blood flow velocity was measured at rest and during peak hyperemic responses to intravenous infusion (150 micrograms/kg/min) and intracoronary infusion of ATP (50 micrograms in the left coronary artery, 25 micrograms in the right coronary artery). The CFR was calculated as the ratio of averaged peak velocity during hyperemia to baseline averaged peak velocity., Results: The CFR after intravenous administration of ATP (CFRi.v.) was well correlated with CFR by intracoronary administration of ATP(CFRic) (r = 0.77, p < 0.001). However, the CFRi.v. was also inversely correlated with the ratio of CFRic to CFRiv (CFRic/i.v.) (r = -0.36, p < 0.001). There were no relationships between the changes of hemodynamic parameters(blood pressure and heart rate) induced by ATP and CFRic/i.v. A lower CFRi.v. of less than 2.0 provided significantly greater CFRic/i.v. than that of CFRiv greater than 2.0., Conclusions: The maximal hyperemic response of coronary artery was not always induced by conventional intravenous administration of ATP, especially in patients with lower CFR than 2.0. High dose of intravenous ATP and/or intracoronary ATP should be administered in patients with lower CFR to attain maximum hyperemia in the impaired coronary circulation.