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The presence of autoantibodies against tRNA synthetases is a specific serological feature of a clinically distinct entity of autoimmune myositis. This syndrome is characterised by an association of non-erosive arthritis, Raynaud’s phenomenon, and alveolitis. The most common autoimmune response of this disease is directed against the histidyl-tRNA synthetase Jo-1 and therefore also called the anti-Jo-1 syndrome.1–3 In this report we describe a patient with a unique coincidence of anti-Jo-1 antibodies with other myositis related autoantibodies directed to U1RNP typical for mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) and proteasome. In a 36 year old female patient, arthralgia, joint swelling, and fever led to the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis in 1998. Initial treatment comprised sulfasalazine and prednisolone. In February 2000, she was admitted to our department with a four month history of myalgia and weakness. Physical examination showed a tetraparesis affecting the proximal and peripheral muscles with an apparent areflexia. Gottron’s sign was positive, …

The success of a prevention program on a cytological basis depends above all on the localization and extent of the nuclear changes, both of which can be determined using simple morphological methods. Using histologic specimens taken from the cases of hyperplasias at the Erlangen University Gynecological Hospital between 1963 and 1981, location of the endometrial hyperplasias and nuclear pattern were determined. It was established that 8.6% of precancerous endometrial hyperplasias are situated exclusively in deeper regions of mucous membrane and thus, as a rule, escape detection by cytologic instruments. No nuclear enlargement was shown in 22.9% of precancerous cells. 14.2% showed no changes in chromatin patterns, and 8.6% of precancerous cells revealed neither nuclear enlargement nor changes in chromatin. Since a number of precancerous cells are situated in deeper sections of mucous membrane and fail to show nuclear enlargement, cytologic screening cannot provide a basis for successful recognition of the precancerous stage of endometrial carcinoma.

Historical data, histological parameters and follow-up findings were reviewed both in 75 "prophylaxis failures" and in 255 cases of clinical cervical carcinoma treated surgically (Wertheim's procedure); all of these cases were diagnosed between 1974 and 1980. In 29.5% of the patients preventive care or respectively gynaecological examination failed. The many and varied causes of errors are discussed. Neither the histological tumour type, nor the lymph-node metastasis rate, nor the frequency of recurrence, nor the mortality figures are indicative of a more aggressive type of tumour in the "prophylaxis failures". Mortality among the latter is 13.3%, as opposed to 15.3% in the entire patient collective, the lymph-node metastasis rate 25.3% as compared to 31.8% overall, and the recurrence rate 18.1% as compared to 18.8% overall. As expected, cases with obviously delayed diagnosis have the highest mortality rate, i.e., 25% as against 15.3% overall. There is not a single case in which cancer can be shown to have developed without a preceding precancerous stage. It is suspected that mistakes made while obtaining smears are the principal cause of failure of prophylaxis, followed by errors of evaluation, in histology, and in therapeutic measures taken after histological confirmation of cervical neoplasm. These results do not in any way exclude an aggressive type of tumour in rare individual cases; however, the occurrence of such a tumour would be an exception.

In a review of the most important examination methods for diagnosis of endometrial carcinoma so far published the efficacy of each of the individual methods is assessed according to uniform criteria. Only the specimens diagnosed as positive were taken as a basis for the rate of correct diagnosis, in order to facilitate comparison of the efficacy of the methods with one another. The validity of the methods is briefly outlined. Cytological diagnosis of endometrial carcinoma is appreciably less reliable than that of cervical carcinoma, regardless of the method used. The cytodiagnostic problems are different, depending whether exfoliative cytology or endouterine biopsy techniques have been used. Cancers of highly differentiated tumor cells are most seldom identified by the conventional smear techniques. Taking the endometrial carcinoma and endometrial hyperplasia patients at Erlangen University Gynecological Clinic between 1963 and 1981 as a basis, and limiting the scope of the study to high-risk adipose patients aged over 45, one-fifth of the carcinomas and one-fourth of the precancerous patients would not be included in a program based on risk factors. Of the Erlangen patients, a 5-year survival probability of 95% and more was calculated for women with tumors from cytologically highly differentiated cancer cells in histological stage I. It is particularly difficult to identify these patients cytologically, and the prognosis for them can hardly be improved further. Cytological nucleus grading proved a reliable prognosis factor, in particular for histologically undifferentiated tumors.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

In 182 cases the jet wash technique proved very suitable in the detection of malignant changes in the endometrium. It should in no way replace the curettage as a diagnostic tool. The jet wash offers the possibility of a regular endometrial investigation to larger numbers of patients. Those to be considered in particular are 1. symptom-free women with an increased risk of carcinoma of the body of the uterus, i.e. women over 40 with obesity, hypertension and diabetes mellitus, 2. patients with recurrent bleeding who have already had a curettage with negative histological results, 3. primary irradiated endometrial carcinoma patients in order to detect a recurrence early, 4. patients who pose a high anaesthetic risk. The exact detection reliability of the endometrial jet wash technique remains uncertain until results of larger investigation series are published. Good experience up to now with the jet wash technique should stimulate its wider use.

Laparotomy was performed in a 53 year old woman because of an acute abdomen in combination with a huge pelvic mass. The consisted in a big leiomyoma uteri which showed a torsion of 360 degrees. Both the ovaries and the tubes have been involved in the torsion. The corpus uteri was spontaneously abrupted from the cervix and from the ligamenta rotunda bilateralia.

The careful cleansing of the vagina with physiologic saline and 96% ethyl alcohol, the insert of a big, dry swab for two minutes in front of the portio vaginalis cervicis and the cleansing once more again with a dry swab are an effective prophylaxis against tumor implantation from a carcinoma of the endometrium or of the cervix. This could be confirmed not only by cytology prior to operation and by cytology antecedent to cleansing the vagina immediately prior to the removal of the uterus from the vagina but also by the follow-up study of 517 surgically treated cancers of the endometrium and 241 cervical cancers.

We used a pump-probe technique to measure the transient change of optical reflectivity of both La2-xSrxCuO4, of various dopings, and slightly underdoped YBa2Cu3O7-x and NdBa2Cu3O7-x thin films. For the La2-xSrxCuO4 films, our data demonstrate the coexistence, in the superconducting state, of two coupled subsystems with different relaxation times and different contributions to the optical reflectivity. One subsystem is associated with the superconducting phase. By contrast. the data from YBa2Cu3O7-x, and NdBa2Cu3O7-x shows that the coupling between the two subsystems is weak or absent.

We report the transient optical pump-probe reflectivity measurements on single and double layer cuprate single crystals and thin films of ten different stoichiometries. We find that with sufficiently low fluence the relaxation time (tau(R)) of all samples exhibits a power law divergence with temperature (T): tau(R proportional to) T-3 +/-0.5. Further, the divergence has an onset temperature above the superconducting transition temperature for all superconducting samples. Possible causes of this divergence are discussed.

In einer Klinik mit recht konstantem Einzugsgebiet ging in den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten die Zahl der klinischen Zervixkarzinome zuruck. Im gleichen Zeitraum haben sich die klinisch diagnostizierbaren Brustkrebse auf das Vierfache vermehrt. Die diagnostischen Kriterien sind vergleichbar. Eine Erklarung fur diese Entwicklung haben wir nicht. Die Autoren wollen zum Nachdenken und zur Sammlung vergleichbarer Daten anregen. In a clinic serving a district area with a rather constant population the number of clinical carcinomas of the cervix dropped during the past two decades, whereas during the same period the number of carcinomas of the breast which were clinically identifiable showed a fourfold increase. The diagnostic criteria are comparable. No explanation for this development trend can be offered. It is the aim of the authors to stimulate consideration of this phenomenon and to suggest collection of comparable data which might be helpful in finding an explanation.