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Copyright of Der Hautarzt is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Der Hautarzt is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Der Hautarzt is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: This study was designed to assess the additional value of SPECT/CT of the trunk used in conjunction with conventional nuclear imaging and its effects on patient management in a large patient series. Methods: In 353 patients, whole-body scintigraphy (WBS), SPECT, and SPECT/CT were prospectively performed for staging and restaging. SPECT/CT of the trunk was performed in all patients. In the 308 evaluable patients (211 with breast cancer, 97 with prostate cancer), clinical follow-up was used as the gold standard. Bone metastases were confirmed in 72 patients and excluded in 236. Multistep analyses per lesion and per patient were performed. Clinical relevance was expressed in terms of downstaging and upstaging rates on a per-patient basis. Results: In the total patient group, sensitivities, specificities, and negative and positive predictive values on a per-patient basis were 93 %, 78 %, 95 % and 59 % for WBS, 94 %, 71 %, 97 % and 53 % for SPECT, and 97 %, 94 %, 97 % and 88 % for SPECT/CT, respectively. In all subgroups, specificity and positive predictive value were significantly ( p < 0.01) better with SPECT/CT. Downstaging of metastatic disease in the total, breast cancer and prostate cancer groups using SPECT/CT was possible in 32.1 %, 33.8 % and 29.5 % of patients, respectively. Upstaging in previously negative patients by additional SPECT/CT was observed in three breast cancer patients (2.1 %). Further diagnostic imaging procedures for unclear scintigraphic findings were necessary in only 2.5 % of patients. SPECT/CT improved diagnostic accuracy for defining the extent of multifocal metastatic disease in 34.6 % of these patients. Conclusions: SPECT/CT significantly improved the specificity and positive predictive value of bone scintigraphy in cancer patients. In breast cancer patients, we found a slight increase in sensitivity. SPECT/CT had a significant effect on clinical management because of correct downstaging and upstaging, better definition of the extent of metastases, and a reduction in further diagnostic procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Der Hautarzt is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Few data exist regarding the clonal identity of Staphylococcus aureus (SA) that colonises the nostrils and causes exit-site infections in peritoneal dialysis patients. Nasal and exit-site swabs were taken monthly from 41 patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis, and a genetic analysis of SA isolates was performed by pulsed-field-gel electrophoresis. When SA was identified at the exit-site, the clonal identity of nasal and exit-site isolates was demonstrated. In 50% of the SA carriers, nasal isolates were genetically constant over time; in the other 50% a change of colonising SA strains was observed. The risk of exit-site infection was identical in both groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Der Hautarzt is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Investigates the effect of 1,25-dihydrocholecalciferol on the intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expression of human alveolar macrophages (AM). Dose-dependent increase of ICAM-1 expression by 1,25- dihydrocholecalciferol; Reduction of tumor necrosis factor-alpha secretion of AM from health volunteers by 1,25 dihydrocholecalciferol.

A prospective, controlled and standardized animal experiment was performed to study the influence of various anticancer drugs. The Novikoff hepatoma transplanted into male Spraque-Dawley rats was treated with fluorouracil (FUra), mitomycin C, methotrexate, cisplatin and fluorodeoxyuridine (FdUrd) at equi-effective dosage, in terms of side effects (weight loss), in comparison to a control group (0.9% saline solution) by locoregional application via the hepatic artery. The tumor multiplication factor (TMF = tumor volume day 12/tumor volume day 5) served as the parameter to compare the tumor growth of the various groups. All drugs showed a significant ( P<0.05) effect on the tumor growth. In comparison to the control group (mean TMF 9.66), FdUrd (3.78) and FUra (3.03) only limited the tumor growth, mitomycin C (0.96) produced stable tumor, cisplatin (0.64) and methotrexate (0.15) significantly reduced ( P<0.01) the tumor size. We suggest that, in addition to the established (FUra, FdUrd, mitomycin C) drugs, methotrexate and cisplatin should be considered in further studies of the treatment of primary and secondary liver malignancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fosfomycin and mesna were investigated in rats and mice concerning their detoxifying effects on cisplatin toxicity in comparison to sodium thiosulfate, a known protector against cisplatin nephrotoxicity. After separate i.p. injection of cisplatin and fosfomycin (500 mg/kg) or mesna (800 mg/kg) a slight increase in the 50% lethal dose of cisplatin was found in all animals. In mice sodium thiosulfate proved to be far more effective in preventing lethal toxicity and nephrotoxicity as measured by blood urea nitrogen increase. Fosfomycin and mesna were almost without influence on cisplatin treatment of L-1210 leukemia whereas their inhibition of the antitumor effect against S-180 ascites sarcoma (increase of in cisplatin dose to cure 50% of animals from 2.0 mg/kg to 3.5/4.7 mg/kg cisplatin) was similar to thiosulfate, which showed a strong inhibiting effect in the treatment of both tumors. In rats fosfomycin distinctively reduced the antitumor efficacy of cisplatin against Yoshida ascites sarcoma. Thus the concurrent injection of fosfomycin and mesna reduced both the toxicity and the antitumor activity of cisplatin. Therefore their simultaneous administration in addition to cisplatin via the same injection route should be avoided. Due to the weak detoxifying efficacy of fosfomycin and mesna they cannot be used instead of sodium thiosulfate for renal protection against cisplatin toxicity in local i.p. treatment modalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work was to compare MR imaging and CT in the detection of renal masses and in the differential diagnosis between benign and malignant lesions. In 33 patients with 54 renal lesions CT and MR images were evaluated by four readers with regard to tumor detection and characterization using a receiver-operating-characteristics (ROC) analysis. The MRI protocol consisted of a T1-weighted spin-echo (SE) sequence (TR/TE: 300/10 ms) before and after contrast administration and a heavily T2-weighted turbo-SE (TSE) sequence (TR/TE: 5500/150 ms). Az values for the area under the ROC curves for lesion detection were 0.92 +/- 0.04 for CT and 0.91 +/- 0.05 for MRI, respectively, which was not statistically different. The MRI technique was slightly, but not significantly, better than CT in the overall characterization (accuracy in differentiation between benign and malignant) of renal lesions with an Az value of 0.90 +/- 0.05 compared with 0.88 +/- 0.06 for CT. The MRI technique proved to be statistically superior to CT (p < 0.01) in the correct characterization of benign renal lesions. MRI equals CT in the overall detection and differential diagnosis of renal masses. MRI is very helpful for further differential diagnosis of lesions which are equivocal on CT especially in the differentiation between complicated cysts and cystic or hypovascular renal cell carcinoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To determine whether turbo spin echo (TSE) sequences can replace conventional T2-weighted spin echo (SE) sequences in MRI of the liver, 40 patients with focal liver lesions were imaged at 0.5 T. A T2-weighted SE sequences (TR/TE 1800/90 ms, number of signals averaged [NEX]=2, scan time=7:16 min), a TSE sequence (TR/TE 1800/90 ms, NEX=4, number of echos per excitation=13, echo spacing=12.9 ms, scan time=4:16 min) and a T1-weighted SE sequence (TR/TE 350/15 ms, NEX=2, scan time=4:21 min) were obtained and image quality, lesion detectability and lesion differentiation were evaluated qualitatively by subjective assessment using scores and quantitatively by lesion-liver contrast-to-noise (CNR) and tumour/liver signal intensity (SI) ratios. The image quality of the TSE sequence was substantially better compared with the T2-weighted SE sequence due to a reduction in motion artefacts and better delineation of anatomical details. Of a total of 158 visible lesions the T1-weighted SE, TSE, and T2-weighted SE sequences showed 91%, 81% and 65% of the lesions, respectively. Thus the TSE sequence depicted 24% ( P< 0.001) more lesions than the T2-weighted SE sequence. In all types of pathology the lesion-liver CNR of the TSE sequence was significantly ( P< 0.001) higher compared to the CNR of the T2-weighted SE sequence (+ 55-65%), indicating superior lesion conspicuity. Lesion characterization was equally good on the two T2-weighted sequences with no difference in the tumour/liver SI ratio. Using a criterion of tumour/liver SI ratio equal to or higher than 2, haemangiomas larger than 1 cm in diameter could be differentiated from other lesions with a sensitivity and specificity of 95% and 96%, respectively. Our results indicate that the TSE sequence is suitable for replacing the conventional T2-weighted SE sequence in MRI of focal liver lesions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Der Hautarzt is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Der Internist is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The nephroprotective effect of fosfomycin against tubulotoxicity induced by cis-diaminedichloroplatin (DDP) and cyclosporin A (Cs) was studied in the rat. The parameter of nephrotoxicity was urinary tubular cell excretion. The experiments revealed that fosfomycin, given either concomitantly or in advance was able to reduce the nephrotoxic effect of DDP and Cs significantly. We conclude from these studies that fosfomycin is a broad-spectrum nephroprotective agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The case of a 9-month-old girl with glutaric aciduria type 1 (GA 1) is reported. On initial presentation at 6 months of age, the patient demonstrated bilateral subdural hemorrhages and widening of the basal cisterns. After neurosurgical intervention the subdural effusions regressed; their etiology remained unclear. At the age of 9 months the patient presented again because of progressive loss of psychomotor abilities and a dystonic movement disorder. Cerebral MRI revealed regressive subdural hematoma, but marked frontotemporal atrophy as well. Because of a suspected metabolic disorder, urinary analysis of organic acids was performed. This repeatedly showed marked excretion of glutaric acid, 3-hydroxyglutaric acid and glutaconic acid, indicating a diagnosis of GA 1. Considering our patient's history, we recommend the inclusion of GA 1 in the differential diagnosis of patients with unexplained subdural hematoma and neurological deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]