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Objectives: Human coronary bare-metal stents (BMS) and drug-eluting stents (DES) from autopsy cases with implant duration >30 days were examined for the presence of neointimal atherosclerotic disease.Background: Neointimal atherosclerotic change (neoatherosclerosis) after BMS implantation is rarely reported and usually occurs beyond 5 years. The incidence of neoatherosclerosis after DES implantation has not been reported.Methods: All available cases from the CVPath stent registry (n = 299 autopsies), which includes a total of 406 lesions-197 BMS, 209 DES (103 sirolimus-eluting stents [SES] and 106 paclitaxel-eluting stents [PES])-with implant duration >30 days were examined. Neoatherosclerosis was recognized as clusters of lipid-laden foamy macrophages within the neointima with or without necrotic core formation.Results: The incidence of neoatherosclerosis was significantly greater in DES lesions (31%) than BMS lesions (16%; p < 0.001). The median stent duration with neoatherosclerosis was shorter in DES than BMS (DES, 420 days [interquartile range [IQR]: 361 to 683 days]; BMS, 2,160 days [IQR: 1,800 to 2,880 days], p < 0.001). Unstable lesions characterized as thin-cap fibroatheromas or plaque rupture were more frequent in BMS (n = 7, 4%) than in DES (n = 3, 1%; p = 0.17), with relatively shorter implant durations for DES (1.5 ± 0.4 years) compared to BMS (6.1 ± 1.5 years). Independent determinants of neoatherosclerosis identified by multiple logistic regression included younger age (p < 0.001), longer implant durations (p < 0.001), SES usage (p < 0.001), PES usage (p = 0.001), and underlying unstable plaques (p = 0.004).Conclusions: Neoatherosclerosis is a frequent finding in DES and occurs earlier than in BMS. Unstable features of neoatherosclerosis are identified for both BMS and DES with shorter implant durations for the latter. The development of neoatherosclerosis may be yet another rare contributing factor to late thrombotic events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graph: Figure 1. class="chapter-para">(A) Plain computed tomography showed a shrunken spleen with diffuse calcification. Abdominal plain computed tomography showed diffuse calcification in the shrunken spleen (Figure 1B). The patient had a past medical history of I Pneumocystis jirovecii i pneumonia secondary to CML treatment 27 years ago. [Extracted from the article]

Provides information on a case that demonstrated the successful treatment of idiopathic venous and pulmonary thrombosis with glucocorticoids. Methodologies used; Details on the case report; Discussion.

The detection of cytokeratins in neoplastic tissues by immunohistochemical methods has numerous diagnostic and investigative applications, because cytokeratins are usually conserved in tumour cells during malignant transformation. Recently, however, it has been reported that progression to malignancy is associated with commencement of expression of low-molecular-weight cytokeratins. In the present study, 42 specimens from 35 cases of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the skin were analysed by immunohistochemical techniques, using polyclonal anti-involucrin antibody and a panel of monoclonal antikeratin antibodies, in order to investigate the nature and differentiation of SCCs. The expression of cytokeratins and involucrin in well-differentiated SCCs was similar to that in normal epidermis. In contrast with well-differentiated SCCs. the expression of differentiation-specific cytokeratins and involucrin was diminished in the immature tumour cells in proportion to the malignancy of the SCCs. Some antibodies, however, stained all tumour cells, irrespective of the degree of malignancy. Furthermore, expression of simple epithelial and non-cornifying stratified squamous epithelial cytokeratins was observed in atypical tumour cells of poorly differentiated SCCs. It is of interest that similar expression was noted in many tumour cells in the lymph node metastases and in some tumour cells in the primary cutaneous lesions. Cytokeratin expression similar to that in nonnal epidermal keratinocytes was conserved in well-differentiated SCCs, but the expression of cytokeratins changed during progression to malignant transformation. The expression of simple epithelial or non-cornifying stratified squamous epithelial cytokeratins in cutaneous SCCs may be a marker for their capability of invasion and metastatic potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Japanese case of pemphigoid vegetans is described. The clinical, histopathological and immunological features were similar to the previously reported Cases. The patient also developed vesicular lesions. Indirect immunoelectronmicroscopy revealed that the autoantibody in this patient's serum reacted with basal cell hemidesmosomes. This study provides further evidence that pemphigoid vegetans is a subtype of bullous pemphigoid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fibroblast and/or lymphoblastoid lines from patients with several inherited primary neuronal degenerations are hypersensitive to DNA-damaging agents. Therefore, lymphoblastoid lines were irradiated from patients with sporadic Parkinson's disease (PD), Alzheimer's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The mean survival values of the eight Parkinson's disease and of the six Alzheimer's disease lines, but not of the five amyotrophic lateral sclerosis lines, were less than that of the 28 normal lines. Our results with Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease cells can be explained by a genetic defect arising as a somatic mutation during embryogenesis, causing defective repair of the X-ray type of DNA damage. Such a DNA repair defect could cause an abnormal accumulation of spontaneously occurring DNA damage in Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease neurons in vivo, resulting in their premature death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA) in serum were detected in male ICR mice fed drinking water containing 3, 30 and 300 ppm Cd as CdCl2 for 10 weeks. In response to Cd exposure, ICR mice developed ANA of the IgG class giving nuclear patterns moderately stained by immunofluorescence or immunoenzyme method. Positive immunofluorescence staining of ANA was obtained in 50, 89 and 90% of ICR mice exposed to 3, 30 and 300 ppm Cd, respectively. Their spleen cells also showed an enhancement of antibody forming response to sheep red blood cells (SRBC) without the SRBC priming. When mice were primed with SRBC after exposure lo Cd, however, a significant suppression of the antibody forming response was observed in mice fed 300 ppm Cd but not in those fed 3ppmCd. No significant differences in delayed-type hypersensitivity reaction lo SRBC were observed between Cd-fed and control animals. Inbred BALB/c mice were less susceptible to the induction of ANA by Cd, as induced only in 300 ppm Cd-fed mice. Thus environmental exposure to Cd can induce ANA in ICR mice with a high susceptibility, presumably accompanied with a non-specific stimulation of antibody formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lymphoblastoid lines from nine Usher's syndrome (recessively inherited retinitis pigmentosa and congenital sensorineural deafness) patients (representing eight kindreds) and from ten Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients (representing seven kindreds) showed a small but statistically significant hypersensitivity to the lethal effects of X-rays, as measured by the cellular ability to exclude the vital dye trypan blue, when compared with lines from 26 normal control subjects. Fibroblast lines from the Usher's syndrome patients, treated with X-rays or the radiomimetic, DNA-damaging chemical N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine, also showed a statistically significant hypersensitivity when compared to normal fibroblast lines. These findings are consistent with the possibility that defective DNA repair mechanisms may be involved in the pathogenesis of these degenerative diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a letter to the editor about erythema induratum.

In the present study, covalently bound lipids were found in clavus material and their lipid classes were determined by high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC). Clavus material, pulverized completely in a Mikro-Dismembrator II, was exhaustively extracted three times with chloroform/methanol (2∶1, 1∶1 and 1∶2 v/v) at 80‡C for l h each time and this sequence of extractions was repeated to obtain the unbound lipid-free residue which was saponified and then extracted with chloroform. The extract proved to comprise several bands of lipids covalently bound through an ester-like linkage. These were identified as free fatty acids, cholesterol, ceramides and glucocerebrosides by HPTLC. However, Ω-hydroxy fatty acids were not detected in the lipids. To analyse the fatty acids amide-linked to the bound ceramides, the latter were isolated by preparative HPTLC and subjected to mild acid hydrolysis. Since the bound ceramides constituted neither Ω-hydroxy fatty acids nor α-hydroxy fatty acids, they were not identified as hydroxyl-acylsphingosines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mechanism underlying pancreaticopleural fistula is considered the focal inflammation of a pancreatic duct branch caused by pancreatic secretion leakage from a ruptured pseudocyst or pancreatic duct. In the present case, chronic pancreatitis due to alcohol abuse resulted in a pancreatic pseudocyst, continuing in the mediastinum, that triggered inflammation of the mediastinal interspace through the retroperitoneum and reading to massive pleural effusion. [Extracted from the article]

We present a rare case of intramuscular metastasis from malignant melanoma. The lesion showed intermediate to high signal intensity on T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) images and mixed signal intensities containing high and low signals on T2-weighted images. The signal intensity on T1-weighted images, which is due to the paramagnetic effect of melanin, is a characteristic MR finding of this entity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We perform a one-dimensional full particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation of a quasi-parallel collisionless shock with the Alfvén Mach number 6.6 and a shock angle of 20 degrees between the upstream magnetic field and the shock normal direction. The backstreaming ions are self-consistently generated by reflections of the incoming ions at the shock. They generate the Alfvénic electromagnetic wave via the right-handed resonant ion-ion instability, as the ions travel toward the upstream region. The energy distribution of the backstreaming ions far upstream splits into two populations as it approaches the shock. The energy threshold of the populations is approximately the energy gained by a single specular reflection at the shock. The maximum energy of the backstreaming ions near the shock is about 10 times larger than the specularly reflected ion energy. Nonlinear phase bunches of the high-energy backstreaming ions and the background ions are found near the shock, due to the resonant and non-resonant trappings by the excited waves, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]