Search

An aqueous extract of Pleurotus sajor-caju was found to have a hypotensive effect in rats. Intravenous infusion of the extract into rats caused a decrease of the mean systemic blood pressure in a dose dependent manner. A typical dose of 25 mg of the extract decreased the mean systemic blood pressure from 110 mm Hg to 70 mm Hg. The systolic and diastolic pressure changed proportionally with minimal alteration in heart rate. The hypotensive effect of the extract was not due to its major electrolyte content because a solution reconstituted with the same electrolyte composition had a transient pressor effect rather than lowering the blood pressure. The same extract was also found to affect renal hemodynamics such that it caused a decrease in the glomerular filtration rate by more than 50% after 120 minutes. The effect did not seem to be mediated through changes in systemic blood pressure.

Clear cell sarcoma of the kidney (CCSK) is a highly malignant childhood tumor, distinguished from classic Wilms' tumor by its propensity to metastasize to the skeletal system. Authors described a case of CCSK from a 3-year-old boy in the right kidney, showing various histologic features, such as classic, epithelioid, trabecular, neurilemmoma-like, cystic and entrapped collecting tubular pattern. Ultrastructurally epithelial differentiation was absent. Immunohistochemically, none of the intrinsic tumor cells showed positive staining with the antibodies against the keratin, S-100 protein, carcinoembryonic antigen, vimentin, desmin and myoglobin, suggesting primitive mesenchymal cell in origin.

This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of intravenous sulbactam/ampicillin followed by oral sultamicillin. Parenteral sulbactam/ampicillin was administered for 7 to 14 days to 152 in-patients with moderate to severe infections. All patients were treated with sulbactam/ampicillin, but only 140 patients received oral sultamicillin therapy. Eighty-nine men and 63 women participated in this study. Infections included intraabdominal (42 cases), respiratory tract (52 cases), skin and soft tissue (29 cases), urinary tract (16 cases), and miscellaneous infections (14 cases) that included typhoid fever, gastroenteritis, septicemia, and surgical wound infection. Six (4%) patients reported six study drug-related adverse experiences. Gastrointestinal side effects were most common and included epigastric burning and indigestion. Diarrhea was not reported and no patient discontinued drug therapy because of an adverse event. Laboratory abnormalities were infrequent and clinically insignificant. Overall, 98% of the 114 evaluable patients achieved clinical cure or improvement following treatment with sulbactam/ampicillin and sultamicillin. Cured or improved patients in each diagnostic group were 97% for intraabdominal infections, 100% for respiratory tract infections, 100% for skin and soft tissue infections, 100% for urinary tract infection, and 91% for other types of infections. Only 2 (2%) patients were judged to be treatment failures. Microbiologic efficacy, or eradication, was 86% overall, ranging from 75 to 100%. Persistence of pathogens occurred in 5%, and eradication with development of a superinfection occurred in 4%. Fifty-seven percent (30/50) of the isolates tested were resistant to ampicillin alone whereas only 21% (9/42) were resistant to sulbactam/ampicillin (p = 0.002).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)