Polish medical sciences and history bulletin最新文献

In 69 patients with rheumathoid arthritis (RA): 49 sero-positive and 20 sero-negative for rheumatoid factor and in a group of 20 healthy blood donors the leukocyte migration-inhibitory test was carried out. Heat-aggregated gamma-globulin was used in the culture medium as antigen. Both groups of patients exhibited a significant inhibition of migration, as compared with the group of healthy subjects. However, a significant difference in the mean value of the migration indices between the sero-positive and sero-negative individuals was observed.

Maximal motor conduction velocity of ulnar nerve was measured in 7 patients 80-93 years old, who suffered from cerebro-vascular stroke. In 2 cases motor conduction velocity was significantly decreased. Specimens for histopathological study were taken from the spinal cord at the C8 and Th1 segments and from the ulnar nerve at the elbow level on the side opposite to the hemiparesis. In 100 sections of each senile case and in 3 control cases of younger individuals the motoneurons of the retro-postero-lateral nucleus with visible nucleoli were counted. In the ulnar nerve qualitative and quantitative examinations were performed. The study showed a significant loss of motoneurons in the nucleus and a loss of myelinated fibers especially the thickest ones in the ulnar nerve in elderly cases. In teased preparations axonal degeneration and segmental demyelination of some fibers were seen. Morphological changes in some cases, resulted in a slowed down motor conduction velocity.

It is supposed that the excess of fatty tissue exerts a diabetogenic effect. In obese subjects changes in the reactivity of the enlarged adipocytes to insulin might play a significant role in the pathogenesis of diabetes. Using the method of Rodbell in our own modification the responses of isolated adipocytes obtained from 10 lean and 15 obese subjects to a) insulin, b) theophylline and c) insulin and theophylline jointly (metabolism of glucose and glycerol) were determined. The dose-effect relationship curve was plotted against the effect of glucose utilization caused by increasing concentrations of insulin in the suspensions of adipocytes of lean and obese subjects. In adipocyte donors insulin sensitivity was also determined by Himsworth's test. It was found that adipocytes of 15 subjects with hyperthrophic obesity showed a significantly decreased effect of insulin regulating glucose utilization and glycerol release. They maintained a normal pattern of response to theophylline. The curve of relationship between insulin concentration in the incubation medium and its effect on glucose utilization by the adipocytes was changed. The adipocytes of these donors were relatively refractory to insulin in vivo as determined by the test of Himsworth. The cause of these disturbances may lie in the changed function of insulin receptors in the enlarged adipocytes. The observed disturbances may play a significant role in the pathophysiology of the diabetogenic effect of obesity.

In 20 patients with acute leukemia the 3H-thymidine labelling index and the mitotic index were determined in the population of leukemic blast cells and the degree of bone marrow infiltration was evaluated. Determinations were carried out in acute stage of the disease and in 4 cases additionally during improvement or remission and then during subsequent exacerbations. In the acute phase of the disease both indices were low in comparison with the indices obtained in normal granulocytopoiesis. In acute leukemia in 15 cases the bone marrow contained high or moderate number of cells, while in 5 remaining cases it was low. The 3H-thymidine labelling index and the mitotic index were lower in acute period of the disease in patients with bone marrow infiltration as compared with patients with hypoplastic bone marrow. During improvement both proliferation indices increased.

A group of 43 patients with cardiomyopathy was assessed clinically and hemodynamically. Disturbances in the electric myocardial activity and hemodynamic changes concerning the duration of the different phases of left ventricular systole were observed. Despite the presence of these changes, in the early atypical forms no impairment of the myocardial contractility was found. In the advanced forms (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and congestive cardiomyopathy) the myocardial contractility was impaired, this contributing to the development of heart failure manifestations.

The authors examined microscopically 110 randomly taken thyroid in serial sections. In 10 cases latent papillary thyroid carcinomas were found. The age and sex were without any influence on the incidence. Latent thyroid carcinomas incidence in this material was similar to that reported from the U.S.A., and Canada, but lower than in Japan and among Japanese population of the Hawaian Islands.

Sciatic nerve of 16, 18, 20 and 24 weeks old fetuses was examined electron microscope. Morphologic specificiity and difference between the structure of fetal and mature nerves were demonstrated. The myelination of human sciatic nerve was found to begin after the 16th week of fetal life. From that time the number of myelinated fibers increases progressively and the number of fetal fibers decreases. The time of the end of myelination in man is unknown. The studies of the later period of development and maturation of fetal nerve may give necessary information about the period of the end of myelination. In view of increasing interest in pathogensis of comparable data studies on embryogenesis of human peripheral nerve are indispensable for evaluation of some changes observed in congenital diseases. The ultrastructural observations of human fetal nerve are scarce (3, 6, 7, 10) and they concern only single nerves. The morphological specificity of fetal nerve and characteristic difference between fetal and mature nerves require basic data on different forms of fetal nerve and time of transition of one form into another.

The bio-engineering team presents its suggestion of a method for the measurement of the temporomandibular joint and masseter muscles in order to determine the parameters necessary for exact sciences and indispensable for unified and objective cognitive studies. Ten formalin-fixed human cadavers served for the studies. The preparations were prepared by the modified method of anatomical procedure. Linear and angular measurements of temporomandibular joint and masseter muscles were carried out with the use of the three-dimensional Cartesian system of OXYZ coordinates in relation to frontal, sagittal and horizontal planes. The physiological cross-sections of the masseter, temporal, lateral and medial pterygoid muscles were also determined. The collected data make it possible to develop a mathematical three-dimensioned model of the osseo-articulo-muscular system of the mastication organ.

In 19 patients with acute renal failure the plasma renin activity and aldosterone were determined in the phase of anuria and oliguria. A highly increased plasma renin activity was found while aldosteronemia was only moderately raised. No significant correlation was demonstrated between plasma renin activity and aldosterone while a negative correlation was found between aldosteronemia and plasma sodium and bicarbonates concentrations. Lack of significant correlation between plasma renin activity and aldosteronemia in cases of acute renal failure suggests that factors other than renin participate in the regulation of aldosterone secretion in these patients.

In 11 patients with compensated and 10 with decompensated liver cirrhosis the following determinations were carried out: total thyroxine serum concentration (T4), triiodothyronine-binding coefficient (T3BC), free thyroxine by the dialysis method (DFT4), free thyroxine index (FT4I) and absolute value of free thyroxine (ADFT4). A statistically significant rise of T3BC, DFT4, ADFT4 and FT4I was observed only in the group of decompensated cirrhosis. It is supposed that these changes develop not as a result of excessive production of thyroid hormones but due to disturbances in the binding capacity of the proteins which bind thyroid hormones and also due to an impaired degradation of these hormones in the liver.