The Bulletin of Tokyo Medical and Dental University最新文献

Degradation of indocyanine green solution by exposure to light was studied by high-pressure liquid chromatography. Indocyanine green in an aqueous medium exposed to light changed rapidly into an unknown product. The plasma clearance rate and the biliary excretion rate of the unknown product were much slower than those of indocyanine green. Spectrophotometric scan revealed that the unknown product had almost the same absorption spectrum as indocyanine green. Therefore, if degraded indocyanine green solution were to be used in a liver function test, the clearance of indocyanine green assayed by spectrophotometry would apparently be much lower than that of undegraded indocyanine green. According to fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry, the molecular weight of the unknown product was 723, whereas that of indocyanine green was 775. The analysis of rat bile after injection of indocyanine green by high-pressure liquid chromatography revealed that about 1% of the administered indocyanine green was metabolized in the rat liver.

The effects of intraarterial chemotherapy with cisplatin on rabbit VX2 carcinoma transplanted to the hind legs of animals were studied. Following intraarterial (IA) or intravenous (IV) administration of cisplatin (2.5 mg/kg), changes in the tumor cells were examined electron microscopically. The treated cells showed enlargement with decrease in the amount of nuclear chromatin and prominent nucleolar segregation. In many cells, the cytoplasmic organelles had migrated to the paranuclear area. The most striking change was the appearance of numerous microvilli-like cytoplasmic projections. Multinucleated giant cells were also observed. The changes were more prominent following IA cisplatin. The author concludes that significant ultrastructural changes can be demonstrated by the regional administration of cisplatin in rabbit VX2 carcinoma and that these promising results should be followed by clinical trials.

The procedure for autologous blood transfusion in the orthopedic and oral surgical patients in our university hospital is described. The collection of blood was begun from 3 weeks prior to the scheduled surgery. Each time 200 or 400 ml were collected, making three collections possible. The collected blood was stored in liquid form up to the day of the operation and returned to the same patient. Without any difficulty, 600-1200 ml of blood were collected from many patients. All patients were prescribed an oral iron supplement (200 mg/day). No significant decrease in the serum iron and ferritin levels after two or three collections was observed. Eighty-nine percent of the orthopedic patients and 87% of the oral surgical patients were transfused only with autologous blood during the operation. Homologous blood transfusion was performed in the patients with more than 2,200 ml of blood loss. The autologous blood collection of 800 ml may be sufficient enough in at least 80% of these patients.

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) antigen is a tumor-associated antigen isolated from the squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix. In order to estimate the usefulness of the SCC antigen in monitoring the clinical behaviors of oral squamous cell carcinomas, we analyzed clinicopathologically and immunohistochemically 54 cases of squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity. Elevated serum SCC antigen levels were detected in 23 (42.6%) out of 54 oral squamous cell carcinomas. The positive rate of serum SCC antigen levels was significantly higher in the patients with advanced clinical stages and poorly differentiated carcinoma. The serum levels declined rapidly after the surgical operation. It is considered that the serum SCC antigen levels could be useful in monitoring the extension, effectiveness of therapy, recurrence and metastases of the oral squamous cell carcinomas. Immunohistochemically, strong staining was seen in the cytoplasm of the well-differentiated carcinoma cells.

Clinical data on 50 patients with arteriosclerosis obliterans (ASO) in China (Group A) and Japan (Group B) respectively were studied for better understanding of these changing trends. The results showed that the incidence of ASO peaked in Group A in the 50 to 69 age range (88%) and in Group B in the 55 to 74 age range (78%). Group A had a lower ratio of smokers and cases of diabetes mellitus than Group B but a higher ratio of hypertension and a higher total cholesterol level. Angiography showed that the prevalence of atherosclerotic lesions in the lower extremities as a whole was similar for both groups. They were different in location, extent and severity of the arteries involved between the two groups. We believe that this study has shown various differences between the two groups but that the causes are probably multifactorial.

The nuclear DNA content in 71 cases of periampullary cancer (27, cancer of the head of the pancreas (Ph); 24, cancer of the ampulla of Vater (A); and 20, cancer of the inferior common bile duct (Bi] was measured cytofluorometrically using the archival paraffin-embedded specimens of the primary lesions. They were analyzed in relation to prognosis, tumor size, histological differentiation, lymph node metastasis, lymphatic invasion, venous invasion, perineural invasion, and growth pattern. The results show that "Ph" has more unfavorable prognosis compared with the other two and it has more DNA content under the same conditions such as tumor from 2.1 to 4 cm in its greatest dimension, well differentiated adenocarcinoma, with or without lymph node metastasis, with or without venous invasion, with lymphatic invasion, with perineural invasion, and in the intermediate growth pattern between expansive and infiltrative. In conclusion, this study demonstrates a close correlation between the DNA content and prognosis and the significant clinical value of DNA analysis for predicting the prognosis in patients of periampullary cancer.