[Hokkaido igaku zasshi] The Hokkaido journal of medical science最新文献

The authors present the findings of an 81-year-old female who demonstrated pure word deafness after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. Her speech was well articulated, but she could not comprehend spoken words. She responded correctly to written instructions, environmental noises and music. We consider that pure word deafness in this case was caused by the interruption of auditory inputs to Wernicke's area from both hemispheres by the hemorrhage.

Alveolar hydatidosis (AH) is a parasitic disease with an extremely long latent period which has an important role in the endemic of human AH. The individual and average latent periods of human AH were estimated from the case histories of 19 male patients who were infected in foreign endemic areas and diagnosed surgically and pathologically as having AH after returning to Honshu, mainland of Japan. The beginning (A) and the end (C) of stay in foreign endemic areas of AH, and the midpoint (B) between (A) and (C), the time of onset of symptoms (D) and death (E) of AH were determined in the case reports. The period (D-B) from the midpoint (B) to the onset of symptoms (D) was considered as an individual latent period of AH, and the average latent period was estimated from D-B periods. The individual latent periods ranged from 3 to 44 years, and the average was 20 +/- 10 (mean +/- SD) years in the 19 cases. The average latent period was longer in 7 surviving cases (26 +/- 12) than in 12 fatal cases (16 +/- 7) at the publication of the case reports, but there was no statistically significant difference between them. The estimated latent period in this report was very close to that by Doi et al. (2000), and the traditional 5-15 years should be changed to 7-35 years.

To assess validity of age estimation from the degree of atherosclerosis of abdominal aorta, we quantitatively evaluated the atherosclerotic parameters (surface involvement of atherosclerotic lesions, atherosclerotic index, and aortic width at renal arteries and common iliac bifurcation, which was measured by using digital photographs at autopsy), and collected individual factors (age, sex, body height, body weight and heart weight, and body surface, body mass index and cardiomegaly index) in autopsied 103 bodies (62 males, 41 females) during 2 years. We statistically examined their data by multiple regression analysis to determine the effects of the individual factors on the proceeding parameters of atherosclerosis, and obtained correlation coefficient, regression equation, and standard error of estimate between the atherosclerotic parameters and age. Among the factors, only age was influential on all the atherosclerotic parameters, of which the surface involvement (SI%) and the aortic width at common iliac bifurcation (Wb cm) were acceptable as the parameters for age estimation, and useful in a wide age range, according to the results of the standard errors of estimate. We also recognized predicting formulae for age (Y) by multiple regression analysis; Y = 0.52SI + 9.53Wb - 4.41 in males and Y = 0.34SI + 18.47Wb - 23.32 in females.

Objectives: There has been no study concerning association between topological factors of placental vascularization and neonatal growth in humans. The aim of study was to assess whether any network index of placental surface arteries was associated with neonatal birth weight.

Materials and methods: Twenty-six placentas were randomly selected between 34 and 41 weeks of gestational ages. Placental weights ranged 385 to 770 g; and neonatal weights ranged 1960 to 3680 g. After visualization of placental surface arteries by a milk injection method, network indices including the number of nodes, network density, network diameter, average distance of nodes, and the degree centralization were determined. These network indices and placental weights were compared with neonatal birth weights.

Results: The number of nodes, network density, network diameter, average distance of nodes, and the degree centralization were found to be as follows (Mean +/- SD); 84.7 +/- 29.3, 0.0262 +/- 0.0088, 15.8 +/- 2.77, 7.83 +/- 1.13, 0.0263 +/- 0.0091, respectively. We found that neonatal birth weights correlated with the number of nodes of placental surface arteries (correlation coefficient R = 0.40) and placental weights (R = 0.52) both. However, the number of nodes of placental surface arteries was not associated with the placental weights or the gestational age.

Conclusions: We for the first time found that a topological factor, i.e., the number of nodes of placental surface arteries correlated with neonatal growth. There was no correlation between numbers of nodes and placental weights. This suggests that the number of nodes affects fetal growth independent of placental weights. A topological factor of placental vascularization might significantly affect fetal growth in utero and determine risks of vascular diseases in their future lives.