Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A Duran.
The authors report a case of right-sided paralysis of the diaphragm which revealed a lung cancer extending to the mediastinum and involving the right phrenic nerve. This case underlines the limitations of thoracic imaging in case of phrenic nerve paralysis. It also demonstrates the value of early exploratory thoracotomy in all patients with allegedly "idiopathic" unilateral phrenic nerve paralysis.
A case of leiomyosarcoma of the renal vein occurring in a 48-year-old woman is reported, and the literature is reviewed. Ultrasonography (US) revealed a rounded uniform echogenic mass in the renal hilus. Computed tomography (CT) showed a well-demarcated, uniform, soft tissue density mass. Both US and CT were useful to detect the renal mass in the present case, and may be useful for staging of renal vein leiomyosarcoma. However, these imaging procedures did not reveal diagnostic features of leiomyosarcoma.
The computerization of SaO2 recording during polysomnographic monitoring allows the construction of a diagram expressing the percentage of TIB spent at different steps in saturation. We studied the value of this diagram in three groups of male patients: (1) nine healthy subjects (all volunteers); (2) 25 patients with COPD who had a mean daily SaO2 of 92.3 +/- 1.3 percent; and (3) 25 patients with SAS who had a mean daily SaO2 of 92.1 +/- 1.4 percent. The results show the existence of a discriminating quality in the diagram's morphology, the existence of strong correlations (p less than 0.01) between the percentage of TIB spent at SaO2 less than 85 percent, and the total duration of the desaturation dips.
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We studied the effects of unilateral lumbar sympathetic block on kidney function in eight patients with cirrhosis and hepatorenal syndrome. In five patients with basal glomerular filtration rate (GFR) below 25 ml/min, sympathetic block induced a significant increase in GFR, osmolal clearance, urinary sodium excretion, fractional excretion of filtered sodium (FENa) and effective renal plasma flow (ERPF) and a decrease in plasma renin activity. In the three patients with basal GFR greater than 25 ml/min, sympathetic block produced no significant change in renal function. We conclude that sympathetic block might improve renal function in cirrhotics with hepatorenal syndrome, particularly those with more impaired GFR.
Blood samples were taken from the vena subcutanea abdominis sinistra of four Black-Pied Lowland cows in one-hour intervals within a 24-hour period. No significant circadian changes were recorded in the studied blood components (protein, glucose, ash and dry matter contents). The amount of protein remained unchanged during the 24-hour period. Some changes were observed in the level of glucose, with a decrease from 12.00 to 14.00 o'clock, followed by an increase continuing until late at night (1.00 a.m. to 3.00 a.m.); another decline came in the other half of the night and during the forenoon. More pronounced changes were recorded in the content of dry matter in the blood of the cows, with lower values from 3.00 to 12.00 o'clock. Ash content grew from 12.00 to 20.00 o'clock and then it declined.
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We describe the laparoscopic findings in 5 patients with nodular regenerative hyperplasia of the liver (NRH). A nodular liver surface and signs of portal hypertension were observed, which in all cases gave rise to the laparoscopic diagnosis of liver cirrhosis. Multiple and single liver biopsies in 3 and 2 cases respectively, permitted the definitive diagnosis of the NRH lesion. The laparoscopic picture of NRH is indistinguishable from that of cirrhosis, and for this reason it is advisable to carry out liver biopsy even in cases where cirrhosis seems unquestionable.
The levels of free amino acids in cow's milk vary greatly. The highest value of 164.484 mumol/l was recorded in glutamic acid, followed by glycine, alanine, lysine, and the lowest values were found in cystine, methionine, phenylalanine, tyrosine and isoleucine (5--10 mumol/l). The levels of free amino acids in milk and their order differ from the values and the order in blood. For a large proportion of free amino acids, significant to highly significant relations exist between the levels in arterial blood and venous blood before and after milking. On the other hand, significant positive correlations were found only between the level of cystine in arterial blood and in venous blood after milking, between threonine level in arterial blood and in venous blood before milking, and a highly significant negative correlation was recorded between the leucine level in venous blood before milking and the respective value in milk.
A negative relationship of glutamic acid content and milk yield over the first 100 days of lactation was found in a set of 20 cows. In some free amino acids, large differences exist between the cows with the higher milk yield and those with the lower milk yield, the largest difference being recorded in the content of glutamic acid (in favour of the cows with the lower milk output). The group of cows with the higher milk output per day or per first 100 days of lactation showed no dependence on any of the free amino acids in milk. The group of cows with the lower milk yield showed a significant negative relation of glutamic acid content to milk yield over the first 100 days of lactation and a significant to highly significant positive relation between serine, threonine and alanine contents on the one hand and daily milk yield on the other.
In the cows of the whole group under study, a significant negative relation (r = = -0.4797) was found between the histidine level in arterial blood and protein content in milk; further, there was a significant positive relation (r = 0.4624) between alanine level in milk and protein content in milk, and a significant negative relation (r = -0.5028) for the level of threonine. The group of cows with a higher milk output showed a significant negative relation between methionine level in milk and protein content in milk (r = -0.7482) and a highly significant negative relation between threonine level and protein content in milk (r = -0.8410). The negative relations of some amino acids to the content of protein in milk suggest that there is a poor supply of these amino acids for the production of protein in milk.
Before and after milking the order of free amino acids was very much alike but differences were observed in amino acid content levels. After milking the venous blood of cows had less free amino acids than before milking; this testifies to their utilization for proteosynthesis in the udder, except for some glucoplastic amino acids whose content increased after milking. The changes in the content of free amino acids in the blood of cows before and after milking draw attention to the fact that blood-borne precursors are transformed in the udder.
The cows with a higher production of milk had a lower content of free amino acids in their arterial blood (the difference was significant for lysine and phenyl alanine), as compared with the cows with a lower milk production level. Similarly, the high-performance cows had a higher content of free amino acids in their venous blood before milking (difference significant to highly significant for lysine, phenyl alanine, leucine, isoleucine, valine, cystine and alanine) and after milking (difference significant for lysine). Aspartic acid was the only amino acid contained at a higher amount in the blood of low-performance cows, the difference being partly significant after milking. The protein percentage was somewhat higher in the blood of less productive cows, particularly in venous blood before milking (insignificantly).
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Purified, intact yeast plasma membranes were allowed to synthesize chitin, and the nascent chains of polysaccharide were observed either by the fluorescence produced with a brightener or by autoradiography. By both methods, it was concluded that the newly formed chitin emerged at many sites on each membrane. Thus, the synthetase that catalyzes chitin formation has a similar distribution. Since chitin synthetase is found mainly in a zymogen form, these results confirm the hypothesis that initiation of the chitinous primary septum of Saccharomyces occurs by localized activation of the uniformly distributed zymogen.