The hypothesis that treatment with antilymphocytic serum (ALS) can provoke latent virus infections has been investigated. In adult mice infections with sublethal doses of LCM virus usually result in the development of immunity to the virus and at the same time to a prolonged latent infection. In the experiments described an intensive treatment with large doses of ALS was given to mice which had recovered from LCM virus infection. At the beginning of the treatment the mice had high titers of complement-fixing antibodies in their blood and no detectable virus. The data presented show that in spite of the immunity the ALS treatment provoked the occult virus and led to the development of viremia in all the treated mice. In some, very high virus titers were demonstrable. When the ALS treatment was discontinued the viremia disappeard again. In most of the mice the ALS did not suppress the complement-fixing antibody titers and in some there was even a considerable increase in titer. In such cases the increases in virus titers and in antibody titers were closely related to one another. These results demonstrate once again that the complement-fixing antibodies to the LCM virus in mice probably do not influence the virus.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Liver VIPoma: report of two cases and literature review.

Two cases of neuroendocrine tumor in the liver, positive for VIP, without evidence of a primary tumor outside the liver is presented. One patient had a VIPoma syndrome with diarrhea, hypokalemia, and hypercalcemia, all symptoms were reversible after treatment consisting of somatostatin analogue and arterial liver embolization followed by liver resection. The other patient showed no endocrine symptoms. To the best of our knowledge, VIPomas apparently primary in the liver have not been previously described.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Jejunal loop obstruction at the ligament of Treitz: a distinct radiological and clinical picture of recurrence after subtotal pancreatectomy.

Of 99 patients operated on with subtotal pancreatectomy due to ampullary carcinoma, five had a local recurrence in the pancreatic bed at the ligament of Treitz. The patients all had distinct symptoms: recurrent bouts of fever, general malaise, and rapid loss of weight. They had little pain, but all were jaundiced in spite of absence of marked compression of the bile ducts. Computed tomography or ultrasound could not detect the small, local recurrence that was obstructing the jejunal loop 10-15 cm distal to the hepaticojejunostomy, but as an indirect sign of the recurrence, the distended small bowel loop proximal to the ligament of Treitz was clearly seen in all patients.

Aged↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Cholangiographic appearance of bile-duct cysts.

Bile-duct cysts or congenital bile-duct dilatation are rare but important abnormalities often mimicking calculous biliary tract disease. Bile-duct cysts are most often classified according to Todani. In a retrospective study of percutaneous, peroperative or endoscopic cholangiograms from 25 patients, diagnosed and treated during a 20-year period, images of different types of bile-duct cysts are presented and classified. The disease usually presents with vague symptoms and has a female preponderance. Current opinion on aetiology and complications is discussed. Cholangiography is a necessary prerequisite to surgical therapy.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Serous and mucinous cystadenoma/cystadenocarcinoma of the pancreas.

Twenty cases of cystic pancreatic neoplasms were examined over a 10-year period by the Department of Radiology, University Hospital, Lund, Sweden. Four patients had serous cystadenoma, seven had mucinous cystadenoma, and seven had mucinous cystadenocarcinoma. One patient had a mucin-producing ductal carcinoma, and one patient had a benign mucus cyst. The various types of tumor are illustrated, and the difficulty in differentiating the subtypes is stressed.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Angiography as diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic tool in liver metastases from a colo-rectal primary tumor.

Angiograms from 60 patients with liver metastases from colo-rectal carcinoma were reviewed in retrospect to find prognostic parameters. All patients were treated with intraarterial cytostatic drugs. Patients with a small tumor mass in the liver survived significantly longer than those with a huge tumor burden. A longer survival was seen also in patients who developed occlusion of the hepatic arterial tree. When the tumor showed reduction in size or was stationary at the follow-up angiographic examinations after institution of therapy survival was markedly improved. When compared with the findings at laparotomy, angiography adequately demonstrated tumor growth in the right lobe of the liver but repeatedly failed to do so in the left lobe. In 14 patients computed tomography was also performed. Tumor localization by CT corresponded well with the findings at laparotomy and was thus more accurate than the results by angiography. Information about tumor volume and number of tumor nodules was approximately the same with the two methods.

Angiography↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Prospective investigation of radiologic methods in the diagnosis of intra-abdominal abscesses.

A prospective investigation of conventional abdominal radiography, ultrasonography, computed tomography and 111In-labelled leucocyte scintigraphy was performed in 40 patients suspected of having an intra-abdominal abscess. There were 23 confirmed abscesses in the material. When conventional abdominal radiography indicated an abscess, such a lesion was usually present. The ability of abdominal radiography to exclude an abscess was, however, low. Both ultrasonography and 111In-labelled leucocyte scintigraphy detected 65 to 85 per cent of the confirmed abscesses, but both also revealed many abscess-like areas in patients where no unequivocal abscess was confirmed at follow-up. Computed tomography was, when employed as a single method, the most reliable one both to show and to exclude an abscess, However, the combination of ultrasonography and 111In-labelled leucocyte scintigraphy disclosed all the lesions demonstrated by any one of the four methods used in the investigation.

Abdomen↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Computed tomographic angiography of the liver via the coeliac axis.

Sixty computed tomographic angiographic (CTA) examinations of the liver were performed with contrast injection into the coeliac axis. Data from both an arterial and a portal venous phase were recorded. In 41 patients it was possible to compare the results of CTA with palpation of the liver during laparotomy. The results from CTA and laparotomy were the same in 35 patients (85%). In one patient CTA disclosed verified liver lesions not diagnosed at laparotomy. There were 2 false negative and 3 false positive CTA examinations. In the remaining 19 patients, a clinical follow-up period of at least 6 months was used to evaluate the results of CTA. In the 7 patients in whom CTA showed benign lesions or a normal liver parenchyma, the clinical follow-up revealed no evidence of tumour growth in the liver.

Follow-Up Studies↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Chest radiography in the carcinoid syndrome.

The chest films of 44 patients with liver metastases from intestinal carcinoid tumors were reviewed in order to evaluate the frequency of significant carcinoid heart disease. Only two patients had obvious signs of cardiac involvement, which is contradictory to most other studies.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Site and number of liver tumors recorded at angiography and computed tomography compared with the findings at laparotomy and of resected liver specimens.

Angiography and computed tomography (CT) were performed in 96 patients before laparotomy for an intended liver resection. Of these, 73 patients underwent liver resection, from a local excision to a trisegmentectomy. The accuracy of angiography in tumor localization was 77 per cent when the results were compared with the findings at laparotomy and from resected specimens. With CT the accuracy was 85 per cent. In 47 patients an analysis of the number of tumor nodules was possible. There were 76 nodules, and 42 (55%) were correctly identified by angiography and 58% (76%) by CT. Thirty-four tumor nodules were not seen at angiography, with the majority of these situated in the left liver lobe. At CT, 18 nodules were not observed, about equal numbers in right and left lobes. Five lesions thought to be present at angiography (9 at CT), could not be verified upon inspecting the resected specimens. Neither angiography nor CT seems to be reliable enough for an accurate prediction of resectability of liver tumors prior to laparotomy.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Radiologic diagnosis of liver metastases in colo-rectal carcinoma. Prospective evaluation of the accuracy of angiography, ultrasonography, computed tomography and computed tomographic angiography.

To evaluate the accuracy of radiologic methods in liver metastases from colo-rectal carcinoma, a prospective investigation of 71 patients was performed. These patients were examined by angiography, ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT) and computed tomographic angiography (CTA). The primary aim of the investigation was to determine the accuracy of CTA. The results of these examinations were then compared with the results from inspection and palpation of the liver at laparotomy. An analysis of liver tumor distribution, as well as a lesion-by-lesion analysis, was performed. In 20 patients, tumor growth was found in the liver in 36 lobes/segments at laparotomy. Three patients called false positives (angiography 2, US, CT and CTA 3 patients) turned out to be true positives since the lesions were overlooked at operation. The changes in sensitivity obtained when these patients are considered are given in parentheses. Of the lobes/segments affected by tumor growth at surgery, angiography revealed 47 (48) per cent, US 69 (71) per cent, CT 80 (82) per cent and CTA 83 (84) per cent. At a lesion-by-lesion analysis, angiography showed 33 per cent, US 69 per cent, CT 61 per cent and CTA 76 per cent of the lesions. Because of a larger number of false positives recorded with CTA compared with CT the former examination is not suitable as a single method for evaluating resectability of liver metastases.

Adult↗