Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to D E Henson.
In this article, the author describes how classification, "a distinctively human activity," is integral to the practice of pathology and a source from which pathologists often derive much pleasure. Dr. Henson is pathologist, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland.
The relationship among three objective measures of genital vasocongestion in women was evaluated both during and after an erotic film using simultaneous recording of both vaginal pressure pulse and vaginal blood volume responses by means of photoplethysmography and of labial temperature change by means of a thermistor clip. During the film each of the genital measures increased for most subjects, resulting in highly significant positive correlations between measures. However, following the erotic film presentation there was considerably less direct correspondence among the three measures; although the genital reactions of most subjects subsided to some extent following the film, none of the three measures consistently returned to prestimulation levels. Periodic estimates of subjective levels of sexual arousal were significantly correlated with each of the genital measures during the erotic film but were not significantly correlated with any after the film.
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Eight adult women volunteers viewed the same erotic film in two different sessions. Their resulting genital responses were recorded simultaneously by three different measures: vaginal pressure pulse, vaginal blood volume, and labial temperature change. During the erotic stimulation, the vaginal pressure pulse and labial responses always increased, and the vaginal blood volume response increased on all but two occasions. Although there was considerable intersubject variability in each genital measure, all three measures were found to have some intrasubject consistency over sessions with respect to either their response amplitudes or patterns, with labial temperature being the most consistent on both parameters. The relationship between the response patterns of the three measures during the film was also relatively consistent across sessions, as was the correspondence between subjective ratings of arousal and both vaginal pressure pulse and labial responses but not vaginal blood volume response. To overcome the problem of considerable intrasubject variability of response amplitudes, it was suggested that the inclusion in the data analysis of several parameters of response patterns, which were relatively stable over sessions, might facilitate the evaluation of a treatment.
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Malignant mesenchymoma developed in an 18-year-old patient with phenytoin-associated cleft lip and palate. Although these conditions may be related by chance, the possibility of transplacental carcinogenesis by phenytoin should be considered, especially since neuroblastoma was reported recently in two children with phenytoin-induced malformations. Following combination chemotherapy for metastases, the patient experienced a 7-year disease-free interval, which is consistent with recent improvement in the treatment of soft-tissue sarcomas.
Patients with Graves' disease and exophthalmos demonstrate delayed hypersensitivity to antigens present in extracts of certain normal human tissue; namely,thyroid gland and retroorbital tissue. The delayed hypersensitivity can be assayed in vitro by quantitating the amount of a lymphokine, migration inhibition factor (MIF), which is produced when T lymphocytes of patients with Graves' disease and exophthalmos are exposed to these antigens. In the present report, a partial purification is described for the retro-orbital tissue antigen which is responsible for the positive leucocyte migration inhibition factor assay (MIF assay) exhibited by a sensitized lymphocytes of these patients. The purified retro-orbital tissue antigen preparation demonstrates a 50- to 150-fold higher specific activity over crude homogenates in its ability to act as an antigen in the MIF assay of exophthalmic patients. Immunodiffusion, ultracentrifugation, and disc electrophoretic data indicate that this purified antigen preparation, obtained from normal human, retro-orbital tissue, contains thyroglobulin or a derivative of thyroglobulin; immunofluorescence studies localize the anti-thyroglobulin reactive material to the plasma membranes of extraocular muscle fibers of normal individuals. On the basis of these data it is concluded that thyroglobulin or a derivative of the thyroglobulin molecule is present in the orbital muscle of normal individuals. Since thyroglobulin purified from normal human thyroid glands and the purified retro-orbital tissue preparation are nearly equivalent as antigens in the MIF assay of exophthalmic patients, we conclude that thyroglobulin or an antigenic component of the thyroglobulin molecule is one of the antigens to which patients with Graves' disease and exophthalmos demonstrate delayed hypersensitivity.
Sixteen adult males participated in a repeated measures design in which they served as their own control to determine the effects of various amounts of alcohol on: (1) their sexual arousal elicited by erotic motion-pictures, as measured by a penile transducer, (2) the ability to voluntarily inhibit their arousal to those same films in accordance with instructions, and (3) the ability to become voluntarily aroused in the absence of overt stimuli. The ingestion of a low (0.5 or 0.6 ml/kg) or a moderate (1.0 or 1.2 ml/kg) amount of alcohol resulted in a small, but significant, depression of mean sexual arousal, but other measures were not affected. However, the ingestion of a high (1.5 or 1.8 ml/kg) amount of alcohol resulted in every measure of evoked arousal being depressed by a comparatively large degree. The high level of alcohol also affected a very large decrease in sexual arousal when subjects were instructed to become sexually aroused in the absence of overt erotic stimuli. In contrast, none of the three amounts of alcohol caused a significant impairment in the ability of subjects to voluntarily inhibit their sexual arousal, even though most subjects experienced some deterioration in that ability after ingesting a moderate amount of alcohol. The actions of alcohol on sexual responses were not significantly correlated with its effects on a nonsexual matching task, were not related to subjective reports of how alcohol usually affects sexual behavior, and were generally not related to reported drinking history.
A series of 10 patients who presented with carcinoma in situ of the vagina following treatment for carcinoma of the cervix were seen in a 3 year period and their clinical and histologic features reviewed. Vaginal lesions developed 1 to 22 years after diagnosis of carcinoma of the cervix was made. In three patients the vaginal lesions progressed to invasion. In the remaining patients repeated biopsies have revealed persistent carcinoma in situ. From this series of 10 patients we conclude that the biologic behavior of vaginal carcinoma in situ following carcinoma of the cervix resembles that of carcinoma in situ of the cervix and that carcinoma of the vagina following carcinoma of the cervix should be considered a separate clinical entity distinctive from primary invasive carcinoma of the vagina.
Antibodies to herpes simplex viral-induced antigens (HSVIA) were assayed by an indirect immunofluorescent technique in 93 regular cigarette smokers, 75 of whom also imbibed alcoholic beverages. Controls were 94 nonsmoking, nondrinking volunteers matched with the smoker for age and sex. IgA antibodies to HSVIA were detected six times more frequently in the sera of smokers than in nonsmoking controls, p less than .0005. IgG and IgM anti-HSVIA were detected with comparable frequencies in both groups, but the antibody titers were significantly higher in the smoking group than in controls, p less than .05. IgA anti-HSVIA was detected more frequently in smokers with 10 or more pack-years of cigarette exposure than in smokers with 10 or more pack-years of smoking (p less than .05) or in matched nonsmokers (p less than .02). IgA antibody titers to HSVIA were significantly higher in cigarette smokers who drank alcoholic beverages than in smokers who did not drink, p less than .025. This study demonstrates that cigarette smoking and the use of alcoholic beverages are associated with heightened humoral immunity to HSV-induced antigens in a population at high risk for development of squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck region.
Serum antibodies to herpes simplex virus-induced antigens (HSVIA) were quantitated in 122 patients with head and neck squamous carcinoma, 93 patients tumor-free after treatment for these malignant lesions, 27 patients with nonsquamous malignant lesions, 30 heavy smokers, and 36 nonsmokers. Serum IgA anti-HSVIA antibodies were detected in a greater percentage of sera of patients with squamous carcinoma (61 per cent), patients previously treated for these malignant lesions (56 per cent), and heavy smokers (57 per cent) than in patients with nonsquamous malignant lesions (11 per cent) or nonsmokers (8 per cent). Furthermore, titers of these antibodies were higher in patients with squamous carcinoma than in smokers. In patients tumor-free more than three years after treatment, the percentage of positive sera was significantly lower than that in untreated patients and in patients three years or less after treatment. This study demonstrates for the first time a high frequency of antibodies to HSV-induced antigens confined to subjects at high risk of developing head and neck squamous carcinoma and in patients with these malignancies as well as a correlation between the levels of these antibodies and clinical course after treatment.
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Rabbits maintained for several weeks on a regimen of modest amounts of vitamin D and dietary cholesterol were placed in three groups in accordance with their response to repeated subcutaneous injections of nicotine in mineral oil. The group that had the greatest increase in plasma FFA following nicotine injections gradually developed, over a period of about 12 weeks, severe calcific atheroarteriosclerosis with peripheral thromboarteritis. Those that had a moderate increase in plasma FFA following nicotine injections developed calcific atheroarteriosclerosis but no thromboarteritis. Those that had the least increase in plasma FFA following nicotine injections developed no arterial lesions. Comparable or much greater increases in plasma FFA occurred in rabbits on the vitamin D-cholesterol regimen when adrenalin, ACTH or heparin was injected rather than nicotine. These animals did not develop calcific atheroarteriosclerotic thromboarteritis or any other lesions which could be correlated with the increased levels of plasma FFA. Inasmuch as nicotine, vitamin D or dietary cholesterol in the amounts used were innocuous when used alone, the interactions between the effects of at least these three factors need to be known in individual animals before the pathogenesis of the calcific atheroarteriosclerotic lesions with thrombosis can eventually be understood.
A recent study reported that motivated human male subjects were able voluntarily to inhibit penile erection in the presence of effective erotic stimulation (Laws and Rubin, 1969). However, because this study required attendance only to the display area of erotic stimuli, there was a possibility that inhibition resulted from their subjects not attending to the content of the stimuli. The present study utilized a procedure that guaranteed subjects' attendance to the content of the erotic stimulation, i.e., a description of the behavioral content of the erotic stimulus film. Nevertheless, every subject was able to inhibit penile erection almost as effectively as when no film description was required. Furthermore, the verbal description prevented the production of competing asexual stimuli; a technique that all subjects, in both the Laws and Rubin study (1969) and the present study, reported using to inhibit penile erection when no description was required. This suggests that although concentration on asexual stimuli may be the preferred method of reducing sexual arousal to erotic stimulation, penile erection can be inhibited by other methods.
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