Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to D Francis.
A material consisting of 227 histological verified transthoracic fine-needle aspiration biopsies is presented. The result of the first biopsy attempt gave a diagnostic sensitivity with regards to malignancy of 77 per cent and a diagnostic specificity of 98 per cent. The method is recommended in cases where conventional preoperative diagnostic procedures fail to reveal the nature of the lung lesion.
A consecutive material of 244 cases of transthoracic aspiration biopsies collected in a two year period is presented. The biopsy method concerning malignant tumour cells and suspected malignant tumour cells was 8.28 per cent, the specificity was 94.9 per cent. It is suggested that the biopsy method might be applied earlier in the sequence of preoperative diagnostic procedures.
A case of adult nephroblastoma in a 51-year-old woman is reported. A percutaneous aspiration biopsy did not lead to the right diagnosis presumably because the histologic structure of the tumour consisted exclusively of more or less differentiated epithelial-like elements, while mesenchymal tumour components were not demonstrated. It is concluded that this type of nephroblastoma, resembling a renal adenocarcinoma, should be borne in mind with a view to an optimal postoperative treatment.
Based on a randomized material of 100 histologically verified transthoracic aspiration biopsies an inter- and intraobserver variation study was carried out by the two investigators. The results showed a high degree of diagnostic reproducibility pointing towards the value of the aspiration biopsy per se. It is concluded that this diagnostic method is reliable in the hands of the expert and useful even in the hands of a pathologist only given a short introduction to--and a reasonable amount of correction within--this special field.
In 198 randomized autopsies of adults, hyaline pleural plagues were found in 49 men and 17 women; bilateral in 47 cases, unilateral in 19. No correlation between previous pr present pulmonary disease and hyaline plaques was found. Asbestos bodies were found in nine men and five women; nine out of these 14 cases with asbestos bodies also had hyaline pleural plaques.
On correlating our cytological classification of aspirated malignant tumour cells from intrathoracic lesions with the histological classification of the same lesions, agreement was found in 75 per cent. The cytological criteria used for the classification of the differentiated types of tumour cells were convenient. It is proposed to utilize the cytological classification in the planning of an individualized tumour therapy in cases not accessible to pretreatment bioptic histological classification.
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The effects of burimamide, an H2-antihistamine, on the anaphylactic reaction in the skin of ovalbumin-sensitized guinea pigs were studied in vitro. Burimamide enhanced the concentration of histamine in the supernatant fraction of antigen-challenged sensitized guinea-pig skin in a dose-related way, but did not alter the concentration of residual histamine in the skin after antigen challenge. The enhanced histamine concentration in the supernatant was not due to increased histamine synthesis by the target cells during the reaction because the increase was not inhibited by a histidine decarboxylase inhibitor, Brocresine. In further experiments it was shown that guinea-pig skin possesses potent histamine degrading enzyme activity which is inhibited by burimamide. We suggest that inhibition of these degrading enzymes leads to the increase in histamine concentration in the presence of burimamide.
Incubation of histamine with guinea-pig skin or with a particle-free supernatant fraction of homogenized skin caused progressive temperature dependent decay of histamine activity. The loss of histamine activity was due to enzymic degradation of histamine by diamine oxidase since it was reversed by aminoguanidine. Burimamide caused a similar though less marked reversal of histamine degradation. Studies using S-adenosylmethionine, an essential cofactor of histamine-N-methyl transferase suggested the presence in a latent form in guinea-pig skin of a second pathway for enzymic degradation of histamine involving N-methylation. Pretreatment of guinea-pigs with aminoguanidine caused marked potentiation of the 72 hr homologous PCA reaction which suggests that histamine degradation is an important modulating factor in immediate allergic reaction in this species.
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The discovery of two mating types in the cellular slime mould Polysphondylium pallidum is reported. Two developmental mutants produced in strains of opposite mating type but which do not proceed past the aggregation stage of development are capable of producing macrocysts. These macrosysts were viable and 5 to 10% germinated after 6 weeks of storage. When the macrocyst progeny were cloned, several classes of non-parental phenotypes were recovered.
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