In cochlear basal turns of 22 guinea pigs with autoradiography, grain density was measured after injection of 3H-cytidine. Following high initial nuclear labelling, a low incorporation in cytoplasm was observed, even after 24 hours. Synthesis of ribosomal RNA in the organ of Corti seems to be slow. Low grain densities in the whole cochlea presuppose a blood-lymph barrier to cytidine. After white noise (85 dB SPL, 12 hours) were seen a more rapid incorporation into nuclei and after 24 hours an increased labelling of cytoplasm of ganglion cells, fibrocytes and inner hair cells, less of outer hair cells. This might be induced by increased blood flow, concentration of the precursor in the lymphs, cell permeability of alterations of the cellular nucleotide pool. But a real stimulation of cochlear RNA synthesis seems to be the most likely. On comparing different turns, a peak in grain density was found over nuclei of the organ of Corti after 1 hour in the 2nd turn. After 24 hours, cytoplasmic labelling showed a decrease only in outer hair cells towards apical turns.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Cytologic findings in vaginal smears from patients under treatment with cyclophosphamide.

A report is given on the vaginal smears of 55 patients with ovarian carcinomas who were treated with cyclophosphamide either alone or in combination with other therapies. The changes occurring under the treatment are demonstrated and compared with the findings before therapy. A shift to lesser maturation depending upon drug dose and the appearance of the so-called "polychromatic and polymorphous near type" are described. This smear type was found in about 60 per cent of all cases and was reversible after cessation of the therapy. The characteristics of the "polychromatic and polymorphous smear type" are presented.

Aged↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Cytologic presentation of recurrent carcinoma of the uterine cervix and corpus after radiotherapy.

In 40 women who had received radiotherapy for gynecologic carcinoma, biopsy was performed because recurrence of the tumor was clinically and/or cytologically suspected. Malignant tissue was found in two-thirds of the biopsy specimens. All the cytologic smears that preceded the biopsies were rescrutinized in order to establish criteria for recurrence of tumor. The initial indication of recurrence of squamous cell carcinoma was small cells with extremely dark, hyperchromatic nuclei. The nuclei were, as a rule, elongated, and their maximum diameter was about 8 micrometers. In the first smears these cells lay singly; later they were shed in clusters. The typical larger polymorphic cells without irradiation changes appeared later. Recurrence of adenocarcinoma was first indicated by more or less polymorphic, mainly ovoid naked nuclei about 20 micrometers in diameter with prominent nucleoli. The diagnosis of recurrent adenocarcinoma is often difficult since nuclear hyperchromasia may be absent in the early smears.

Adenocarcinoma↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The "suspicious" gynecologic smear.

"Suspicious" gynecologic smears from 842 patients over a seven-year period were analyzed for their causes and outcomes. The frequency of the cytologic diagnosis of "suspicious" ranged between 0.5% in 1979 and 1.44% in 1975 of all smears examined. Review of the smears showed that this classification was used to report a variety of conditions, including equivocal possible precancerous changes as well as the presence of severe inflammation, degenerative or atrophic changes, abnormal glandular cells and metaplasia. The cytologic follow-up, following anti-inflammatory or hormonal therapy, showed a conversion to negative findings in 65.1% of all cases, usually within 12 months. In 294 cases, histologic analysis became necessary, revealing precancerous changes or cancer in 147 patients (17.5% of the study group). Smears of postmenopausal women with suspicious glandular or endometrial cells received special analysis. Significant numbers of such cases had histologic findings positive for malignancy (20% of smears with glandular cells and 21.3% with endometrial cells), as did also smears showing post-irradiative changes (34.6%) or atrophic and degenerative changes (17.1%). Therefore, "suspicious" smears in these groups were considered to indicate an increased risk of malignancy. A regimen for the proper management of cases with "suspicious" smears has been established.

Cervix Uteri↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Gluconeogenesis in kidney cortex slices of the guinea pig. Its relation to acidosis and to calcium.

In contrast to rat kidney cortex the glucogenic capacity of kidney cortex slices from normally treated guinea pigs was very low. Reduction of the pH of the incubation medium by either lowering the HCO3-concentration or by increasing the pCO2 resulted only in varying stimulatory effects on glucose production from endogeneous or exogeneous sources. Considerable rates of net synthesis of glucose from lactate, pyruvate, malate, 2-oxoglutarate, glutamate, and glycerol--but not from glutamine--were only observed in kidneys from animals with prolonged metabolic acidosis. Neither in experiments with normally treated animals nor in those with acidotic guinea pigs the glucose production decreased, when calcium was omitted from the incubation medium. Though glutamine was not converted into glucose, it served as a substrate for ammoniagenesis. On the basis of the presented results it is concluded that species differences exist in the regulation of renal gluconeogenesis.

Acidosis, Renal Tubular↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[General anesthesia or peridural anesthesia in primary cesarean section; a comparative study].

In a prospective cooperative study of gynecologists, anaesthesiologists and pediatricians we compared the effect of continuous epidural anaesthesia (23 cases) and of general anaesthesia (24 cases) on mother and newborn. All patients were delivered in the 39. to 41. week of an uncomplicated pregnancy by primary caesarean section for breech presentation or disproportion. Nearly one third of the patients with epidural anaesthesia showed an initial transitory decrease in blood pressure- up to 25%. The mean pO2 was higher (155 mmHg) in the group with the general anaesthesia than in the group with epidural anaesthesia (88 mmHg). Corresponding values for pO2 were found in the umbilical artery (22,8 mmHg after general anaesthesia, 16,6 mmHg after epidural anaesthesia). Concerning the pH in the umbilical artery, the better results were obtained in the group with continuous epidural anaesthesia (7,3 versus 7,27). After general anaesthesia 9 children had a one minute Apgar-score below 8 versus 3 children after epidural anaesthesia; five and ten minutes after birth the Apgar scores were practically identical. The neurologic examination 15 min after delivery revealed a pathologic muscle tone in three cases after general anaesthesia and in one case after epidural anaesthesia. After 7 days all children showed a normal neurobehavior. As no severe differences between the two types of anaesthesia in the effect on mother or newborn could be seen, in uncomplicated pregnancies the choice should be left to the mother.

Anesthesia, Epidural↗