[Primary hyperaldosteronism: diagnosis, treatment and histopathological findings in 15 cases].
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J Lam.
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A patient with multinodular haemangiomatosis of the liver, rapidly deteriorating in the first weeks of life due to severe progressive congestive heart failure, was successfully treated by hepatic artery catheter embolisation at the age of 6 weeks.
Immediately following the introduction of cells of a pyelonephritogenic strain of Escherichia coli (expressing both GS and MS adhesins) into the mouse bladder, these cells were found to be randomly distributed on the mucosal surfaces of both the bladder and the kidney. After 24 hr. these adherent bacterial cells had proliferated to form nonrandomly distributed adherent microcolonies on both mucosal surfaces and large masses within the renal ducts. Large amounts of amorphous material, which we presume to be of both host and bacterial origin, was associated with the bacterial microcolonies on the infected tissues. The removal of urinary slime and tissue coat material by acid pretreatment increased both the degree and the apparent avidity of bacterial adhesion to the bladder mucosa. The adherent bacteria on the bladder mucosa were radically elongated, while those on the kidney mucosa usually retained their short rod-like morphological characteristics. These data suggest that pyelonephritogenic bacteria adhere to mucosal surfaces in both the bladder and kidney, and proliferate to form adherent microcolonies within which bacteria are associated with large amounts of amorphous extracellular material.
The incremental diagnostic yield of clinical data, exercise ECG, stress thallium scintigraphy, and cardiac fluoroscopy to predict coronary and multivessel disease was assessed in 171 symptomatic men by means of multiple logistic regression analyses. When clinical variables alone were analyzed, chest pain type and age were predictive of coronary disease, whereas chest pain type, age, a family history of premature coronary disease before age 55 years, and abnormal ST-T wave changes on the rest ECG were predictive of multivessel disease. The percentage of patients correctly classified by cardiac fluoroscopy (presence or absence of coronary artery calcification), exercise ECG, and thallium scintigraphy was 9%, 25%, and 50%, respectively, greater than for clinical variables, when the presence or absence of coronary disease was the outcome, and 13%, 25%, and 29%, respectively, when multivessel disease was studied; 5% of patients were misclassified. When the 37 clinical and noninvasive test variables were analyzed jointly, the most significant variable predictive of coronary disease was an abnormal thallium scan and for multivessel disease, the amount of exercise performed. The data from this study provide a quantitative model and confirm previous reports that optimal diagnostic efficacy is obtained when noninvasive tests are ordered sequentially. In symptomatic men, cardiac fluoroscopy is a relatively ineffective test when compared to exercise ECG and thallium scintigraphy.
The modified Fontan operation, which consists of ventricular exclusion by obliteration of the right atrioventricular ostium, requires a technique that provides firm and permanent occlusion while preserving the atrioventricular node and bundle. Ten patients underwent such an operation. In 5 of them, closure of the right atrioventricular ostium was achieved by suturing a patch into the valve leaflets; in the other 5, the ventricle was excluded by a patch sutured into the right atrial wall above the annulus fibrosus. None of the patients who underwent this procedure experienced heart block postoperatively. However, three instances of late patch dehiscence occurred, each in the group of patients in whom the patch had been attached to the valve leaflets. We conclude that both patching techniques are safe as far as the atrioventricular node and bundle are concerned but that permanent occlusion is better obtained by implanting the patch into the atrial wall. Therefore, we prefer to use this technique.
Maximal treadmill exercise testing at 1, 3 and 8 hours was used to assess the onset, duration and antianginal efficacy of the dihydropyridine slow channel calcium-blocking agent, nisoldipine, in an oral dose range of 5, 10 and 20 mg. A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled design was used involving 12 patients with stable effort angina. Exercise tolerance was significantly increased 3 hours after each dose, when the maximal beneficial effect occurred. The improvement was observed as early as 1 hour after the 10 and 20 mg dose, and persisted for 8 hours after the 20 mg dose. At 3 hours, the onset of an exercise-induced ST segment depression of 0.1 mV or greater was increased by 62 (p less than 0.05), 75 (p less than 0.01) and 117 seconds (p less than 0.01) with the 5, 10 and 20 mg dose of nisoldipine, respectively, compared with placebo. Similarly, time to onset of angina was significantly increased. The sum of exercise-induced ST segment depression at peak exercise was significantly decreased (p less than 0.05) from 8.7 +/- 2.3 to 6.7 +/- 1.8 and 6.4 +/- 2.0 mm, respectively, after the 10 and 20 mg dose of nisoldipine. The rate-pressure product was significantly greater with nisoldipine than with placebo at the onset of ischemia and at peak exercise (22.8 +/- 1.1 versus 20 +/- 1.4 X 10(3) U for the 20 mg dose; p less than 0.01). Thus, nisoldipine is an effective antianginal agent with a rapid onset of action that improves exercise tolerance, increases angina threshold and persists for at least 8 hours after oral dosing.
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Freshly laid eggs of Drosophila melanogaster were treated with the polyacetylenic compound cis-dehydromatricaria ester. The toxicity of the chemical was enhanced by treatments with long-wavelength ultraviolet light, and the maximum effect was observed when the UV irradiation was performed 4-5 h after the initial contact of the eggs with the chemical.
Exercise tolerance 1, 3 and 8 hours after 80 mg of propranolol, 120 mg of diltiazem and 20 mg of nifedipine, and after 20 minutes of 0.6 mg of sublingual nitroglycerin were compared with placebo in 15 men who had chronic stable angina pectoris. Three hours after drug ingestion, the exercise time was prolonged by 72 +/- 26, 162 +/- 27 and 161 +/- 30 seconds (p less than 0.05) for propranolol, diltiazem and nifedipine, respectively, and by 123 +/- 35 seconds (p less than 0.001) 20 minutes after sublingual nitroglycerin compared with placebo. The onset of ST-segment depression greater than or equal to 0.1 mV was delayed by 120 +/- 34, 203 +/- 29 and 189 +/- 35 seconds (p less than 0.05) and by 79 +/- 23 seconds (p less than 0.05), respectively. After propranolol, the peak rate-pressure product decreased compared with placebo (15.1 +/- 1.1 U [10(-3)] vs 20.0 +/- 1.5 U, p less than 0.01). In contrast, the peak rate-pressure product was greater after diltiazem and nifedipine than after placebo (22.2 +/- 1.3 U [p less than 0.05] and 23.8 +/- 1.4 U [p less than 0.01]). The maximal increase in exercise tolerance was most marked for each drug at 3 hours, but was also significant at 1 hour for nifedipine and at 8 hours for diltiazem. At 3 hours, an increase in exercise time of more than 2 minutes was observed in 4 of 6 patients who had plasma propranolol concentrations greater than 40 ng/ml, 8 of 9 who had a plasma diltiazem concentration greater than 150 ng/ml, and in 7 of 7 who had a plasma nifedipine concentration greater than 90 ng/ml.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
We performed retrograde pulmonary arteriography by means of a pulmonary venous wedge injection in 10 patients with no demonstrable intrapericardial pulmonary arteries by "conventional" angiographic techniques. In all cases but one, the procedure demonstrated the feasibility of a further operation. No complications were observed. Retrograde pulmonary arteriography is an important additional method for determining the existence of surgically accessible pulmonary arteries when other techniques have failed.
Several diagnostic noninvasive tests to detect coronary and multivessel coronary disease are available for women. However, all are imperfect and it is not yet clear whether one particular test provides substantially more information than others. The aim of this study was to evaluate clinical findings, exercise electrocardiography, exercise thallium myocardial scintigraphy and cardiac fluoroscopy in 92 symptomatic women without previous infarction and determine which tests were most useful in determining the presence of coronary disease and its severity. Univariate analysis revealed two clinical, eight exercise electrocardiographic, seven myocardial scintigraphic and seven fluoroscopic variables predictive of coronary or multivessel disease with 70% or greater stenosis. The multivariate discriminant function analysis selected a reversible thallium defect, coronary calcification and character of chest pain syndrome (p less than 0.05) as the variables most predictive of presence or absence of coronary disease. The ranked order of variables most predictive of multivessel disease were cardiac fluoroscopy score, thallium score and extent of ST segment depression in 14 electrocardiographic leads. Each provided statistically significant information to the model. The estimate of predictive accuracy was 89% for coronary disease and 97% for multivessel coronary disease. The results suggest that cardiac fluoroscopy or thallium scintigraphy provide significantly more diagnostic information than exercise electrocardiography in women over a wide range of clinical patient subsets.
In two newborn infants with infradiaphragmatic total anomalous pulmonary venous connection the common pulmonary vein was visualized with 2D echocardiography. The transducer was placed in the subcostal region so as to image the descending aorta and the vertebral column. Apart from the aorta and the inferior vena cava a third vessel was identified, lying anterior to the aorta, the proximal part lying behind the left atrium, the distal part curving anterior in the liver, the distal end being distended. These findings are highly characteristic and diagnostic for total anomalous pulmonary venous connection of the infradiaphragmatic type.
Hepatitis B surface antigens (HBsAg) of both the adw and ayw subtypes were reductively methylated with formaldehyde in the presence of sodium cyanoborohydride. The effect on antigenicity was determined by radioimmunoassay with monoclonal antibodies specific for seven different antigenic determinants. The reaction was shown to eliminate specifically the "d" antigenic activity of HBsAg/adw and to have no effect on HBsAg/ayw. Moreover, the reaction had only a slight affect on HBsAg/adw at one of the "a" antigenic determinants. The sites of modification were determined and the extent of modification of each site was compared to the loss of "d" antigenic activity. These studies demonstrated that the loss of "d" activity was due to the modification of lysine 122 in HBsAg/adw, and that although the amino terminus and lysine residues 141 and 160 of both HBsAg/adw and HBsAg/ayw are reactive, their modification does not alter any measurable antigenic activity.
In a cooperative, retrospective, study 120 children are reviewed with preexcitation pattern. 80 patients had tachycardias; 54 children were under 1 year, 49 under 3 months of age at their first attack. In 50% the preexcitation pattern disappeared in the first year of life, allthough intermittent preexcitation could be seen in some patients. In 12 patients a circusmovement tachycardia was proved on the surface ecg; in the group of 63 children with a tachycardia of unknown origin probably more may be caused by this mechanism. A beneficial effect of digoxin in childhood is noticed, with good response in 45 cases. A possible explanation for the difference in effect of digoxin during childhood and in adolescence is discussed.
A model for ascending unobstructed urinary tract infection was developed in mice to study the pathogenesis of urinary tract infection induced by Escherichia coli associated with urinary tract infection in humans. Specifically, the model was designed to monitor the initial stages of the infectious process, e.g., bacterial adhesion. Mice were selected since the specificity and intensity of bacterial attachment of pyelonephritogenic E. coli strains to human and mouse uroepithelial cells were similar. Female mice were infected by urethral catheterization and installation of bacteria in the urinary bladder. To maximize clearance of unattached bacteria, no obstructive manipulations were performed. After sacrifice, the persistence of bacteria in kidneys and bladder was determined by viable counts on homogenized tissues. The experimental infection was standardized by using one pyelonephritis (HU734) and one normal fecal (414) E. coli isolate. With both strains all of the bladders became infected, but E. coli 414 was eliminated more rapidly than HU734. The percentage of positive kidney cultures increased with the bacterial inoculum concentration and volume. An inoculum of 0.05 ml containing 10(10) bacteria per ml was selected, giving the highest percentage of positive kidney cultures without detectable bacterial spread to the blood stream. The variation in the percentage of positive kidney cultures possibly depended on the degree of vesicoureteric reflux in the individual animals. Both in the kidneys and in the urinary bladders, strain HU734 yielded higher numbers of bacteria at 24 h and persisted longer than did strain 414. Several E. coli pyelonephritis isolates with properties associated with virulence in the human urinary tract consistently were recovered from mouse kidneys and bladders in higher numbers than E. coli strains of human fecal origin lacking those properties. The role of bacterial adhesion per se is the topic of the accompanying paper.
Congenital heart disease occurs in about 50% of patients with Noonan's syndrome. We report the unusual association of stenotic dysplastic pulmonary valve, peripheral pulmonary stenosis, right aortic arch, aberrant left subclavian artery, and complex aortic coarctation in a 9-year-old boy with Noonan's syndrome.
Surgical treatment must be considered for patients with univentricular heart in view of their poor natural history. Since one of the major factors influencing the natural history of this malformation is the amount of pulmonary blood flow, we discuss the potential surgical options by separately considering the two main pathophysiological situations: univentricular heart with restricted pulmonary blood flow, and univentricular heart with unrestricted pulmonary blood flow. We have reviewed the early and late results of surgical treatment based on our experience with 19 patients and the data from the literature. Temporary relief of symptoms can be provided by palliative operations (systemic-pulmonary shunt, atrioseptectomy, enlargement of the outlet foramen, pulmonary artery banding, or palliative Mustard or Senning procedure). "Corrective" surgery, by means of either a modified Fontan operation or ventricular septation, carries a high early mortality (about 30%) and a high early and late morbidity, with only 50% of survivors enjoying an asymptomatic life. Studies of the long-term efficacy of palliative operations as well as our experience and that of others with "corrective" operations, which have a relatively short follow-up, do not yet indicate whether presently available surgical procedures can alter the natural history of patients with univentricular heart.
Because Asian Americans who need to be diagnosed often do not speak English, the authors translated the Psychiatric Status Schedule into several Asian languages and devised an audiovisual version of the schedule. They tested the validity of the audiovisual version by comparing the computer diagnoses derived from interviews by mental health professionals who used the standard translated version with the computer diagnoses of mental health professionals and volunteers who used the audiovisual version. Sixty subjects were diagnosed: 20 Chinese-speaking patients, 20 Korean-speaking patients, and 20 Japanese-speaking subjects. Moderate reliability was found between those who used the standard translated version and those who used the audiovisual version.