Ultrasonically guided aspiration needle biopsy has been used in our department as a diagnostic procedure in chest disease. Twenty patients with chest disease judged to have lesions abutted to the thoracic wall were selected as candidates for this technique, which was a linear electronic array scanner provided with a specially designed guide channel. In all sixteen patients with malignant disease, this method provided biopsies that yielded malignant cells on cytologic examination. The diagnostic accuracy was excellent and no complications were encountered.

Adenocarcinoma↗

PubMed1982

Responses of serum and lung angiotensin-converting enzyme activities in the early phase of pulmonary damage induced by oleic acid in dogs.

Changes in angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) activity in the lung tissue, edema fluid, and bloodstream were studied during induction of lung edema by oleic acid. Left lungs of 25 mongrel dogs were unilaterally treated with oleic acid (0.1 ml/kg) injected into the right atrium during right pulmonary artery occlusion for 2.5 min. Lung tissue and serum ACE activities and physiologic parameters were followed for as long as 180 min. Serum ACE activity increased to 106% at 2.5 min (p less than 0.025) and to 128% at 180 min. The ACE activity of treated lung tissue decreased compared with the zero time control in terms of tissue DNA content (at 180 min, p less than 0.05). Furthermore, the left to right activity ratio of the precipitate fraction decreased to 0.59 as early as 5 min after oleic acid injection (p less than 0.01). Changes in these ACE activities preceded those of arterial oxygen tension and base transthoracic electrical impedance. Edema fluid at 45 min had a specific activity that was 1.62 times greater than that in serum. These data indicated that the change in ACE activity reflected the impairment of pulmonary vascular endothelial cells and that the oleic acid injured endothelial cells of the pulmonary capillaries as early as 2.5 min after administration.

Animals↗

PubMed1982

[Effects of physical loads on the urinary excretion of metabolites from organic solvents. Part I. Change in the urinary excretion of glycine conjugate, hippuric acids, and glycine after a physical burden].

Effects of physical loads on the excretion of urinary glycine conjugates, which are commonly used as an index of organic solvent intake, were examined. After physical exertion by Kendo exercise university students for about 2 hours, urinary protein excretion changed from the levels of (-) or (+) before the exercise to (+) to (formula: see text) after the exercise revealed by the test-tape semi-quantitative indication, and the levels of urinary creatinine increased to approximately 1.9 time and initial level. Under the present experimental conditions, the following results were obtained. 1) Statistically no significant change was observed in the levels of urinary hippuric acid, but an increasing trend was recognized. 2) The glycine levels in the urine decreased and the significance was stressed when the values were adjusted with reference to the specific gravity of urine or to the levels of urinary creatinine. 3) The ratio of hippuric acid to the glycine in the urine increased almost twice as high as the initial ratio and the physical load seemed to promote the glycine conjugation. 4) As to the adjusted levels of urinary metabolites, especially due to several organic solvents, values adjusted with reference to the specific gravity of urine and those to the levels of urinary creatinine correlated well in the samples collected before the exertion. But a poor correlation was observed in the samples collected after the exertion. Therefore, a notice should be given when the adjustment of the values with reference to the levels of urinary creatinine, which is widely used in the health administration practice for organic solvent workers to assess the levels of exposure, since the adjusted values were lowered unnecessarily by excess excretion of creatinine after the physical exertion and the tendency would be exaggerated especially under the low level exposure to organic solvent vapours in the work yard.

Glycine↗

PubMed1982