Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to T Nojima.
We present a case of hypothalamic hamartoma in which the signal intensity of the lesion significantly changed during the course of follow-up. To date, stability of the lesion morphology over time has been considered an important diagnostic criterion of hypothalamic hamartoma. Radiologists should be aware that in hypothalamic hamartoma, signal intensity can change during its natural course.
This study determined the presence of adiponectin, T-cadherin (an adiponectin receptor) and tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) in damaged myocytes from autopsied patients with acute or old myocardial infarction (MI) or dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), using immunohistochemical staining. The enrolled patients included eight with acute MI, six with old MI and seven with DCM. Four autopsied individuals with no cardiac lesions were also enrolled as controls. Adiponectin and TNF-alpha were not observed in normal myocytes from control subjects, but T-cadherin was weakly detected. Immunoreactivity for adiponectin and T-cadherin was observed at the periphery of damaged myocytes from MI and DCM patients; intracellular reactivity for TNF-alpha was also seen. There were no statistically significant differences in the degree of reactivity for each molecule in the myocytes between the MI and DCM patients. These results suggest that the presence of adiponectin and TNF-alpha in damaged myocytes may contribute to the processes of myocardial injury occurring in MI and DCM.
This report describes the case of a 47-year old man who developed myositis in association with hepatitis B surface antigen-positive hepatitis. Interestingly, the myositis repeatedly worsened 2 months after the exacerbation of hepatitis in this case, suggesting a close association between hepatitis B infection and myositis. The dose of prednisolone was increased twice in order to treat the exacerbating myositis, resulting in improvement of the muscle symptoms, but the patient eventually died of liver failure. Only 5 other myositis patients with hepatitis B antigenemia have been reported in the literature. We review these cases of the association between hepatitis B infection and myositis.
Eleven hyperreflective hepatic nodules in eight patients were examined by means of intraoperative ultrasonography (US) with the transducer placed on the liver surface. The nodules included four cavernous hemangiomas, four hepatocellular carcinomas, one metastatic tumor, and two regenerative nodules in cirrhotic livers. When the relevant part of the liver was compressed during US observation, the echogenicity was reduced only in the case of cavernous hemangioma. This phenomenon is considered to be unique to cavernous hemangioma.
A 26-year-old housewife, born of consanguineous parentage, began to have gait and speech disturbance. Her brother had died from suffocation because of dysphagia. At thirty-two, she developed difficulty in swallowing, clumsiness and incontinence. When she was thirty-six she had pseudobulbar palsy, vertical gaze paresis, hyperreflexia and muscular atrophy of the upper half of the body. CT scan showed cerebral atrophy. Her mental function progressively deteriorated and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis associated with dementia was suspected. She died at the age of thirty-seven. Diagnosis was made only by autopsy. There was no particular general pathologic finding excepting aspiration pneumonia. Microscopical examination revealed numerous distended neurons with accumulation of light brown pigments by Luxol fast blue/H & E stains, especially in hypothalamus, substantia nigra and nuclei of oculomotor nerves. To a lesser extent such neurons were noted ubiquitously. The stored material was mainly composed of lipofuscin and ceroid. Ultrastructurally they presented the various structures which have previously been reported, except for finger print profiles. The pigmentary deposits were shown to be immunoreactive with polyclonal antibody directed against amyloid beta-protein.
We report a patient with multiple metastases of Ewing's sarcoma in whom the tumor vanished after a bacterial infection. To the best of our knowledge, no comparable case with Ewing's sarcoma has been reported in the literature. The patient was a 17-year-old male who had an irregular destructive lesion of the left pelvis on radiologic examination. Pathologic examination of a biopsy specimen revealed Ewing's sarcoma. After the operation, a roentgenogram showed multiple spinal metastases with paraplegia. Despite initiation of chemotherapy, a subsequent bone scan showed several areas of increased uptake indicating multiple metastatic lesions. A fistula with purulent discharge opened at the operative site. While being treated with antibiotics and fistula irrigation, the fistula narrowed and his high fever subsided. During this period, radiologic examinations indicated that the multiple bone metastases had nearly disappeared. Nine years after the operation, the patient is alive without any evidence of tumor. We postulate that the antitumor activity in this patient resulted from the bacterial infection, and believe that this case supports continued consideration of immunotherapy for cancer.