Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Y Ichikawa.
We established an endoscopic classification of tracheobronchial tuberculosis with healing processes. According to this classification, the period of time needed for healing was found to be shorter in patients who were treated by aerosolized streptomycin than in those treated with the conventional triple-drug oral regimen.
We studied eight patients with miliary tuberculosis (TB). In all instances, tuberculomatous lesions were demonstrated in the aspirated bone marrow. We conclude that the bone marrow aspiration has great value in diagnosing miliary TB because it provides sufficient material to permit examination of serial sections as needed to confirm the diagnosis. The bone marrow aspiration also is safer than the alternative procedures of lung or liver biopsies.
We determined the circadian variations and prednisolone (PSL)-induced alterations of circulating lymphocyte subsets in 10 healthy adults by two-color flow cytometry using monoclonal antibodies to various lymphocyte subsets in order to collect fundamental data for monitoring of the subsets in clinical practice. This study first examined the changes of CD5+ B cells, gamma delta+ or gamma delta-T cells, activated (HLA-DR+) CD4+ or CD8+ cells, CD11b+ or CD11b-CD8+ cells, and natural killer (NK) cell subsets (CD16+CD57-, CD16+CD57+, CD16-CD57+), in addition to other subsets described before. Compared with the base line values obtained at 9:00 (AM) on day 1, lymphocytes, total B cells, CD5+ B cells, total T cells, gamma delta-T cells, CD4+ cells, activated CD4+ cells, CD45RA-CD4+ cells, and activated CD8+ cells were significantly increased at 20:00 (PM). However, the numbers of CD45RA+CD4+ cells, CD11b+ or CD11b-CD8+ cells and three NK cells subsets did not show significant circadian variations. After oral PSL (30 mg), which was given at 7:00 (AM) on day 2, lymphocytes and almost all lymphocyte subsets, except for CD16+CD57- cells, were significantly decreased; these changes recovered between 13 and 26 hours after PSL administration. The circadian variations and PSL-induced alterations of lymphocyte subsets were relatively comparable, but PSL administration cause a decrease in a wider range of lymphocyte subsets including relatively corticosteroid-resistant subsets such as CD45RA+CD4+ cells, CD8+ cell and NK cell subsets.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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HLA class II alleles in the DQA1, DQB1, DRB1, and DPB1 genes were investigated in Japanese patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) by digestion of polymerase chain reaction amplified DNAs with allele specific restriction endonucleases (PCR-RFLP). A significantly higher frequency of DQB1*03, which includes *0301, *0302, *0303 and determines the serological DQ3 specificity, was observed in female patients less than 30 years in age at onset of disease compared with healthy controls (90.5 vs. 53.2%). This study also confirms the high incidence of DPB1*0201 in early-onset female patients compared to the controls (85.7 vs. 40.3%). Moreover, 81.0% of the early onset female patients were found to carry both DQB1*03 and DPB1*0201, compared to 17.7% of the controls. Since DQB1*03 and DPB1*0201 are not in linkage disequilibrium, both these alleles are supposed to be synergistically involved in disease development in early-onset female MG. In contrast, no obvious association of HLA-DQA1, DQB1, DRB1 and DPB1 alleles with either late-onset patients or patients with thymoma was observed. Clearly, the genetic background of Japanese females with early onset MG is different from that of other patients with MG.
Rhinosporidiosis is due to fungal infection by Rhinosporidium seeberi, which affects predominantly the mucous membrane of the nose and nasopharynx. This disease is characterized by the formation of papillomatous and polypoid lesions and is known to be endemic in India and Sri Lanka. The first case of rhinosporidiosis in Japan is reported in this paper. A 25-year-old male Indian, born in India, living in Japan for a year, visited the outpatient clinic complaining of nasal obstruction and swallowing pain. A friable, irregular, reddish polypoid mass was found in the right nasal cavity. Endoscopy as well as plain X-ray and CT examination showed that the mass originated from the right inferior turbinate and extended into the choana without any sign of bone destruction. The mass removed under general anesthesia showed the typical feature of rhinosporidiosis, that is, papillomatous hyperplasia of the mucosa with sporangia full of spores in different stages of development. One year after treatment, no relapse has been seen in this case.
Integrins are heterodimer molecule that are composed of one alpha subunit and one beta subunit. Integrins appear to be the major receptors by which cells attach to extracellular matrices, and some integrins also mediate important cell-cell adhesion event. In recent years signaling pathway via beta subunit of integrin molecule has been clarified, and 8 kinds of integrin beta subunit are known to exist. And so we investigated the expression of integrin beta subunit in various urological tumor cell lines by using RT-PCR method. Materials are composed of 8 renal cell carcinoma cell lines, 2 urinary bladder carcinoma cell lines, a testicular tumor cell line and a prostate tumor cell line. All 12 cell lines express integrin beta 1 subunit. The expression rate of beta 4 subunit in renal cell carcinoma lines are lower than that in other urological tumor cell lines. The expression of beta 6 subunit was observed in renal cell carcinoma cell lines and testicular tumor line. In testicular tumor cell line we also found the expression of beta 2 subunit which expression had been believed to be specific in leukocyte.
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Peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) transplantation (PBSCT) following high-dose chemotherapy is considered to be an effective and curative strategy for patients with certain malignancies. Optimal conditions for collection of PBSC and successful PBSCT, however, are still controversial. We performed 57 leukaphereses after 19 courses of chemotherapy for mobilization of PBSC (semi-high-dose VP-16 alone; 500 mg/m2/day for 3 or 4 days, 13 courses, or conventional chemotherapy; six courses) combined with subsequent G-CSF administration in 13 patients with malignancies (six with lymphoma, five with leukemia, and two with germ cell tumors). Total numbers of the CD34+ cells and CFU-GM obtained by multiple leukaphereses after one course of mobilization therapy were 0.63-168.74 x 10(6)/kg (mean 33.94) and 0.15-56.0 x 10(5)/kg (mean 8.22), respectively. We demonstrated that many cellular components of peripheral blood (PB) on the day of PBSC harvest, especially CD34+ cell, total leukocyte, myelocyte and monocyte counts, were correlated with the numbers of CFU-GM obtained in each leukapheresis. A daily increase of leukocyte counts was another useful indicator for the day of PBSC harvest. We also found that the time when total leukocyte counts in PB recovered to more than 5000/microliters or when CD34+ cells within PB mononuclear cells exceeded 1% was optimal for PBSC harvest. Our results confirmed that the semi-high-dose regimen with VP-16 combined with G-CSF is a safe method which has both antitumor effects and mobilization ability of PBSC in patients with hematological malignancies. PBSCT following various high-dose chemotherapy regimens with or without total body irradiation was also performed in 11 of the 13 patients, and rapid hematologic recovery was observed in all of the patients.
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Ninety-six patients with primary ovarian cancer were treated at Tsukuba University Hospital between 1984 and 1992. For all of these patients except stage IV, surgical treatment including pelvic and paraaortic lymphadenectomy was employed to confirm the clinical stage exactly. Re-staging laparotomy was performed in cases with an incomplete initial operation. In thirty cases the primary tumors were truly confined to the unilateral ovary (stage Ia). In six patients, though the tumor appeared to be confined to the unilateral ovary macroscopically at the time of the operation, the stage changed to Ic in one case, IIa in one case and IIIc in 4 cases as found by postoperative confirmation. The most common tumor in stage Ia was mucinous cystadenocarcinoma. In 23 patients with stage Ia, histological grading could be obtained. Twenty-one cases were low potential malignancy or grade 1, whereas grade 3 was found in only one case. None, except one case diagnosed as stage Ia, has had a recurrence in spite of the absence of adjunct therapy, but one patient with grade 3 endometrioid carcinoma died of the disease 10 months after staging laparotomy. In conclusion, even though the tumor appears to be confined to one ovary, a staging laparotomy should be conducted in all patients. When the tumor is proved to be limited to only one ovary and is also histologically confirmed to be less than grade 3, it is considered that no further treatment is necessary.
Recently, the roles of inflammatory processes in the pathogenesis of asthma have been emphasized. To elucidate the roles of T lymphocytes in local inflammatory sites in asthma, we examined T cell phenotypes with flow cytometry and carried out cytokine message amplification phenotyping (MAPPing) of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cells taken from patients with steady-state asthma (n = 11). The percentage of CD4+ T cells in total lymphocytes correlated significantly (r = 0.784, p < 0.005) with that of lymphocytes in total CD45+ BAL cells. The positivities of T cell activation markers (CD25, HLA-DR) in CD4+ T cells were inversely correlated with the ratio of CD3+ T cells to total CD45+ BAL cells (CD25, r = 0.648, p = -0.059, HLA-DR, r = -0.741, p < 0.05). Most CD4+ T cells were of the CD45 RO+ "memory" phenotype. With cytokine MAPPing, IL-2 or IFN gamma were detected in only 2 of 11 patients, but IL4 or IL-5 were detected in 8 patients. These results suggest that non-activated TH2 type memory CD4+ T cells accumulate in local inflammatory sites of the bronchi of patients with steady-state asthma, and that these cells releases cytokines (IL-4, IL-5) when activated by some stimuli, which can lead to an asthma attack.
A total of 345 cases of upper urinary tract stones (188 renal and 157 ureteral stones) were treated by extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) monotherapy using the Dornier lithotriptor MFL5000. Of these cases 294 (85.2%) had stones less than 20 mm in length. A double-J ureteral stent was placed in 40 cases of renal stones and 8 ureteral stones due to large stone burden or failure of in situ ESWL for impacted stones. Epidural or spinal anesthesia was necessary in 32 cases to maximize the generator voltage or to prevent intractable pain. The number of ESWL sessions and shock waves increased in accordance with the stone size, with an average of 1.6 and 4442, respectively. Multiple sessions were required in 68 cases of renal stones (36.2%) and 59 of ureteral stones (37.6%). With a 3-month follow-up, the stone-free rate was 60.5% for renal stones and 89.4% for ureteral stones, with the overall stone-free rate of 74.7%. Including the cases with residual fragments less than 4 mm, ESWL monotherapy was successful for 86.4% of renal stones and 93.6% of ureteral stones, achieving the overall success rate of 89.9%. No serious complications related to ESWL were observed. Four cases of impacted ureteral stones underwent ureteroscopic extraction or open ureterolithotomy for fragment removal. ESWL monotherapy using the Dornier MFL5000 is an effective and noninvasive method of treating upper urinary tract stones. Satisfactory fragmentation and clearance can be achieved with multiple sessions even for large or impacted stones, but alternative procedures may be necessary to salvage fragments of impacted stones.
Concentrations of thrombomodulin in blood plasma were measured by a one-step sandwich enzyme immunoassay (EIA). The concentrations in normal healthy subjects were 9.9 +/- 2.9 ng/ml. The concentrations were found to be significantly higher in patients with SLE, RA and other collagen diseases in their active stages than at their non-active stages. The concentrations increased in patients with DIC, and significantly higher levels were observed when DIC was complicated by multiple organ failure. These findings indicate that plasma concentrations of thrombomodulin may be a useful parameter for vascular injuries caused by inflammatory processes or coagulation/fibrinolysis reactions.
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"Lipo-PGE1", PGE1 incorporated into lipid microspheres (LM), has marked antiplatelet and vasodilatory actions. Since LM largely accumulate in inflamed vascular lesions, lipo-PGE1 shows a marked efficacy for treating vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis and vasculitis. Another recently developed drugs against intractable vasculitis are monoclonal antibodies to surface antigens of lymphocytes. Treatment with humanized anti-CDw52, and subsequent anti-CD4 monoclonal antibodies was reported to have brought remission up to 42 months.
A clinical trial was conducted in 22 SLE patients with central nervous system (CNS) disorder in which the efficacy of pulse methylprednisolone suleptanate at the dose of 400 mg or 800 mg (as methylprednisolone) was assessed. The symptoms of CNS disorder disappeared within 40 days after pulse therapy in all of the 16 patients with organic brain syndrome (OBS). No improvement in the symptoms took place in any but one of the five patients who had cerebrovascular disorder. One SLE patient with depression showed improvement 55 days after pulse therapy. In the patients with OBS who had not received pulse therapy until 28 days or more after onset of CNS disorder, the symptoms disappeared in 20 days or more in both 400 mg and 800 mg dose groups. On the other hand, five of the six patients given the dose of 800 mg within 10 days of occurrence of the disease experienced a complete relief of the symptoms in 10 days after pulse therapy. However, at least 13 days were required for complete relief in all the four patients of the 400 mg group. The adverse reactions reported consisted of hyperlipemia, diabetes mellitus, and infections such as thrush or herpes zoster. The above results suggest that methylprednisolone pulse therapy is useful in the treatment of CNS disorder associated with SLE, particularly in patients with OBS who are given the dose of 800 mg early after onset of the disease.