Melricflash/CW_MedAbstractsAlt huggingface dataset:
Supraventricular tachycardia due to Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome in children: early disappearance and late recurrence The clinical course of 140 patients with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome who had their initial episode of supraventricular tachycardia before 18 years of age was reviewed. Among those whose tachycardia began at age 0 to 2 months, it disappeared in 93% and persisted in 7%. In 31%, it disappeared and reappeared at an average age of 8 years. Among patients whose tachycardia was present after age 5 years, it was persistent in 78% at a mean follow-up period of 7 years. Accessory connection location was mapped by electrophysiologic study in 87 patients and estimated by electrocardiography in 53 patients. There were no differences in tachycardia onset or recurrence based on accessory connection location. Congenital heart defects were present in 37% of all patients, 23% of whom had Ebstein's anomaly. Among all patients who underwent cardiac catheterization, 63% of those with a congenital heart defect had a rightsided accessory connection, whereas 61% of patients with a normal heart had a left-sided connection (p less than 0.01). Multiple accessory connections were found in 12% of patients with a congenital heart defect compared with 6% of those without such a defect. In conclusion: 1) supraventricular tachycardia due to Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome that begins in infancy may disappear, but it frequently recurs in later childhood; 2) if tachycardia is present after age 5 years, it persists in greater than 75% of patients; and 3) the location of the accessory connection does not affect the clinical course of tachycardia in children with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. 

Category: general pathological conditions
Anal ulcerations due to cytomegalovirus in patients with AIDS. Report of six cases. Lesions due to cytomegalovirus (CMV) are frequent in the immunocompromised patient. This is particularly the case in patients with AIDS, where the colon and rectum are the regions most often involved. The authors report six cases of anal ulcerations due to CMV in patients with AIDS. These lesions, confirmed histologically, were either isolated or associated with other localizations. Treatment is based on specific antiviral agents but resistance and recurrence can occur. The current report underlines the importance of histologic examination of anal lesions in HIV-infected subjects. 

Category: digestive system diseases
Crohn disease in the pediatric patient: CT evaluation. Computed tomographic (CT) scans and medical records of 25 children (age range, 10-18 years) with pathologically proved Crohn disease were reviewed to better define the role of CT in the management of pediatric patients with Crohn disease. CT findings included small bowel thickening (range, 5-10 mm) (n = 20), colonic wall thickening (range, 6-15 mm) (n = 15), and small bowel dilation (n = 5). Mesenteric abnormalities such as adenopathy and focal fatty proliferation were seen in 11 to 18 patients, respectively. Extraluminal complications were easily identified with CT. Abscesses were noted in seven patients, inflammatory masses in four, and perirectal or perineal inflammation in 10. Fistulas were detected in four patients. The authors conclude that CT should be the initial imaging study performed in children with known Crohn disease and a changing pattern of clinical symptoms. 

Category: general pathological conditions
Metastatic tumors of the umbilicus: a review 1830-1989. Umbilical metastases from known and unknown primary cancers are rare. The eponym "Sister Mary Joseph's nodule" has been used by generations of physicians. The first reports of this clinical sign were from Walshe in 1846. A review of the literature revealed 265 cases from then until 1989. Only 85 cases of umbilical metastasis from unknown primary tumors were found. This review should help us to focus on the common and uncommon primary sites in the diagnosis of patients with this finding. A single case report and the work-up for the hidden primary tumor are described. 

Category: general pathological conditions
Clinical controversies surrounding thrombolytic therapy in acute myocardial infarction. The treatment of acute myocardial infarction has changed tremendously in the past decade because thrombolytic therapy has become the treatment of choice for the patient with acute myocardial infarction. Although many issues have been resolved, several controversial issues remain unresolved. This article addresses thrombolytic agents in terms of their superiority in achieving infarct vessel patency and mortality reduction as well as the role of thrombolysis in patients who present with chest pain of greater than 6 hours' duration, who are elderly, and who have an inferior infarction. 

Category: cardiovascular diseases
Aerobic and anaerobic bacteriology of wounds and cutaneous abscesses. The aerobic and anaerobic microbiologic characteristics of 584 wounds and 676 skin or soft-tissue abscesses were studied and correlated with the infection site. In wounds, aerobic or facultative bacteria only were present in 223 specimens (38%), anaerobes only in 177 specimens (30%), and mixed flora in 184 specimens (32%). In total there were 1470 isolates, 558 aerobic and 912 anaerobic, an average of 2.5 isolates per wound (1.6 anaerobic and 0.9 aerobic isolates). In abscesses, aerobic or facultative bacteria were recovered in 177 specimens (26%), anaerobes only in 243 specimens (36%), and mixed flora in 256 specimens (38%). In total there were 1702 isolates, 602 aerobic and 1100 anaerobic, an average of 2.5 isolates per abscess. The highest rates of anaerobes in wounds were in the inguinal, buttocks, and trunk areas and in abscesses in the perirectal, external genitalia, neck, and inguinal areas. The predominant aerobic organisms were Staphylococcus aureus (363 isolates), group A streptococci (98 isolates), and Escherichia coli (97 isolates). The predominant anaerobic organisms were Bacteroides species (986 isolates), Peptostreptococcus species (559 isolates), Clostridium species (153 isolates), and Fusobacterium species (109 isolates). The predominance of certain isolates in certain anatomical sites was correlated with their distribution in the normal flora adjacent to the infected site. These data highlight the polymicrobial nature of wounds and cutaneous abscesses. 

Category: general pathological conditions
The role of neutrophils and platelets in a rabbit model of thromboembolic stroke. Cerebral ischemia is accompanied by many of the cardinal features of acute inflammation such as neutrophil and platelet activation and accumulation. We sought to determine whether circulating neutrophils or platelets contribute to brain injury in a rabbit model of thromboembolic stroke that includes a fixed duration of superimposed systemic hypotension. We randomized 18 rabbits to receive either antineutrophil antiserum (n = 6), antiplatelet antiserum (n = 5), or nonimmune serum (n = 7). We assessed brain ischemia by measuring cerebral blood flow, intracranial pressure, and infarct size. Following the intracarotid administration of an autologous clot, cerebral blood flow in all groups fell to less than 5 ml/100 g/min during induced hypotension. After restoration of baseline blood pressure, mean cerebral blood flow in neutropenic animals recovered to 20-30 ml/100 g/min while that in control and thrombocytopenic rabbits remained at less than 10 ml/100 g/min. Intracranial pressure in control animals rose steadily to a final value of 241% of baseline, while a much smaller increase (148% of baseline) was noted in the thrombocytopenic group; no change from baseline was evident in the neutropenic group. Infarct size was significantly (p less than 0.05) reduced in the neutropenic group but not in the thrombocytopenic group. These results suggest that neutrophils may be important contributors to ischemia-induced brain injury whereas the role of platelets is more subtle. 

Category: nervous system diseases
Survival of premenopausal women with metastatic breast cancer. Long-term follow-up of Eastern Cooperative Group and Cancer and Leukemia Group B studies. In premenopausal women with metastatic breast cancer, differences in survival curves early during follow-up can be misleading. The authors therefore analyzed long-term survival in 378 patients, entered in three randomized trials, started between 1973 and 1978. Combined data from the three trials were used to increase the power for identifying prognostic variables. Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) trial 7382 randomized patients to oophorectomy plus either cyclophosphamide or combination chemotherapy or observation. Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) 2174 randomized patients who had not progressed 3 months after oophorectomy to combination chemotherapy or combination chemotherapy or observation. Trial ECOG 2177 randomized estrogen receptor (ER) positive or ER-unknown patients to oophorectomy plus combination chemotherapy or immediate combination chemotherapy, and ER-negative patients were directly assigned to combination chemotherapy. Hence ER-negative patients need not have been healthy enough to be randomized to oophorectomy. With only 14% of the patients still alive, median survival on the three studies was 30, 24, and 28 months. The median survival of individual treatments changed noticeably in ECOG 2174 and ECOG 2177 with long-term follow-up. At this time there are no differences in survival between randomized regimens in any of the three trials. In a multivariate model, factors associated with significantly poorer survival were visceral-dominant disease, nodal metastases, breast metastases, age younger than 45 years, ER negativity, and not receiving chemotherapy immediately after oophorectomy. This treatment difference was thus not due to imbalances in the prognostic variables used in the model, but it may be due to imbalances of unknown prognostic factors or differences in patient selection. 

Category: neoplasms
Hemodynamic and electrophysiologic evaluation of patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy surviving cardiac arrest. Hemodynamic and electrophysiologic studies were performed in 30 survivors of sudden cardiac arrest with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HC) to determine responsible factors. Electrophysiologic abnormalities alone were present in 27 patients (90%): sinus node dysfunction in 14 (47%), delayed atrio-ventricular nodal conduction in 1 (3%), abnormal His-Purkinje conduction in 7 (23%), an inducible atrial tachycardia in 7 (23%), and inducible sustained ventricular arrhythmia in 21 (70%). Sustained ventricular arrhythmia was polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (VT) in 18 patients (86%), monomorphic VT in 2 patients (7%) and ventricular fibrillation in 1 patient (3%). In 1 patient the arrhythmia recorded during an episode of cardiac arrest and induced at electrophysiologic study was polymorphic VT. VT was induced with less than or equal to 2 extra-stimuli in only 1 patient (3%) but with less than or equal to 3 extra-stimuli in 20 patients (97%). Potential causes of sudden cardiac arrest were found in all patients and were multiple in 13 patients (43%). These were (1) ventricular electrical instability in 21 patients (70%), (2) severe left ventricular outflow tract obstruction in 8 patients (27%), (3) bradycardia in 5 patients (17%), (4) myocardial ischemia associated with hypotension in 5 patients (17%), and (5) atrial tachycardia resulting in hypotension in 4 patients (13%). Of the 21 patients with inducible sustained ventricular arrhythmia, 17 received an implantable defibrillator device and 4 were treated with antiarrhythmic drugs. Seven patients underwent left ventricular septal myectomy. 

Category: general pathological conditions
A comparison of the efficacy and safety of pergolide and bromocriptine in the treatment of hyperprolactinemia. Pergolide is a synthetic ergoline derivative with highly potent long-acting PRL-lowering activity, allowing therapy of hyperprolactinemia with a once daily administration of the drug. The results of two open-label, randomized controlled multicenter clinical trials are reported. Pergolide (taken once a day), was compared with bromocriptine (taken two to four times daily) regarding efficacy and safety in the reduction of PRL levels, the cessation of galactorrhea and amenorrhea, the improvement in sexual function, and tumor shrinkage in hyperprolactinemia without (trial I; 61 patients) and with radiologically evident pituitary tumors (trial II; 96 patients). Both drugs were equally effective in lowering PRL levels in both trials. A median optimal dose of 50 micrograms pergolide and 5 mg bromocriptine/day suppressed PRL levels in the 61 patients of trial I by more than 80%. During the 24-week investigational period galactorrhea disappeared in 96% and 87% of patients, whereas menstruation returned in 90% and 96% of patients, respectively. An equally high efficacy (optimal median dose: 75-100 micrograms pergolide, 7.5-10 mg bromocriptine daily) was observed in trial II, although the resumption of menses was less frequent than in the patients of trial I (50% and 58% of patients, respectively). Sexual dysfunction improved similarly on both drugs in about half the patients. In addition, tumor shrinkage occurred to a similar extent with both drugs. A high incidence of adverse events was noted especially at the initiation of therapy with both compounds: nausea, dizziness, vomiting, asthenia, headache, and decrease in blood pressure occurred at a similar incidence and extent during the use of pergolide and bromocriptine. Patients in trial I treated with pergolide reported a slightly higher incidence of fever, vasodilatation, and flu syndrome. Conclusions: in these 24-week studies comprising a total of 157 hyperprolactinemic patients, a once daily administration of pergolide was shown to be as safe and effective as the two to four times daily ingestion of bromocriptine. Longer-acting dopamine agonists like pergolide that can be taken once daily, are likely to increase the ease to adherence to the therapeutic regimen. This might result in a higher compliance to medical treatment of hyperprolactinemia. 

Category: nervous system diseases
Myxomatous cyst of the brachial plexus. Case report. The case of a myxomatous cyst of the brachial plexus is presented. The clinical course is reported, and the frequency of the lesion, diagnostic workup, histopathology, and surgical therapy are discussed. 

Category: nervous system diseases
Features distinguishing secondary achalasia from primary achalasia. Eighteen patients with cancer-induced or secondary achalasia (SA) were compared to 421 patients with idiopathic or primary achalasia (PA). The aim of the study was to detect any differences in clinical presentation between the two groups. Mean age of patients with SA was 57.1 (range 15-78) and 47.1 (range 1-90) in patients with PA (p = 0.02). Three patients with SA were 15, 24, and 36 yr old, respectively. Symptom frequency was comparable in SA versus PA. Mean duration of symptoms in SA was 4.5 months, with 15 of the 18 patients experiencing symptoms for six months or less. Weight loss occurred in 88.2% of patients with SA and 57.3% of patients with PA (p less than 0.05). Cancer was at the gastroesophageal junction in 16 patients, duodenum in one, and breast in one. Endoscopy showed tumor in 12 (67%). The esophagram was suspicious for tumor in only 25%. We conclude that patients with SA are older, more likely to lose weight, and have a short duration of symptoms. However, SA may occur in younger patients, and endoscopy with biopsy is necessary in any newly diagnosed case of achalasia. 

Category: digestive system diseases
Rosenthal fibers share epitopes with alpha B-crystallin, glial fibrillary acidic protein, and ubiquitin, but not with vimentin. Immunoelectron microscopy with colloidal gold. Ultrastructural immunoreactivities of alpha B-crystallin, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), ubiquitin, and vimentin in Rosenthal fibers (RFs) isolated from an Alexander's disease brain were investigated using nonosmium and low-temperature embedding technique. The morphology of RFs embedded in Lowicryl K4M resin was well preserved after treatment with 0.5% Triton X-100. alpha B-crystallin immunoreactivity was present in RFs of various sizes and was the strongest in loosely scattered deposits, which were considered to be the initial stage of RFs. Glial fibrillary acidic protein immunoreactivity in RFs was heavy, homogeneous throughout RFs, and equivalent to that in networks of glial filaments. Immunoreactivities of both alpha B-crystallin and GFAP were mainly restricted to the high electron-dense areas within RFs and were proved to exist close to each other by double immunolabeling. Rosenthal fibers were negative for vimentin. Ubiquitin immunoreactivity was relatively homogeneous in RFs with small diameters, but in RFs with large diameters, the immunoreactivity diminished in the center. Based on these observations, combined with the tendency of self-aggregation of alpha B-crystallin, it is conceivable that RFs are huge aggregation products of alpha B-crystallin involving GFAP, and that ubiquitination may be a consequent phenomenon, as it may be in other intracytoplasmic inclusions, such as neurofibrillary tangles and Lewy bodies. 

Category: nervous system diseases
The peritoneal environment during infection. The effect of monomicrobial and polymicrobial bacteria on pO2 and pH. Intraperitoneal (IP) abscesses frequently are composed of aerobes and anaerobes, and, in experimental models, a particulate adjuvant. The environmental changes effected by these components, either singularly or in combination, have not been well defined. The IP pO2, pH, and recoverable bacteria from the peritoneum of rats were quantified over 6 hours during simple aerobic and anaerobic infections and during mixed peritonitis with and without a sterile feces-barium sulfate adjuvant (SFA). Fourteen groups were studied, receiving intraperitoneally, at time of oxygen probe placement, 1 mL normal saline (control), Escherichia coli (EC), Bacteroides fragilis (BF), SFA alone, or a mixture of EC and BF, EC and SFA, BF and SFA, or EC, BF, and SFA. Control animals exhibited a stable IP pO2 and pH during 6 hours. In monomicrobial EC peritonitis, inocula well below the LD50 produced an increased IP pO2 and reduced arterial-peritoneal gradient (APG), with a stable IP pH. By 6 hours lethal doses of EC produced a dramatic decline in IP pO2, with no change in arterial pO2 as well as acidic IP and arterial pHs. Simple BF peritonitis caused no or minor elevations in IP and arterial pO2 with no change in pH. During mixed infections a significant decline in the IP pO2 and pH at 6 hours in those groups infected with both SFA and EC of a moderate, normally sublethal inoculation was observed, while arterial pO2 was unchanged and arterial pH was decreased only slightly. Concomitantly there was a significant increased number of aerobic bacteria in those groups with SFA as adjuvant compared to similar inocula without SFA. This study demonstrates the complex interactions of bacteria, sterile particulate adjuvant (SFA), and the host peritoneum. It suggests that the combination of SFA and aerobic bacteria alter the peritoneal environment to one permitting anaerobic growth and promoting abscess formation. 

Category: digestive system diseases
Ascites increases the resting energy expenditure in liver cirrhosis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of ascites on the energy metabolism of patients with liver cirrhosis. The resting energy expenditure was determined in 10 patients with liver cirrhosis and ascites of moderate or large volume. The resting energy expenditure measurement was performed using indirect calorimetry and the resting energy expenditure predictive value was calculated with the Harris-Benedict equation, both before and after removal of ascitic fluid by paracentesis. Metabolic stress factors were absent in all cases. After an interval of 11.2 +/- 7.7 days between measurements, a weight loss of 16.6 +/- 10.3 kg was observed with paracentesis. The resting energy expenditure measured by indirect calorimetry showed a statistically significant decrease from 1682 +/- 291 to 1523 +/- 240 kcal/day (P less than 0.005) after removal of ascites. The repeatability of our indirect calorimetry method only allowed for the analysis of the results in 4 of 10 patients in whom ascites removal produced a consistent decrease in resting energy expenditure. There were no statistically significant differences between the measurements obtained by indirect calorimetry and those provided by the Harris-Benedict equation, but the latter had a moderate reliability in predicting the real resting energy expenditure of every patient. Our results suggest that, far from being an inert volume, ascites may be associated, at least in some patients, with an increased resting energy expenditure and therefore accelerate the appearance of protein energy malnutrition with corresponding complications. 

Category: digestive system diseases
Pancreatitis. Pancreatitis is a common but rather poorly understood entity most often associated with alcohol abuse or biliary tract disease. Despite the availability of a variety of diagnostic tests and imaging techniques, the diagnosis of pancreatitis continues to be primarily a clinical one. Of major concern to the emergency physician is distinguishing pancreatitis from other, potentially lethal, causes of abdominal pain, and identifying those patients with severe pancreatitis who are at risk for a complicated course secondary to the remote systemic effects of the disease. 

Category: digestive system diseases
Predictive value of lipoprotein (a) and other serum lipoproteins in the angiographic diagnosis of coronary artery disease. To determine the relation among lipids in predicting coronary artery disease (CAD), 213 patients undergoing diagnostic angiography for suspected CAD were prospectively studied. Twenty-one patients had normal coronary arteries and 192 had CAD in 1 to 3 arteries at arteriography with measurements obtained with digital calipers. Lipoproteins were measured and lipoprotein (a) [Lp(a)] was also assayed in a subset of 98 patients with CAD. Statistical analysis was performed using uni- and multivariate techniques to test the association among age, gender, systemic hypertension, diabetes mellitus, cigarette smoking, family history, total cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, very low density lipoprotein cholesterol, apolipoproteins (apo) A-I and apo B, ratio of apo A-I to apo B, and ratio of HDL cholesterol to total cholesterol, to Lp(a) and to CAD. All factors except gender, systemic hypertension, diabetes mellitus and cigarette smoking were univariate predictors of CAD. Multivariate predictors were, in decreasing order of significance, family history, age, HDL/total cholesterol ratio and apo B. When Lp(a) was included, multivariate predictors were age, family history, apo B and Lp(a), in that order. Lipid parameters alone showed that the HDL/total cholesterol ratio and that Lp(a) provide the best predictive tests for the detection of CAD in this referral population and may ultimately become important screening tests for CAD. 

Category: cardiovascular diseases
Scaphoid malunion. We reviewed 10 patients with symptomatic malunion of a carpal scaphoid fracture. All had displacement with dorsiflexed intercalated segment instability, and suffered from pain, restricted range of movement at the wrist and decreased grip strength. The restriction of flexion-extension and the decreased grip strength correlated with the severity of the DISI deformity. Seven patients had a corrective osteotomy, using an anterior wedge-shape bone graft with internal fixation by Herbert screw, and all had satisfactory results. We believe that symptoms associated with scaphoid malunion are related to consequent carpal deformity. 

Category: nervous system diseases