Melricflash/CW_MedAbstractsAlt huggingface dataset:
Recanalization of chronic total coronary arterial occlusions by percutaneous excimer-laser and laser-assisted angioplasty. A low primary success and high restenosis rate after recanalization of chronic total occlusions by conventional coronary angioplasty have encouraged the application of new interventional techniques like excimer-laser angioplasty. In 39 patients with a coronary occlusion for 1 to 12 months, recanalization was attempted by laser angioplasty through a multifiber-catheter coupled to a pulsed XeCl excimer laser. After successful passage of the occlusion by a standard guidewire in 27 patients (69%), the laser catheter was advanced over the central guidewire and crossed the occlusion in 25 patients (64%). In 2 patients with unsuccessful passage of the laser catheter, the subsequent attempt with a low profile balloon catheter also failed. In 19 of the 25 patients with successful laser recanalization, the residual stenosis exceeded 50% and was therefore followed by additional balloon angioplasty. The average residual stenosis after laser was 61 +/- 17% of the vessel diameter, and after balloon angioplasty 28 +/- 9% (n = 19), whereas after laser angioplasty alone it was 38 +/- 5% (n = 6). No complications associated with the laser application were observed. Angiographic control after 24 hours showed a reocclusion of 2 (8%) recanalized vessels. In this pilot study, laser angioplasty proved to be a safe and feasible method for the treatment of chronic total coronary occlusions. Because it was necessary to guide the catheter by a central wire, the primary success was limited by a successful passage of the wire of the occlusion. The rate of stand-alone laser angioplasty has to be increased by future improvements of the technique to enable a comparative evaluation of this method with conventional angioplasty. 

Category: general pathological conditions
Normeperidine-induced seizures in hereditary coproporphyria. Seizures are common in acute exacerbations of hepatic porphyria, even though the etiology is not identified in most cases. We have reported a case of normeperidine-induced seizures in a patient with hereditary coproporphyria. Although meperidine is commonly used for pain control during acute attacks in these patients, this report suggests that meperidine is not a good analgesic choice in porphyria. Normeperidine-induced seizures in patients with porphyria may be treated by withdrawal of meperidine therapy and selective use of anticonvulsants. 

Category: nervous system diseases
Diagnostic value of anti-neuronal antibodies for paraneoplastic disorders of the nervous system. The diagnostic value of the presence of anti-neuronal antibodies in serum was examined in 21 patients suspected of paraneoplastic disorders of the nervous system (NS) (group 1) and was compared to three control groups; group 2: 25 patients with a neurological disease, without cancer and no sign of paraneoplastic disorder; group 3: 27 patients with neurological disease and cancer and no signs of a paraneoplastic disorder; group 4: 94 patients with cancer and without neurological disease. In group 1, anti-neuronal nuclear antibodies were detected in eight patients (38%), in titres from 1:1000 to 1:32,000. A small cell lung cancer was present in six patients, ovarian cancer in one patient and in one patient no tumour could be detected. The neurological symptoms preceded a diagnosis of cancer in five out of eight patients. Anti-neuronal antibodies were found in the serum of two out of 94 patients (2%) from control group 3 but not in serum from any of the other control groups. These data indicate a moderate sensitivity of 38%, but a high specificity of 98.6% (95% confidence interval 95.5-99.8%) for the presence of anti-neuronal nuclear antibodies if a paraneoplastic NS disorder is suspected. 

Category: nervous system diseases
Recurrent renal cell carcinoma arising in Wilms' tumor. A 19-month-old black girl had a radical nephrectomy for a Wilms' tumor that contained areas of epithelium indistinguishable from renal cell carcinoma. She was treated with chemotherapy but subsequently had pulmonary metastases develop and massive abdominal recurrence. The recurrent tumor was histologically renal cell carcinoma with no identifiable Wilms' tumor elements. The child died with recurrent and metastatic tumor 13 months after nephrectomy. Pathologic, immunoperoxidase, and flow cytometric studies of this unusual case are presented. 

Category: neoplasms
Persistent carcinoma in situ of the testis after chemotherapy for advanced testicular germ cell tumours. The chemosensitivity of testicular carcinoma in situ (CIS) was analysed in 25 testes excised 10 weeks to 4.5 years following platinum-based chemotherapy. CIS was present in 8 of the 23 evaluable cases (35%), in 5 of which the lesion coexisted with invasive germ cell tumour. It is concluded that CIS may persist or recur after chemotherapy. This has implications for occult presentation of metastatic germ cell tumours and also for the management of the contralateral testis in patients with testicular germ cell tumours. 

Category: neoplasms
Autologous bone marrow transplantation in multiple myeloma: identification of prognostic factors. Multiple myeloma remains a universally fatal malignancy with a median survival time not exceeding 3 years. A clinical trial was undertaken to determine feasibility and efficacy of marrow-ablative chemoradiotherapy supported by unpurged autologous bone marrow (ABMT) and to define prognostic variables. Total body irradiation and either melphalan or thiotepa were administered to 55 patients (median age 53 years; range 20 to 66 years). The group of 21 patients with resistance to standard melphalan-prednisone and to continuous infusions of vincristine and Adriamycin with high dose dexamethasone (VAD) included 7 with primary unresponsive disease and 14 with resistant relapse; among the 34 patients achieving remission with the VAD regimen, 14 were in first and 20 in a subsequent remission. Marked cytoreduction by greater than or equal to 75% was observed among all 21 patients with refractory myeloma, whereas further cytoreduction of this magnitude was noted in only 56% of the 34 patients already in remission after VAD. Five of the 6 early deaths among all 55 patients occurred in the 14 patients with resistant relapse, none of whom achieved complete remission and who, as a group, had median durations of relapse-free and overall survival of only 8 and 7 months, respectively. Among the 41 remaining patients, there was only one early death, and 27% achieved complete remission including a 36% incidence among the 14 patients treated in first remission; their projected 4-year survival rate was 82% regardless of their disease status (first or later remission or primary resistance). When information about sensitivity to prior therapy is unavailable, the presence before ABMT of both high beta-2-microglobulin levels (greater than 3 mg/L) and non-IgG isotype helped identify 9 among the 55 patients with a very poor prognosis: all 8 responders relapsed within 9 months, and 8 patients died within 15 months. By contrast, a 4-year projected survival rate of over 70% for the other patients (about 80% of this series) justifies further investigation of this novel treatment approach in comparison with standard dose regimens. Our results indicate that marrow-ablative therapy cannot be recommended for myeloma patients with resistant relapse or those with a combination of risk factors (advanced tumor burden, absence of IgG isotype). The apparent lack of an adverse effect of even marked plasmacytosis in autografts (up to 30%) emphasizes the need for better cytoreduction rather than bone marrow purging. 

Category: neoplasms
Computed tomography in patients with esophageal perforation. Contrast esophagram is the diagnostic procedure of choice in patients with clinically suspected perforation of the esophagus. In patients in whom the usual clinical signs or symptoms are unrecognized and in whom the diagnosis is obscure, the diagnosis of a perforated esophagus may be suggested by the finding of mediastinal fluid and air on CT. Three patients are reviewed. The perforations included one spontaneous, one from erosion of an esophageal carcinoma, and one iatrogenic. In two of the three patients, the diagnosis of perforated esophagus had not been made initially and in one patient the initial esophagram was interpreted as normal. Computed tomography of the chest in each patient led to the suspected diagnosis of perforated esophagus. Prompt appropriate surgical intervention followed. The findings of mediastinal fluid and more importantly mediastinal air on CT of the chest are strongly suggestive of esophageal perforation. 

Category: digestive system diseases
Pressure-curve variations after trabeculectomy for chronic primary open-angle glaucoma. We report the results of a 5-year study of the influence of trabeculectomy on the maximum intraocular pressure (IOP) and the amplitude of its diurnal oscillation in 26 eyes (14 patients) with open-angle glaucoma. Pressure-curves were recorded before surgery and at 1 year and 5 years after surgery. The latter two pressure-curves demonstrated that trabeculectomy significantly reduced both the maximum IOP and the amplitude of the oscillations below preoperative values. 

Category: general pathological conditions
Endoscopic comparison of cimetidine and sucralfate for prevention of naproxen-induced acute gastroduodenal injury. Effect of scoring method. Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug-induced gastroduodenal mucosal damage observed endoscopically is usually categorized as hemorrhages, erosions, or ulcerations. We undertook this study to determine whether the injury produced by a commonly prescribed NSAID, naproxen, could be reduced by cotherapy with sucralfate or cimetidine and to determine how dependent the differences in the degree of protection against mucosal injury measured were on the scoring system used. Four groups of 20 healthy volunteers with endoscopically normal gastric and duodenal mucosa received naproxen (500 mg twice a day) plus cimetidine (300 mg four times a day or 400 mg twice a day), sucralfate (1 g four times a day), or placebo for seven days. After seven days of therapy, a second endoscopy was performed. Separate scoring systems were used for the presence of hemorrhages, erosions, and a combination of both types of injury. There were significantly fewer mucosal hemorrhages present when naproxen and cimetidine were administered than when naproxen was administered with placebo or sucralfate (placebo vs 300 mg cimetidine, P = 0.04, and placebo vs 400 mg cimetidine, P = 0.006, placebo vs sucralfate, P = 0.26). Both cimetidine dosages resulted in significantly fewer hemorrhages than were present following cotherapy of naproxen and sucralfate (P less than 0.05). In contrast, there was no discernible difference in the mucosal injury between placebo and any drug or between any two active therapies when the injury was evaluated based on the presence of gastric erosions. 

Category: general pathological conditions
Tamoxifen therapy for painful idiopathic gynecomastia. We have evaluated the efficacy of the antiestrogen tamoxifen in six men with painful idiopathic gynecomastia. Subjects were given either tamoxifen or placebo for 2 to 4 months and then were given the other agent for an identical period. Breast size was considered to have been reduced only if it had decreased by one or more Marshall-Tanner stages during the treatment period. Pain reduction with tamoxifen therapy was statistically significant for the group, occurring in five of six subjects during tamoxifen treatment and in only one of six during the placebo period. Size reduction with tamoxifen was only marginally significant for the entire group, but occurred in all three subjects who were initially in Marshall-Tanner stage III and in none of the three subjects who were initially in stage V. During tamoxifen treatment, there was a significant increase in the serum levels of luteinizing hormone and total estradiol and a marginally significant increment in the total testosterone level. 

Category: nervous system diseases
Chronic relapsing experimental allergic neuritis induced by repeated transfer of P2-protein reactive T cell lines. Chronic relapsing experimental allergic neuritis (crEAN) was induced by repeated transfers of P2-protein reactive T lymphocyte lines. Clinically, each intravenous transfer of P2-reactive T cells induced a relapse of the disease with weight loss and flaccid paresis of the hindlimbs followed by recovery. After multiple transfers, recovery from disease was incomplete, leading to increasing neurological deficit during the remissions. The pathology of the lesions during exacerbations was characterized by massive inflammation in the peripheral nervous system, associated with extensive endoneurial oedema, nerve fibre destruction and wallerian degeneration. Selective primary demyelination and remyelination was found in the minority of affected nerve fibres. No onion bulbs were present in chronic lesions. In the central nervous system partial degeneration of the posterior columns reflected the extent of wallerian degeneration in the peripheral nerves and spinal roots. In addition, during stages of active disease some T lymphocytes and upregulation of Ia antigen expression were found in the spinal cord. 

Category: general pathological conditions
Cardiac rhabdomyoma. Rare cause of fetal death. Two cases of nonimmune hydrops fetalis and fetal death associated with cardiac rhabdomyoma are reported. Case 1 presented with fetal supraventricular tachycardia, and cardiac rhabdomyoma was accurately diagnosed by fetal echocardiography. Autopsy revealed multiple rhabdomyomata involving the right atrial free wall, the sinoatrial node, and the left ventricle. The left circumflex coronary artery was extrinsically compressed by adjacent tumor tissue, causing left ventricular myocardial infarction. Case 2 had a unique, pedunculated, ball-like rhabdomyoma that almost totally occluded the mitral orifice. The causes of fetal death in patients with cardiac rhabdomyoma are analyzed and the possibility of fetal surgical management is proposed. 

Category: general pathological conditions
Seismic communication in a blind subterranean mammal: a major somatosensory mechanism in adaptive evolution underground. Seismic communication, through low-frequency and patterned substrate-borne vibrations that are generated by head thumping, and which travel long distances underground, is important in the nonvisual communication of subterranean mole rats of the Spalax ehrenbergi superspecies (2n = 52, 54, 58, and 60) in Israel. This importance pertains both intraspecifically in adaptation and interspecifically in speciation. Neurophysiologic, behavioral, and anatomic findings in this study suggest that the mechanism of long-distance seismic communication is basically somatosensory and is independent of the auditory mechanism. Seismic communication thus appears to be a channel of communication important in the evolution of subterranean mammals that display major adaptation to life underground. 

Category: general pathological conditions
Comparison of the conventional method of lymph node staging with a comprehensive fat-clearing method for gastric adenocarcinoma. Discrepant results in long-term survival between United States and Japanese patients with resectable gastric adenocarcinoma may result from more accurate staging in the Japanese series. The authors compared a comprehensive fat-clearing method with the conventional pathology method of lymph node sampling in 11 patients undergoing curative gastrectomy and extended lymphadenectomy at their institution. Comprehensive fat-clearing doubled total lymph node counts (P less than 0.01), identified smaller lymph nodes (P less than 0.001), and identified more histologically involved nodes of significantly smaller size (P less than 0.001). Comprehensive fat-clearing pathologically upstaged 29% of the authors' eligible specimens. Accurate pathologic staging is necessary when comparing Japanese and United States survival data for resectable gastric adenocarcinomas. 

Category: neoplasms
Penetrating aortic ulcers: diagnosis with MR imaging. The authors studied seven patients with penetrating aortic ulcers with use of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. All patients were evaluated for acute chest symptoms, and the presence of aortic ulcers was confirmed by means of angiography in all seven patients. Five patients also underwent computed tomography (CT). Three patients underwent surgical repair of the thoracic aorta. MR findings included intramural hematoma and focal aortic wall ulceration in four patients, focal ulceration in one, focal intramural hematoma in one, and focal intramural hematoma with rupture in one. The diagnosis of intramural hematoma was made by the detection of increased signal intensity on T1- and T2-weighted MR images. MR imaging was superior to angiography in depicting the extent of intramural thrombus, although one ulceration diagnosed at angiography was missed at MR imaging. MR imaging was superior to CT in differentiating acute intramural hematoma from atherosclerotic plaque and chronic intraluminal thrombus, although it did not depict displaced intimal calcification in one patient with extensive intramural hematoma. 

Category: general pathological conditions
A new method for quantification of regurgitant flow rate using color Doppler flow imaging of the flow convergence region proximal to a discrete orifice. An in vitro study. While color Doppler flow mapping has yielded a quick and relatively sensitive method for visualizing the turbulent jets generated in valvular insufficiency, quantification of the degree of valvular insufficiency has been limited by the dependence of visualization of turbulent jets on hemodynamic as well as instrument-related factors. Color Doppler flow imaging, however, does have the capability of reliably showing the spatial relations of laminar flows. An area where flow accelerates proximal to a regurgitant orifice is commonly visualized on the left ventricular side of a mitral regurgitant orifice, especially when imaging is performed with high gain and a low pulse repetition frequency. This area of flow convergence, where the flow stream narrows symmetrically, can be quantified because velocity and the flow cross-sectional area change in inverse proportion along streamlines centered at the orifice. In this study, a gravity-driven constant-flow system with five sharp-edged diaphragm orifices (ranging from 2.9 to 12 mm in diameter) was imaged both parallel and perpendicular to the direction of flow through the orifice. Color Doppler flow images were produced by zero shifting so that the abrupt change in display color occurred at different velocities. This "aliasing boundary" with a known velocity and a measurable radial distance from the center of the orifice was used to determine an isovelocity hemisphere such that flow rate through the orifice was calculated as 2 pi r2 x Vr, where r is the radial distance from the center of the orifice to the color change and Vr is the velocity at which the color change was noted. Using Vr values from 54 to 14 cm/sec obtained with a 3.75-MHz transducer and from 75 to 18 cm/sec obtained with a 2.5-MHz transducer, we calculated flow rates and found them to correlate with measured flow rates (r = 0.94-0.99). The slope of the regression line was closest to unity when the lowest Vr and the correspondingly largest r were used in the calculation. The flow rates estimated from color Doppler flow imaging could also be used in conjunction with continuous-wave Doppler measurements of the maximal velocity of flow through the orifice to calculate orifice areas (r = 0.75-0.96 correlation with measured areas). 

Category: cardiovascular diseases
Automatic implantable cardioverter-defibrillator implantation without thoracotomy using an endocardial and submuscular patch system. The automatic cardioverter-defibrillator lead system is implanted by a thoracotomy procedure that may result in atelectasis, pleural effusion, cardiac tamponade and lengthy convalescence. A new defibrillator lead system that allows selection of different defibrillating current pathways is implanted without a thoracotomy. Ten patients requiring a cardioverter-defibrillator for recurrent sustained ventricular tachycardia (five patients) or aborted sudden cardiac death (five patients) were evaluated for implantation of this lead system. A lead configuration with a bidirectional defibrillating current pathway was implanted in nine patients. The defibrillation threshold with this lead configuration was 15 J in five patients, 20 J in three and 30 to 35 J in one patient. In the remaining patient the lead system had a 40 J defibrillation threshold and was not implanted. No perioperative complications occurred. Induced ventricular fibrillation was successfully terminated at the predischarge and intermediate follow-up (8 to 12 weeks) electrophysiologic studies. During the follow-up period, there were three deaths (one sudden, two due to heart failure) and two lead system failures (oversensing with inappropriate shocks in one patient and patch lead fracture in another). Implantation of the cardioverter-defibrillator lead system by a nonthoracotomy approach is feasible, has no significant perioperative complications and is well tolerated by patients. Effective defibrillation was demonstrated immediately as well as at intermediate follow-up study. The occurrence of patch lead fracture and oversensing requires improvement in the present (nonthoracotomy) lead system technology. 

Category: cardiovascular diseases
Ascites revealing peritoneal and hepatic extramedullary hematopoiesis with peliosis in agnogenic myeloid metaplasia: case report and review of the literature. A 61-year-old man presented with ascites in the course of agnogenic myeloid metaplasia (AMM). Ascitic fluid was exudative and contained mature and immature leukocytes, erythroid cells, and megakaryocytes as observed on a bone marrow smear. Peritoneal biopsy showed myeloid metaplasia, and liver biopsy revealed intrasinusoidal myeloid metaplasia and peliosis. Ascites cleared after abdominal radiotherapy but treatment resulted in transient aplasia. Subsequently, portal hypertension was demonstrated by hepatic transjugular catheterization. Complications of splenomegaly led to splenectomy and splenorenal shunt followed by fatal acute hepatitis and septic shock. A review of the literature and an analysis of mechanisms of ascites occurring in AMM, especially peritoneal implants of myeloid tissue and occurrence of peliosis in myeloproliferative disorders, are presented. 

Category: general pathological conditions