Weil's disease with elevated plasma D-dimer.

We report a case of Weil's disease manifesting elevation of plasma D-dimer in the acute phase. Later, in the convalescent phase after treatment, the plasma levels of D-dimer returned to normal. Plasma D-dimer can be used as a marker of fibrin formation and degradation. Based on our observations, we conjecture that fibrin formation and fibrinolysis may occur in the acute phase of Weil's disease.

Normal perfusion pressure breakthrough in arteriovenous malformation surgery: the concept revisited with a case report.

The pathophysiological mechanisms and the salient features of normal perfusion pressure breakthrough (NPPB) are discussed on the basis of an operated case of arteriovenous malformation.

Importancia del Helicobacter pylori en la patogénesis del cáncer gástrico. Modelos experimentales en roedores / Importance of Helicobacter pylori in pathogenesis of gastric cancer: Experimental models in rodents

En el Instituto de Cáncer, la prevalencia de la infección de H. pylori en suero presentó un valor de significancia en el grupo con cáncer gástrico comparado con los controles estudiados por edad y sexo. Este estudio sugirió una relación epidemiológica entre la infección por H. pylori y cáncer gástrico. H. pylori muestra un complejo sistema de enzimas, las cuales le sirven para una amplia variedad de funciones. Los efectos tóxicos son producidos por ureasa (UR), fosfolipasa (PL) y alcoholdeshidrogenasa. En el Instituto nos abocamos a la tarea de efectuar una exploración métodica de las actividades enzimáticas en mucosa infectada con H. pylori utilizando el técnica de TLC-autorradioluminografía (cromatografía en papel fino-autorradioluminografía). Este método tiene un margen dinámico amplio y puede ofrecer una técnica analítica para estudiar un compuesto radioactivo y sus enzimas en la mucosa infectad con H. pylori. Fueron estudiadas muestras de biopsias provenientes de 21 pacientes con cáncer gástrico y 95 controles. Aunque una actividad aumentada de UR indica la presencia de lesión mediante H. pylori, las actividades de ADH y PL muestran la cronicidad del daño mucoso en cada grupo. Claramente, el perfil enzimático mostrado en el estudio refleja las "adaptaciones" fisiológicas secundarias a una mucosa lesionada en forma crónica, pero su relación con cáncer gástrico y H. pylori ameritan estudios más profundos. Existe la necesidad urgente de entender los procesos de carcinogénesis utilizando modelos animales. Se realizó un estudio preliminar para explorar el efecto de la infección por H. pylori sobre la inducción de cáncer en roedores C57BL/6 infectados con H. pylori y tratados en agua con N-Metil-N-nitrosourea(MNU). En términos de incidencia en el desarrollo de neoplasias mostró un imcremento en el grupo de MNU infectado previamente con H. pylori. Dichos hallazgos muestran que el modelo animal es adecuado para investigar el efecto de promoción en carcinogénesis gástrica

Bioreactor operated production of lipase: castor oil hydrolysis using partially-purified lipase.

A highly stable lipase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa KKA-5 was produced by batch cultivation technique employing shake flask and 5 L-bioreactor. The bioreactor was run at different airflow rates. Low airflow rates (1 and 3 L/min), did not lead to effective growth and lipase production. Growth increased by about one order and lipase production increased by about 6 times, at an airflow rate of 5 L/min. Lipase production occurred during decelerated cell growth. A highly stable lipase was produced which retained its activity in the running bioreactor, even after a period of one month. This stable lipase was partially-purified using ammonium sulphate precipitation technique. Castor oil was hydrolyzed using 300U crude and partially-purified lipase, each. Approximately 21-fold, partially-purified lipase could hydrolyze 81% castor oil within a period of 96 hr, where as only 63% hydrolysis was obtained, in 216 hour, when crude lipase was used.

Clinico-pathological predictive factors of response to interferon therapy in chronic hepatitis C.

We performed a clinico-pathological study to determine which pre-treatment factors could predict the response to interferon (IFN) therapy in 55 Japanese patients with chronic hepatitis C. Responses to the IFN therapy were evaluated as sustained response, relapse and non-response by the presence or absence of serum hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA during the course of treatment and at least 6-months post-treatment. The numbers of sustained response, relapse and non-response were 16 (29.0%), 25 (45.5%) and 14 (25.5%), respectively. Eight out of 16 sustained response cases (50%) showed HCV genotype III. Eight among 10 patients with HCV genotype III (80%) were sustained responders. HCV genotypes were found to be correlated with the response to the IFN therapy (p < 0.0001). None of the histological features, the types of the IFN therapy and other clinical factors showed significant differences. These findings suggest that outcome of the IFN therapy in chronic hepatitis C can be predicted by a virological factor, and that HCV genotype III is a useful predictor of a favorable outcome.

Sensitization to sugar cane pollen in Okinawan allergic children.

Specific IgE antibodies to sugar cane pollen were investigated in seventy-four Okinawan children who suffered from allergic disorders. Only two (2.7%) with asthma of the 74 patients had specific IgE antibodies to sugar cane pollen as well as house dust and Dermatophagoides farinae. However, they have no histories of their symptoms being aggravated when sugar cane flowers bloom. From these results, the sensitization to sugar cane pollen exists in a small number of Okinawan allergic children, however, the low incidence of positivity could reflect lack of exposure to sensitizing doses of sugar cane pollen in these children.