Continent urinary diversion after radical cystectomy: 3 years' experience.

The authors performed 27 continent urinary diversions among 36 urinary diversion operations between 1992 and 1995. Fifteen orthotopic diversions (14 ileal neobladders, 1 sigma neobladder) and 12 Mainz pouch II were created. During these 3 years, 4 patients died after operation. Tumour progression was observed in four patients. Three ureteral and 1 urethral stricture developed, 1 patient had complete incontinence (after Mainz pouch II operation) and another three had stress and night incontinence. In 12 patients a modified Hautmann operation was performed (modified by the authors) and the ureters were implanted in a 15 cm long tubular afferent ileum. Also they changed the conventional Goodwin technique for ureter implantation in Mainz pouch II operation and instead they used the Paquin technique for ureter reimplantation in the sigma. The authors concluded according to the literature and their own results that continent urinary diversion (ileal or sigma neobladder or Mainz pouch II) could be the first choice after radical cystectomy to achieve for these patients a better quality of life.

Centromere formation in mouse cells cotransformed with human DNA and a dominant marker gene.

A 13,863-base-pair (bp) putative centromeric DNA fragment has been isolated from a human genomic library by using a probe obtained from metaphase chromosomes of human colon carcinoma cells. The abundance of this DNA was estimated to be 16-32 copies per genome. Cotransfection of mouse cells with this sequence and a selectable marker gene (aminoglycoside 3'-phosphotransferase type II, APH-II) resulted in a transformed cell line carrying an additional centromere in a dicentric chromosome. This centromere was capable of binding an anti-centromere antibody. In situ hybridization demonstrated that the human DNA sequence as well as the APH-II gene and vector DNA sequences were located only in the additional centromere of the dicentric chromosome. The extra centromere separated from the dicentric chromosome, forming a stable minichromosome. This functional centromere linked to a dominant selectable marker may be a step toward the construction of an artificial mammalian chromosome.

[The importance of thoracoscopy in the differential diagnosis of pleurisy]. / Znachenie torakoskopii v differentsial'noi diagnostike plevritov.

Thoracoscopy was performed in 50 patients with pleural exudates of unclear etiology. Indications for thoracoscopy were: unclear character of accumulation of exudate, ineffective treatment including pleural punctures in case of hydrothorax. Visual examination of the pleura and chest organs supplemented by cyto- and histological study of tissues taken from involved places of the pleura allowed to arrive at an exact diagnosis in 90% of cases.