ABSTRACT
Abstract A 46-year-old woman with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) was admitted owing to a sudden severe back pain. She had been receiving corticosteroids throughout the course of long-standing nephritis, and had a family history of dissecting aortic aneurysm. Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations of the chest with intravenous contrast revealed a dissecting aortic aneurysm. Surgical replacement of the aortic arch was performed. The histological findings in the thoracic aorta were compatible with cystic medial necrosis. We report this rare case, and review the literature relating to this complication.
ABSTRACT
We have developed a new computerized system for measurement of quantitative bleeding time (QBT) to detect subtle abnormalities of primary hemostasis that are difficult to detect with the standard bleeding time determination. This new apparatus can simultaneously measure the bleeding time (BT; sec), amount of total blood loss (Tv; microl), maximum bleeding rate (Rmax; microl/sec) and bleeding pattern from the bleeding time incision. We have also developed a new holder for the Simplate that enables more consistent incisions and thus improves the reproducibility of the BT test. In this study, the newly developed QBT test was performed in 137 normal healthy volunteers and 10 patients having defined abnormalities of either primary or secondary hemostasis. Comparisons of the standard BT test and our QBT were made in 5 normal subjects and 7 thrombocytopenic patients. Additionally, 6 normal subjects were examined with both tests before and after administration of aspirin. Those results show that our QBT appears to be a more sensitive indicator of primary hemostasis than the standard BT method.
Subject(s)
Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal/therapeutic use , Aspirin/therapeutic use , Bleeding Time/instrumentation , Hemostasis/physiology , Thrombocytopenia/physiopathology , Adolescent , Adult , Case-Control Studies , Computers , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Sensitivity and SpecificitySubject(s)
Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols/therapeutic use , Lymphoma, B-Cell/drug therapy , Lymphoma, Large B-Cell, Diffuse/drug therapy , Lymphoma, T-Cell/drug therapy , Adult , Aged , Cytarabine/administration & dosage , Cytarabine/analogs & derivatives , Drug Administration Schedule , Etoposide/administration & dosage , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Mitoxantrone/administration & dosage , Prednisolone/administration & dosageABSTRACT
During 1990 to 1993, five patients who had been treated in our hospital for aplastic anemia (AA) with a normal karyotype, were found to have hypoplastic myelodysplastic syndromes (hMDS); three patients with RA, one RAEB, and one RAEB-T, and all of them have chromosomal abnormalities. The mean age of the hMDS patients (4 men, 1 woman) was 51.0 years (range 31-61). We retrospectively studied the hematological features of the 5 cases in the early stage without chromosomal abnormalities. They showed, 1) appearance of erythroblasts (3/5), 2) more reticulocyte counts than typical AA (mean 7.8 x 10(4)/microliter), 3) macrocytic anemia (mean MCV 106fl) in peripheral blood, 4) relative erythroid hyperplasia (M/E ratio 0.2-1.5), and 5) low lymphocyte counts (mean percentage of lymphocytes 32, 8%) in bone marrow. Considering about the differences or transformation between AA and hMDS, it is interesting that all five patients have initially had a normal karyotype and subsequently developed chromosomal abnormalities.
