Old man with groin bruising.

A 67-year-old man presented to the emergency department with abdominal pain and groin bruising. He had no history of any disease or drug use. In his breaf story he had a heavy cough five days ago and bruises appeared on the abdomen skin and groin in the last two days. Ecchymosis extends in the midline from umblicus to the penis and scrotum in physical examination (Figure 1). Laboratory evaluation revealed normal hemoglobin level, platelet count, prothrombin time, and activated partial thromboplastin time.

Blunt trauma patient with esophageal perforation.

Traumatic perforation of the esophagus due to blunt trauma is a rare thoracic emergency. The most common causes of esophageal perforation are iatrogenic, and the upper cervical esophageal region is the most often injured. Diagnosis is frequently determined late, and mortality is therefore high. This case report presents a young woman who was admitted to the emergency department (ED) with esophageal perforation after having fallen from a high elevation. Esophageal perforation was diagnosed via thoracoabdominal tomography with ingestion of oral contrast. The present report discusses alternative techniques for diagnosing esophageal perforation in a multitrauma patient.

Are there any differences in the expression of hormonal receptors and proliferation markers between uterine and extrauterine leiomyomas?

The aim of this study is to determine the immunohistochemical expressions of estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and Ki-67 proliferation marker in 8 extrauterine leiomyomas and to compare these values with their uterine counterparts. In all, 8 patients with extrauterine leiomyomas and 20 patients with uterine leiomyomas as a control group were studied. Sections were immunohistochemically stained with estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and Ki-67 antibodies. Labeling indices for estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and Ki-67 were found to be 33.05%+/-31.70%, 14.18%+/-18.80%, and 0.52%+/-1.32% for extrauterine leiomyomas and 65.09%+/-26.65%, 32.53%+/-32.80%, and 0.37%+/-0.71% for uterine leiomyomas, respectively. The difference of labeling indices for progesterone receptor between uterine leiomyomas and extrauterine leiomyomas was statistically significant (P=.002). This study shows that increased expression of progesterone receptor is observed only in uterine leiomyomas during the reproductive period. However, it seems that additional factors to hormone receptors contribute to the development of extrauterine leiomyomas.

Electron transfer from nucleobase electron adducts to 5-bromouracil. Is guanine an ultimate sink for the electron in irradiated DNA?

Electron transfer to 5-bromouracil (5-BrU) from nucleobase (N) electron adducts (and their protonated forms) has been studied by product analysis and pulse radiolysis. When an electron is transferred to 5-BrU, the ensuing 5-BrU radical anion rapidly loses a bromide ion; the uracilyl radical thus formed reacts with added t-butanol, yielding uracil. From the uracil yields measured as the function of [N]/[5-BrU] after gamma-radiolysis of Ar-saturated solutions it is concluded that thymine and adenine electron adducts and their heteroatomprotonated forms transfer electrons quantitatively to 5-BrU. Like the electron adduct of adenine, those of cytosine and guanine are rapidly protonated by water. The (protonated) electron adduct of guanine does not transfer an electron to 5-BrU, and in the case of the (protonated) cytosine electron adduct only partial electron transfer is observed. The results can be modelled if the protonated electron adduct (protonated at N(3) or at the amino group) of cytosine, CH., which can transfer its electron to 5-BrU (k approximately 2 x 10(7) dm3 mol-1 s-1) is transformed in a slow tautomerization reaction (k approximately 2.5 x +/- 10(3) s-1) into another form C'H. (possibly protonated at C(6) or C(5)) which does not transfer an electron to 5-BrU. There is also electron transfer from the electron adduct of thymine to cytosine and guanine which serve as electron sinks. The rate constant of electron transfer from the thymine electron adduct to cytosine is about 250 times greater than that of the reverse reaction. The heteroatom-protonated electron-adduct of thymidine transfers an electron to 5-BrU more slowly (k = 2.3 x 10(7) dm3 mol-1 s-1) than the electron-adduct itself (k = 7.2 x 10(8) dm3 mol-1 s-1). Phosphate buffer-induced protonation of the electron-adduct of thymine at carbon (C(6)) prevents electron transfer to 5-BrU. Such phosphate catalysis is also observed as an intramolecular process (k approximately 2 x 10(4) s-1) with thymidine-5'-phosphate but not with the 3'-phosphate. Phosphate-induced protonation at carbon also reduces transfer efficiency for the electron adducts of dinucleoside phosphates such as dTpdT and dTpdA. The data raise the question whether in DNA the guanine moiety may act as the ultimate sink of the electron in competition with other processes such as protonation at C(6) of the thymine electron adduct.