Diffuse myocardial infarction caused by isolated bilateral coronary ostial stenoses in a young woman: report of a case.

A young Japanese woman who appeared to be free from any coronary risk factors was admitted to a local hospital with chest pain. Serological tests showed no evidence of inflammation; however, an electrocardiogram revealed diffuse myocardial ischemia and a coronary angiogram demonstrated isolated bilateral coronary ostial stenoses. Moreover, her serum creatine phosphokinase level was high. On the day following admission, the patient developed severe cardiogenic shock, and she was transferred to our hospital where emergency coronary artery bypass grafting with the saphenous veins was performed using retrograde tepid blood cardioplegia. Recovery of cardiac function was immediate and her postoperative course was uneventful. We suspect that fibromuscular dysplasia was the most likely cause of the ostial stenoses in this patient.

Enhancement of neutrophil infiltration in the corpus after failure of Helicobacter pylori eradication.

Neutrophil accumulation plays an important role in Helicobacter pylori-associated gastric mucosal injury. In this study, the mucosal content of myeloperoxidase (MPO), which is a measure of neutrophil accumulation and interleukin-8 (IL-8) was assayed and changes in MPO and IL-8 content were determined before and after H. pylori eradication therapy. Thirty-seven H. pylori-positive patients (11DU/26GU) underwent H. pylori eradication therapy with lansoprazole (30 mg/day, 6 weeks) and amoxicillin (2 g/day, 2 weeks), followed by famotidine (20 mg/day, 8 weeks). H. pylori-infection status was evaluated by routine endoscopic examinations (culture, CLO, histology). Immediately and 8 weeks after cessation of the anti-H. pylori therapy, these tests were repeated. Intragastric urease activity was estimated by delta 13CO2, which was obtained by the [13C]urea breath test (UBT). Mucosal samples were taken and tissue MPO and IL-8 contents were assayed by EIA and ELISA, respectively. Histologic examination was also performed. Among the 37 patients, 21 cases of H. pylori infection were eradicated (56.8%). Intragastric urease activity was dramatically reduced immediately after the anti-H. pylori therapy, whereas, it was re-elevated 8 weeks later in the relapsed cases. Antral MPO content was decreased in the eradicated and relapsed cases. MPO in the corpus was also decreased in the eradicated cases. Nevertheless, it was enhanced (3.5-fold) in the relapsed cases at 8 weeks after therapy. Changes in mucosal IL-8 content were similar to those of MPO. In eradicated cases, neutrophil infiltration is improved in both the antrum and corpus. However failure of eradication therapy results in the enhancement of neutrophil accumulation in the corpus. Further study is necessary to clarify the mechanism of neutrophil accumulation after therapy for H. pylori.

Impaired high-shear-stress-induced platelet aggregation in patients with chronic renal failure undergoing haemodialysis.

We investigated shear-induced platelet aggregation (SIPA) in 30 patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) undergoing haemodialysis. 26 patients showed a significant decrease in SIPA at high shear stress but no change in SIPA at low shear stress. The former reaction reflects the interaction between plasma von Willebrand factor (vWF) and its platelet receptors, glycoprotein (GP) Ib-IX and IIb/IIIa complex, whereas the latter is assumed to involve the binding of plasma fibrinogen to GP IIb/IIIa complex. These SIPA profiles in CRF patients after haemodialysis showed almost no change compared to those before haemodialysis. The ratio of ristocetin cofactor/vWF antigen in plasma was slightly lower in CRF patients than in controls (P < 0.01). However, the level of GPIb antigen in the platelets of these patients was significantly reduced (42.1 +/- 20.3% of normal platelets), with partial destruction of GPIb antigen. The number of vWF receptors on the GPIb molecule was quantitated using the GPIb-binding protein alboaggregin-B (AL-B), purified from the snake venom of Trimeresurus albolabris. AL-B bound to GPIb at a total of 48,760 +/- 9944 molecules per normal platelet and a Kd of 85.44 +/- 15.70 nM at saturation. In contrast, binding in CRF platelets was 22,980 +/- 6395 molecules per platelet and Kd was 50.08 +/- 13.83 nM. Taking these results together, we conclude that the impaired SIPA found in CRF patients is due to both abnormalities in plasma vWF and in its platelet GPIb receptor.

Cortical photons in early development of frog eggs: comparative study of photon emission between nuclear division and cytoplasmic fission.

In the study of cell division in the early development of frog eggs, cortical photon emission was investigated by converting small light emission from living cells into digital pulses of potentials and recording the integrals of these pulses (analog method), counting the number of pulses (photon-counting method), and counting the number of integrated pulses (improved photon-counting method). By the analog and improved photon-counting methods, changes in photon emission due to cell division could be clearly detected. The emitted light increased about 5.10(-19)W at the start of a cleavage furrow. Rapid changes in chemical reactions causing photon emission were compared during nuclear division and cytoplasmic phases. This emission occurred mainly in cytoplasmic fission, the rate being greater than in nuclear division by a factor of about 2.9. Chemical reaction rates were shown to differ according to bulk emission, thus indicating the mechanisms for the reactions to also differ.

Photon emission during cleavage of frog eggs.

Emission of light was detected from the surface of embryos of the frog, Rana japonica, during early cleavage by a photon counting and an "analog separation (integrated photons) method". The light-emission from an egg was more than 5.6 x 10(-19) W at the beginning of the first cleavage.