Morphometric evaluation of the frontal sinus in relation to age.

To investigate the development of the frontal sinus size during life, we studied the planar morphometry in 60 frontal radiographs of patients of different age and gender. A professional software (Bersoft Image 4.02) was used to measure the frontal area of the right and left frontal sinuses on radiographic images. A frontal sinus was already evident in 4-year-old children. Unilateral or bilateral absence of the frontal sinus was seen in 5% of cases. The size of the sinusal area increases up to 19-year-old patients, synchronous with general craniofacial growth. In adults, individual differences in size and shape occurred in relation to environmental factors. In some elderly patients, osseous resorption led to an enlargement of the frontal sinus that might complicate surgical procedures performed in this area.

Stenosis of the esophagus in cicatricial pemphigoid resolved by colon interposition: report of a case.

We present herein the exceedingly uncommon case of a patient with cicatricial pemphigoid (CP) who gradually developed conjunctival, oral, and esophageal involvement. Despite long-term medical management with dapsone and disulone, the ocular lesions progressed to produce further scarring, which led to ankyloblepharon, symblepharon, and ultimately, blindness of the right eye. After a period of 5 years the patient developed a total esophageal stricture, intractable by dilation, necessitating esophageal reconstruction. The details of an original procedure using a continuous colic loop are described, highlighting the better tolerance of this technique by a high-risk patient. A discussion on the recent advances in diagnosing bullous dermatoses is presented following this case report.

The intracisternal A particle derived solo LTR promoter of the rat oncomodulin gene is not present in the mouse gene.

The rat gene encoding oncomodulin, a small calcium-binding protein related to parvalbumin, is under the control of a solo long terminal repeat (LTR) derived from an endogenous intracisternal A-particle (IAP). This gene was the first example of a mammalian gene regulated in normal cells by a promoter of retroviral origin (see also article by D. Robins and L. Samuelson in this volume). We show here that the oncomodulin LTR is a member of a small subset of sequence related solo LTR elements present in the rat genome and that a full length IAP genome containing LTRs of this type is no longer present in the rat genome. We have assayed the transcriptional activity of the oncomodulin LTR coupled to the human growth hormone gene as a reporter. Transfections in both Hela cells and 293 cells indicate the oncomodulin LTR promoter is sufficient to efficiently initiate transcription. In 293 cells (human embryo kidney cells transformed with human adenovirus type 5 DNA), the oncomodulin LTR is a strong promoter, capable of bidirectional transcription. Finally, we have determined the structure and the sequence of the mouse oncomodulin gene. Our results suggest that the integration of the IAP particle genome within the rat oncomodulin gene occurred after the rat and the mouse became distinct species.

Immunologic alterations in the third trimester of pregnancy.

In a study carried out in a group of 61 pregnant women in the 21st to the 41st week of gestation and comparatively in 9 nonpregnant controls, the following were determined: changes in the leukocyte and lymphocyte count, proportion of T cell rosettes, T1 rosettes (TM cells), T2 rosettes (TG cells), EAC rosettes (B cells), EACD rosettes (killer cells), circulating NBT-positive phagocytes, serum IgG, IgA, IgM and C3 concentrations, 50% hemolytic activity of the complement system. The results are interpreted in the light of present data regarding the mechanisms of ovo-embryo-fetal allograft.