North American Indian rock art and hallucinogenic drugs.

It is proposed that the aboriginal rock paintings in two areas of North America may have been produced by shamans while they were under the influence of hallucinogenic agents derived from plants. The first of these areas is the Chumash and Yokuts Indian region of California, where polychrome paintings show designs similar to those visualized during the trance induced by decoctions of jimsonweed (Datura species). The second area is the lower Pecos River region of Texas, where shamanistic figures display traits considered to be conceptual analogues of the mescal bean (Sophora secundiflora) cult as practiced during historic times by Great Plains Indians. Although the evidence is only circumstantial, the proposed connections between these rock drawings and mind-expanding pharmacologic compounds fit well into the documented relationship that encompasses hallucinogenic drugs and certain movable objects of pre-Columbian American art.

Modification of streptozotocin-induced diabetes in rats by pretreatment with cortisone.

Cortisone pretreatment considerably enhances the mortality of young, male, streptozotocin-injected Holtzman rats. In those that survive, cortisone pretreatment decreases the ensuing hyperglycaemia, extends the period during which streptozotocin-induced B cell damage can be observed from less than two to as much as four to seven days and permits the persistence of poorly granulated B cells in such animals. These effects are at least partially attributable to a cortisone-induced augmentation of the total B cell mass. Compared with the high degree of protection against alloxan-induced damage afforded the pancreatic B cells of cortisone-pretreated rabbits, the protective effect of cortisone against B cell destruction in streptozotocin-injected rats is thus much more limited in scope. Species differences as well as differing pathogenetic mechanisms may account for these results.

Nodular intercapillary glomeruloscerosis in diabetes secondary to chronic calcific pancreatitis.

Nodular (specific) intercapillary glomerulosclerosis (Kimmelstiel-Wilson) was found at autopsy in a 47-year-old man who had been diabetic for 20 years. The family history for this disease had been negative. Both the clinical course and the autopsy findings strongly suggest that this patient's diabetes was secondary to chronic fibrocalcific pancreatitis. This is only the fourth recorded case of histologically documented nodular glomerulosclerosis occurring in a patient with pancreatogenic diabetes.

Fine structure of pancreas in cortisone-treated guinea pigs and rabbits.

Twenty-eight male rabbits and 28 male guinea pigs received daily intramuscular injections of cortisone acetate for four to 31 days (rabbits, 5 mg/kg; guinea pigs, 10 mg/animal). Moderate hyperglycemia ensued. Insulin concentrations of the pancreatic tissue varied but were higher in cortisone-treated animals than in untreated controls. In rabbits, degranulation of beta cells, hyperplasia of islets, and proliferation of ductular structures were the major light microscopic findings. Ultrastructural studies suggested that beta cell neogenesis took place mainly within pre-existing islets but probably also within ductular structures. Mixed (acinar-islet) cells were not identified. In guinea pigs, ductular proliferation was not noted, and beta cell neogenesis appeared to take place exclusively within preexisting islets and islet cell nests. In both species, cells of several types contained glycogen deposits.

[Pathology in the U.S.A. A glut of pathologists, the role of the autopsy and the future of the "clinical pathology"]. / Zur Situation der Pathologie in den U.S.A. Pathologenschwemme, die Rolle der Autopsie und die Zukunft der "klinischen Pathologie"

This analysis deals with selected questions regarding the status of pathology in the United States. For a long time, the number of pathologists, both in practice and in training, had been deemed inadequate, but present trends indicate the existence of a considerable surplus of specialists in this discipline. The autopsy is still an important field of endeavor for the American pathologist even tbhough autopsy rates have drastically declined everywhere and the exact role of this procedure is being reevaluated. The concept of "clinical pathology" which seeks to encompass a whole conglomerate of heterogeneous disciplines and still dominates the practice of pathology in North America has come under attack; some observers plead for the total separation of laboratory medicine from pathology as well as for the systematic and intensive development of subspecialties within the field of pathology.

EMC virus and cultured human fetal pancreatic cells. Ultrastructural observations.

Tissue cultures of pancreatic acinar cells of seven human fetuses were infected with either the M or the E variant of the encephalomyocarditis (EMC) virus. Between the third and fifth days after infection, severe ultrastructural damage was noted. Margination, condensation, and fragmentation of the nuclear chromatin and the appearance of numerous cytoplasmic vesicles filled with finely granular material were the major changes observed. Viral particles were not identified. One hundred plaque-forming units (PFU) were sufficient to induce these alterations with the M variant while 10,000 PFU were needed to obtain the same results with the EMC-E virus. The described lesions are qualitatively similar to those induced in vivo in experimental CD-1 mice infected with the virus.

Hematuria caused by atheromatous embolism: report of a case diagnosed intravitam.

Gross, painless hematuria as the only symptom in a 53-year-old male diabetic necessitated partial nephrectomy and was then found to have been caused by atheromatous embolism associated with recent infarction of the renal parenchyma. This case appears to be the first one reported in which the diagnosis of renal atheromatous embolization had been established intravitam. A similar episode of hematuria occurred a year postoperatively and another renal infarction, likely caused by atheromatous embolization, was demonstrable with tomographic and angiographic techniques.

[Oxyphil cell adenomas associated with primary hyperparathyroidism (author's transl)]. / Primärer Hyperparathyreoidismus und oxyphiles Nebenschilddrüsenadenom

Almost all functioning parathyroid adenomas are composed of chief or water-clear cells. In contrast, most oxyphil cell adenomas of this organ remain clinically silent. To date only occasional parathyroid adenomas consisting of oxyphil cells only have been found associated with primary hyperparathyroidism. The two additional examples described in this report confirm observations by others indicating that the parathyroid oxyphil cell can play an active metabolic role.

Glucose tolerance and pancreatic ultrastructure in mice with long-term diabetes induced by EMC virus (M variant) (38518).

Of 27 young male CD-1 mice infected with the M variant of the encephalomycarditis (EMC) virus and surviving for 11 or 12 mo, all but three had normal glucose tolerance curves, and all displayed normal islet cell morphology, at the time of sacrifice, in spite of an initital hyperglycemic response. Three animals maintained diabetic glucose tolerance curves one year after infection but they, too, failed to show significant morphological alterations in their pancreatic beta cells.