Deficiency in antioxidant factors in patients with alcohol-related chronic pancreatitis.

Free radicals have been suspected to play a role in the pathogenicity of alcohol-related chronic pancreatitis. The aim of this study was to determine the status of several antioxidant parameters in these patients and examine the factors that are likely to influence them. Thirty-five subjects (23 males and 12 females, mean age 48 +/- 8 years) with disease proven by endoscopic pancreatography and 14 healthy controls (6 males and 8 females, mean age 44 +/- 7 years) were included in the study. Biochemical antioxidant parameters included: selenium, zinc, and copper levels in plasma; glutathione peroxidase in plasma and erythrocytes; plasma malondialdehyde concentrations assessed by thiobarbituric acid reactants; and serum vitamin E and A levels. Selenium and vitamin E oral intake was assessed by a five-day diet analysis. Hemoglobin (130 +/- 16 vs 143 +/- 15 g/liter), vitamin E (8 +/- 5 vs 16 +/- 9 mg/liter), vitamin A (30 +/- 11 vs 49 +/- 12 micrograms/dl), selenium (54 +/- 20 vs 87 +/- 11 micrograms/liter), and plasma glutathione peroxidase (903 +/- 313 vs 1326 +/- 168 units/liter) were significantly lower in patients than in controls (P < 0.05). In contrast, white blood cell count, C-reactive protein, and plasma copper levels were significantly higher in patients than in controls. Cholesterol, triglycerides, iron, ferritin, total proteins, zinc, and malondialdehyde were not different. Vitamin E was lower in patients with steatorrhea, while vitamin A was lower in patients with concomitant diabetes mellitus. Dietary intakes were not different between patients and controls. In conclusion, patients with alcohol-related chronic pancreatitis have low blood levels in many antioxidant factors. Dietary intakes of some of them (selenium and vitamin E) are adequate, however. Such deficiencies are secondary to pancreatic insufficiency and probably to increased requirements related to enhanced oxidative stress.

[Gynecologic and breast granulocytic sarcomas. Review of the literature. Apropos of a case in the cervix uteri]. / Les sarcomes granulocytaires gynécologiques et mammaires. Revue de la littérature. A propos d'un cas localisé au col utérin.

We report a case history of a woman of 66 years of age who had a granulocytic sarcoma of the cervix which presented as metrorrhagia and which at first was thought to be an anaplastic cancer. The poor general state of the patient made it impossible to start any anti-leukaemic treatment and the patient died two months after the diagnosis was made. A review of the literature shows that 62 cases of granulocytic sarcoma have been reported of which 22 were in the breast, 19 in the ovary, 13 in the cervix or the uterus, 6 in the vagina and 2 in the vulva. The cells seem to invade the blood and the bone marrow in all occasions by the time of diagnosis or at the most a few weeks later and cases of granulocytic solitary sarcoma are very rare. It blood has not been attacked it is difficult to make a histological diagnosis unless immunological marking and Giemsa staining is carried out together with Leder's reaction. The treatment should be similar to those used for acute myeloid leukaemia.