Prothrombolytic action of normobaric oxygen given alone or in combination with recombinant tissue-plasminogen activator in a rat model of thromboembolic stroke.

The potential benefit of 100 vol% normobaric oxygen (NBO) for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke patients is still a matter of debate. To advance this critical question, we studied the effects of intraischemic normobaric oxygen alone or in combination with recombinant tissue-plasminogen activator (rtPA) on cerebral blood flow and ischemic brain damage and swelling in a clinically relevant rat model of thromboembolic stroke. We show that NBO provides neuroprotection by achieving cerebral blood flow restoration equivalent to 0.9 mg/kg rtPA through probable direct interaction and facilitation of the fibrinolytic properties of endogenous tPA. In contrast, combined NBO and rtPA has no neuroprotective effect on ischemic brain damage despite producing cerebral blood flow restoration. These results 1) by providing a new mechanism of action of NBO highlight together with previous findings the way by which intraischemic NBO shows beneficial action; 2) suggest that NBO could be an efficient primary care therapeutic intervention for patients eligible for rtPA therapy; 3) indicate that NBO could be an interesting alternative for patients not eligible for rtPA therapy; and 4) caution the use of NBO in combination with rtPA in acute stroke patients.

Prolonged sympathetic innervation of sensory neurons in rat thoracolumbar dorsal root ganglia during chronic colitis.

BACKGROUND: Peripheral irritation-induced sensory plasticity may involve catecholaminergic innervation of sensory neurons in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG). METHODS: Catecholaminergic fiber outgrowth in the thoracolumbar DRG (T13-L2) was examined by tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunostaining, or by sucrose-potassium phosphate-glyoxylic acid histofluorescence method. TH level was examined by Western blot. Colonic afferent neurons were labeled by retrograde neuronal tracing. Colitis was induced by intracolonic instillation of tri-nitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS). KEY RESULTS: The catecholaminergic fibers formed 'basket-like' structures around the DRG cells. At 7 days following TNBS treatment, the number of DRG neurons surrounded by TH-immunoreactive fibers and the protein levels of TH were significantly increased in T13, L1, and L2 DRGs (two- to threefold, P < 0.05). The DRG neurons that were surrounded by TH immunoreactivity were 200 kDa neurofilament-positive, but not isolectin IB4-positive or calcitonin gene-related peptide-positive. The TH-immunoreactive fibers did not surround but adjoin the specifically labeled colonic afferent neurons, and was co-localized with glial marker S-100. Comparison of the level of TH and the severity of colonic inflammation showed that following TNBS treatment, the degree of colonic inflammation was most severe at day 3, subsided at day 7, and significantly recovered by day 21. However, the levels of TH in T13-L2 DRGs were increased at both 3 days and 7 days post TNBS treatment and persisted up to 21 days (two- to fivefold increase, P < 0.05) as examined. CONCLUSIONS & INFERENCES: Colonic inflammation induced prolonged catecholaminergic innervation of sensory neurons, which may have relevance to colitis-induced chronic visceral hypersensitivity and/or referred pain.

[Bazex, Dupré and Christol syndrome. Apropos of a case with prolymphocytic leukemia]. / Le syndrome de Bazex, Dupré et Christol. A propos d'un cas avec leucémie prolymphocytaire.

We report a case of Bazex-Dupré-Christol (BDC) syndrome in a girl who died of prolymphocytic leukaemia at the age of 10 years. This is the first published case where the syndrome is associated with a blood disease. A review of the literature has enabled us to collect the various symptoms of BDC syndrome and to discuss the relationship of the syndrome with basal cell nevomatosis. We do not think that the blood disease was incidental. The child was 5 years' old in June 1972 when she was first seen in our out-patient clinic for severe hypotrichosis which had been present at birth and involved the eyelashes and eyebrows. Examination of the skin showed numerous milia on the face, a small lenticular polycystic lesion on the right ear, follicular atrophodermia on the back of the hands and hypotrichosis of the face. The right ear lesion was removed and found to look like Winer's cutaneous calcinosis. At light microscopy, many hairs showed like pili torti or, more rarely, like trichorrhexis nodosa. Despite the absence of basal cell carcinoma, the diagnosis of BDC syndrome was regarded as final. The patient died aged 10 years of prolymphocytic leukaemia revealed by pancytopenia. Combined chemotherapy with Rubidomycin, Oncovin and methotrexate had proved ineffective. Having collected from the literature 44 adequately documented cases summarized in table I, we describe the anatomico-clinical manifestations of Bazex-Dupré-Christol syndrome. Follicular atrophodermia is present in 85 p. 100 of the cases, but its date and mode of onset are difficult to evaluate.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

[Development of dermatomycoses and their causative agents in the Lyons area. From an analysis of 6000 samples on Sabouraud's medium done over a 20-year period at a dermatology department]. / Evolution des épidermomycoses et de leurs agents en région lyonnaise. D'après l'analyse de 6.000 prélèvements sur milieu de Sabouraud pratiqués en 20 ans dans un service de Dermatologie.

The authors have analyzed the results of cultures in Sabouraud's agar performed over a 20-year period in 6,000 patients with lesions of the skin, skin appendages and mucosae of suspected fungal origin. Throughout this period all patients, almost exclusively urban or suburban, were seen at the Dermatology out-patient consultation of a central city hospital. The 6,000 specimens were analyzed globally, with special attention to time-related changes in the 10 groups of 6,000 specimens each whenever a significant modification was observed. The analysis was divided into two parts: a review of the fungi isolated, of the manifestations they produced and of the time-related changes in their respective prevalence; a study of the fungi responsible for the main dermatological syndromes. Out of 6,000 cultures, 2,502 strains of pathogenic fungi were isolated, representing a growth rate coefficient of 41.66 p. 100. There were 1,237 dermatophytes and 1,265 yeasts of the Candida group. However, this overall impression of two equal groups gives a wrong idea of the changes that occurred during this long period. Figure 1 clearly shows that in 20 years the number of dermatophytes increased whereas the number of Candida decreased. Figures 2 and 3 demonstrate that the rise in dermatophytes was almost exclusively due to an increase in T. rubrum and the fall in yeasts, to a decrease in Candida albicans.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

[The carcinogenic role of earlier x-ray irradiation of multiple epitheliomas of the back. Critical study of 15 personal cases]. / Le rôle cancérigène des irradiations antérieures par rayons X dans les épithéliomatoses multiples du dos. Etude critique de 15 observations personnelles.

The authors report 15 cases of multiple epitheliomas of the back, concerning patients who had been previously submitted to X-ray irradiations. Their cases are divided into two groups: the first comprises 11 patients who had undergone lumbar and sacral anti-inflammatory radiotherapy for rheumatologic diseases; the second concerns 4 patients who had had many fluoroscopic examinations for lung tuberculosis and later developed multiple epitheliomas of the back. For each group of patients, they detail the irradiation procedures, and indicate the interval before the subsequent tumoral development, as well as the histologic features. In both groups, basal cell epitheliomas prevail with any type of histologic pattern (mainly pagetoid, however). Fibroepithelial tumours of Pinkus are not more numerous in the lumbar area (on the contrary: 20 p. 100 against 28.57 p. 100). Precancerous keratoses and Bowen-like conditions are only found in the second group (in fact in a single patient). The important feature is not the topography but the dose of irradiation. Fourteen out of 15 patients had only basal cell epitheliomas and fibroepithelial tumours.