Surgery in rhabdomyosarcoma of the bladder, prostate and vagina.

The treatment of bladder and prostate rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is highly controversial. Aside from chemotherapy, treatment modalities include conservative surgery, radical surgery, and pre-, intra-, or postoperative irradiation. Between 1968 and 1993, 78 children with RMS were treated at our institution. In all, 22 tumors were located in the urogenital tract (bladder/prostate, 13; paratesticular, 5; vaginal, 2; others, 2). Altogether, 6 patients had stage II disease; 7, stage III disease; and 2, stage IV disease. All 15 patients with RMS of the bladder, prostate, or vagina received chemotherapy, and 4 had additional radiotherapy. Surgery was also done in 10 patients; parents refused an operation in 3 cases. In all, 3 patients in an advanced tumor stage died of their disease. All other children currently show no evidence of disease (mean follow-up, 6 years; range, from 2 months to 18 years). After chemotherapy, radical operative intervention with multiple biopsies (encircling the tumor)--in contrast to local tumor excision or partial resection--permits complete tumor resection followed by excellent long-term results. Following radiotherapy, often a consequence of organ-sparing therapy, many complications ensued (60%); therefore, irradiation should be restricted to highly selected cases.

[Adverse reactions and changes in norepinephrine and epinephrine in the plasma after intravenous thyroliberin in persons with normal and abnormal thyroid function]. / Nebenwirkungen und Verhalten von Noradrenalin und Adrenalin im Plasma beim intravenösen Thyroliberin-Test bei Personen mit normaler und gestörter Schilddrüsenfunktion.

14 normal volunteers, 23 patients with euthyroid goiter, 9 patients with hypothyroidism and 17 patients with hyperthyroidism were injected with 400 micrograms thyroliberin (thyrotropin releasing hormone, TRH). The documented side effects were the same in all the 4 groups studied. Subjective symptoms such as flushing, nausea, urinary urgency, dizziness and headache in decreasing sequence were mentioned by 86% of subjects. Shortly after thyroliberin injection, a mean increase of 26 +/- 13 mm Hg for systolic and 14 +/- 6 mm Hg for diastolic blood pressure as well as an increased heart rate by 7.2 +/- 6.6 min-1 was demonstrated. Plasma catecholamines were lowered in patients with euthyroid goiter and hyperthyroidism and raised in patients with hypothyroidism, compared with the controls. Thyroliberin administration was associated with an activation of the sympathoadrenal system. The increments in plasma epinephrine and norepinephrine concentrations were proportional to initial values, but were insufficient to affect blood pressure. The mean increase of 28% for plasma epinephrine and 21% for norepinephrine were maximal in the second to the forth minute, where subjective symptoms, blood pressure and heart rate were already decreasing. In view of the rapid onset of the subjective symptoms as well as the chronotropic and the pressor response, thyroliberin may partly exert these effects centrally or directly on the vascular system, independently of catecholamines. Since individual systolic blood pressure increased by as much as 64 mm Hg, caution is advised in selecting patients with risk factors for testing.