[A case of cardiac herniation following intrapericardial pneumonectomy after induction chemoradiotherapy].

A case of cardiac herniation following left intrapericardial pneumonectomy after induction chemoradiotherapy has been presented. Curative resection after induction chemoradiotherapy for central bronchogenic cancer may require intrapericardial pneumonectomy. Cardiac herniation through the pericardial defect is a fatal complication after a pneumonectomy unless pericardial repair should be done immediately. Closure of the pericardial defect with prosthetic patch, regardless of defect size, is always necessary for the prevention of the cardiac herniation following intrapericardial pneumonectomy after induction chemoradiotherapy.

Cloning of multidrug resistance gene pqrA from Proteus vulgaris.

The multiple antibiotic resistance gene pqrA was cloned from the chromosomal DNA of a clinical isolate of Proteus vulgaris 881051 into Escherichia coli KY2563. The MICs of quinolones tetracycline, cephalosporin, and chloramphenicol for transformant strain DNS7020 were from 8 to 32 times higher than those for the parent strain, KY2563. The level of expression of outer membrane protein F (OmpF) by DNS7020 was lower than that of KY2563 but not as low as that of an OmpF-deficient control strain. The 1.4-kb fragment containing the pqrA gene had an open reading frame encoding a polypeptide of 122 amino acid residues with a molecular weight of about 14,000, which was consistent with the experimental value identified by the Maxicell method. The putative PqrA polypeptide showed significant amino acid sequence similarity to the E. coli proteins SoxS and MarA. These polypeptides are strongly conserved in predicted helix-turn-helix DNA binding domains. The MarA protein, which is responsible for multiple antibiotic resistance in E. coli, also decreases OmpF expression. Moreover, the SoxS protein, which is characterized as a superoxide response regulon of E. coli, has also been shown to increase resistance to many structurally unrelated antibiotics. The soxS gene increases superoxide dismutase levels in addition to decreasing OmpF expression. The expression level of superoxide dismutase with DNS7020 was about 1.5 times higher than that with KY2563. These findings suggest that the pqrA gene in P. vulgaris confers multidrug resistance in a way similar to that of the soxS and marA genes in E. coli.

[Congenital kinking of the aortic arch associated with aortic arch aneurysm: a case report].

A surgical case of congenital kinking of the aortic arch associated with aortic arch aneurysm, which had been observed as the mediastinal tumor for 15 years, was reported. Twenty-two surgical cases of the aortic lesion, which were diagnosed pseudocoarctation or congenital kinking, have been reported in the literature. This paper focused on the pathogenesis, surgical treatment and terminology of this anomaly.

Spinal ganglia and peripheral nerves from a patent with Tay-Sachs disease. Morphological and ganglioside studies.

We examined the spinal ganglia and peripheral nerves from a patient with Tay-Sachs disease, comparing the other nervous tissues morphologically and lipid-biochemically. The spinal ganglia and peripheral nerves showed numerous membranous cytoplasmic inclusion bodies (MCBs), which are characteristic of GM2-ganglioside storage in the neuronal cell bodies of the patient brains. In spinal ganglia, all neurons and satellite cells around the neurons contained membrane-bound lipid materials. In peripheral nerves, Schwann cells and myelinated axons except for enlarged axons were devoid of MCBs. Major ganglioside stored in both spinal ganglia and peripheral nerve was also GM2-ganglioside. The contents of ganglioside in the spinal ganglia and peripheral nerves were 50 and 10 times more than those from normal tissues, respectively. The spinal cord contained a slightly higher amount of gangliosides than the normal control. The cerebral white matter totally demyelinated in this patient accumulated a much higher amount of gangliosides than the cerebral gray matter. The retinal tissue showed GM2-ganglioside as the major one also.