Right atrium thrombosis in patients on hemodialysis.

Vascular access has been the Achilles heel of hemodialysis for many years, and placement of temporary subclavian and internal jugular vein catheters has been a daily practice for the nephrologist. Now, concern about central vein stenosis, well described with the use of subclavian catheters in end-stage renal disease (ESRD), has prompted the use of internal jugular vein permanent catheters to avoid this complication, so as not to hinder future arteriovenous grafts. Permanent catheter access is not without its own special problems, and we describe here two patients that developed thrombosis of the right atrium while receiving hemodialysis through a permanent internal jugular catheter.

Torsional sensor applications in two-phase fluids.

A solid corrosion-resistant torsional waveguide of diamond cross section has been developed to sense, online and in real-time, the characteristics of the liquid in which it is submerged. The sensor can measure, among other things, the liquid content of a bubbly medium, the density of adjacent pure liquids, the equivalent density of liquid-vapor mixtures or particulate suspensions, a suspension's concentration, and the liquid level. The sensor exploits the phenomenon that the speed of propagation of a torsional stress wave in a submerged waveguide with a noncircular cross section is inversely proportional to the equivalent density of the liquid in which the waveguide is submerged. The sensor may be used to conduct measurements along distances ranging from 20 mm to 20 m and over a wide range of temperatures and pressures, e.g., from the cryogenic temperature of liquid nitrogen, -196 degrees C, up to hot pressurized water at 300 degrees C and 7 MPa. A self-calibrating three-zone sensor and associated electronics have also been developed to compensate for any sensor inaccuracies due to operation over a wide range of temperature.

Pulmonary metastasis in nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome.

Nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome is a relatively uncommon clinical entity. It is essentially characterized by the early onset of multiple basal cell carcinomas of the skin generally above wrist-line level, by the presence of jaw cysts, musculoskeletal and other anomalies. Metastatic disease secondary to ordinary basal cell carcinoma is indeed rare. What is even more rare is pulmonary metastases from basal cell carcinoma. Very few cases have been reported in which pulmonary resection was performed for metastatic basal cell carcinoma. We were unable to find a reported case in which pulmonary resection was performed for a pulmonary nodule metastatic from the nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome. Herein is reported what we believe to be the first case of pulmonary resection performed for a metastatic nodule in this syndrome.