Culture-proved disseminated cat-scratch disease in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

A male homosexual (positive for the human immunodeficiency virus) with a recent cat scratch developed fever, epitrochlear and axillary lymphadenopathy, and retinitis. Subsequently, he developed skin (epitheloid hemangioma) and mucosal lesions (Kaposi's sarcoma), multiple liver abscesses, and pleural effusion. Warthin-Starry stains and/or electron micrographs of lymph nodes and skin lesions demonstrated bacilli characteristic of those associated with cat-scratch disease. Cultures of lymph node, pleural fluid, and liver abscess specimens yielded organisms believed to be the causative agent of cat-scratch disease. We believe that disseminated cat-scratch disease may become an indicator of opportunistic infection signaling acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in a patient who is positive for the human immunodeficiency virus.

Iodoprotein formation by rat mammary glands during pregnancy and early postpartum period.

Iodide organification by rat mammary glands was studied during the trimesters of pregnancy and early postpartum period. Organification was followed by measuring trichloroacetic acid (TCA) precipitation of delipidated tissue homogenates. The radiolabeled material was sensitive to proteolytic cleavage by a bacterial protease indicating that the 125I was protein-bound. Gel filtration column chromatography in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) of delipidated mammary tissue homogenates of pregnant and postpartum rats reproducibly resolved several iodoproteins from free iodide. The Kav value for each iodoprotein peak was calculated and was used to estimate each subunit molecular weight which averaged 37,500, 25,100, and 8500. Another iodoprotein with a very large subunit molecular weight of greater than 300,000 was also detected in mammary tissue. Incorporation of 125I-iodide into the three smaller iodoproteins increased logarithmically from the start of the second trimester of pregnancy through the early postpartum period when approximately 20% of the total 125I uptake by mammary tissue was incorporated into protein. Hyperplasia, acinar development, and intracytoplasmic vacuolization of mammary tissue correlated with the increased incorporation of 125I-iodide into these iodoproteins. The characterization and quantitation of specific iodoproteins in mammary tissue may be important as organification of iodide is believed to be a marker for normal hormone-responsive cells.

Congenital aortic intimal thickening: Its occurrence in a case of twin-transfusion syndrome.

The intima of the elastic arteries undergoes progressive thickening with aging under hemodynamic stress. The earliest changes in humans have been recorded soon after birth, but rare intrauterine fetal cases are on record. We studied a case of intimal thickening that occurred during fetal life in the aorta of the hypervolemic partner of a pair of twins afflicted with placental transfusion syndrome. These in utero changes suggest that intimal thickening of elastic arteries may also occur any time during fetal life if the walls of these vessels are exposed to factors known to cause endothelial damage.

Age-related changes resembling fibrocystic disease in iodine-blocked rat breasts.

It has been reported that dietary restriction and chemical blockade of iodine causes histopathologic changes in peripubertal female rat breasts. This study extended the age range to include midreproductive life and perimenopausal rats; there is a wider spectrum of structural alterations that are associated with the older breast, with sodium perchlorate as the blocking agent. In 16-week-old rats, breasts showed general increased parenchymal activity and growth, regressing after removal of the block. In 42-week-old rats, breasts showed noticeable calcospherite deposition, intralobular fibrosis, and cystic changes resembling human fibrocystic disease. In 52-week-old rats, breasts exhibited atypical lobules cytologically, papillomatosis, sclerosing adenosis, calcifications, and a lobular transformation of a histologically dysplastic type. It is the older rat that experiments will more closely parallel the human condition.