[Treatment of kidney and retroperitoneal abscesses using percutaneous drainage. Apropos of 17 cases]. / Traitement des abcès du rein et du rétro-péritoine par drainage percutané. A propos de 17 cas.

For a long time, the treatment of retroperitoneal abscesses was exclusively surgical. Ultrasonography and computed tomography provide new therapeutic approaches to these lesions. The authors report a series of 17 renal and retroperitoneal abscesses treated by primary percutaneous drainage. This treatment generally ensures a favourable course, avoiding the need for surgery, which is still indicated in patients with associated uropathy or after failure of percutaneous drainage.

The distribution of metabolites between spinach chloroplasts and medium during photosynthesis in vitro.

1. The formation of metabolites in the stroma compartment of isolated chloroplasts during carbon fixation, and their export to the medium, have been investigated using improved techniques. 2. Rapid separation of photosynthesising chloroplasts from the medium, accompanied by simultaneous quenching of metabolism was achieved by using silicone oil layer filtering centrifugation under illumination. Metabolites were separated by microscale ion-exchange chromatography. Quantitative determination of each metabolite was based on labelling with 32P. 3. It was found that fixed carbon was exported from the chloroplasts only as triose phosphate and phosphoglycerate, and to a minor extent, as pentose monophosphate. The main compounds accumulating in the stroma were hexose and heptose monophosphates and phosphoglycerate. A marked decrease in the concentration of inorganic phosphate in the stroma during the first 5 min of illumination was accompanied by a complementary increase in organic phosphate so that the total amount of phosphate within the chloroplasts remained constant. 4. The concentration difference for phosphoglycerate between the stroma and the medium was much higher than for triose phosphate or inorganic phosphate, although all three compounds are transported across the inner membrane of the chloroplast envelope by the same carrier. It was concluded that the efflux of phosphoglycerate was restricted.