Stent placement in a patient with Takayasu's arteritis.

A 49-year-old woman with a history of Takayasu's arteritis underwent stent placement of the celiac and mesenteric arteries after unsuccessful balloon angioplasty. Stents may prove to be a beneficial alternative to angioplasty for treatment of the dense fibrotic lesions often associated with this disease.

Psychogenic cough treated with biofeedback and psychotherapy. A review and case report.

Psychogenic cough is a barking or honking cough, which is persistent and disruptive to normal activity. The cough may be a debilitating condition that interferes with work and social relationships. Although the frequency of this condition is low, it is not rare. The majority of cases reported involve pediatric or adolescent patients. Surprisingly, there are scant data describing this condition in the adult population and no reports of biofeedback being used to treat this syndrome. We present a case report of an adult patient with psychogenic cough and review the available pediatric and adult literature. A 41-yr-old obese female presented with a complex 7-yr history of intractable, nonproductive, chronic cough. She had been avoiding social activities because of embarrassment by her repeated episodes of coughing. Extensive diagnostic work-up failed to find an organic etiology. Numerous medical and surgical treatments had failed. The patient was treated with a combination of biofeedback-assisted relaxation training, psychotherapy, and physical therapy. Review of the literature revealed only one report on adults, in which three of four patients were successfully treated with a combination of speech therapy, relaxation techniques, breathing exercises, and psychotherapy. Our success suggests a possible future use of this treatment protocol for cases of psychogenic cough.

Antimicrobial activity of triethylammonium chloride-N-substituted N'-cyano-O-(triphenylstannyl)-isourea complexes.

The triethylammonium chloride complexes of N-substituted N'-cyano-O-(triphenylstannyl)isoureas were generally found to be better antifungal and antibacterial agents than the uncomplexed compounds.

Synthesis of branched-chain apiosylpyrimidines and their inhibition of lymphocyte proliferation.

Branched-chain nucleosides containing beta-D-apio-L-furanose were synthesized by condensation of the bis(trimethylsiyl) derivative of uracil (11), thymine (12), 5-fromouracil (13), and 5-iodouracil (14) with the protected 1-O-acetylapiose in the presence of a Friedel-Crafts catalyst. D-Apio-L-furanosyluracil (11) and D-apio-L-furanosylthymine (12) show immunosuppressive activity for rat T-lymphocytes stimulated to grow by phytohemagglutinin but exhibit no inhibitory activity against herpes simplex virus. Compounds 11--14 did not inhibit herpes simplex virus replication, while low inhibition was obtained with the one nucleoside containing D-apio-D-furanose, D-apio-D-furanosyladenine. D-Apio-L-furanosyl-5-bromouracil (13), D-apio-L-furanosyl-5-iodouracil (14), bromouridine, and iodouridine suppressed growth of human lymphoblasts significantly more than the nonhalogenated apiosylphrimidines.

Mass spectrometry of some permethylated apiosyl nucleosides.

The mass spectra of the permethyl derivatives of a group of synthetic D-apio-L-furanosyl nucleosides were collected and compared with those of their ribosyl analogs. While most of the m/e values are the same between analogous spectra, some of the relative intensities differ markedly. Each spectrum contains characteristics ions which are probably due to fragmentation of the dissimilar sugar moieties.