[Immunologic assessment and acoustic "stressing situation" in an experimental system BALB/c mice, the Tsc-3T3 tumor]. / Surveillance immunitaire et "situation stressante" acoustique dans le système expérimental souris BALB/c tumeur Tsc-3T3.

Previous results in Hamsters showed enhancement of tumor takes in animals exposed to acoustic aggression. Since this phenomenon could be due to immunodepression, we investigated whether this was the case in a better defined system of inbred BALB/c Mice. The results show that in these conditions, the tumor graft could not transgress a minor histocompatibility antigen nor decrease the protective effects of polyoma virus against tumor challenge and that all the immune tests investigated were unaltered.

[Study of the Wirsung duct by echography (author's transl)]. / Etude du canal de Wirsung par échotomographie.

With the usual echographic technics, the Wirsung duct, when dilated can be only episodically seen: the seesaw motion of the transducer produces some undesirable echoes, which rub out the lumen of the Wirsung duct. In order to obtain steadily pictures of the dilated Wirsung duct, the transducer must be used with a sweep motion in only one direction, while a positive pressure is exerted on the epigastrium. When transversally intersected, the Wirsung duct appears spindle shaped; it can be displayed on a rather good length. When sagittaly intersected, it presents, itself like a curved shaped picture, 4 mm to 2 cm in diameter, empty of echoes, in the center of the pancreatic section. The Wirsung duct, with the former technics, had been displayed 20 times in 140 cases of chronic pancreatitis; whe have found it in 4 cases in our 10 last cases of chronic pancreatitis. These case have been verified by endoscopic Wirsungography.

[Psychological factors in the etiology of cancers: methodological problems (author's transl)]. / Les facteurs psychologiques dans l'étiologie des cancers. Problèmes méthodologiques.

There is a multiplicity of etiological factors in human cancer; psychic factors are probably neither the most important nor the most constant. Nonetheless, owing to the potential infinity of psychological variables, it is necessary to formulate hypotheses in an operational manner. The casuistic method allows a thorough clinical study of objective events, of the manner in which the patient lives them and, especially, of what they mean to him. Such an approach, however, has shortcomings which must be accepted: it cannot administer proof of the hypotheses it advances. The superiority of prospective methods over retrospective methods seems indisputable for there is no evidence that personality traits are not modified by the fatal threat of a serious illness. This criticism also holds for the modified retrospective methods, the so-called predictive methods. Research focussed on particular cancers with a study of limited psychological variables seems desirable.

[Role of acoustic stress on the development of polyoma tumors in immunized golden hamsters]. / Rôle d'un stress acolstique sur le développement de tumeurs polyome chez des hamsters dorés immunisés.

An acoustic stress increases the metastatic spread of polyoma virus-induced tumors in syrian Hamsters. To try to elucidate the mechanism of this action, we studied the effect of stress on the protection afforded by the virus against tumour challenge. Exposure to ultrasonics during the immunization period markedly decreased the protective effect of the virus.

[Echotomography of the liver with three-dimensional representation of the organ]. / Echotomographie du foie avec représentation tridimensionnelle de l'organe

Three-dimensional representation facilitates the reading of ultrasonic seriographs of the liver. It uses a conducing wire to provide a correspondence between the xipho-umbilical line and the information collected on the seriographic polaroids. Proceeding from image to image, a more thorough interpretation is possible. This analytical study provides a synthetic representation of the organ. When present lesions are seen on these diagrams and their location and dimensions clearly defined. A precise indication of the height, breadth and thickness of the organ is given, which makes it possible to obtain an accurate approximation of the hepatic volume, taking the morphotype into consideration.