[Resection of nasopharyngeal mucoepidermoid carcinoma using the maxillary swing approach].

Mucoepidermoid carcinomas (MECs) are a common neoplasm of the minor salivary glands. However, nasopharyngeal MECs are an extremely rare entity. We describe herein our experience in the resection of a nasopharyngeal MEC using the maxillary swing approach (MSA). A 42-year-old man was referred to our institute complaining of a feeling of fullness in his left ear. The tumor was found to localized in the nasopharynx. The ragiological findings showed a solid, 30 x 27 x 26mm tumor lying on the lateral wall of the nasopharynx. The histological examination revealed MEC. The tumor was removed with maxillary swing approach. The patient has remained free from recurrence for 2 years and 7 months after surgery. There are many reports to recommend surgery-based treatment for MECs of the head and neck region. It is moreover thought that nasopharyngeal MECs are no exception. To our knowledge, only 7 cases of MEC of the nasopharynx have been reported in Japan. From our experience, the MSA is one of the useful approaches to achieve minimum facial deformity and maxillary dysfunction. We discuss the etiology with a review of the literature.

Complete and durable remission of refractory mantle cell lymphoma with repeated rituximab monotherapy.

We encountered a 53-year-old man with general fatigue. Bone marrow investigations revealed an infiltration of CD20+CD5+CD23- cells and the presence of cyclin D1 lymphoid cells, leading to a diagnosis of mantle cell lymphoma, clinical stage IV. The first 2 lines of chemotherapy, CyclOBEAP (cyclophosphamide, vincristine, bleomycin, etoposide, doxorubicin, and prednisolone) and fludarabine-cyclophosphamide, produced only a transient decrease in serum lactic dehydrogenase levels, without a clinical remission. Because of the persistence of bone marrow hypoplasia, monotherapy with 375 mg/m2 rituximab was administered. The pancytopenia gradually improved, and a complete remission was obtained after 4 cycles of rituximab. The patient remains in complete remission 21 months after the third rituximab therapy for maintenance.

Experimental evidence for intramolecular blue-shifting C-H...O hydrogen bonding by matrix-isolation infrared spectroscopy.

Experimental evidence for intramolecular blue-shifting C-H...O hydrogen bonding is presented. Argon matrix-isolation infrared spectra of 1-methoxy-2-(dimethylamino)ethane exhibit a band at 3016.5 cm-1. Spectral behavior with annealing indicates that this band is assigned to the most stable conformer, trans-gauche-(trans|gauche'), with an intramolecular C-H...O hydrogen bond. Density functional calculations show that this band arises from the stretching vibration of the C-H bond participating in the formation of the C-H...O hydrogen bond. The C-H bond is shortened by 0.004 A, and the C-H stretching band is blue-shifted by at least 35 cm-1 on the formation of the hydrogen bond. The (C)H...O distance is calculated as 2.38 A, which is shorter than the corresponding van der Waals separation by 0.3 A.