[The use of Timalin in the treatment of the acute lung abscess].

The study was aimed to research levels of main acute inflammation phase peptides, coagulative and fibrinolitic plasma activity on the background of traditional treatment and with addition of Timalin in patients with acute lung abscess. The study demonstrated that induction of bioregulative therapy leads to faster normalization of main indicators of SIRS and plasma fibrinolitic activity and eliminates hypercoagulation.

Aggressive G-CSF-producing gastric cancer complicated by lung and brain abscesses, mimicking metastases.

A 57-year-old Japanese man had type II c gastric cancer with marked lymph node metastases associated with leukocytosis and elevated granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). Total gastrectomy and distal pancreatectomy with lymph node dissection were performed. Although the primary lesion was negative for G-CSF by histopathological immunostaining, a highly increased G-CSF m-RNA level, measured using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction in frozen sections, led to a diagnosis of G-CSF-producing gastric cancer. The leukocytes and G-CSF decreased immediately after surgery. He then had an intraabdominal recurrence, and was diagnosed with multiple tumors in his lung and brain, with abnormally elevated leukocytes and greatly increased G-CSF; he died 4 months after the surgery. Autopsy showed intraabdominal recurrence of cancer, with no metastases to the lung or brain, but with multiple brain and lung abscesses. We speculate that the excessively increased neutrophils induced by G-CSF infiltrated the lung and brain and formed abscesses, mimicking metastases.

Cytokines and fibrinolytic enzymes in tuberculous and parapneumonic effusions.

Tuberculous (TB) pleurisy and parapneumonic effusion (PPE) are common causes of pleural fibrosis. The mechanisms underlying fibrin deposition may be different since involved inflammatory cells are distinct. In this study, we measured various cytokines and fibrinolytic enzymes and compared the differences between the two effusions. PPE was further divided into noncomplicated PPE and complicated PPE/empyema subgroups. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, interleukin (IL)-1beta, IL-6, IL-8, macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1beta, monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1, plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1) and tissue type plasminogen activator (tPA) were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Significantly higher values of PAI-1, PAI-1/tPA ratio, IL-1beta, IL-8 and MIP-1beta and significantly lower values of TNF-alpha, IL-6 and MCP-1 were observed in PPE/empyema than in TB effusions. Compared to noncomplicated PPE, complicated PPE/empyema had significantly higher levels of TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, IL-8 and MIP-1beta. TB pleurisy patients who had higher effusion levels of TNF-alpha, IL-1beta and IL-8 were predisposing to residual pleural thickening. The underlying mechanisms of fibrin formation and deposition between the two effusions studied (PPE/empyema and TB pleurisy) could not be fully explained by the results of the present study. More studies are needed to explore this further.

Cannabinoid-mediated exacerbation of brain infection by opportunistic amebae.

Recent reports indicate a higher frequency of brain infections with opportunistic amebae of the genus Acanthamoeba among immune compromised individuals, including AIDS patients. We have demonstrated, using a murine model of Granulomatous Amebic Encephalitis (GAE), that the major psychoactive and immune suppressive component in marijuana delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) exacerbates infection by these amebae. Mice administered THC and infected with Acanthamoeba exhibited dose-related higher mortalities than infected vehicle controls. The greater severity of disease for THC-treated mice was accompanied by decreased accumulation of macrophage-like cells at focal sites of infection in the brain. Furthermore, THC administration resulted in decreased levels of mRNA for the pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin-1 alpha, interleukin-1 beta, and tumor necrosis factor alpha for neonatal rat microglia co-cultured with Acanthamoeba. These results indicate a potential for marijuana to alter the capacity of brain macrophage-like cells to mount a full complement of immune responsiveness to brain infection by opportunistic amebae.

[Endolymphatic antibiotic therapy in the combined treatment of acute lung abscesses]. / Endolimfaticheskaia antibiotikoterapiia v kompleksnom lechenii ostrykh abstsessov legkikh.

The concentration of antibiotics in the pulmonary tissue, regional lymph collectors was studied after direct and indirect endolymphatic infusions. The effectiveness of indirect endolymphatic antibiotic therapy is shown for treatment of purulent diseases of the lungs.

[Effects of laser irradiation on the regeneration of the bronchial epithelium in chronic inflammation]. / Vliianie lazernogo oblucheniia na regeneratsiiu bronkhial'nogo épiteliia pri khronicheskom vospalenii.

Structural and metabolic changes were studied in 162 large bronchial mucosa biopsy specimens from 63 patients with chronic lung diseases. Proliferative and metabolic processes were shown to be induced by endotracheal therapy with helium-neon laser for the damaged epithelium, which passed through a number of transitional forms and repaired its structure and differentiation into ciliary and goblet cells with normal ultrastructure. In lamina propria, there was hyperemia, intensive leukodiapedesis, formation of leukocytic infiltrated and granulations, the metabolic activity of endotheliocytes and interstitial cells increased, giving rise to delicate fibrous connective tissue. The simultaneous reorganization of the epithelium and underlying connective tissue is interpreted from the standpoint of a concept of parenchymal and stromal relationships.

[The detoxifying function of the pulmonary parenchyma in patients with acute infectious lung destruction]. / Detoksitsiruiushchaia funktsiia legochnoi parenkhimy u bol'nykh s ostrymi infektsionnymi destruktsiiami legkikh.

The study of arteriovenous ratio of medium-molecular oligopeptides level in 32 patients with acute infectious lung destructions has established an important detoxicating role of the lungs in endotoxemia syndrome during pulmonary-pleural suppurations. It has been found that, with the pronounced endotoxemia syndrome, during catabolic phase of the disease the lungs turn from toxin filter into their source. Detoxicating capacity of the lung parenchyma was shown to be more dependent on the severity of general metabolic disturbances than on the dissemination of suppurative lung destruction.

[The extracellular matrix of peripheral lung cancer in the scar and of pneumosclerosis of different origins (the immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy of the collagens)]. / Ekstratselliuliarnyi matriks perifericheskogo raka legkogo v rubtse i pnevmoskleroza razlichnogo proiskhozhdeniia (immunogistokhimiia i élektronnaia mikroskopiia kollagenov).

Collagen types and ultrastructural features of the stroma and scar extracellular matrix in the peripheral lung carcinoma, post-tuberculosis and post-pneumonia pneumosclerosis foci, fibrosing alveolitis interstitium were studied on the material of operational and transbronchial lung biopsies. It is established that by the collagen composition the scars in the peripheral carcinoma are identical to the pneumosclerosis foci and are distinguished from the carcinoma stroma by a higher concentration of type IV and V collagens (p less than 0.05). Accumulation of type III collagen in the lung carcinoma stroma reflects anaplasia of the tumour as the domination of type III collagen is characteristic of the embryonal tissue. The decrease of collagen type IV in the cancer stroma correlates with an increase of its malignancy. Pneumosclerosis in the fibrosing alveolitis is distinct from the focal forms of pneumosclerosis by a higher content of collagen I and a lower content of collagen V this being probably due to the character of sclerosis morphogenesis in this disease.

[Clinico-immunological indices, lipid peroxidation and contents of middle mass molecules in young children with different course of suppurative diseases of the lungs and pleura]. / Kliniko-immunologicheskie pokazateli, perekisnoe okislenie lipidov i soderzhanie molekul srednei massy u detei rannego vozrasta s razlichnym techeniem gnoinykh zabolevanii legkikh i plevry.

The results of examination of 83 children with purulent diseases of the lungs and pleura at the age under 6 yrs are presented. The indices of activity of the immunity, intensity of the processes of peroxide oxidation of the lipids, and level of the middle mass molecules were studied. The correlative relationship between them depending on the severity of the course of the disease was revealed.

[Lung histopathology during plutonium-238 incorporation]. / Gistopatologiia legkikh pri inkorporatsii plutoniia-238.

In experiments with albino mongrel female rats a study was made of the response of the lungs to a single intratracheal injection of nitrate of 238Pu (0.4-740 kBq/kg). The nature of the inflammatory disease, the lymphoid tissue condition, pneumosclerosis occurrence, and the frequency and spectrum of lung tumors were shown to be a function of dose of the radionuclide administered.

[Osmometry as a method of control of homeostasis in acute suppurative destructive diseases of the lung and pleura]. / Osmometriia kak metod kontrolia gomeostaza pri ostrykh gnoino-destruktivnykh zabolevaniiakh legkikh i plevry.

The osmolar status was studied in 63 patients with acute abscesses of lungs and empyema of pleura at different stages of the conservative and operative treatment. The hypoosmolarity syndrome was revealed at the acute stage of the disease against the background of a pronounced purulent intoxication. An increased excretion of nonidentified osmotically active metabolites with urine was registered at the height of pyodestructive process and postoperative disease.