Duodenum inversum: a rare cause of nausea and epigastric pain.

Duodenum inversum is a rare congenital anomaly of unknown aetiology characterised by the proximal duodenum travelling posteriorly and superiorly prior to crossing midline. Clinical presentations include epigastric pain, nausea, and abdominal distension. It can be associated with duodenitis, acute pancreatitis, peptic ulcer disease and functional biliary obstruction.

RhoA/ROCK signaling contributes to sex differences in the activation of human platelets.

Studies of sex-dependent differences in platelet aggregation and glycoprotein (GP)IIb/IIIa activation have demonstrated that platelets from females are more sensitive to agonists than those from males. To date, there is little understanding of these differences at a molecular level. Here, sex differences in reactivity of platelets from 86 women and 86 men were investigated.

Riboflavin and ultraviolet light treatment of platelets triggers p38MAPK signaling: inhibition significantly improves in vitro platelet quality after pathogen reduction treatment.

Background: Pathogen reduction technologies (PRTs) significantly reduce the risk of transmission of infectious agents in platelet (PLT) concentrates; however, in vitro studies reveal a negative impact on PLT quality after PRT treatment including effects on PLT aggregation, integrin αIIbβ3 conformation, and actin dynamics. Clinically, the interval between transfusions is shortened.

Study Design And Methods: Seeking to understand the biochemical mechanisms underlying these observed effects, we analyzed signal transduction in PLT concentrates after riboflavin and ultraviolet light (UV; Mirasol) treatment and subsequent storage focusing on the phosphorylation levels of selected protein kinases.

Correlations in intermediate energy two-proton removal reactions.

We report final-state-exclusive measurements of the light charged fragments in coincidence with (26)Ne residual nuclei following the direct two-proton removal from a neutron-rich (28)Mg secondary beam. A Dalitz-plot analysis and comparisons with simulations show that a majority of the triple-coincidence events with two protons display phase-space correlations consistent with the (two-body) kinematics of a spatially correlated pair-removal mechanism. The fraction of such correlated events, 56(12)%, is consistent with the fraction of the calculated cross section, 64%, arising from spin S=0 two-proton configurations in the entrance-channel (shell-model) (28)Mg ground state wave function.

Democratic decay of 6Be exposed by correlations.

The interaction of an E/A=70-MeV (7)Be beam with a Be target was used to populate levels in (6)Be following neutron knockout reactions. The three-body decay of the ground and first excited states into the α+p+p exit channel were detected in the High Resolution Array. Precise three-body correlations extracted from the experimental data allowed us to obtain insight into the mechanism of the three-body democratic decay.

Riboflavin and ultraviolet light treatment potentiates vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein Ser-239 phosphorylation in platelet concentrates during storage.

Background: Pathogen reduction technologies (PRTs) were developed to improve the safety of platelet concentrates (PCs) for transfusion purposes; however, several studies report a negative impact on the in vitro and in vivo platelet (PLT) quality. Therefore, analyses of the underlying molecular processes triggered by PRT treatments are necessary to understand their effects on PLT function.

Study Design And Methods: In two separate two-arm studies PCs prepared in plasma for storage either by the leukoreduced buffy coat (BC-PCs) or by the leukoreduced apheresis (AP-PCs) method were treated with or without riboflavin and ultraviolet (UV) light (Mirasol; 6.

Impact of sample volume and handling time during analysis on the in vitro quality measurements of platelet concentrates held in syringes.

Introduction: The determination of quality parameters is a necessity for monitoring the efficacy of platelet concentrates. During consolidated quality control studies, there may be a large number of samples to be analyzed at the same time. This common workflow setup triggered the question whether there is an influence of the number of samples to be analyzed on the accuracy of the test results.

Neutron-proton asymmetry dependence of spectroscopic factors in ar isotopes.

Spectroscopic factors have been extracted for proton-rich 34Ar and neutron-rich 46Ar using the (p, d) neutron transfer reaction. The experimental results show little reduction of the ground state neutron spectroscopic factor of the proton-rich nucleus 34Ar compared to that of 46Ar. The results suggest that correlations, which generally reduce such spectroscopic factors, do not depend strongly on the neutron-proton asymmetry of the nucleus in this isotopic region as was reported in knockout reactions.

IGF-1 bioavailability is increased by resistance training in older women with low bone mineral density.

We investigated if long-term resistance training would increase insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) bioavailabilty at rest in older women (68+/-1 years) with low bone mineral density. IGF-1 levels were significantly lower (P<0.05), and insulin-like growth factor binding proteins -1 and -3 (IGFBP-1 and IGFBP-3) significantly higher than an age-matched healthy normal group.

Osteoblastic metastases from breast carcinoma with false-negative bone scan.

The authors report a case of metastatic breast carcinoma that on investigation was shown to have a negative bone scan in spite of multiple densely sclerotic metastases on radiography and CT and a positive bone biopsy. The literature is reviewed with regard to the subject of negative bone scans in this situation.

Candida osteomyelitis and disc space infection of the lumbar spine.

Candida osteomyelitis is an uncommon complication of immunosuppressive therapy. Its radiographic manifestations are similar to those of other relatively indolent infectious agents. We report the CT and MR findings in a patient who developed this condition following treatment for acute myelogenous leukemia, and review the imaging literature covering similar cases.

Ability of serum prostate-specific antigen levels to predict normal bone scans in patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer.

Objectives: To determine whether pretreatment serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels in newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients can identify a group with a low probability of osseous metastasis and safely eliminate the need for a bone scan as a routine part of the staging evaluation.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 683 patients with prostate cancer between 1990 and 1993. Patients with prior therapy or serum PSA levels obtained longer than 3 months prior to bone scan were excluded.

Functional results in oral cavity reconstruction using reinnervated versus nonreinnervated free fasciocutaneous grafts.

Recent advances in free-tissue transfer have given the otolaryngologist--head and neck surgeon a number of reliable options for reconstruction of the oral cavity following ablative procedures. One recent modification has been the transfer of free reinnervated fasciocutaneous grafts in the hope of enhancing oral rehabilitation following surgery. To assess the efficacy of this modification, a protocol was established to retrospectively evaluate patients that received either reinnervated or non-reinnervated free-tissue transfers.

Disseminated intravascular coagulation in a patient with metastatic prostate cancer: fatal outcome following strontium-89 therapy.

A patient with metastatic prostate cancer was found to have low-grade disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). He had significant bone pain despite external-beam radiotherapy and was given 89Sr with subsequent thrombocytopenia and epistaxis. The patient died from generalized hemorrhage 36 days postinjection.

Ascending aortic dissection causing unilateral absence of perfusion on lung scanning.

A case of an ascending aortic dissection occurring in a patient 8 years after an aortic valve replacement is presented. The patient's initial clinical presentation was thought to be due to pulmonary embolism, and a ventilation-perfusion lung scan demonstrated mismatched absence of perfusion to the entire right lung. Aortography and findings at surgery demonstrated a type A dissection of the ascending aorta.

The 'hot halo' sign. Pyogenic pericarditis on In-111 leukocyte scintigraphy.

The authors report a patient with diffuse pyogenic pericarditis and focal myoendocarditis initially detected using In-111 WBC scintigraphy. The patient was in septic shock after hemodialysis for the treatment of chronic renal failure. This was preceded by clinical signs and symptoms of pericarditis thought to be viral in nature.

Comparison of stress-only vs. stress/rest with technetium-99m methoxyisobutylisonitrile myocardial perfusion imaging.

Unlike conventional thallium-201 myocardial imaging, technetium-99m methoxyisobutylisonitrile (MIBI) requires separate stress and rest injections. We prospectively studied 148 consecutive patients referred for myocardial perfusion studies to determine the diagnostic value of rest images once normal exercise or dipyridamole tomographic images had been obtained. In patients referred with no history of previous myocardial infarction in whom the diagnosis of coronary artery disease was suspected, 45 of 109 (41%) patients had normal stress tomographic images.

Malrotation simulating gallbladder perforation on Tc-99M IDA scintigraphy. Pitfall to avoid.

A patient with upper abdominal discomfort had Tc-99m IDA scintigraphy performed for suspected gallbladder disease. In addition to filling of the bile ducts and the gallbladder, tracer collected in the right side of the abdomen and was thought at first to be the right paracolic gutter, indicating a gallbladder rupture. Discussion with the surgeon and radiographic correlation indicated that the patient did not have gallbladder perforation but, rather, a malrotation of the bowel.

Bilateral subdural hematomas diagnosed with technetium-99m-HMPAO brain SPECT.

An elderly patient with a complex history of organic dementia but a normal neurologic examination had a 99mTc-hexamethylpropylene-amine-oxime (HMPAO) brain scan for a suspected cerebrovascular accident or space-occupying lesion. The study showed no perfusion abnormality in the brain parenchyma, but bilateral flattening and inversion of the normal hemispheric convexities, with separation from the skull was identified. Bilateral subdural hematomas (SDH) were suspected and the patient had a computed tomographic scan that confirmed the diagnosis.

Maleic hydrazide as an antimetabolite of uracil.

When labelled uracil was supplied to the solution bathing the cambial surfaces of bark strips of willow, uptake into the sieve elements took place as evidenced by the appearance of radioactivity in the honeydew of aphids feeding on the strips. When maleic hydrazide (MH) was also applied an inhibition of uracil uptake was observed. However uracil seemed to have no effect on MH uptake.