Teaching pediatric and adolescent gynecology: a pilot study at one institution.

Purpose: To assess resident physicians' clinical recognition skills in Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology.

Materials: 1) A questionnaire to identify demographic data and self-assessment as to the ability to perform a gynecologic evaluation of children. 2) Twenty color photographs of normal genitalia and common gynecologic problems in children.

Deep hypothermic arrest and left thoracotomy for repair of difficult thoracic aneurysms.

Seven patients with complex thoracic aortic aneurysms were operated on using profound hypothermia and circulatory arrest through a left thoracotomy. Three patients had false aneurysms, 2 had large aneurysms precluding access for proximal control, 1 patient had had previous hemiarch replacement, and 1 patient had a thoracoabdominal aneurysm. All patients were cooled on partial cardiopulmonary bypass until the electroencephalogram was isoelectric (approximately 15 degrees C rectal temperature).

Tricuspid atresia with dextrotransposition, dextrocardia, and mitral insufficiency: successful circulatory correction.

A 13-year-old patient with visceral and atrial situs solitus, dextrocardia, dextro (D) transposition of the great vessels with subaortic conus, tricuspid atresia, massive mitral valve insufficiency, and previously performed pulmonary artery banding was seen at our hospital. A right atrial to pulmonary artery conduit procedure and mitral valve replacement successfully repaired this child's circulation.

Pericardial fluid gas analysis in hemorrhagic pericardial tamponade.

Nine patients with hemorrhagic pericardial tamponade were studied to determine the localizing value of gas analysis of pericardial fluid in therapeutic pericardiocentesis. The aspirate and the central venous blood was analyzed simultaneously for partial pressure of oxygen (PO2), partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PCO2), and hematocrit at the time of pericardiocentesis. In all 9 patients the difference in hematocrit between the pericardial fluid and the central venous blood was not significant.

Prophylactic use of intra-aortic ballon pump in aortocoronary bypass for patients with left main coronary artery disease.

Aortocoronary bypass surgery in patients with left main coronary artery disease is reported to have an operative mortality of between 1.4 and 39%. It is generally accepted that the operative mortality in this group of patients is considerably greater than in routine bypass candidates, presumably due to the large amount of myocardium threatened by a single lesion.

Mouse complement: influence of sex hormones on its activity.

Sex hormones influence the hemolytic of one or more of the late-acting components of complement measured in the presence of trisodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate. The titers of the serums of male mice, normally tenfold higher than those of females, fell after castration, becoming about the same as those of females. The titers of the serums from females rose after these mice were castrated, but castration did not affect the activities of the first, second, and fourth components of complement.

Forssman antigen content of guinea pig hepatomas induced by diethylnitrosamine: a quantitative approach to the search for tumor-specific antibodies.

The Forssman antigen content of diethylnitrosamine-induced guinea pig hepatomas was found to be greater than that of either autogenous or allogeneic guinea pig liver. The autogenous normal liver was obtained from guinea pigs before tumor induction, and comparison of normal and neoplastic tissues was based on the capacity of these tissues to inhibit (absorb) the hemolytic activity of rabbit antitumor serum. A method is presented for distinguishing quantitative from qualitative antigenic differences in the search for tumor-specific antigens.