Scanning electron microscopy of the small intestine mucosa in children with celiac disease after long-term dietary treatment.

Jejunal mucosal specimens from twenty children with celiac disease were studied by light microscopy (LM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) after one year of dietary treatment. An ultrastructural morphometric study was performed in five patients who had an intestinal permeability (IP) test. Seventeen patients were tested for serum antigliadin antibodies (AGA).

[Clinical significance of the determination of lactate dehydrogenase in acute leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma].

The serum concentration of LDH increases in various cancers and its increase can represent a prognostic marker of the disease and a good indicator of the tumoral mass's degree of growth. In patients with acute leukaemia, LDH can show a moderate increase only in some cases of acute non-lymphoblastic leukaemia with FAB M4 and M5 cytotype, whereas in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia LDH almost always increases, an event related to the number of white cells during remission or a relapse of the disease. In non-Hodgkin lymphomas, measurement of total LDH is not on its own a useful aid for monitoring the therapeutic response and the course of the disease.

[Apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: variability of bidimensional echocardiographic and electrocardiographic expression].

Apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is characterized by primary hypertrophy of the myocardium which is localized exclusively at the apex of the left ventricle. Previous studies have indicated that apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is characterized by a unique combination of cross-sectional echocardiographic and ECG findings ("giant" T wave inversion and high R wave voltage in the precordial leads). The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible relation between apical hypertrophy, quantitatively defined by cross-sectional echocardiography, and ECG findings in patients with apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Chronic B-cell lymphocytosis.

Persistent elevation of lymphocyte counts is usually associated with a malignant monoclonal lymphoproliferative disease. Over the last 8 years, amongst patients investigated in our center for undetermined persistent lymphocytosis, a diagnosis of malignant lymphoproliferation was excluded in 6 cases as studies of surface membrane immunoglobulin light chains showed that they presented a polyclonal expansion of their B-lymphocyte pool. All patients were young-to-middle aged women presenting peculiar immunohematologic findings characterized by 1) persistent (2-7 yr) elevation of lymphocyte counts (4-14 x 10(9)/l), 2) presence of characteristic binucleated B cells on peripheral blood smears, 3) a normal bone marrow histology, 4) a polyclonal increase of serum IgM with low-to-normal IgG and IgA levels.

Interobserver and echo-angio variability of two-dimensional colour Doppler evaluation of aortic and mitral regurgitation.

Colour Doppler flow mapping (CD) has proved to be a very sensitive and specific means of diagnosing valvular regurgitation and obtaining a rapid semiquantitative estimation of the severity of regurgitation itself. We tried to compare a semiquantitative evaluation of aortic and mitral regurgitation, without time-consuming calculations of regurgitant jet areas, with the conventional visual semiquantitative angiographic estimation. We have also evaluated in detail the interobserver variability of this type of semiquantitation.

Translocation (1;5)(q23;q33) in adult acute non-lymphocytic leukemia.

Chromosome banding studies carried out on bone marrow cells from a 57-year-old white caucasian male with an M1 acute non-lymphocytic leukemia (ANLL) revealed an unbalanced translocation involving chromosomes 1 and 5 [der(5)t(1;5)(q23;q33)] as part of complex abnormalities in 76% of the cells analyzed. This chromosomal abnormality is the first to be reported in an adult patient with acute non-lymphocytic leukemia. A review of previous reports on translocations involving the juxtaposition of the 1q23----qter DNA segment to other chromosomes suggests that this new translocation may be specifically involved with abnormal myeloid proliferation.

cDNA sequence of rat liver fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase and evidence for down-regulation of its mRNA by insulin.

A coding-length clone of rat liver fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase (EC 3.1.3.

[Blood platelet changes in myeloproliferative disorders].

Morphofunctional alterations to the platelets in myeloproliferative disorders (MPD), conditions featuring clonal rearrangement of the haemopoietic stem-cell, were examined. These platelet anomalies including morphological alterations, acquired storage pool disease, membrane alterations, altered arachidonic acid metabolism and structural alterations to the von Willebrand factor may cause thromboembolisms or haemorrhages that are responsible for a significant incidence of morbidity and mortality. In contrast the reduced mitogenic activity of the platelets may be of significant prognostic value since it proves the anomalous transformation of the megakaryocytic clone.

Prognostic value of clonal chromosomal abnormalities in patients with primary myelodysplastic syndromes.

Chromosome analyses were carried out on bone marrow cells from 43 consecutive patients with primary myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), classified according to the French-American-British (FAB) cooperative group criteria. The objective was to evaluate the prognostic value of clonal chromosomal abnormalities and of an excess of blasts for early death from acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (ANLL) and/or bone marrow failure (BMF). Patients were subdivided into two main groups: (1) refractory anemia without an excess of blasts (RAWEB), grouping patients with refractory anemia (RA) and refractory anemia with ringed sideroblasts (RARS), and (2) refractory anemia with an excess of blasts (RAEB), grouping patients with refractory anemia with an excess of blasts (RAEB) and refractory anemia with an excess of blasts in transformation (RAEBt).

[Comparison of continuous wave Doppler and heart catheterization in the determination of the mean transvalvular gradient in mitral stenosis. A simultaneous beat to beat analysis].

Continuous wave Doppler echocardiography (CWD) is widely used in the assessment of pressure gradients in patients with valvular heart disease, utilizing the simplified Bernoulli equation. However determination of non-simultaneous mean pressure gradient (MG) in mitral stenosis (MS) from CWD recordings has often been described as being unsatisfactory. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the estimates of trans-mitral MG derived from CWD with gradients measured simultaneously at cardiac catheterization (beat to beat analysis).

Complete amino acid sequence of rat liver 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase.

The complete amino acid sequence of 6-phospho-fructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase from rat liver was determined by direct analysis of the S-carboxamidomethyl protein. A complete set of nonoverlapping peptides was produced by cleavage with a combination of cyanogen bromide and specific proteolytic enzymes. The active enzyme is a dimer of two identical polypeptide chains composed of 470 amino acids each.

Septic arthritis following arthroscopy, with cost/benefit analysis of antibiotic prophylaxis.

Nine cases of septic arthritis following arthroscopy are reviewed retrospectively. All cases of septic arthritis followed arthroscopic surgery. The average age of the patients was 49 years.

[Primary non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the breast. Description of a case].

A 65 year old female was admitted to Somma Lombardo Hospital (VA) for a growing mass in the right breast. Histology revealed a diffuse lymphocytic well-differentiated lymphoma. Malignant lymphoma primarily involving the breast is unusual, and its incidence is only 0.

[Visualization and characterization of the transvalvular jet in mitral stenosis using color-coded Doppler].

Two-dimensional Color Doppler flow imaging is a new non-invasive technique which allows real-time visualization of intracardiac blood flow and provides informations about its direction, velocity and presence of turbulence. As a consequence the identification of jets configuration across stenotic valve orifices is now possible by Color flow imaging. This non invasive tool may be particularly helpful in patients with rheumatic mitral valve disease in whom distortion of mitral valve apparatus is often present, determining a non uniform and variable appearance of jets.

Rat liver 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase. Identification of essential sulfhydryl residues in the primary sequence of the enzyme.

The kinase and sugar phosphate exchange reactions of rat liver 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase were inactivated by treatment with 5'-p-fluorosulfonylbenzoyladenosine or 8-azido-ATP, but activity could be restored by the addition of dithiothreitol. This inactivation was accompanied by incorporation of 5'-p-sulfonylbenzoyl[8-14C]adenosine into the enzyme that was not released by the addition of dithiothreitol. The lack of effect of ATP analogs on the ATP/ADP exchange or on bisphosphatase activity and reversal of their effects on the kinase and sugar phosphate reactions by dithiothreitol suggest that 1) they reacted with sulfhydryl groups important for sugar phosphate binding in the kinase reaction, and 2) the inactivation of the kinase by these analogs involves a specific reaction that is not related to their general mechanism of attacking nucleotide-binding sites.

A non-antibacterial chemically-modified tetracycline inhibits mammalian collagenase activity.

Tetracyclines (including the semi-synthetic analogues, minocycline and doxycycline) are considered useful adjuncts in periodontal therapy because they suppress Gram-negative periodontopathogens. Recently, these antibiotics were found to inhibit mammalian collagenase activity, a property which may also be of therapeutic value. It has been suggested that the anti-collagenase properties of the tetracyclines are independent of their antibiotic efficacy.

[Isolated tricuspid valve prolapse: identification using 2-dimensional and Doppler echocardiography].

Echocardiography has been already applied in previous studies to identify tricuspid valve prolapse. However this anomaly has been found more frequently to be associated with mitral valve prolapse or with other cardiac and lung diseases. Isolated primitive tricuspid prolapse appears in fact a relatively unknown anatomo-clinical entity.

Cardiac tumors in 19 years of private practice.

Since 1966 the authors have encountered nine cardiac tumors: eight myxomas and one tumor initially thought to be a sarcoma but histologically a squamous carcinoma. Seven myxomas were left atrial and the other were right atrial in location. The carcinoma was predominantly located in the right ventricle.

Noninvasive evaluation of left-to-right shunts by pulsed Doppler echocardiography.

The systemic and pulmonary blood flows and the ratio of pulmonary to systemic flow were noninvasively evaluated by pulsed Doppler echocardiography in 25 children with left-to-right shunts. Fourteen patients had atrial septal defect and 11 had ventricular septal defect. In patients with atrial septal defect, right ventricular stroke volume was obtained from the recordings of mean velocity flow and the diameter at the level of pulmonary valve in short-axis view.

Is the platelet phenolsulfotransferase involved in the sulfoconjugation of plasma catecholamines?

Catecholamines are predominantly present in the sulfoconjugated forms in human plasma. Phenolsulfotransferase (EC 2.8.