Platelets of patients with peripheral arterial disease demonstrate a hypersensitive response to heparin.

We sought to verify earlier reports of increased platelet reactivity in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) during perioperative heparin administration, and to test the hypothesis of platelet hypersensitivity to heparin in these patients. Before and after incubation of platelet rich plasma with unfractionated (UH), low molecular weight heparin (LMWH), and a low molecular weight heparinoid, real-time quantitative assessment of platelet function was performed by stagnation point flow adhesio-aggregometry (SPAA) in 21 patients with PAD and 14 healthy volunteers. With SPAA the occurrence of spontaneous aggregation is pathological.

Interobserver agreement in defecography.

Purpose: This study was designed to test the reproducibility of the diagnostic assessment of defecographies in patients with a suspected disorder of defecation.

Methods: To evaluate interobserver agreement, 100 defecographic series of patients with complaints suggesting a disordered defecation were evaluated independently by three observers with a standardized questionnaire. After six weeks, a random sample of 35 of 100 defecographies was evaluated a second time with clinical data provided (history, proctologic examination).

Chronotherapy with 5-fluorouracil and folinic acid in advanced colorectal carcinoma. Results of a chronopharmacologic phase I trial.

Background: Chronotherapy with antineoplastic drugs is a rather new strategy of reducing cytotoxic side effects. Because the circadian timing of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) was reported to result in a higher efficacy and lower toxicity, the authors conducted a chronopharmacologic Phase I trial with 5-FU and folinic acid (FA).

Methods: Eight patients with advanced colorectal cancer received 5-FU (initial dose of 500 mg/m2/day) and FA (20 mg/m2/day) as a continuous intravenous infusion over 5 consecutive days.

[Magnetic resonance tomography of the hepatobiliary system: indications, limitations and outlook].

In a prospective study we examined the diagnostic value of MRI and MR cholangiography (MRC) in patients suffering from hepatobiliary disease. By using hepatobiliary contrast media (Mn-DPDP, Gd-BOPTA), sensitivity and specificity of MRI were significantly increased. In 65 patients we comparatively analyzed the diagnostic results of MRI and MRC versus ultrasound, CT and invasive techniques such as ERCP.

Is the volume retained after defecation a valuable parameter at defecography?

The intention of this study was to correlate the retained volume at the end of defecography to certain defecographic findings and to the sense of incomplete emptying. In 170 defecographic series, the retained barium was estimated planimetrically. No particular defecographic finding determined a higher or lower amount of remaining volume, and the sense of incomplete evacuation did not depend on the amount of retained volume.

[The clinical value of Mn-DPDP: a new paramagnetic hepatobiliary contrast medium for magnetic resonance tomography of the liver].

In an open prospective study the tolerance and diagnostic value of the new hepatobiliary contrast agent Mn-DPDP in MR imaging was evaluated in 20 patients suspected of having focal liver lesions. T1- and T2-weighted spin-echo sequences and T1-weighted gradient-echo sequences were obtained before and after intravenous application of Mn-DPDP. In all patients the signal to noise (S/N) values of normal liver tissue increased significantly after application of Mn-DPDP.

[Enteral hyperoxalosis due to therapy with a somatostatin analog].

A 27-year-old woman with multiple bilobal liver metastases of a carcinoid tumour and carcinoid syndrome was treated with the somatostatin analogue Octreotide, 450-600 micrograms daily subcutaneously. This improved previous attacks of marked epigastric pain, while endocrine activity and tumour mass remained unchanged. Shortly after treatment had begun, soft fatty stools and oxaluria were noted.

Effects of androgen manipulations on chemically induced colonic tumours and on macroscopically normal colonic mucosa in male Sprague-Dawley rats.

Epidemiological and experimental studies suggest that androgens influence colonic carcinogenesis. We investigated the effects of hormonal manipulations (surgical and chemical castration, hormone substitution) on colonic tumour development, tumour and mucosal histopathology, and epithelial proliferation in macroscopically normal colonic mucosa in male rats, after induction of chemical colon carcinogenesis by subcutaneous injections of azoxymethane (AOM). Chemical castration with cyproterone acetate, but not surgical castration, resulted in increased colonic tumorigenesis, which was accompanied by decreased crypt length, decreased number of cells per crypt, and increased crypt epithelial mitotic index in the right colon.

[Therapeutic procedure in "incidentaloma" of the adrenal glands].

Incidentally discovered adrenal masses are a therapeutic challenge. As benign lesions, like hyperplasias and adenomas, are much more common than malignant ones, an approach is needed, which incidental discovered mass should be removed. If the tumor is hormonally active or the lesion has a diameter of more than 3 cm, we advice surgery.