[Pain clinics within Austrian hospitals, for patients with pathologies of the locomotor system. Analysis of care and comparison with Germany].

This paper gives a comparative overview of the current clinical care of patients experiencing pain in the musculoskeletal system in Austria and in Germany. The questionnaire used in this study was modified from one used in a survey carried out in Germany in 2002. In our version we asked specifically about pain in the musculoskeletal system.

Pathogenesis of the glomerular abnormality in cyanotic congenital heart disease.

We present evidence of 2 distinct glomerular abnormalities in cyanotic congenital heart disease--vascular and nonvascular--each believed to reflect a distinct pathogenesis. Glomeruli from both kidneys were studied with light microscopy in 13 necropsied cyanotic patients and in 8 controls. The vascular study characterized hilar arteriolar dilatation, capillary diameter, glomerular diameter, and capillary engorgement with red blood cells.

An approach to the structure and function of the glomerular mesangium.

The mesangium of the glomerulus is a connective tissue tree arising at the vascular pole of the glomerulus and supporting the glomerular capillaries. It is partly covered by a basement membrane that follows the epithelial cells from the peripheral glomerular capillary wall over the supporting tissue. The capillary endothelium does not normally have a separate basement membrane.

Lymphomatoid granulomatosis and malignant lymphoma of the central nervous system in the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

While primary and secondary malignant lymphomas have been well-documented in the CNS of patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), only one case of lymphomatoid granulomatosis (LG) involving the CNS has been reported. We present three AIDS patients with multiple grossly evident foci of necrosis in the cerebral hemispheres which, on histologic evaluation, were seen to contain angiocentric mixed chronic inflammatory infiltrates with atypical mononuclear cells, luminal thrombosis, and infarction, which is typical of LG. LG was also identified in sections of the lung in one case.

Mesangial fenestrations, sieving, filtration, and flow.

Small tracers in the circulation enter the rat mesangium rapidly and in large amounts that indicate a sizable plasma flow into the mesangium. Entrance is effected through mesangial fenestrations with a mean width in scanning electron microscopy of 376 A, a size similar to fenestrations in peripheral glomerular capillary walls. This is considerably smaller than the mean size of 678 A found with transmission electron microscopy, but the difference is probably due largely to the anionic surface coat on endothelial cells.