[Renal insufficiency caused by leukemic cell infiltration in Sézary syndrome].

A 77-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital because of pneumonia and heart failure in July 2002. She had been diagnosed as having with Sézary syndrome in 1993, and had been treated with a combination of prednisolone, methotrexate, and cyclosporin A with subsequent stable disease but persistent generalized erythroderma. On admission, the white blood count was 23.

Gene expression in human keloids is altered from dermal to chondrocytic and osteogenic lineage.

Keloids are a dermal fibrotic disease whose etiology remains totally unknown and for which there is no successful treatment. Here, we employed cDNA microarray analysis to examine gene expression in keloid lesions and control skin. We found that 32 genes among the 9000 tested were strongly up-regulated in keloid lesions, of which 21 were confirmed by Northern blotting.

[Pleural involvement in the course of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia and the development of multiple colonic perforation due to leukemic infiltration in the acute leukemia phase].

A 68-year-old man with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) was initially treated with hydroxyurea with subsequent stable disease. In the time course, he developed bilateral pleuritis accompanied by leukocytosis and spiking fever. Cytologic analysis of the pleural effusion revealed abundant mature granulocytes and monocytes.

Scintigraphic study of regenerative nodules due to fulminant hepatic failure.

We report the case of a 25-year-old woman with fulminant hepatic failure (FHF). Liver scintigraphy using (99m)Tc-galactosyl human serum albumin (GSA) and (99m)Tc-phytate produced interesting findings; regenerative nodules appeared as nodules of increased accumulation of (99m)Tc-GSA, whereas these nodules were expressed as defects of accumulation of (99m)Tc-phytate. These scintigraphic findings suggested that the functions of hepatocytes in regenerative nodules were maintained, whereas those of Kupffer cells were impaired.

[Natural killer-cell lymphoma of the iris with a normal fundus].

Background: Intraocular lymphoma is a relatively uncommon malignancy, rarely presenting with exclusively anterior segment findings in a normal fundus.

Case: A 38-year-old male, previously diagnosed with nasal lymphoma, currently in complete remission after chemotherapy and radiotherapy, presented with blurring of vision in his left eye, which initially responded to local steroid therapy. However, the patient developed resistance to steroid therapy and developed nodular masses in the left iris.

Histological grading and staging in chronic hepatitis: its practical correlation.

Although the histological features of various causes of chronic liver disease have been well described, usually the inflammatory activity of the disease is important after the cause has been established. Some patients have co-infection or concomitant liver disease and on occasion it is difficult to decide the treatment. In order to clarify the histological differences, we investigated the inflammatory activity among autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), chronic hepatitis C (CHC) and chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in a standardized way using the modified histological activity index (HAI).