[Endovascular Repair of Infected Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm whose Shape Changed during Treatment of Infection].

We report a successful case of infected thoracic aortic aneurysm treated by endovascular repair. An 82-year-old woman, presenting with intermittent back pain and low-grade fever, was transferred with the diagnosis of infected thoracic aortic aneurysm. High inflammatory reaction and a thickened aortic wall around the aneurysm confirmed the diagnosis.

[Double Valve Replacement and Tricuspid Annuloplasty in a Patient with Situs Inversus Totalis and Mirror-image Dextrocardia;Report of a Case].

Situs inversus totalis and mirror-image dextrocardia is a rare congenital anomaly. A 79-year-old man with a history of atrial fibrillation presented to our hospital with chest oppression. Chest X-ray and computed tomography showed mirror-image dextrocardia and situs inversus totalis.

[Reconstruction of the posterior mitral annulus using a crescent-shaped collar; a novel technique for mitral valve replacement in the severely calcified annulus; report of a case].

A 74-year-old female who had been on hemodialysis for 4 years developed congestive heart failure. Severe mitral valve stenosis and tricuspid regurgitation were thought to be causes of her heart failure. She underwent a replacement of severely calcified mitral valve and an annuloplasty of tricuspid valve.

Rapidly progressive descending aortic pseudoaneurysm resulting from primary malignant fibrous histiocytoma.

A 66-year-old man with a history of asymptomatic bilateral swelling of the axillary lymph nodes was admitted with hoarseness and pain of the right knee. Computed tomography showed a large pseudoaneurysm deriving from descending aorta. We planned to resect the pseudoaneurysm, and repair the aortic wall.

Zero mortality of continuous veno-venous hemodiafiltration with PMMA hemofilter after pediatric cardiac surgery.

Objective: Continuous veno-venous hemodiafiltration (CVVH) is used as one of the modalities of continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) in pediatric intensive units. The aim of our study was to investigate the use of CVVH in small children with acute renal failure (ARF) after cardiac surgery.

Patient And Methods: Between June 2005 and June 2008, 7 patients who required dialysis after pediatric cardiac surgery without ECMO underwent CVVH with polymethylmethacrylate membrane (PMMA) treatment.

Cyclooxygenase-2 in sporadic colorectal polyps: immunohistochemical study and its importance in the early stages of colorectal tumorigenesis.

Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is one of the important targets for the chemoprevention of colorectal cancer by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). To evaluate the role of COX-2 in early stages of colorectal tumorigenesis, we immunohistochemically investigated the frequency and localization of COX-2 in sporadic colorectal polyps that showed various histology using a commercially available monoclonal antibody. A total of 105 colorectal polyps were examined.

Some biochemical and histochemical properties of human liver serine dehydratase.

In rat, serine dehydratase (SDH) is abundant in the liver and known to be a gluconeogenic enzyme, while there is little information about the biochemical property of human liver serine dehydratase because of its low content and difficulty in obtaining fresh materials. To circumvent these problems, we purified recombinant enzyme from Escherichia coli, and compared some properties between human and rat liver serine dehydratases. Edman degradation showed that the N-terminal sequence of about 75% of human serine dehydratase starts from MetSTART-Met2-Ser3- and the rest from Ser3-, whereas the N-terminus of rat enzyme begins from the second codon of MetSTART-Ala2-.