L-carbocisteine can cause cholestasis with vanishing bile duct syndrome in children: A case report.

Rationale: Vanishing bile duct syndrome (VBDS) is the acquired progressive destruction and disappearance of intrahepatic interlobular bile ducts in the absence of underlying liver or biliary tract disease, causing chronic cholestasis. Infections, drugs, toxins, malignant diseases, and certain immunological processes are associated with the development of this syndrome. There have been no reports of children developing VBDS as a consequence of the administration of L-carbocisteine.

Child requiring tracheostomy for removal of an airway foreign body at the tracheal bifurcation.

Airway foreign bodies are typically removed orally using a rigid bronchoscope. We present a rare case of a foreign body at the tracheal bifurcation that required removal via tracheostomy. A child turned pale while eating nuts and was suspected to have choked on a foreign body.

Fracture of a Temporary Inferior Vena Cava Filter.

Anticoagulation is recommended for the treatment of pulmonary embolism (PE) and deep vein thrombosis (DVT). In some cases, an inferior vena cava (IVC) filter is used to prevent PE. We report the case of a 70-year-old woman who developed non-massive PE and proximal DVT, which were treated using an IVC filter; two filters were placed owing to the fracture of the filters.

Percutaneous Catheter Thrombus Aspiration of Right Renal Infarction Caused by Left Ventricular Thrombi due to Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy.

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TC) is a temporal dysfunction of the left ventricle (LV) due to psychological or physiological stress; however, it rarely causes LV thrombus. We report a case of a 49-year-old woman who developed LV thrombi due to TC despite anticoagulation therapy. The thrombi caused acute systemic infarction, with the most severe occlusion being in the right renal artery.

Incidence, Clinical Course, and Risk Factors of Amiodarone-Induced Thyroid Dysfunction in Japanese Adults With Congenital Heart Disease.

Background: Although amiodarone (AMD)-induced thyroid dysfunction (AITD) is an important complication of AMD therapy, little is known about AITD in adult Japanese patients with congenital heart disease (CHD).

Methods And Results: We retrospectively studied 131 adult patients with CHD who were on low-dose AMD (median, 150 mg/day). The median patient age was 28 years, and the median follow-up was 44 months.

Function of the head-tail junction in the activity of myosin II.

All class II myosins have the conserved amino acid sequence Pro-Leu-Leu at their head-tail junctions. We systematically altered this sequence in smooth muscle heavy meromyosin (HMM) by site-directed mutagenesis and examined the effects of these mutations on actin-myosin interactions. Deletion of the proline and second leucine did not cause any noticeable change in either actin-activated ATPase activity or actin-sliding velocity.

Ruptured mucinous cystic neoplasm with an associated invasive carcinoma of pancreatic head in a pregnant woman: report of a case and review of literature.

Mucinous cystic neoplasm (MCN) of the pancreas is characterized by mucin-producing columnar epithelium and an ovarian-type stroma. It occurs almost exclusively in women and is almost always located in the pancreatic body or tail. Here, we report a case of large MCN located in the pancreatic head but not in the body nor tail in a 32-year-old pregnant woman, which was thought to have grown rapidly during pregnancy.

The effectiveness of transverse coloplasty in patients with ultra-lower rectal cancer.

Rectal cancer accounts for 40% of colon cancer, and postoperative defecatory function is considered to markedly affect the patients' quality of life. We performed transverse coloplasty in 33 patients with rectal cancer who had undergone an anal function preservation operation in which the anastomotic site was within 1 cm of the dentate line (ultra-low anterior resection) and evaluated its effectiveness in controlling the patients' defecatory function. The average daily defecation frequency 1, 6, and 12 months postoperatively was 7.

Binuclear Ni(II)-DpaTyr complex as a high affinity probe for an oligo-aspartate Tag tethered to proteins.

A complementary recognition pair of a short-peptide tag and a small molecular probe is a versatile molecular tool for protein detection, handling, and purification, and so forth. In this manuscript, we report that the binuclear Ni(II)-DpaTyr (DpaTyr=bis((dipicolylamino)methyl)tyrosine) complex serves as a strong binding probe for an oligo-aspartate tag tethered to a protein. Among various binuclear metal complexes of M-DpaTyr (M=Zn(II), Ni(II), Mn(II), Cu(II), Cd(II), Co(III), and Fe(III)), we have found that Ni(II)-DpaTyr (1-2Ni(II)) displays a strong-binding affinity (apparent binding constant: K(app) approximately 10(5) M(-1)) for an oligo-aspartate peptide under neutral aqueous conditions (50 mM HEPES, 100 mM NaCl, pH 7.

Biliopancreatic fistula and abscess formation in the bursa omentalis associated with intraductal papillary mucinous cancer of the pancreas.

We describe an unusual case of biliopancreatic fistula, free perforation, and subsequent abscess formation within the lesser peritoneal sac associated with intraductal papillary mucinous carcinoma (IPMC). A 71-year-old man presented with general fatigue and loss of appetite that had persisted for 1 month. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) revealed findings consistent with an intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) of the pancreas, accompanied by abscess formation in the bursa omentalis.

Chemo-hyperthermic peritoneal perfusion (CHPP) for appendiceal pseudomyxoma peritonei.

Background: Pseudomyxoma peritonei is derived mostly from the rupture of an appendiceal cystic tumor and produces a large quantity of mucinous substance. Though its malignancy level is low, radical resection is difficult and its prognosis is poor. In some institutes in European countries and the United States, multidisciplinary treatment with chemo-hyperthermia at a relatively low temperature is performed following subtotal peritonectomy.

Ratiometric fluorescence detection of a tag fused protein using the dual-emission artificial molecular probe.

We have successfully developed a ratiometric detection system for protein of interest using the complementary recognition pair of the tetra-aspartate peptide tag and the SNARF-appended Zn(ii)-DpaTyr probe.

Oligo-Asp tag/Zn(II) complex probe as a new pair for labeling and fluorescence imaging of proteins.

To accomplish the selective labeling of a specific protein in complicated biological systems, a peptide tag incorporated into the protein and a complementary small molecular probe are required. Although a variety of peptide tag/probe pairs have been developed as molecular tools for protein analyses, the availability of pairs suitable for real-time imaging of proteins is still limited. We now report a new peptide tag/artificial probe pair composed of a genetically encodable oligo-aspartate sequence (D4 tag, (D4)n, n = 1-3) and the corresponding multinuclear Zn(II) complexes (Zn(II)-DpaTyrs).

Intraductal mucinous tumors occurring simultaneously in the liver and pancreas.

A case of simultaneous intraductal mucinous tumors of the liver and pancreas in a 67-year-old man is described. Abdominal ultrasonography and computed tomography (CT) revealed the presence of cystic lesions with intraluminal septae both in the caudate lobe of the liver and in the uncinate process of the pancreas; these cystic lesions communicated with the hepatic duct and pancreatic duct, respectively. Mucin retention was observed in the cysts, and cholestasis was induced by mucin secretion into the common bile duct.

Aurora-B associated protein phosphatases as negative regulators of kinase activation.

The human serine/threonine kinase Aurora-B is structurally related to the protein kinase Ipl1p from S cerevisiae and aurora from Drosophila melanogaster, which are key regulators of mitosis. The present study shows that human Aurora-B is activated by okadaic acid and forms complexes with the protein serine/threonine phosphatase type 1 (PP1) or PP2A, but not with PP5. These data identified Aurora-B associated protein phosphatases as negative regulators of kinase activation.

Degradation of human Aurora-A protein kinase is mediated by hCdh1.

Human Aurora-A is related to a protein kinase originally identified by its close homology to Ipl1p from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and aurora from Drosophila melanogaster, which are key regulators of the structure and function of the mitotic spindle. We previously showed that human Aurora-A is turned over through the anaphase promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C)-ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. The association of two distinct WD40 repeat proteins known as Cdc20 and Cdh1, respectively, sequentially activates the APC/C.