Effect of early administration of the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonist amantadine on the development of postmastectomy pain syndrome: a prospective pilot study.

Unlabelled: Postmastectomy pain syndrome (PMPS) is a neuropathic pain syndrome that might develop after breast surgery. Like many other forms of neuropathic pain, it is relatively resistant to treatment and negatively affects the quality of life. A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled pilot trial was conducted to study the analgesic efficacy of perioperative administration of the N-methyl-D-aspatrate (NMDA) receptor antagonist amantadine in preventing PMPS after mastectomy plus axillary lymph node dissection (ALND).

Simple clinical examination predicts complexity of perianal fistula.

Objective: To investigate the diagnostic value of the distance between external opening of perianal fistula and anal verge and to evaluate its relation to the type of fistula. Preoperative identification of complex fistulae is important for proper planning of treatment.

Patients And Methods: One hundred and fifteen consecutive patients operated for perianal fistula were studied prospectively.

Sutureless closed hemorrhoidectomy: a new technique.

Objective: To compare a new technique of radical hemorrhoidectomy using an electrothermal device originally devised to seal vessels in abdominal operations, with the conventional open Milligan-Morgan procedure performed with diathermy.

Summary Background Data: Hemorrhoidectomy is one of the most commonly performed anorectal operations. Two well-established methods, the "open" Milligan-Morgan excision and the "closed" Ferguson technique, both carry risks of postoperative bleeding, urinary retention, and late anal stenosis.

Effect of rectal stump washout on the presence of free malignant cells in the rectum during anterior resection for rectal cancer.

Purpose: It is possible that implantation of viable malignant cells is one of the mechanisms of anastomotic recurrence in rectosigmoid cancer. The viability of shed intraluminal cells was previously established and malignant cells were retrieved on circular staplers in unwashed rectal stumps. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a defined and uniform washout protocol in eradication of intraluminal malignant cells during anterior resection.

Abdominal stoma fashioned by a used circular stapler.

A method of application of a used circular stapler in abdominal stoma formation is described. The procedure is rapid, simple, carries less tissue trauma than the conventional methods and does not involve any additional cost. It allows for a precise circular aperture in the abdominal wall which may be optimally adjusted to the bowel diameter.

Varicocele treatment in pubertal boys prevents testicular growth arrest.

Purpose: There is evidence that varicocele damage, as reflected by loss of testicular mass, is most striking in the pubertal age group. We attempted to evaluate the long-term effect of early varicocele treatment on testicular growth and sperm count and, thus, determine its prophylactic value.

Materials And Methods: We compared testicular mass and sperm count in 32 men (mean age 28 years) who underwent surgery for varicocele at 11 to 15 years old (mean age 13) to those in 26 untreated, age matched men (mean age 30 years) with varicocele and 27 male controls (mean age 25 years).

A microprocessor temperature-controlled air delivery system for dentinal hypersensitivity testing.

A new microprocessor temperature controlled air delivery system for determining cold and warm temperature thresholds of dentinal hypersensitivity has been designed and built. The temperature range of the unit is -5 degrees to + 85 degrees C. Air is delivered from a typical dental unit air syringe nozzle at a relatively gentle flow rate of 0.

[Changes in the enzyme activity of flavinogenesis in the process of culturing the fungus Eremothecium ashbyii].

The activity of enzymes involved in the beginning (GTP cyclohydrolase) and terminal steps (riboflavin synthase EC 2.5.1.

The effects of endotoxin on CFU-C clonogenic capacity of marrow and spleen cells from RLV-A infected mice.

Bacterial endotoxin was used as a granulopoietic stressor in the RLV-A infected mouse as a means of studying the marrow and spleen CFU-C response to this agent. A control group of phenylhydrazine (PHZ)-treated mice was also employed to induce a reduction in hematocrit levels equivalent to that observed in the early and mid-stage of the disease course and was used to determine whether the cloning observed was a manifestation of RLV-A disease or could be attributed solely to the resulting anemia. Both RLV-A infected and PHZ marrow from mice maintained at a hematocrit of 40% exhibited similar but higher than normal clonogenic capacities, whereas RLV-A (hematocrit 40%) spleen had an expanded number of CFU-C's when compared to PHZ treated (hematocrit 40%) mice.

Colony stimulating activity in sera of erythroleukemic mice (RLV-A).

RLV-A serum activity was measured by the agar colony assay to determine the effect of this erythroid dyscrasia on the granulopoietic humoral regulator, colony stimulating factor (CSF). In general, the sera of early, midstage and terminal animals not given endotoxin had high cluster forming properties compared to normal sera. The sera of early, midstage, and terminal mice treated with endotoxin had only a fraction of the colony forming ability of serum obtained from normal endotoxin-treated mice (EMS) with the earliest stages of the disease showing least activity followed by a rise in activity paralleling normal EMS, as the disease progressed.

[Genetic classification of riboflavin-dependent mutants of Pichia guilliermondii yeasts].

114 riboflavinless mutants were selected from the genetic line of Pichia guilliermondii yeast. By means of accumulation test the mutants were divided into five biochemical groups. In genetic experiments seven complementation classes were found among 106 mutants.

[Regulation of the activity of GTP-cyclohydrolase, the enzyme of the first step of flavinogenesis in yeasts].

The kinetic properties and regulation of activity of GTP-cyclohydrolase, the enzyme of the first step of flavinogenesis in the Pichia guilliermondii yests, partially purified by gel-filtration were studied. It was found that the curve of the dependence of reaction rate on substrate concentration is non-hyperbolic. FAD inhibited the enzyme activity, while riboflavin and FMN had no such effect.

[Activities of some yeast flavogenic enzymes in situ].

Effects of digitonin, dimethylsulfoxide and protamine sulfate on yeast Pichia guilliermondii were studied in order to produce cells with increased permeability and possessing the GTP-cyclohydrolase, riboflavinsynthetase and riboflavinkinase activities. The digitonin-treated cells exhibited a higher cyclohydrolase activity than the cell-free extracts; the activities of riboflavinsynthetase and riboflavinkinase in the cells and cell-free extracts were found to be similar. Treatment of cells with dimethylsulfoxide proved to be most effective to determine the activity of GTP-cyclohydrolase and also helpful to determine that of riboflavinsynthetase.

[Regulation of synthesis of GTP-cyclohydrolase participating in yeast falvinogenesis by iron].

Pichia guilliermondii, Schwanniomyces occidentalis, Torulopsis candida and several riboflavin-dependent mutants of Torulopsis candida were grown in a medium with a low concentration of iron. In these conditions, the activity of GTP-cyclohydrolase which catalyzes the first step of flavinogenesis increases. The activity of the enzyme increases also when the cells of T.

Regulation of 6-hydroxy-2,4,5-triaminopyrimidine synthesis by riboflavin and iron in riboflavin-deficient mutants of Pichia guilliermondii yeast.

The effect of riboflavin and iron on 6-hydroxy-2,4,5-triaminopyrimidine synthesis rate was investigated in the cultures of the yeast Pichia guilliermondii (rib2 mutants) with the blocked second reaction to flavinogenesis. It was shown that riboflavin inhibited the 6-hydroxy-2,4,5-triaminopyrimidine synthesis rate in iron-rich and iron-deficient cells of mutants with low riboflavin requirements. Cycloheximide did not prevent the stimulation of 6-hydroxy-2,4,5-triaminopyrimidine synthesis caused by riboflavin starvation.

In vitro granulocytic stem cell clonogenic capacity of marrow and spleen cells from mice infected with Rauscher leukemia virus.

Bone marrow and spleen cells from early, midstage, and terminal Rauscher leukemia virus (RLV-A)-infected erythroleukemic mice were assessed for granulocyte stem cell (CFU-c) clongenic capacity in the semisolid agar culture assay. It was found that marrow CFU-c concentrations exceeded normal in early stages of this erythroid disease but returned to near normal values during mid- and terminal phases. Splenic CFU-c concentrations, on the other hand, were generally higher than control values for all stages of the disease.

Diffusion chamber hematopoiesis in marrow and spleen cells from mice infected with Rauscher leukemia virus (RLV-A).

Preleukemic and terminal phase marrow cells from RLV-A-infected mice placed within diffusion chambers and implanted into normal mice, maintained elevated levels of both erythroid and myeloid precursor cells, whereas normal control marrow cells grown within diffusion chambers in normal hosts did not. Splenic tissue from preleukemic and terminal mice when placed as a cellular suspension into diffusion chambers and implanted into normal recipients also maintained high erythroblast numbers. However, while some transient growth of myeloid precursor elements occurred in preleukemic spleen cultures, terminal spleen cultures displayed essentially no granulocytic precursor cell growth.