[Prostanoids and acute lung injury].

Prostanoids with various physiological effects in the lung, have been shown to be one of the important factors in acute lung injury. However, in large scale clinical studies, beneficial effects of NSAIDs or PGE1 have not been demonstrated. On the other hand, with progress of basic research in prostaglandin metabolic pathway, receptor and synthase of each prostanoid have been clarified, and selective COX-2 blockers have been developed and are now available in Japan.

An intraoperative diagnosis of dynamic left ventricular outflow tract obstruction using transesophageal echocardiography leads to the treatment with intravenous disopyramide.

Unlabelled: Hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM) is an uncommon familial disorder, traditionally characterized by asymmetric septal hypertrophy and left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) obstruction (1). It is now recognized that HOCM may also include those patients with secondary left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and dynamic LVOT obstruction. In particular, a syndrome with similar clinical and echocardiographic findings has been identified in elderly patients exhibiting concentric LVH with chronic hypertension, aortic stenosis, or sigmoid-shaped septum (2).