[Overwhelming postsplenectomy infection 22 years after splenectomy].

A 25-year-old man undergoing splenectomy at 3 years of age to treat idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura but no history of Streptococcus pneumonia vaccination, and reporting high fever, nausea, and headache developed purpura, confusion, and hypotension the next day and was admitted. Detailed examination showed disseminated intravascular coagulation and multiple-organ dysfunction. Chest X-ray and computed tomography (CT) showed pneumonia and pleural effusion.

[A case of disseminated nontuberculous mycobacteriosis during purpura associated with hypergammaglobulinemia and hepatitis type C].

A 74-year-old woman with hepatitis due to hepatitis C virus followed up using oral predonisolone (3 mg/day) for two years because of hypergammaglobulinemia-associated purpura reported fever and lumbago in February 2005. Upon admission in June, she was found in chest-computed tomography to have atelectasia in the right middle lung lobe and a nodule with a cavity in the right lower lobe. She tested positive for tuberculous glycolipid antibody.

[18F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography is a useful tool to diagnose the early stage of Takayasu's arteritis and to evaluate the activity of the disease.

Takayasu's arteritis (TA) is a rare disease that can be difficult to diagnose in its early stage. A young woman with a fever and neck pain was thought to have TA, although computed tomographic angiography did not show any specific changes of the arteries. [(18)F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography ([(18)F]FDG-PET) was performed to detect the source of the inflammation.

[Mycoplasma pneumonia of identical twin sisters with different clinical courses depending on the treatment].

Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae) pneumonia is a common disease which usually shows a good prognosis, however, it can develop a very serious state such as respiratory distress syndrome. We experienced 2 cases with M.

Detection of human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) infection during coculture of HTLV-I infected and uninfected cells using inverse long PCR.

Objective: Identifying the new integration of human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) proviral genome into initially uninfected cells after cocultivation with HTLV-I infected cells is important for clarifying the process of infection. We examined the usefulness of inverse long polymerase chain reaction (IL-PCR) for this purpose.

Methods: An experimental system using IL-PCR was applied to detect the transmission of HTLV-I between irradiated HTLV-I infected cells (HUT102) and uninfected targed cells (MOLT4, K562) after short-term and long-term coculturing.