Helicobacter pylori extracts exhibit nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide-derived adenylation but not mono(adenosine 5'-diphosphate-ribosyl)ation of DNA ligase.

The issue of toxins produced by Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) urgently requires clarification given that the bacterium causes gastric epithelial cell damage which may lead to precancerous and cancerous changes. During an investigation of the possibility of mono(adenosine 5'-diphosphate (ADP)-ribosyl)ation by H.

Colonoscopy for frank bloody stools associated with cancer chemotherapy.

Diarrhea is a common complication of cancer chemotherapy, while bloody stool is rare. Pseudomembranous colitis has been reported as causing bloody diarrhea after chemotherapy. In this report, we describe nine consecutive patients who presented frank bloody stools within one month after cancer chemotherapy.

Clinicopathological studies on coexisting gastric malignant lymphoma and gastric adenocarcinoma: report of four cases and review of the Japanese literature.

Among 121 cases of primary gastric malignant lymphoma from 1962 to 1994 at the National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, we found four cases (three males and one female) of adenocarcinoma coexisting in the stomach. The incidence of gastric malignant lymphoma together with gastric adenocarcinoma was 3.3%, suggesting that patients with lymphoma may have an increased incidence of gastric adenocarcinoma.

Phase I-II study of irinotecan hydrochloride combined with cisplatin in patients with advanced gastric cancer.

Purpose: A dose-escalation study of irinotecan hydrochloride (CPT-11) combined with fixed-dose cisplatin was conducted to determine the maximum-tolerated dose (MTD), dose-limiting toxicities, and objective response rate in patients with advanced gastric cancer.

Patients And Methods: Twenty-four patients with or without prior chemotherapy were enrolled. All patients were assessable for toxicities and response.

Effects of coronary blood flow, myocardial contractility, and heart rate on cardiac lymph circulation in open-chest dogs. Use of a direct cannulation method for subepicardial lymph vessel.

The study was conducted to evaluate the effects of increased coronary blood flow (CBF), myocardial contractility, and heart rate on cardiac lymph circulation using a subepicardial lymph channel in anesthetized open-chest dogs. A subepicardial lymph vessel along the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) was cannulated directly with a small polyethylene tube, and lymph flow (LF) and protein concentration of lymph (PC) were measured. Coronary blood flow (CBF) was increased with intracoronary infusion of adenosine, and myocardial contractility with isoproterenol (isoprenaline) infusion.

Reduced vasodilator response of the right coronary artery to myocardial ischemia in the hypertrophied right ventricle.

The reduced reactive hyperemic response of the right coronary artery (RCA) to brief coronary occlusion was assessed in dogs with pressure-induced right ventricular hypertrophy (RVH). Right coronary reactive hyperemia was observed in normal dogs and in dogs with pressure-induced RVH. RVH was induced by chronic pulmonary artery banding in eight 3- to 6-month-old dogs, and reactive hyperemia responses to coronary occlusion lasting for 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 45, and 60 sec were compared to those in normal dogs.

Risk factors for lymph node metastasis from intramucosal gastric carcinoma.

Background: Although regional lymph node metastasis from intramucosal early gastric carcinoma (EGC) is rare, it is very important to clarify the characteristics of patients having lymph nodal metastases in order to determine appropriate therapy.

Methods: The authors investigated 1196 patients with solitary intramucosal EGC who underwent resection at the National Cancer Center Hospital in Tokyo, with special reference to lymph node metastases. Eight clinicopathologic factors (age, sex, tumor: size, location, macroscopic type, histologic type, histologic ulceration of the tumor, and lymphatic vessel invasion) were investigated by univariate and multivariate analyses for their possible relationship to lymph node metastasis.

Circulating parathyroid hormone-related protein (109-141) in malignancy-associated hypercalcemia.

For differential diagnosis between hypercalcemia-induced bone metastasis and humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy (HHM), serum parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) concentrations were measured in normal subjects and patients with malignancy-associated hypercalcemia according to the presence or absence of bone metastasis, using a new sensitive PTHrP(109-141) radioimmunoassay system. The serum PTHrP(109-141) levels in all of 14 patients without bone metastasis were significantly higher than those in normal subjects. However, in four patients with hypercalcemia associated with bone metastasis the levels were nearly the same as those in normal subjects.

An early phase II study of etoposide (VP-16) in advanced gastric cancer.

An early phase II study was conducted to evaluate the anti-tumor effects and toxicity of etoposide in patients with unresectable or relapsed advanced gastric cancer. From April 1991 to December 1992, 13 patients were enrolled into this study; one was subsequently considered ineligible. Before enrollment, all the patients had been treated with chemotherapy which did not include etoposide.

DNA gyrase gyr A gene mutations in ofloxacin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

A total of 106 clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus were classified into nine pattern types correlated with gyrA mutations. In 62 strains, mutations were found at a single codon (84, 85, 86 and 88), while 22 strains showed double mutations either at codons 84 and 85 or at codons 84 and 88. The double mutations led to the highest levels of ofloxacin resistance (MIC, > or = 128 microg/ml).

Identification of mycobacteria by nonradioisotopic single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis.

Clinical isolates of mycobacteria were identified to species levels using nonradioisotopic single-strand conformation polymorphism (non-RI SSCP) analysis of 16S rRNA gene fragments amplified by polymerase chain reaction with primers common to all of mycobacterial species. The method is based on a hypervariable region within the 16S rRNA in mycobacteria, which is characterized by species-specific nucleotide sequences. A total of 92 mycobacterial strains (Mycobacterium tuberculosis, M.

Clinicopathologic features of early rectal carcinoma and indications for endoscopic treatment.

Purpose: This study was undertaken to clarify the indications for endoscopic treatment.

Methods: Clinical and pathologic features of 191 lesions in 180 patients with early rectal carcinoma were examined, including 110 intramucosal carcinomas and 81 carcinomas with submucosal invasion (submucosal carcinomas). All lesions had been endoscopically or surgically resected at the National Cancer Center Hospital between 1976 and 1990.

[Detection of K-ras mutation from malignant cells in sputum with mutant-allele specific amplification (MASA) method].

Sputum cells from 44 lung cancer patients (22 adenocarcinoma, 19 squamous cell carcinoma and 3 small cell carcinoma cases) were examined to contain mutant K-ras genes. The mutant-allele-specific amplification (MASA) method was used for detection of K-ras point mutations. The reaction was designed to amplify only mutant codons with polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Clinical trial of continuous infusion of 5-fluorouracil using an ambulatory pump for metastatic colorectal cancer.

A clinical trial was conducted in order to evaluate the anti-tumor effect and toxicity of a continuous infusion of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) for metastatic colorectal cancer. Two-hundred and fifty mg/m2/day 5-FU was administered as a continuous infusion through an indwelling central venous catheter with ambulatory pump. Twenty patients with metastatic colorectal cancer which could be measured or evaluated were enrolled in the trial.

Early afterdepolarization abolished by potassium channel opener in a patient with idiopathic long QT syndrome.

We describe a 17-year-old boy with idiopathic long QT syndrome and repeated syncopal episodes. Early afterdepolarization (EAD) in the monophasic action potential (MAP) was demonstrated in the posterior septum of the left ventricle. Injection of the potassium channel opener nicorandil decreased EAD and shortened MAP duration.

Apical hypertrophy associated with rapid T wave inversion on the electrocardiogram.

A 53-year-old man who had no chest pain and no family history of heart disease demonstrated a rapid T wave change on an electrocardiogram, from a positive T wave to a giant negative T wave, within 1 year. Echocardiography showed no left ventricular hypertrophy before or after the T wave change. Cine-magnetic resonance imaging revealed focal apical hypertrophy after the appearance of the giant negative T wave.

[The evaluation of systolic right ventricular pressure and right ventricular hypertrophy using body surface mapping (isointegral map, isochrone map)].

We studied QRS and QRST isointegral maps, and isochrone map for the diagnosis of right ventricular hypertrophy and its severity in atrial septal defects and primary pulmonary hypertensions. The discriminant analysis in QRS isointegral map showed better results for differential diagnosis between atrial septal defects and both normal subjects and incomplete right bundle branch block patients than these in QRST isointegral map and isochrone map. Three parameters (Qp/Qs, systolic right ventricular pressure, right ventricular ejection fraction) for right ventricular overload showed significant correlation with QRS isointegral map and QRS isopotential map.

Small depressed cancer of the large bowel: report of three cases.

This report describes three patients in whom colonoscopy detected small depressed cancers (without an elevated component) that had invaded the submucosa. They represent 0.4% (3/884) of all patients with invasive cancers and 3% (3/101) of patients with submucosal cancers in the National Cancer Center Hospital between January 1990 and February 1994.

Helicobacter pylori infection, serum pepsinogen level and gastric cancer: a case-control study in Japan.

We conducted a case-control study to evaluate the effect of Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection on the risk of gastric cancer in Tokyo, Japan. The sera at the time of diagnosis from 282 gastric cancer cases and 767 sex- and age-matched cancer-free controls were tested for the presence of anti-HP IgG antibody (HM-CAP ELISA kit) and serum pepsinogen (PG) level (PG I and PG II Riabead). No significant association was observed in all sets [matched odds ratio (OR) = 1.

Role of endothelium-derived nitric oxide and adenosine in functional myocardial hyperemia.

To investigate the role of endothelium-derived nitric oxide (EDNO) and adenosine in functional myocardial hyperemia, we examined the effect of NG-nitro-L-arginine (L-NNA) and 8-p-sulfophenyltheophylline (8-SPT) on coronary vasodilation in response to increased myocardial oxygen consumption in pentobarbital sodium-anesthetized dogs. L-NNA significantly attenuated the increase in coronary conductance from 28 +/- 6 to 16 +/- 2% with atrial pacing, from 69 +/- 5 to 36 +/- 6% with isoproterenol, and from 25 +/- 6 to 9 +/- 4% with constriction of the aorta. 8-SPT given alone attenuated the increase in coronary conductance to the same extent as L-NNA.

Morphometric analysis of colorectal dysplasia with image processing.

Nuclear and structural abnormalities on the histological specimens of colorectal dysplasias were quantified by using 10 parameters. From the measured values, the following histological findings were obtained: progression from mild to severe dysplasia was associated with an increase in nuclear size, and nuclear arrangement became more irregular. There was, however, no difference between the nuclear size and arrangement in severe dysplasia and those in carcinoma.

"Very well differentiated tubular adenocarcinoma" of the stomach: its endoscopic and histopathological characteristics.

Between 1986 and 1991, 31 patients having tubular adenocarcinoma with low cellular and structural atypism ("very well differentiated tubular adenocarcinoma:" tub 0) underwent surgery at the National Cancer Center Hospital (NCCH). Histologically, the 31 lesions in the 31 patients were very similar to those observed in gastric adenoma (World Health Organization) with severe atypism. Their malignancy could be diagnosed only on the basis of cellular atypism, i.