Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors downregulate tissue factor synthesis in monocytes.

Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors reduce the risk of recurrent myocardial infarction in patients with left ventricular dysfunction. Tissue factor (TF), the initiator of blood coagulation, plays a pivotal role in arterial thrombosis that occurs after atherosclerotic plaque fissuring. Because monocytes synthesize TF and contain several components of the renin-angiotensin system, we investigated the possibility that ACE inhibitors could modulate monocyte TF expression.

Weekly gemcitabine and cisplatin in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: a phase II study.

Background: The combination of gemcitabine and cisplatin has proven effective in the treatment of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the optimal schedule for administration of the two drugs has not yet been determined. In this study we evaluated the activity and toxicity of a weekly gemcitabine and cisplatin schedule.

Enhanced expression of monocyte tissue factor in patients with liver cirrhosis.

Background: Previous studies have shown that cirrhotic patients produce increased amounts of thrombin but the underlying mechanism is still unknown.

Aims: To analyse the relation between the rate of thrombin generation and monocyte expression of tissue factor (TF) in cirrhosis.

Patients: Thirty three cirrhotic patients classified as having low (n = 7), moderate (n = 17), or severe (n = 9) liver failure according to Child-Pugh criteria.

Cell-cell interaction and tissue factor expression.

Following tissue injury, blood components come into contact with the subendothelial tissue, a thrombogenic surface. Tissue factor, found in the media and adventitia of the vascular wall, or available on the membrane of activated monocytes and endothelial cells, triggers blood coagulation. A complex interaction between soluble molecules and cells then takes place, a fibrin mesh is formed, and the resulting clot limits or stops the loss of blood.

An ultrasonographic study of stage-5 retinopathy of prematurity.

Background: In preterm infants with severe retinopathy of prematurity, there is often a discrepancy between ophthalmic ultrasound findings and the ophthalmoscopic and/or intraoperative aspect of the eye.

Methods: Six preterm infants (8 eyes) with stage-5 retinopathy of prematurity were examined with standardized ophthalmic echography (A and B scans) shortly before undergoing open-sky vitrectomies. Sonographic findings were evaluated according to four A-scan and four B-scan criteria used to diagnose retinal detachment in adults and compared to intraoperative findings.

Comparative evaluation of underlying causes of death processed by the Automated Classification of Medical Entities and the Underlying Cause of Death Selection Systems.

Introduction: The correct identification of the underlying cause of death and its precise assignment to a code from the International Classification of Diseases are important issues to achieve accurate and universally comparable mortality statistics. These factors, among other ones, led to the development of computer software programs in order to automatically identify the underlying cause of death.

Objective: This work was conceived to compare the underlying causes of death processed respectively by the Automated Classification of Medical Entities (ACME) and the "Sistema de Seleção de Causa Básica de Morte" (SCB) programs.

Iris vascular changes in newborns of diabetic mothers.

Routine ophthalmic examinations of 600 full-term neonates, including 54 born to mothers with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and 12 whose mothers had developed gestational diabetes, revealed significant tortuosity and dilatation of the iris vessels in over half of the infants born to diabetic mothers. Ninety percent of the newborns in the diabetic group presented hypoplasia of the iris stroma and pupil dynamics were altered in 85%. The vessel changes resolved spontaneously within 2 weeks after birth.

A randomized, controlled phase III study of cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and vincristine with etoposide (CAV-E) or teniposide (CAV-T), followed by recombinant interferon-alpha maintenance therapy or observation, in small cell lung carcinoma patients with complete responses.

Background: Studies of chemotherapy for patients with small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) have shown that teniposide (T) may have higher activity than etoposide (E). In this randomized, controlled Phase III study, the authors compared cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and vincristine (CAV) with E and CAV with T as induction treatments for patients with SCLC. A second objective of the study was to study patients who had achieved complete response (CR).

[Infant mortality in a midwestern municipality of the State of São Paulo, Brazil, 1990 to 1992].

Introduction: Infant mortality was studied in an urban area of Southeastern Brazil in the period from 1990 to 1992 using data from death certificates collected at the registry office, by the application of methods for obtaining a collective diagnosis which will assist in the identification and choice of strategies for the control of local problems.

Material And Method: The original data were corrected using documental research into health services and household interviews. Data of the Live Birth Information System (SINASC) was used to study variables such as maternal age and birthweight.

Monocytes upregulate endothelial cell expression of tissue factor: a role for cell-cell contact and cross-talk.

Monocytes and endothelial cells interact at sites of vascular injury during inflammatory response, thrombosis, and development of atherosclerotic lesions. Such interactions result in modulation of several biological functions of the two cell types. Because both cells, on appropriate stimulation, synthesize tissue factor (TF), we examined the effect of human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC)/monocyte coculture on the expression of TF.

Scleral buckling surgery in stage 4 retinopathy of prematurity.

Background: Technical advances in neonatal intensive care have significantly increased the number of very low birth-weight babies that survive the perinatal period. Some of these infants develop severe retinopathy of prematurity that may lead to retinal detachment.

Methods: Between November 1988 and January 1994, 28 eyes from 15 preterm babies underwent scleral buckling for stage 4 retinopathy of prematurity at a mean age of 4.

Consolidation biochemotherapy for patients with advanced nonsmall cell lung carcinoma responding to induction PVM (cisplatin, vinblastine, mitomycin-C) regimen. A phase II study.

Background: The authors investigated a consolidation biochemotherapy program with subcutaneous recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2) and recombinant interferon-alpha (rIFN alpha) biologic response modifiers (BRM) in patients with advanced nonsmall cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) with responsive or stable disease to induction chemotherapy.

Methods: Patients with proven, advanced, previously untreated NSCLC were entered into the study. Induction chemotherapy consisted of cisplatin, 120 mg/m2 intravenously (i.

Trace metal biomonitoring in the soil and the leaves of Quercus ilex in the urban area of Naples.

The concentrations of Pb, Cu, Fe, and Mn were analyzed in surface deposit and tissue of Quercus ilex leaves from several sites of the urban area of Naples, exposed to different degrees of air pollution. These included some major roads with heavy traffic loads, squares, and three urban parks. The soil from the trunk base area of Q.

[The use of the microcomputer in selecting the basic cause of death].

The article begins with a discussion of some mortality statistics issues, problems encountered in the manual selection of underlying cause of death, and also the increasing need for information on associated causes. These circumstances led the National Center for Health Statistics to develop the computerized ACME System, which has been in use in São Paulo State since 1983. The ACME System's requirement of a mainframe computer, as well as other operational limitations, has prevented its installation throughout the country.

Oxygen-induced retinopathy in the newborn rat: effects of hyperbarism and topical administration of timolol maleate.

Background: Lesions resembling those of human retinopathy of prematurity can be provoked in newborn Wistar rats by exposure to an FiO2 of 80% for the first 5 days of life followed by 5 days recovery under room-air conditions.

Methods: We evaluated the effects of moderate hyperbarism (+60.75 kPa, i.

Detection at diagnosis of tumor cells in bone marrow aspirates of patients with small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) and clinical correlations.

Background: Immunocytochemistry has often been used to identify tumor cells in bone marrow aspirate (BMA) of SCLC patients in order to improve the results of conventional histomorphology. However, whether the detection of bone marrow microlocalisation at diagnosis had implications for prognosis has not been clear.

Patients And Methods: Eighty-four slides (44 patients) and 66 bone marrow biopsies (from 42/44 patients) were evaluated.

[The use of monoclonal antibodies that recognize the neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) in the diagnosis of bone marrow localization of small cell lung cancer].

We have used immunocytochemistry to identify tumor cells in bone-marrow aspirates of 40 untreated patients with small cell lung cancer and we compared the results with conventional histomorphology. The monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) used were NCC-LU-243 and NCC-LU-246 (both cluster 1). For each MAb 76 slides were evaluated.

Polymorphonuclear leukocytes enhance release of growth factors by cultured endothelial cells.

Porcine aortic endothelial cells (PAECs) in culture constitutively secrete polypeptide (endothelium-derived) growth factors (EDGFs) into the surrounding medium. Incubation of PAECs with human peripheral blood polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) caused a significant increase in EDGF release as assessed by [3H]thymidine incorporation into BALB/c 3T3 mouse fibroblasts and cell proliferation assay. The effect was time dependent and correlated with the number of PMNs, reaching a maximum with a 1:1 PAEC to PMN ratio.

Postoperative chemotherapy increases the disease-free survival rate in primary gastric lymphomas stage IE and IIE.

We describe 53 patients with primary gastric non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (38 stage IE,15 stage IIE) treated with surgery as a primary procedure. According to the Working Formulation, 13 cases had low, 21 had intermediate and 19 had high grade malignancy. 34 patients considered at high risk received postoperative polychemotherapy.

[Smoking prevalence in the urban locality of southeastern Brazil].

A cross-sectional study for prevalence of arterial hypertension in the population aged 15-74 years of age of the urban area of Araraquara County, 250 km from the city of S. Paulo, S. Paulo, State, Brazil, in 1987, was performed.

[Surgery and chemotherapy in the treatment of primary gastric lymphomas: case review].

Fifty-seven patients with primary gastric non-Hodgkin's lymphoma are here reported. All our patients were treated with surgery as first step procedure. Thirty-six were treated in addition with chemotherapy (four of them with radiotherapy also).

Cold-induced changes in plasma norepinephrine, epinephrine and dopamine concentrations in patients with Raynaud's phenomenon.

To investigate the role of the sympathetic system in Raynaud's phenomenon, which has not yet been elucidated, we measured the levels of norepinephrine, epinephrine and dopamine before, immediately and 30 min after the cold pressor test in plasma from 17 patients with primary, 6 with secondary Raynaud's phenomenon and 19 volunteers, matched for age and sex. Patients had significantly low baseline epinephrine (0.13 +/- 0.

[Mortality of women in reproductive age in the municipality of São Paulo (Brazil), 1986. III--Death by different causes: cardiovascular diseases].

Further to a research project into the accuracy of death given on the causes of death given on the death certificates of women of fertile age (10-49), resident in the City of S. Paulo, SP, Brazil, in 1986, the main causes of death for the population according to age, with remarks on the mortality from cardiovascular diseases (CVD), malignant neoplasms and external causes are presented. The CVD were responsible for 23.