Cardiovascular diseases in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Objectives: To study cardiovascular autopsy findings and the lifetime prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Method: In 369 RA patients and their reference cases without any rheumatic disease (non-RA), we studied CVDs recorded on autopsy reports at consecutive autopsies from 1952 to 1991. From autopsy referrals by clinicians, we recorded lifetime CVDs.

Amyloidosis is frequently undetected in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Prevalence of AA amyloid in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is still unclear. The objective of this retrospective study was whether dedicated re-examination of autopsy tissues from RA patients increases the detection rate of amyloid compared to routine examination. Amyloid was re-examined in tissue samples and detection rate compared with original reports of 369 consecutively autopsied RA patients and 370 non-RA patients matched for sex, age, and year of autopsy between 1952 and 1991.

Causes of death in patients with rheumatoid arthritis autopsied during a 40-year period.

We studied causes of death (CoDs) between 1952 and 1991 assessed by a clinician before autopsy and then determined at autopsy by a pathologist in 369 subjects with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and 370 subjects without RA (non-RA). We analysed clinical data for RA subjects between 1973 and 1991. In RA subjects, leading autopsy-based CoDs were RA, cardiovascular diseases and infections.

Amyloidosis as a cause of death in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: To study amyloidosis as a cause of death along with associated factors and frequency of pre-mortem diagnosis in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) autopsied between 1952 and 1991.

Methods: We studied causes of death in 369 consecutively autopsied RA and 370 autopsied non-RA patients of the same sex, age at death, and year of autopsy. In those RA patients who died from 1973 onwards, we were also able to analyse clinical data: pre-mortem diagnosis of amyloidosis, clinical features of RA, and treatment.

Infectious causes of death in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: an autopsy study.

Objective: To study mortality from infections and accuracy of pre-mortem diagnoses in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) autopsied during a 40-year period.

Methods: We investigated infectious causes of death, findings at autopsy, and clinicians' estimation of cause of death in 369 consecutively autopsied RA and 371 autopsied non-RA patients with same sex, age at death, and year of autopsy. We also compiled clinical features of RA patients from medical records available and examined the association between these and infectious causes of death.

Stages of municipal water protection in Vaasa during the 20th century.

Vaasa, located on the Gulf of Bothnia, is representative of medium-sized cities on the coast of the Baltic Sea. This article discusses Vaasa's impact on the surrounding sea area and the city's reactions to the pollution of the sea. The history of wastewater treatment in Vaasa strongly suggests that first-generation environmental problems, e.

Fibrillar protein deposits with tubular substructure in a systemic disease beginning as cutis laxa.

Background: The homogeneous material found in the skin is commonly identified as amyloid. We describe a previously unknown disease that is caused by proteinaceous deposits and that does not fulfill the criteria of the earlier recognized amyloid diseases.

Observations: The unusual deposits, which were initially found in the dermis, were ultrastructurally composed of fibrillar material with a tubular substructure.

Histamine neurons in human hypothalamus: anatomy in normal and Alzheimer diseased brains.

The anatomy of histamine-immunoreactive cell bodies in normal adult human brain was examined in detail. In addition, the distribution of these cells in three cases of Alzheimer's disease was compared to the distribution of neurofibrillary tangles. Histamine-immunoreactive cell bodies were confined to the tuberal and posterior hypothalamus, forming the tuberomammillary nuclear complex.

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and gastrointestinal cancer associated antigen CA 19-9 in bronchioloalveolar carcinomas and pulmonary adenocarcinomas.

The concentrations of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and the gastrointestinal cancer associated antigen CA 19-9 were studied by radioimmunoassay in serum samples from patients with malignant and benign pulmonary tumours. Elevated levels of either markers were found in 14% of patients with malignant tumours and in none of the cases with benign lesions. Following removal of the tumour, a decline in high CA 19-9 levels was found.

Residual carcinoma in bronchial resection line.

Microscopic residual tumour growth was found postoperatively in the bronchial resection lines in 44 out of a total of 1069 patients who underwent resection for pulmonary carcinoma. Bronchopleural fistula developed in six of these patients (13.6%).

Surgical treatment of metachronous primary lung carcinomas.

Eleven patients were operated on for metachronous primary lung carcinomas. Most patients were heavy smokers. The incidence of primary metachronous carcinomas suitable for the operation was 0.

Tumour growth rate and its relationship to prognosis in bronchiolo-alveolar and pulmonary adenocarcinoma.

Tumour growth rates and their effects on the survival of 26 patients with bronchioloalveolar or pulmonary adenocarcinomas were analysed following surgery. Twelve of the tumours were classified as bronchioloalveolar carcinomas, 7 were classed as mixed forms of bronchioloalveolar carcinoma and 7 were classed as adenocarcinomas. The mean doubling time was 300.

Results of surgical treatment of synchronous multiple primary lung carcinomas.

Four male patients with synchronous multiple lung carcinoma were operated on. In one patient both tumours were adenocarcinomas; both were bronchioloalveolar carcinomas in a second patient. In a third patient the tumours were adenocarcinoma and bronchioloalveolar carcinoma while in the fourth patient an adenocarcinoma and a squamous cell carcinoma were present.

Selection of multiresistant coliforms by long-term treatment of hypercholesterolaemia with neomycin.

Patients with hypercholesterolaemia are often treated with the antimicrobial agent neomycin. Such treatment is potentially dangerous, however, as it may favour the emergence of multiresistant, R-factor-carrying, enteric bacteria among the intestinal flora. In 11 out of 14 patients who had received neomycin for three months to eight years most of the faecal coliforms were resistant to at least four antimicrobial drugs and capable of transferring this resistance to others.