Cystic duct with no visible signal on magnetic resonance cholangiography is associated with laparoscopic difficulties: an analysis of 695 cases.

Background/aims: We investigated the association between the magnetic resonance cholangiography (MRC) results and surgical difficulties and bile duct injuries during laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC).

Methods: MRC was performed on 695 consecutive patients before LC. We divided the patients into two groups (visible cystic duct group and "no signal" cystic duct on MRC group) and compared them with regard to the length of the operation, conversion rate to open cholecystectomy (OC) and rate of bile duct injury.

Effects of helicopter transport on red blood cell components.

Background: There are no reported studies on whether a helicopter flight affects the quality and shelf-life of red blood cells stored in mannitol-adenine-phosphate.

Materials And Methods: Seven days after donation, five aliquots of red blood cells from five donors were packed into an SS-BOX-110 container which can maintain the temperature inside the container between 2 °C and 6 °C with two frozen coolants. The temperature of an included dummy blood bag was monitored.

Pancreaticoduodenectomy for bile duct carcinoma of a patient undergoing hemodialysis.

A 69-year-old Japanese man underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy for the resection of carcinoma at lower part of the common bile duct. Hemodialysis had already begun to treat chronic renal failure. He had been admitted for obstructive jaundice due to the carcinoma four months earlier.

Intracellular activation of trypsinogen in rat pancreatic acini after supramaximal secretagogue stimulation: cysteine protease and serine protease activity.

Objective: The aim of the study was to explore the mechanism by which trypsinogen becomes activated during acute pancreatitis.

Methods: Given the ability of cholecystokinin (CCK) to induce pancreatitis in vivo, the effects of high-dose CCK on preparations of isolated pancreatic acini were examined using immunofluorescence techniques for the detection of trypsinogen activation. Acini were pretreated with weak base or serine or cysteine protease inhibitors before CCK hyperstimulation.

Effects of pancreatic duct ligation on pancreatic response to bombesin.

To examine mechanisms that might be related to biliary pancreatitis, we examined the effects of pancreatic duct ligation (PDL) with pancreatic stimulation in vivo. PDL alone caused no increase in pancreatic levels of trypsinogen activation peptide (TAP), trypsin, or chymotrypsin and did not initiate pancreatitis. Although bombesin caused zymogen activation within the pancreas, the increases were slight and it did not cause pancreatitis.

A crescent-shaped sparing proximal to a liver tumor may indicate underlying portal tumor thrombus.

A primary or metastatic liver tumor sometimes blocks portal venous flow and causes a focal sparing in the fatty liver. We herein report a case of segmental sparing due to the portal tumor thrombus extending from the metastatic liver tumor. The present case demonstrates characteristic computer-associated tomographic findings, a distal oval hypodense tumor with proximal "crescent-shaped sparing", which may indicate underlying portal tumor thrombus at the apex of the sparing.

The pH modulator chloroquine blocks trypsinogen activation peptide generation in cerulein-induced pancreatitis.

Introduction And Aims: We examined the effects of a weak base, chloroquine, on the trypsinogen processing in cerulein-induced pancreatitis.

Methodology: Immunofluorescence studies were performed using newly generated affinity-purified antibodies to the trypsinogen activation peptide (TAP).

Results: The present study showed that chloroquine pretreatment blocked intracellular TAP generation in cerulein-induced pancreatitis.