Duodenal ulcer and infection with Helicobacter pylori.

The incidence of gastritis with Helicobacter pylori (HP) was studied in 225 patients with active duodenal ulcer diagnosed endoscopically. The infection was diagnosed by the urease test and in some cases by histopathological examination. Infection with Helicobacter pylori was detected in 55% of the patients, a proportion much smaller than the one generally reported in the literature, a rather surprising fact for our sanitary conditions.

The relationship between intimal necrosis and lipid accumulation during the onset and progression of atherosclerotic lesions.

In human coronary arteries, aorta and intracranial arteries, the first areas of intimal necrosis preceded the onset of the first lipid accumulation related to atherosclerotic involvement. Both intra- and extracellular lipid accumulations developed only in preexisting areas of intimal necrosis. Intimal necrosis not only caused an abnormal intraarterial retention of fat, but also caused fat to be deposited preferentially in specific forms and particular locations.

Electrophoretogram of lysates deriving from mononuclear cells. Preliminary observation.

Electrophoresis of mononuclear lysates was applied for the first time in the study of the lymphocyte protein content as an additional method beside the rosette test and scanning electron microscopy. The specification of T and B lymphocytes in the presence of discordant results sometimes obtained by the latter methods is facilitated by the additional data supplied by the study of their endoplasmic protein contents. The electfophorogram contributes to a better knowledge of the immunologic status of patients with autoimmune and lymphoproliferative diseases as well as to a more precise determination of the effects following the administration of immunomodulating treatment.

Method-dependent number and topography of coronary narrowings.

A comparative gross and light microscopic study of the coronary arterial bed carried out on 95 selected male subjects aged 51-55 years, revealed that the number and topography of narrowings (more than 50% luminal insufficiency) showed wide method-dependent variations. If only routine gross inspection of the major coronary arteries was performed (method 1) 52% of the subjects exhibited narrowings; if gross inspection was extended to the proximal segment of the first diagonal, first septal, left marginal, right marginal and posterior descending vessels, the proportion of subjects with coronary narrowings augmented to 61% (method 2); finally the use of the light microscopy to investigate vessels supplying the conduction system and terminal vessels (method 3) augmented this proportion to 73%. Conversely, we recorded the absence of narrowings encroaching more than 50% in 48% of the subjects with method 1, in 39% with method 2 and in only 27% with method 3.

Centrifugal extension of coronary intimal necrotic areas.

The use of serial cross-sections, camera lucida drawings and photographic reconstruction of longitudinally cut samples, revealed that about half of intimal necrotic areas present in the coronary arteries of subjects aged 41-50 years exhibited a longitudinal diameter greater than 1.0 cm, occurring as very long lesions. In the 16 intimal necrotic areas included in a tridimensional study the longitudinal diameter was 7.

Presence of atherosclerotic lesions connected with the coronary artery lumen.

Starting from five accidental observations made on isolated tissue sections on the existence of "anchored" lesions in the coronary arteries of adolescents and young adults, 47 selected coronary artery samples removed from subjects 16-40 years old were submitted to a three-dimensional investigation. Based on serial sections and sequential camera lucida drawings, the geometry, diameters and spatial connections of 42 intimal necrotic areas were recorded. All these lesions appeared in a three-dimensional plane connected with the coronary artery lumen by one or several necrotic bands which seemed to communicate freely with the luminal cavity.

Intimal thickening and atherosclerotic involvement of the left main coronary artery.

A post mortem study carried out on 886 apparently healthy children, adolescents, young and mature adults of an unselected population sample of Bucharest who died of accidental causes, revealed that the left main coronary artery acted as an atherosclerosis-resistant segment of the coronary arterial bed. The importance of this natural resistance was demonstrated by means of a comparative investigation involving the degree of intimal thickness, the intima thickness versus media thickness ratio, the per cent of subjects with atherosclerotic plaques and the obstructive character of these plaques. These parameters were examined in 6 selected topographic sites: (a) at 5 mm distal to the origin of the left main coronary artery, compared with those detected at 10 mm and 20 mm distal to the point of origin of the anterior descending artery; (b) at 5 mm from the aortic origin of the right coronary artery, compared with those recorded at 20 mm and 30 mm from the same point of origin.