An ultrastructural study of the liver in erythropoietic protoporphyria.

An ultrastructural investigation of the liver was performed in two patients with erythropoietic protoporphyria. There were many protoporphyrin crystals in the hepatocytes, Kupffer cells, bile canaliculi, epithelia of bile ducts, and sinusoidal endothelial cells and also free within sinusoids. In hepatocytes, these deposits were composed of granular amorphous materials and numerous slender, straight, or slightly curved needle-like crystals aligned in radial orientation.

A case of erythropoietic protoporphyria with liver cirrhosis suggesting a therapeutic value of supplementation with alpha-tocopherol.

Erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) was diagnosed in a 27-year-old man based on a typical clinical history, and a marked increase in erythrocyte and fecal protoporphyrin concentrations. Although liver disease is not a common feature in EPP, he had slight liver dysfunction. A percutaneous liver biopsy was performed and it showed minimal hepatocellular damage and many reddish brown pigment deposits in hepatocytes, Kupffer cells, portal histiocytes, bile canaliculi and small biliary radicles.

[Clinical study of prulifloxacin on infectious enteritis. Japan Research Committee of Prulifloxacin, Research Group on Infectious Enteritis].

Prulifloxacin (PUFX), a new quinolone antimicrobial agent, was administered to a total of 122 patients and carriers to investigate its clinical efficacy, safety and usefulness in infectious enteritis (bacillary dysentery, enteritis caused by Salmonella spp. and enteropathogenic E. coli, cholera and so on).

Predicting the need for hospital admission in patients with acute bronchial asthma.

Historical data, physical findings, pulmonary function, arterial blood gases, and subjective degree of dyspnea rated on a modified Borg scale were correlated with eventual requirement of hospitalization in 83 episodes of acute asthma attacks of 70 adult patients. Among the pretreatment data, only pulse rate remained significant by a multivariate analysis to predict hospitalization. For patients who had apparently been successfully treated in the emergency room and discharged home, residual degree of subjective dyspnea was the only significant variable chosen by a linear discriminant function to predict the eventual need for hospitalization, with a sensitivity of 75% and a specificity of 78%.