[Nontuberculous mycobacteriosis (NTM) in Japan--epidemiologic and clinical study].

The epidemiologic study for NTM was conducted among 211 national, provincial and private sanatoriums in Japan. The case cards of patients with NTM disease from 97 hospitals were collected by questionary method. The total number of NTM patients newly admitted in these hospitals were 2,873 in 7 years from 1985 to 1991, and the culture positive tuberculosis patients were 22,836 cases in the same period.

[The epidemiology of pulmonary disease caused by Mycobacterium avium complex in Japan].

The number of the patients of active lung tuberculosis and nontuberculous lung mycobacteriosis (NTM) admitted to the 97 sanatoriums in Japan were studied. The number and the prevalence rate of tuberculosis did not decrease during the years from 1985 to 1990, indicating the prevalence rate of 43.1 in 1990 per 100,000 population.

Summer-type hypersensitivity pneumonitis: comparison of high-resolution CT and plain radiographic findings.

Summer-type hypersensitivity pneumonitis is an immunologic disease that occurs only in Japan. It is a form of hypersensitivity pneumonitis in which the clinical symptoms appear in the summer and subside spontaneously in mid autumn. The purpose of our study was to determine the CT findings in this condition, to compare the CT findings with those on chest radiographs, and to assess the variations in the CT findings over time.

[The role of surgery in the treatment of chronic empyema].

For the last ten years we had 56 patients operated for the empyema which occupied almost all the thoracic cavity. We evaluated their postoperative pulmonary functions and their sequelae. The pathological features of the resected lung and empyema wall were also examined.

Asbestosis: high-resolution CT-pathologic correlation.

High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) was performed in seven inflated and fixed postmortem lungs from seven asbestos-exposed patients with pathologically proved asbestosis. The parenchymal abnormalities seen at in vitro HRCT included thickened intralobular lines (n = 7), thickened interlobular lines (n = 7), pleural-based opacities (n = 7), parenchymal fibrous bands (n = 5), subpleural curvilinear shadows (n = 4), ground-glass appearance (n = 4), traction bronchiectasis (n = 4), and honeycombing (n = 2). The thickened intralobular lines were shown histologically to be due to peribronchiolar fibrosis.

[Cyclophosphamide, adriamycin and vincristine (CAV) in the treatment of small cell lung cancer].

Thirty-nine previously untreated small cell lung cancer patients received cyclophosphamide (CTX) + adriamycin (ADM) + vincristine (VCR) (CAV). The doses initially used were CTX 1,000 mg/body day 1, ADM 50 mg/body day, VCR 1 mg/body day, 8, 15 or 2 mg/body day(group A). Later, CTX 1,000 mg/m2 day, ADM 60 mg/m2 day, VCR 1.

Effect of Nocardia rubra cell wall skeleton on augmentation of cytotoxicity function in human pleural macrophages.

The ability of Nocardia rubra cell wall skeleton (N-CWS) to augment macrophage cytotoxicity function was examined using human pleural macrophages prepared from 32 malignant pleural effusions and 53 pleural washings. The cytostatic activity of pleural macrophages for human lung cancer cells (PC-9) was augmented following incubation of pleural mononuclear cells with 10 micrograms/ml N-CWS for 24 h. Macrophage activity was increased by direct interaction of macrophages with N-CWS or by incubation of macrophages with supernatant culture fluids from pleural lymphocytes with N-CWS.