Intrapericardial paraganglioma.

We describe the case of an intrapericardial pheochromocytoma located in the anterior surface of the heart and spreading over the pulmonary trunk. Under cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) the tumor was removed. "En bloc" resection of the anterior wall of the right ventricular infundibulum and the pulmonary trunk was performed, with implantation of a fresh aortic homograft in the pulmonary position to avoid free pulmonary regurgitation.

Phacolytic glaucoma and lens-induced uveitis.

The pathogenesis of lens-induced uveitis and phacolytic glaucoma is still not fully understood. The authors report a case of a 62-year-old white female, with bilateral lens dislocation into the vitreous, who presented clinical and pathological features of phacolytic glaucoma in the left eye. The ultrastructural study of aqueous and vitreous aspirates showed lenticular fragments and macrophages with lipofuscin granules and phagocytic vacuoles containing lens proteins.

Evaluation of left ventricular function after acute myocardial infarction. Two-dimensional echocardiography versus radionuclide angiography. Study of 50 patients.

Two-dimensional echocardiography and gated blood radionuclide angiography was performed in 50 patients (mean age 51.3 years; 48 men and 2 women) after acute myocardial infarction, before discharge from the hospital. The aim of this study was to compare the wall motion score, determined by two-dimensional echocardiography (2DE), with the ejection fraction obtained by radionuclide angiography (RNA).

Effect of terfenadine and ipratropium bromide on ultrasonically nebulized distilled water-induced asthma.

Inhalation of ultrasonically nebulized distilled water was used to evaluate non-specific bronchial reactivity and to investigate nonimmunologically mediated asthma. Release of histamine and other mediators from mast cells and stimulation of lung irritant receptors are mechanisms that may be involved in nebulized distilled water-induced bronchoconstriction. To investigate the contribution of these mechanisms the effect of terfenadine and ipratropium bromide on the bronchial response to this stimulus was assessed.

Biomarks in secondary osteoporosis.

The existence of a metabolic disease in rheumatoid arthritis in distant zones of the active synovitis areas, remains controversial. Indeed, the variations found, by different authors, in PTH, in alkaline phosphatase and in serum and/or in the calcium urinary values, as well as in phosphate and hydroxyproline, have not clarified this problem, despite the demonstration by histomorphometry and by densitometrical methods, of a greater loss of the bone mass in rheumatoid arthritis. At the same time, metabolic changes in sexual hormones, primary or secondary, can modulate the immune response and interfere in the clinic expression of rheumatoid arthritis and also in the bone turnover.