Quality of life of patients with osteonecrosis of the femoral head: a multicentre study.

Purpose: Quality-of-life (QOL) assessments in patients with osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) have rarely been reported. This multicentre study aimed to elucidate the relationship between disease severity, including necrotic lesion type and radiological staging, and QOL, as well as between patients' characteristics and QOL.

Methods: Two hundred seventy-four patients with ONFH (108 females, 166 males; median age, 46 years) were asked to complete self-assessment QOL questionnaires including the Japanese Orthopaedic Association Hip Disease Evaluation Questionnaire, Oxford Hip Score, and SF-12v2.

Alport syndrome: a unified classification of genetic disorders of collagen IV α345: a position paper of the Alport Syndrome Classification Working Group.

Mutations in the genes COL4A3, COL4A4, and COL4A5 affect the synthesis, assembly, deposition, or function of the collagen IV α345 molecule, the major collagenous constituent of the mature mammalian glomerular basement membrane. These mutations are associated with a spectrum of nephropathy, from microscopic hematuria to progressive renal disease leading to ESRD, and with extrarenal manifestations such as sensorineural deafness and ocular anomalies. The existing nomenclature for these conditions is confusing and can delay institution of appropriate nephroprotective therapy.

Self/non-self recognition mechanisms in sexual reproduction: new insight into the self-incompatibility system shared by flowering plants and hermaphroditic animals.

Sexual reproduction is an essential process for generating a genetic variety in the next generation. However, most flowering plants and hermaphroditic animals potentially allow self-fertilization. Approximately 60% of angiosperms possess a self-incompatibility (SI) system to avoid inbreeding.

[Secondary organizing pneumonia after pneumococcal pneumonia].

A 28-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital complaining of a 7-day chilly sensation with fever. She was given a diagnosis of pneumococcal pneumonia because of infiltration on chest radiography, sputum gram staining and testing positive for a pneumococcal urinary antigen. A 10-day course of antibiotics showed improvements in symptoms and infiltration.

Oxalate-degrading Providencia rettgeri isolated from human stools.

Background: Oxalate-degrading bacteria are thought to metabolize intestinal oxalate and thus decrease the urinary excretion of oxalate by reducing its intestinal absorption.

Methods: We have isolated several novel oxalate-degrading bacteria from human stools. Oxalate degrading bacteria were investigated to characterize their protein profiles with antibodies against oxalyl-coenzyme A decarboxylase (65 kDa) and formyl-coenzyme A transferase (48 kDa) purified from Oxalobacter formigenes.

An assessment of the malignant potential of actinic keratoses and Bowen's disease: p53 and PCNA expression pattern correlate with the number of desmosomes.

Actinic keratoses (AK) and Bowen's disease (BD), both intraepidermal skin tumors, have a potential progression to squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). To evaluate the malignant potential of AK and BD, the expression pattern of p53 protein and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) were examined in five types of AK and BD by immunohistochemistry. The ultrastructural difference of epidermal cells between AK and BD lesions was investigated.

Establishment of a primary effusion lymphoma cell line (RM-P1) and in vivo growth system using SCID mice.

Primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) is recognized as a unique lymphoma entity, which occurs exclusively in body cavities as a serous lymphomatous effusion without tumor formation or organ infiltration. We established a cell line of B-cell origin from a pericardial effusion of a 63-year-old Japanese PEL patient who did not have human immunodeficiency virus infection. This PEL cell line had human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection.

Determination of hepatitis delta virus (HDV)-RNA in asymptomatic cases of HDV infection.

Objectives: To assess the frequency of hepatitis delta virus (HDV) viremia in asymptomatic cases of HDV infection and the clinical significance of the HDV viremia, we conducted a cross-sectional, community-based study.

Methods: Of 2207 examinees, 210 (9.5%) were found to be positive for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg).

Relationship between endometrial histology, morphometry and ultrasound texture in the follicular phase of infertile women with natural menstrual cycles.

The relationship between endometrial histology and ultrasonographic texture in the follicular phase was investigated. The endometrial sonographic texture of 32 infertile women with normal menstrual cycles was classified into three patterns (L, H and I) and histological and morphometrical analyses were performed. Endometrial specimens from pattern L, which showed multi-layered endometrium characterized by three hyperechogenic lines with inner hypo-echogenic regions, had smaller, similar-sized endometrial glands and few stromal cells.

Production of a monoclonal antibody against the thrombin-like enzyme, habutobin, from Trimeresurus flavoviridis venom.

We succeeded in producing a monoclonal antibody to the thrombin-like enzyme, habutobin, which was purified from crude venom of the snake Trimeresurus flavoviridis. The monoclonal antibody obtained belonged to IgG1, and its light chain consisted of a kappa-chain. The monoclonal antibody reacted specifically with habutobin and crude venom from T.

Effect of human urinary colony-stimulating factor on experimental Legionella pneumophila infection in guinea pigs.

The effect of human urinary colony-stimulating factor (CSF-HU) on in-vitro phagocytosis of Legionella pneumophila, superoxide anion production and intracellular killing of Legion, pneumophila by guinea pig alveolar macrophages was studied. Alveolar macrophages when incubated with CSF-HU demonstrated enhanced phagocytic activity and superoxide production. The bactericidal activity of treated cells was enhanced when they were afterwards incubated with a low concentration of bacteria, but these cells failed to inhibit bacterial multiplication when they were incubated with bacteria in a 1:10 ratio.

Fibrinolytic activity in medium from tissue culture of paranasal mucous membrane.

It is known that a remarkable fibrinolytic activity of plasminogen activator (PA) can be seen in extracts of wet tissue and acetone powder preparation of paranasal mucous membrane evidencing chronic sinusitis. However, the origin of the PA in extract of paranasal mucous membrane has not yet been clarified up to the present time. In this experiment, using a tissue culture of paranasal mucous membrane, it was observed that two species of cells, epithelial cells and fibrocytes, proliferated in the implanted tissue.