A 71-year-old woman was admitted with severe back pain. She was diagnosed of type A dissecting aortic aneurysm and two-vessel coronary disease by CT scan and angiography. An acute-phase operation was started 32 hours after onset, performing replacement of ascending aorta and a two-vessel bypass. The affected aortic wall was so thin and fragile that the cut ends of these wall were treated with 25% solution of glutaraldehyde, a fastacting crosslinking agent, for 7min. As a result, a sufficient degree of reinforcement was obtained to complete the anastomotic procedure safely. She made a good recovery of cardiac function after the surgery, but was left with such complications as permanent complete atrioventricular block and a little aortic regurgitation. Following pacemaker insertion she was discharged and has returned to her normal activity. It appears that when treating the affected aortic wall with glutaraldehyde, a piece of gauze placed in the left ventricular cavity stopped up the aortic valve by half. As a result, glutaraldehyde was perhaps transferred from the gauze to the aortic valve and a part of the conduction system, causing injury to them. If meticulous care is exercised during the procedure to avoid unnecessary invasion of surrounding tissues, this technique will provide a useful means to accomplish safe anastomoses of cardiac vessels.

Purpose: Hiccups are a symptom that often appear in lung cancer patients during medical treatment. Although various drugs and non-pharmacologic therapies are used to treat them, they often are not effective. We report 2 cases of successful treatment for refractory hiccups due to chemotherapy for lung cancer using pregabalin. Case report: Both patients had advanced squamous lung cancer. That in case 1 was treated using chemotherapy with carboplatin and paclitaxel, while the case 2 received nedaplatin and irinotecan. Hiccups occurred and became exacerbated during chemotherapy in both, and were considered to be induced by the anticancer drugs. Separate treatments with metoclopramide, chlorpromazine, and gabapentin did not have any effect, whereas immediate improvement was seen after taking pregabalin in both cases. Conclusion: Pregabalin, often used as an adjuvant analgesic, controls excessive neuronal excitement. In the present cases, effective relief of refractory hiccups was seen.

Gender differences in the trace elements of monkey sino-atrial (SA) node were investigated in a process of age-dependent alterations. Sixty hearts from Japanese and rhesus monkeys (30 male and 30 female) used were aged ranging from 1-day- to 30-year-old. The elements were analyzed using an inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-AES). Advancing age decreased all the trace elements. Ca, P, S and Mg significantly decreased. The correlation coefficients of Ca and P were -0.178+/-0.081 (p<0.05) and -0.088+/-0.022 (p<0.05) in male (n=30), and -0.095+/-0.026 (p<0.05) and -0.069+/-0.017 (p<0.05) in female (n=30), respectively. The age-dependent coefficients for Fe/Ca, Zn/Ca, Fe/P, Fe/S, Zn/S, Fe/Mg and Zn/Mg were exhibited markedly in male, but all was less in female. In gender-related differences, only a ratio of P/Ca (p<0.05) was significantly observed with ageing. The trace elements such as Cu, Se and Sn were less detected in the SA nodes. These results indicate that the age-dependent changes in the ratios of elements are appeared more rapidly in male monkey SA node, and the gender difference is observed in ratio of P/Ca. The different attenuations may be involved with the age- and gender-related SA nodal functions.
Adult ; Aged ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Female ; Haplorhini ; Heart ; Humans ; Macaca mulatta ; Male ; Sinoatrial Node ; Trace Elements