BACKGROUND: Flecainide is an antiarrhythmic agent that is used primarily in the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. Some evidences also suggest that flecainide can participate in alveolar fluid clearance and inflammatory responses. This experiment was aimed to evaluate the effects of flecainide on sepsis induced acute lung injury in a rat model. METHODS: Rats were treated with subcutaneous infusion of saline or flecainide (0.1 or 0.2 mg/kg/hr) by a mini-osmotic pump. Subcutaneous infusion was started 3 hours before and continued until 8 hours after intraperitoneal injection of saline or endotoxin. Animals were sacrificed for analyses of severity of acute lung injury with wet to dry (W/D) ratio and lung injury score (LIS) in lung and inflammatory responses with level of leukocyte, polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) and inteleukin-8 (IL-8) in bronchoalveolar lavages fluid (BALF). RESULTS: Flecainide markedly improved dose dependently sepsis induced acute lung injury as analysed by W/D ratio (from 2.24 ± 0.11 to 1.76 ± 0.09, p < 0.05) and LIS (from 3 to 1, p < 0.05), and inflammatory response as determined by leukocyte (from 443 ± 127 to 229 ± 95, p < 0.05), PMNs (from 41.43 ± 17.63 to 2.43 ± 2.61, p < 0.05) and IL-8 (from 95.00 ± 15.28 to 40.00 ± 10.21, p < 0.05) in BALF. CONCLUSIONS: Flecanide improve sepsis induced acute lung injury in rats by controlling inflammatory responses.
Acute Lung Injury* ; Animals ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Bronchoalveolar Lavage ; Flecainide* ; Infusions, Subcutaneous ; Injections, Intraperitoneal ; Interleukin-8 ; Leukocytes ; Lung ; Lung Injury ; Models, Animal ; Neutrophils ; Rats ; Sepsis*

No abstract available.
Thrombasthenia*

No abstract available.
Family Practice* ; Humans ; Primary Health Care*

We studied the ultrastructural alteration of glomerular anionic sites in 6 patients with minimal change nephrotic syndrome, 5 patients with membranous glomerulonephritis, 4 patients with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, and 4 patients with IgA nephropathy by staining with polyethyleneimine (PEI) as a cationic probe. The control study was examined by using a nephrectomy specimen of non-glomerular disease which had no proteinuria. This method seems to selectively stain heparan sulphate in the basement membranes and has been widely used to evaluate changes in basement membrane charge in various human diseases as well as in experimental studies. The anionic sites in the lamina rara interna and lamina densa of normal glomerular basement membrane were always less numerous and less regularly distributed than those in the lamina rara externa. Characteristic common findings in these glomeruli showed a marked decrease of glomerular anionic sites in the regions with immune-complex deposits and normal distribution in the regions with focally those being absorbed and newly forming glomerular basement membrane. They were not detected in the gap of the basement membrane and on the area of the detached overlying epithelium using the PEI method. But the foot process fusion of epithelial cells seems not to influence the loss of anionic sites on the glomerular basement membrane.
Basement Membrane ; Epithelial Cells ; Epithelium ; Foot ; Glomerular Basement Membrane* ; Glomerulonephritis, IGA ; Glomerulonephritis, Membranous ; Glomerulosclerosis, Focal Segmental ; Humans ; Nephrectomy ; Nephrosis, Lipoid ; Polyethyleneimine ; Proteinuria

No abstract available.
Mucocele*

Anti–glomerular basement membrane (GBM) nephritis is characterized by circulating anti-GBM antibodies and crescentic glomerulonephritis (GN) with deposition of IgG along the GBM. In a limited number of cases, glomerular immune complexes have been identified in anti-GBM nephritis. A 38-year-old female presented azotemia, hematuria, and proteinuria without any pulmonary symptoms. A renal biopsy showed crescentic GN with linear IgG deposition along the GBM and mesangial IgA deposition. The patient was diagnosed as concurrent anti-GBM nephritis and IgA nephropathy. Therapies with pulse methylprednisolone and cyclophosphamide administration were effective. Concurrent cases of both anti-GBM nephritis and IgA nephropathy are rare among cases of anti-GBM diseases with deposition of immune complexes. This rare case of concurrent anti-GBM nephritis and IgA nephropathy with literature review is noteworthy.
Adult ; Anti-Glomerular Basement Membrane Disease ; Antibodies ; Antigen-Antibody Complex ; Azotemia ; Basement Membrane ; Biopsy ; Cyclophosphamide ; Female ; Glomerulonephritis ; Glomerulonephritis, IGA ; Hematuria ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin A ; Immunoglobulin G ; Methylprednisolone ; Nephritis ; Proteinuria

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to evaluate the histologic features of metastatic neuroblastic tumors (NTs) in bone marrow (BM) before and after chemotherapy in comparison with those of primary NTs. METHODS: A total of 294 biopsies from 48 children diagnosed with NTs with BM metastasis were examined. There were 48 primary neoplasm biopsies, 48 BM biopsies before chemotherapy, 36 primary neoplasm excisional biopsies after chemotherapy, and 162 BM biopsies after chemotherapy. RESULTS: Metastatic NTs in BM before chemotherapy were composed of undifferentiated and/or differentiating neuroblasts, but had neither ganglion cells nor Schwannian stroma. Metastatic foci of BM after chemotherapy were found to have differentiated into ganglion cells or Schwannian stroma, which became more prominent after further cycles of chemotherapy. Persistence of NTs or tumor cell types in BM after treatment did not show statistically significant correlation to patients' outcome. However, three out of five patients who newly developed poorly differentiated neuroblasts in BM after treatment expired due to disease progression. CONCLUSIONS: Metastatic NTs in BM initially consist of undifferentiated or differentiating neuroblasts regardless of the primary tumor subtype, and become differentiated after chemotherapy. Newly appearing poorly differentiated neuroblasts after treatment might be an indicator for poor prognosis.
Biopsy ; Bone Marrow* ; Child ; Drug Therapy* ; Ganglion Cysts ; Humans ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Neuroblastoma ; Prognosis

No abstract available.

No abstract available.