The infected arterial aneurysm has a fulminent infectious process frequently resulting in death if not properly treated. We reviewed 10 patients to identify the aneurysm location, etiology, bacteriology, and the mortality of surgical treatment. The abdominal and thoracic aorta was the most common site (6 cases). The primary causes were infected endocarditis, acute cholecystitis, abscess in the psoas muscle and depressed immunocompetence, but there was no case of iatrogenic trauma. Eight patients had positive blood or aneurysmal wall culture, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis and salmonella being the most frequent bacteria identified. The proper treatment of infected arterial aneurysm remains controversial. Three methods of surgical treatment were performed; one, en bloc aneurysmal excision with in situ prosthetic graft replacement, two, open aneurysmal resection and irrigation with large amount of diluted popdon iodine solution followed by in situ prosthetic graft replacement with wrapping by an omental pedicle. Three, extraanatomical bypass grafting. Six of 7 patients in whom the infection subsided with antibiotic therapy showed good long term results. However, 3 patients with uncontrollable infection died 1 to 3 months after operation.

Long-term results of surgery for abdominal aortic aneurysms in the over-80 age group were studied. Among nine survivors we found four of them to have had a late death. Their survivals ranged from 17 to 96 months. The ratio of life expectancy was poor (29-51%) in men but good (159%) in women. Long-term survival was not significantly influenced by any preoperative complication but by unexpected disease, such as pancreatic cancer and pneumonia. In postoperative general care, it is important to pay attention not only to preoperative complication but also to the unexpected disease in other organs for octogenarians to achieve a goal of normal Japanese postoperatial survival.

We examined pharyngeal nerve courses in paraffin-embedded sagittal sections from 10 human fetuses, at 25-35 weeks of gestation, by using S100 protein immunohistochemical analysis. After diverging from the glossopharyngeal and vagus nerves at the level of the hyoid bone, the pharyngeal nerves entered the constrictor pharyngis medius muscle, then turned upward and ran superiorly and medially through the constrictor pharyngis superior muscle, to reach either the levator veli palatini muscle or the palatopharyngeus muscle. None of the nerves showed a tendency to run along the posterior surface of the pharyngeal muscles. Therefore, the pharyngeal nerve plexus in adults may become established by exposure of the fetal intramuscular nerves to the posterior aspect of the pharyngeal wall because of muscle degeneration and the subsequent rearrangement of the topographical relationship between the muscles that occurs after birth.
Adult ; Fetus ; Glossopharyngeal Nerve ; Humans ; Hyoid Bone ; Muscles ; Parturition ; Pharyngeal Muscles ; Pregnancy ; Vagus Nerve

AIMChromosome 13 is one of the most frequently altered chromosomes in prostate cancer. The present study was undertaken to examine the role of human chromosome 13 in the progression of prostate cancer.

METHODSHuman chromosome 13 was introduced into highly metastatic rat prostate cancer cells via microcell-mediated chromosome transfer.

RESULTSMicrocell hybrid clones containing human chromosome 13 showed suppression of metastasis to the lung without any suppression of tumorigenicity, except for one clone, which contained the smallest sized human chromosome 13 and did not show any suppression on lung metastasis. Expression of two known tumor suppressor genes, BRCA2 and RB1, which map to chromosome 13, was examined by reverse transcription- polymerase chain reaction analysis. BRCA2 was expressed only in the metastasis-suppressed microcell-hybrid clones, whereas RB1 was expressed in all clones.

CONCLUSIONHuman chromosome 13 contains metastasis suppressor gene(s) for prostate cancer derived from rat. Furthermore, the RB1 gene is unlikely to be involved in the suppression of metastasis evident in this system.

Animals ; Animals, Genetically Modified ; Cell Division ; genetics ; Chromosome Aberrations ; Chromosome Mapping ; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 13 ; Disease Progression ; Genetic Markers ; Humans ; In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence ; Kinetics ; Male ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; genetics ; pathology ; prevention & control ; Rats ; genetics

AIMTo evaluate the occurrence and prevalence of microdeletions in the gamma chromosome of patients with azoospermia.

METHODSDNA from 29 men with idiopathic azoospermia was screened by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis with a set of gamma chromosome specific sequence-tagged sites (STSs) to determine microdeletions in the gamma chromosome.

RESULTSDeletions in the DAZ (deleted in azoospermia) loci sgamma254 and sgamma255 were found in three patients with idiopathic azoospermia, resulting in an estimated frequency of deletions of 10.7% in idiopathic azoospermia men.

CONCLUSIONWe conclude that PCR analysis is useful for the diagnosis of microdeletions in the Y chromosome, which is important when deciding the suitability of a patient for assisted reproductive technology such as testicular sperm extracion-intracytoplasmic sperm injection (TESE-ICSI).

Adult ; Base Sequence ; Chromosomes, Human, Y ; DNA Primers ; Euchromatin ; genetics ; Follicle Stimulating Hormone ; blood ; Heterochromatin ; genetics ; Humans ; Luteinizing Hormone ; blood ; Male ; Oligospermia ; blood ; etiology ; genetics ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prolactin ; blood ; Sequence Deletion ; genetics ; Sequence Tagged Sites ; Testosterone ; blood