The arterioportal fistula syndrome: clinicopathologic features, diagnosis, and therapy

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Arterioportal fistulas (APFs) are rare vascular disorders of the mesenteric circulation. The aim of this study was to determine the etiology, anatomical location, and main symptom at presentation of APFs, and analyze the various modes of treatment. METHODS: The etiology, clinical presentation, radiographs, and treatment of 12 patients with APFs are reported in detail, and another 76 cases published since 1980 are reviewed. RESULTS: APFs result from trauma (n = 25, 28%), iatrogenic procedures (n = 14, 16%), congenital vascular malformations (n = 13, 15%), tumor (n = 13, 15%), aneurysm (n = 12, 14%), and other causes (n = 11, 12%). The origin of APFs is the hepatic artery in the majority of patients (n = 56, 65%). The main symptoms at presentation are lower or upper gastrointestinal bleeding (n = 29, 33%), ascites (n = 23, 26%), heart failure (n = 4.5%), or diarrhea (n = 4.5%). Radiological intervention provides definitive treatment in 42% (n = 33) of patients, whereas the remainder are treated by surgery alone (n = 27, 31%) or a combination of radiological intervention and surgery (n = 8, 9%). CONCLUSIONS: APFs result in a protean syndrome variously combining portal hypertension and other hemodynamic imbalances (heart failure, intestinal ischemia). Single or multiple interventional radiological procedures using arterial and/or venous approaches allow definitive treatment of most APFs. With increasing technological advances, it is anticipated that surgery will only be indicated in rare instances after failure of radiological intervention(s).     

Elastic-plastic indentation stress fieldsusing the finite-element method

The finite-element method is used to model the elastic-plastic indentation response of a flat extensive specimen for the case of a spherical indenter. The work highlights several interesting finite-element modelling techniques and provides insight into the physical processes involved in elastic-plastic indentation of certain structural ceramics. Full details of the stress distribution are given and compared with the results of elastic formulae. This work has particular application to the modelling of physical phenomena of deformation in ceramic materials in machining, wear, bearings and hardness testing. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

HoxA is a transcriptional regulator for expression of the hup structural genes in free-living Bradyrhizobium japonicum

A chromosomally integrated Bradyrhizobium japonicum hoxA mutant is unable to oxidize hydrogen in free-living conditions. Derepressing conditions that induce hydrogenase activity in free-living, wild-type B. japonicum cells cannot induce expression of the hydrogenase structural genes in the hoxA mutant. The DNA-binding capacity of HoxA at the hup promoter region was studied by means of gel retardation. Both heterotrophically growing cells and cells induced to express hydrogenase activity contain a protein that specifically binds to the hup promoter region. Crude protein extracts isolated from a B. japonicum hoxA mutant do not contain this binding compound. The HoxA protein was overexpressed in E. coli and isolated in the form of a maltose-binding protein (MBP)-HoxA fusion. The MBP-HoxA hybrid protein specifically bound to a 50 bp region of the hupSL promoter known to be important for regulation of hupSL expression.     

Using MineSet for knowledge discovery

MineSet aids knowledge discovery and supports decision making based on relational data. It uses visualization and data mining to arrive at interesting results. Providing diverse visualization tools lets users choose the most appropriate method for a given problem. The client-server architecture performs most of the computationally intensive tasks on a server, while the processed results return to the client for visualization. The paper discusses MineSet database visualization and data mining visualization     

Potency comparison of peptidomimetic inhibitors against HIV-1 and HIV-2 proteinases: design of equipotent lead compounds

The results of investigation of haptoglobin (Hp) types in 596 donor blood samples in some towns of Ukraine (Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Odessa, Kiev, Uzhgorod, Zhitomir) are presented. Three normal Hp types (Hp1-1, Hp2-1 and Hp2-2) have been found. The reliable interpopulation differences in the Hp types frequency were not found. On the whole the Hp types frequency in the type Hp1-1 comprised 12.7%. In the type Hp2-1-48.1% and in the type Hp2-2-36.5%. The frequency of the gene Hp1 is 0.38. The frequency of the Hp types and of the gene Hpl in Ukraine is similar to that in population of Eastern Europe and European Part of Russia.     

Wernicke's encephalopathy and dialysis: report of two cases

Wernicke encephalopathy is considered a complication of dialytic therapy, but there are few reports of this complication. We report a 57 years old man and a 45 years old woman, with grade IV renal failure, who after acute peritoneodialysis and chronic hemodialysis respectively, had a confusional syndrome that responded to the administration of thiamine. CT scans in both patients discarded abnormal blood collections or new cerebrovascular episodes. The man bad two previous cerebrovascular episodes, a severe anemia that was corrected, angina and an episode of arrhythmia during the dialytic procedure previous to the confusional episode. The woman had an acute uremic syndrome and a concomitant urinary tract infection during the confusional episode. Wernicke encephalopathy must be suspected in patients in dialysis with confusional episodes.     

Comparisons of pulmonary and sinonasal lesions in patients with cystic fibrosis. Evaluation using computerized tomography

INTRODUCTION: Cystic fibrosis is a recessive genetic systemic exocrinopathy caused by a variety of mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator gene (CFTR). The disease is characterized by alterations of the secretions, which become thickened and viscous. Both the paranasal sinuses and the lung parenchyma are involved in all cases. The aim of this study was to assess a correlation between the rhinosinusal and lung parenchyma changes in cystic fibrosis patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Eighteen patients (11 men and 7 women, age range: 8 to 22 years) were examined with chest HRCT and sinonasal low dose CT. Lung symptoms were found in all patients; 13 of them, also affected with rhinosinusal symptoms, had been examined with ENT and nasal endoscopy. The other 5 patients, without rhinosinusal symptoms and previously examined with ENT, were evaluated as control group. Chest CT was performed with the high-resolution technique, 2 mm slice thickness and 10 mm table feed. Rhinosinusal CT was performed with the low dose technique, acquiring contiguous 2-4 mm thickness coronal sections. The CT patterns were analyzed by two radiologists and scored as slight, medium and diffuse involvement of both districts. RESULTS: No statistically significant correlation between lung and sinonasal damage was found in our study. Parenchymal lung involvement appeared more severe than sinonasal involvement in 14/18 patients. The retention of secretions in the paranasal sinuses, even if limited, was demonstrated in all symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. CONCLUSIONS: The absence of correlation between pulmonary and sinonasal damage and more generally, the different severity of cystic fibrosis can be caused by different allele mutations of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator gene, the most frequent of which is Delta F-508.     

AsK-edge EXAFS study of the ternary system Sb2S3–As2S3–Tl2S

The local environment of arsenic atoms in vitreous samples of the system Sb₂S₃–As₂S₃–Tl₂S has been studied by EXAFS at the AsK-edge. The crystalline compound Tl_5.6As₁₅S_25.3 situated within the zone of glass formation of the Sb₂S₃–As₂S_3–Tl₂S phase diagram was used as reference compound in order to derive appropriate phase and amplitude functions. The structure parameters determined were the number of first neighbours N _As–S, the arsenic-sulphur distance, R _As–S, and the Debye-Waller factor, σ_As–S. The influence of the glass-forming antimony sulphide Sb₂S₃ and the glass-modifying thallium sulphide Tl₂S on the As₂S₃ host matrix has been shown. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Na+ channel modulation and force-frequency relationship in human myocardium

Insect cell lines in culture are used for a variety of studies. In this laboratory imaginal disc cell lines have been established from primary cultures from third instar larvae, and used for a number of experiments. The effect of ageing on the morphology and physiology of Drosophila cell lines has received very little attention, although problems of genotypic or phenotypic changes in cell lines with age are recognized in other areas of animal cell culture. We tested our cell line Cl8+ for any difference in growth, morphology and response to 20-hydroxyecdysone (20HE) at different ages (passage numbers). The cells were found to multiply faster, adhere less firmly to the substrate and to lose the tendency to aggregate at higher passages. The response to 20HE in terms of cell numbers and induction of beta-galactosidase was similar at all passage numbers but morphological changes in hormone-treated cells were less obvious in the higher passages. Cell lines are likely to vary in the extent of ageing effects but workers are advised to be aware of the possibilities. We suggest the effects of age on cell lines should be established, and passage numbers noted in experimental reports.