Bilateral retroperitoneal liposarcoma in immunosuppressed patient with systemic lupus erythematosus

A rare case of a patient with a diffuse, infiltrating retroperitoneal myxoid liposarcoma is presented. The patient had been treated for thirteen years with corticosteroids for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The increased risk of cancer in SLE and in the immunosuppressed patient is documented.     

Active enzyme gel chromatography: II. Computer simulations

The behavior of an enzyme undergoing reaction while on a gel chromatography column has been studied by computer simulation using the steady state assumtion for a system with a single enzyme-substrate complex. The profiles of the enzyme-substrate complex, product, and substrate were examined varying the parameters of kcat, flow rate, partition coefficient dispersion, and time. These investigations confirm that much information about both the active enzyme and the product may be obtained by examining the product profile alone, varying the power of applying scanning gel chromatography to active enzyme systems.     

Sudden deafness and facial palsy from metastatic bronchogenic carcinoma

A 52-year-old man developed sudden total bilateral deafness, and unilateral facial palsy, without other symptoms and findings. He died two months later of of bronchogenic carcinoma metastatic to dura, brainstem, pons, carebellopontine angle, cerebellum and cranial nerves III, VI, VII and VIII. There was bilateral internal auditory canal erosion. Tumour replaced right facial, acoustic and vestibular nerves. Tumour infiltrated spiral ganglion, cochlear nerve, cochlear aqueduct, and destroyed nearly all facial nerve fibres to the level of the stapedius muscle. No tumour cells were found on the left, but few fibres of facial, acoustic and vestibular nerves survived. Both ears showed some cochlear outer hair cell destruction. Metastatic tumour to temporal bone or dura should be considered when loss of peripheral VIIth or VIIIth nerve function occurs.     

A comparison of three radionuclide techniques for measuring blood flow to rat extremities

A detailed comparison of three radionuclide techniques to estimate blood flow was done in the rat hind limb under reduced, normal and increased blood flow. The techniques compared were the washout of intra-arterial and intra-muscular Xenon-133 and the accumulation of radioactive microspheres in the reference organ technique. There was no significant difference between the three techniques at each of the three flow states. This confirmed that the simpler I.M. Xenon technique is a useful and accurate technique in estimating low blood flow rates in small animals. It was found that the skin puncture had to be sealed after the intra-muscular injection of Xenon to obtain valid results.