The postpubertal change in the playful defense of male rats depends upon neonatal exposure to gonadal hormones

Only 19 cases of metastases at the cannula insertion site after laparoscopy for gynecological malignancy have been reported in the literature. One case has been diagnosed with cervical squamous cell carcinoma, whereas the others have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and borderline ovarian tumor. We present a novel case of laparoscopy-site abdominal wall metastasis from endometrial cancer after laparoscopic-assisted vaginal hysterectomy (LAVH). The 56-year-old female patient exhibited metastases of an abdominal wall trocar site and a perineal site after undergoing LAVH and laparoscopic-assisted (LA) bilateral pelvic lymph node sampling as well as LA para-aortic lymph node sampling for treating endometrial carcinoma, surgical staging IIIC, G3. The interval between the surgical extirpation of endometrial carcinoma and diagnosis of the tumor recurrence was 6 months, suggesting that overmanipulation of the diseased organ during laparoscopic surgery may have resulted in tumor spillage, intraperitoneal dissemination, and wound contamination. Although this procedure has been proven beneficial to patients with benign disease or early-stage gynecologic malignancies, laparoscopic-assisted vaginal hysterectomy may not be efficacious to eradicate advanced gynecological malignancy.     

Interleukin-12 induces relapse in experimental allergic encephalomyelitis in the Lewis rat

Acute, monophasic experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) in the Lewis rat shows pathological similarities to the human disease multiple sclerosis (MS). Rats that recover from EAE are essentially resistant to disease reinduction, unlike MS in which relapses are frequently associated with common bacterial and viral infections. As macrophage-derived interleukin (IL)-12 is a critical component of innate resistance to bacterial infection and appears to directly activate encephalitogenic T cells in vivo, the ability of this cytokine to reinduce paralysis in EAE was examined. Paralytic disease was exacerbated by intraperitoneal IL-12 administration and could be reinduced up to 1 week after recovery from the primary clinical episode. Concomitant with worsening of initial clinical signs and relapse was an increase in the ratio of macrophages to T cells in brain stem perivascular cuffs and the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase in cells with both macrophage and microglial morphology. These findings suggest that IL-12 may contribute to macrophage-mediated disease exacerbation and relapse in patients with MS.     

A magnetometer system to estimate location and size of long,horizontal ferrous rods

An experimental instrument is described which explicitly estimates location of ferrous rods parallel to a plane of measurement by analyzing simultaneous magnetic field and position data. The instrument consists of a unit containing a fluxgate magnetometer, position sensor and signal-conditioning circuits, connected to a unit containing a microprocessor, displays and associated electronics. An operator scans the sensor unit over the measurement surface, and the microprocessor estimates location, rod length and diameter. Experiments to estimate the parameters of horizontal typical reinforcing rods under a horizontal plane showed that the axis position could be estimated with an error of less than 0.5 cm, the length with a precision of <5 cm (<3.5%) and the depth with a precision of <0.4 cm at depths of 8 to 18 cm. Estimation of rod diameter was unreliable due to the presence of substantial remanent magnetization     

Zoonotic Brugian lymphadenitis. An unusual case with florid monocytoid B-cell proliferation

Human infection with a zoonotic Brugia species in the United States is uncommon. Positive identification of the filarial nematode is required for histopathologic diagnosis. Many cases may go unrecognized because of the nonspecific clinical manifestations and the nondiagnostic histologic changes occurring in involved lymph nodes. A case of zoonotic Brugia lymphadenitis is described in a patient from Rhode Island, in which a small nongravid female worm was identified in a lymph node biopsy specimen. The lymph node also showed a spectrum of reaction changes including the presence of florid monocytoid B-cell proliferation, which has not been described in association with zoonotic Brugian filariasis.     

Management of lymphoproliferative disorders after cardiac transplantation

We conducted a retrospective study of 516 cardiac recipients who underwent transplantation between April 1983 and April 1992, 19 of whom had development of post-transplantation lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLDs). These 19 patients presented with involvement of lung (5), gastrointestinal tract (5), disseminated disease (6), and adenoids and lymph nodes (3). B-cell proliferations ranging from an atypical hyperplasia to malignant lymphoma developed in 18 patients, and mixed cellularity Hodgkin's disease developed in 1 patient. The 19 patients with PTLD displayed a predominance of both women and cardiomyopathy as the indication for transplantation when compared with two separate control populations. No correlation was found between demographic criteria analyzed and (1) early versus late diagnosis of PTLD after transplantation, (2) the site of PTLD involvement, or (3) the histopathologic category of the PTLD lesion. Patients with gastrointestinal tract and lung PTLD involvement enjoyed an improved survival after both transplantation and PTLD diagnosis when compared with patients with PTLD involvement of all other extranodal sites. We report a high incidence of PTLD involving the lung and gastrointestinal tract in our cohort study. These sites of involvement responded better to a reduction in immunosuppression than did the other extranodal sites of involvement.     

High extinction, broadband polarisers using long-period fibre gratings in few-mode fibres

Long-period fibre gratings in specially designed birefringent few-mode fibres are used to demonstrate spectrally flat polarisers with bandwidths of 10 nm and polarisation extinction levels of 20 dB. This is enabled by the special dispersive properties of few-mode fibres, yielding fibre polarisers with performance approaching that of bulk-optic devices.