Interferon therapy after ablation of Kent bundle for a patient with chronic hepatitis type B complicated with WPW syndrome

Cardiotoxicity of interferon-alpha or gamma, such as fatal arrhythmia and myocardial infarction, has been reported. Therefore cardiotoxicity of interferon should be seriously considered before administration for patients with a pre-existing heart disease. We treated a patient with chronic active hepatitis type B, coexisted with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, who has had frequent attacks of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. To prevent the occurrence of fatal arrhythmia with an interferon therapy in this patient, we performed radiofrequency catheter ablation of the Kent bundle. After the successful ablation, we could safely administered recombinant interferon alpha-2b for chronic hepatitis type B.     

Determination of complements in serum and middle ear effusion of the patients with secretory otitis media

Complements in serum and middle ear effusion were determined in 20 patients with secretory otitis media, and compared with those in the normal controls. The C5 and C1-INH in serum of the patients were significantly higher. On the contrary, C9 and B factor (Bf) were significantly lower, and the circulatory immunocomplex was also higher. In patients with secretory otitis media, the middle ear effusion levels of C3, C4 and C5 were significantly lower, and Bf and immunocomplex were significantly higher than those in serum. The results suggest that the ability of complements in clearing immunocomplex is low. Therefore, the immunocomplex may deposit in the mucosa of the middle ear. Thus the permeability of capillary will be increased, and the middle ear effusion occurs.     

Fullerene Derivatives Attenuate Bronchoconstriction Induced by Xanthine-Xanthine Oxidase

The intratracheal instillation of xanthine-xanthine oxidase caused a marked decrease in dynamic respiratory compliance, indicating airway constriction. The constriction was significantly attenuated by fullerenol-1, but not by other agents or receptor antagonists.     

Synthesis and characterization of cyclic pseudopeptide libraries containing thiomethylene and thiomethylene-sulfoxide amide bond surrogates

Resistance-modifying agents (RMAs) such as Verapamil have been proved to be effective in reversing multi-drug resistance (MDR) in many in vitro assays. In this study we have investigated the efficacy of Dex-Verapamil, the R-isomer of Verapamil, as a chemosensitizer in a murine leukemia cell line (P388) and in its resistant counterpart (P388/Dx) expressing a typical MDR phenotype. We have examined in vivo the effect of the co-administration of Dex-Verapamil and Doxorubicin in mice transplanted with P388 or P388/Dx cells. Mice treated with the combination of Doxorubicin plus RMA had a significant increase in survival rate as compared to controls; however, the effect was modest. On the contrary, in vitro Dex-Verapamil can enhance Doxorubicin cytotoxicity in P388/Dx cells with a much greater effect depending on the treatment scheme used, by increasing the intracellular content of drug. Taken together our data indicate that Dex-Verapamil can indeed increase the sensitivity to Doxorubicin in resistant cells, but the limited efficacy shown in vivo demonstrates that this phenomenon is strongly dependent on the treatment scheme used and on the maintenance of constantly elevated serum levels.     

Gaussian multiterminal source coding

In this paper, we consider the problem of separate coding for two correlated memoryless Gaussian sources. We determine the rate-distortion region in the special case when one source provides partial side information to the other source. We also show that the previously obtained inner region of the rate-distortion region is partially tight. A rigorous proof of the direct coding theorem is also given     

Information-theoretic distortion measures for speech recognition

A wide variety of speech recognition distortion measures have been proposed and tested, including some especially effective ones. It is shown that there is a general framework, based on the concepts of information theory, linking most of these measures. The distortion measure between any two speech spectra can be defined in terms of the distortions between the associated probability distributions. This general framework defines three broad families of distortion measures for speech recognition and provides a consistent way of combining the energy and the spectral information of a phonetic event. In addition, the cepstral-domain representation for several distortion measures is derived, allowing comparison of these measures in a domain that also yields convenient equations for their practical implementation     

Amplified distributed reflective optical star couplers

A practical configuration for an amplified distributed reflective N-star coupler using 2×2 3-dB fiber couplers and minimum numbers of erbium-doped fibers, pump lasers, and standard fibers is presented. The constitution and characteristics of this coupler are investigated. Besides a tremendous amount of saving of the required standard fibers, this distributed coupler is more efficient, more reliable, more flexible for future expansion, and more cost-effective for application in optical networks     

Modal dispersion control and distortion suppression of picosecondpulses in suspended coplanar waveguides

The propagation and dispersion characteristics of picosecond electrical pulses in a suspended coplanar waveguide (SCPW) are investigated, and it is shown that the SCPW is a very promising transmission structure for ultrashort pulses. Numerical results for the modal dispersion of the SCPW are presented and compared to those of the conventional CPW, and a field-coupling theory is used to explain the evolution in the dispersion behavior. An evaluation based on the numerical analysis shows that a SCPW with properly controlled dispersion can exhibit a five times improvement in pulse transmission capability compared to the conventional CPW. Both computer simulations and experimental measurements show a substantial suppression in pulse distortion as well, compared to conventional CPWs     

Measurement of serum p53 protein in patients with small cell lung cancer and results of its clinicopathological evaluation

Serum p53 protein levels were measured in 36 patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and 35 patients with benign lung diseases in order to evaluate the relationship of these levels to clinicopathological features of SCLC. Serum levels of p53 protein were measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, p53 protein level was 23.92 +/- 6.78 pg/ml in patients with SCLC, and similar to that (17.47 +/- 2.86 pg/ml) in patients with benign lung diseases. By the clinical stage of SCLC, the mean level of p53 protein was 16.68 +/- 4.62 pg/ml in 21 patients with limited disease, and lower than that in 15 patients with extensive disease (34.05 +/- 14.84 pg/ml) (P = 0.23). The levels of p53 protein were not correlated with age, smoking index, or presence of cancer history for patients with SCLC. However, immunohistochemical examination disclosed a mild correlation between the expression of p53 protein by SCLC tumor and p53 protein serum level (r = 0.45, P = 0.02). Two patients with SCLC had an elevated serum level of p53 protein (> 2 S.D. above the mean for benign lung diseases). However, measurement of p53 protein serum level was not found to be clinically useful for detection of SCLC.