Volume 94  ·   Issue 06  ·  1981

The basic anatomy of fibular grafts and their supplying vessels is studied to aid orthopedic surgery.

Eleven echinococcosis alveolaris cases seen in Qinghai province are reported. The etiology and distribution of the disease as well as the formation of gallstones are discussed.

25 cases of tachyarrhythmia refractory to medical treatment or direct current countershock were treated by overdrive cardiac pacing. Of these, 13 were paroxysmal ventricular tachycardia (PVT) and/or ventricular fibrillation (VF), 8 complete atrioventricular (A-V) block with PVT and/or VF and 4 sick sinus syndrome (SSS) with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia. The basic cardiac disturbance was coronary heart disease (CHD) 11 cases; drug poisoning 7 cases; myocarditis 4 cases, congenital heart disease 2 cases and primary cardiomyopathy 1 case. In all cases, tachyarrhythmias were successfully terminated almost immediately by cardiac pacing. There were 7 hospital deaths, 3 due to recurrent VF not controlled by pacing and 4 to causes other than tachyarrhythmia. The authors believe that cardiac pacing is the method of choice for tachyarrhythmias.

Most intraocular tumors are malignant and often require enucleation during the late stage. 12 cases of retinoblastoma and 5 of uveal melanoma are diagnosed by ultrasonography. The echograms show abnormal echoes of various amplitudes in the normally anechoic area of the vitreous cavity. These echoes are continuous with the posterior wall of the globe echoes and are relatively stable and unaltered by eyeball movement. Ultrasonographic differentiation of intraocular tumors from retinal detachment, vitreous abscess, exudative retinitis and other eye diseases is discussed.

A carboxymethyl-polysaccharide of bacterial origin, CM-TAK, exhibits very strong antitumor activity in a subcutaneous sarcoma 180 (S180) solid tumor, when intraperitoneally injected at 20 mg/kg/day every other day, starting on day 1 and totalling up to 5 times or by 1 shot of 100 mg/kg either on day 1, day 7 or day 14. The inhibition ratios of tumor growth are nearly 100vlo by any mode of injection tested. In many mice, tumors completely disappear after treatment with CM-TAK.

A strain of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) showed a progressive decline in cellular immune functions due to aging. It is suggested that natural thymocytotoxic autoantibody (NTA) was one of the responsible factors for the T-cell depression in these SHR. Experimental results demonstrated that allogeneic thymus grafts completely restored the T-cell depression in SHR as detected by a rosette forming test, a plaque forming assay and blastogenesis, and lowered titer of NTA in the serum of SHR. Xenogeneic thymus grafts or injection of thymus extracts brought about restoration of immune functions in SHR. Although the relationship between T-cell depression and hypertension in SHR is not yet clear, allogeneic thymus grafts significantly suppressed hypertension in SHR 2 weeks after thymus grafts and kept normotension for at least 4 weeks. Xenogeneic thymus grafts or injection of thymus extracts also showed a suppressive effect on hypertension in SHR. Neonatal transplantation of allogeneic thymuses into SHR inhibited the development of hypertension throughout their lives. These results suggest that immunologic abnormality may be related to the development of hypertension in SHR.

The results of clinical and immunologic studies of 25 Sjögren's syndrome (SS) cases are presented. Multiple system involvement was observed. The immunologic studies showed that both humoral and cell-mediated immunity were impaired. The premature loss of suppressor T-cells may be the primary deficiency. A comparison of the histopathologic features of minor salivary glands with the sialographic patterns in SS patients was made. Labial biopsy is as sensitive a diagnostic test as sialography.

Two cases of multiple sclerosis (MS) with autopsy findings are reported. Case 1 showed sclerotic plaques and demyelinating foci of various ages and Case 2 presented a typical clinical picture of MS with 5 remissions and relapses and pathologically, fresh and old foci of necrosis and demyelinization representing acute MS. The findings of 8 previously reported cases in China are outlined. From these 10 cases it is concluded that MS in China is mostly of acute or subacute onset with an average course of 2.6 years. The majority showed signs of involvement of the spinal cord and optic nerve with acute or subacute softening predominating, resembling Asian type MS. The disease is not rare in China.

The clinical and morphologic aspects of 50 cases of early gastric carcinoma (EGC) treated from 1973 to June 1980 are presented. Grossly, depressed lesions (IIc, IIc+III) comprised the majority (60%) and histologically, differentiated carcinoma 64%. There were only 7 female patients, 5 being signet ring cell carcinomas. All 7 signet ring cell carcinomas (5 female, 2 male) were confined to the mucosal layer, the largest being 4.5×3.4 cm. A small intestinal type EGC (1.0×0.8 cm), developing from severe atrophic gastritis, was found after repeated follow-up examinations by gastroscopy over a 3 year period.