Volume 97  ·   Issue 08  ·  1984

A rare case of giant fibroadenoma (cystosarcoma phyllodes) in a young woman of 20 is re ported. The patient had applied Chinese medicinal herbs on a left breast mass for 2 years. This resulted in skin erosion and protrusion of the mass which hung in front of the left breast without any skin covering or capsule. The mass was successfully excised. Follow-up shows no local recurrence.

Direct communication between the right pulmonary artery and the left atrium is rare and so far has not been reported in China. We treated surgically a patient with this disease.

310 normal subjects of different ages (4-81 years) have been studied with needle electromyography. 894 muscles were examined, including 140 pieces of deltoid muscle, 141 of brachial biceps, 130 of medial vastus, 138 of anterior tibial, 115 of abductor pollicis brevis, 115 of abductor digiti quinti, and 115 of 1st interosseus dorsales muscles. Examinations showed: a. The duration of insertion activity was 465±278.3 ms (mean±2 SD, N=319). According to the limitation of present technique, it is reasonable to put the normal range up to 3 sec. b. Spontaneous activity is examined in 20-25 sites outside end-plate regions. Typical fibrillation potentials and/or positive sharp waves are found at one side in 4.3%, most frequently in M abductor pollicis brevis and at two sites in 0.3%. So, fibrillation potentials may be evaluated as significantly pathological only if they can be recorded in a muscle at two or more sites outside the end-plate region. c. The mean duration of the motor unit potentials in these seven different muscles increases with age (correlation coefficient, p<0.01). The regression line may be taken as ±20% of the mean values of every age group in M deltoideus, biceps brachii, vastus medialis and tibialis anterior but better broadened to 30% in the three hand muscles. d. The mean voltage of these seven different muscles also increases with age (correlation coefficient, p<0.01). The possible pathological range may be taken outside ±70% of mean valttes of every age group. e. The incidence of polyphasic potentials vary with different muscles, being highest with anterior tibial muscle (13.9%) and lowest with the 1st interosseous muscle (2.7%). The upper limit of the normal range is taken as an incidence of 20% in biceps brachii, vastus medialis, abductor pollicis brevis, abductor digiti quinti and 1st interosseous muscles, 25% in deltoid muscle and 35% in anterior tibial muscle. f. At full effort the pattern ought to be interference one (91.5%) and the mean voltage is 2.5 mV and the normal range is defined within 900 μV to 5.5 mV.

Romanomermis jingdeensis, a new species of mermithid nematode, was found to parasitize in the larvae of Anopheles sinensis in Jingde County, Anhui Province in 1979-1980. On this basis, we used the mermithid to control A sinensis larvae in natural habitats in Chuansha County, Shanghai municipality in 1982. The selected sites were treated with 2,000 preparasitic juveniles of R jingdeensis per m2 surface area, resulting in 34.1 to 95% parasitism of mosquito larvae. R jingdeensis seems to be a promising biologic agent for sinensis control.

We encountered two patients with abnormal dilatation of the internal jugular vein. We found that the wall of the internal jugular vein was thinned due to marked decrease or even absence of smooth muscle, and the venous lumen became dilated when the venous pressure was elevated; eventually, the vein remained dilated. Cystic bulging usually appeared quickly when the venous pressure increased suddenly during breath-holding. This disease should be differentiated from laryngocele, pharyngeal pouch, omohyoid muscle syndrome, dilatation of the pyriform sinus, and pleural hernia.

The frequency of HLA antigens was studied in 30 advanced cases and 30 early chronic cases of schistosomiasis japonica, and was compared with that in the healthy controls. The study showed that HLA-A1 813 were closely associated with the advanced cases (X2=36.90, CP=1.631×10-10; X2=3.39, CP=0.00898, respectively) and the frequency of HLA-B8 was comparatively higher in the early cases, but the difference was not statistically significant. This finding indicates that the involvement of immunogenetic factors is possibly related with the development of the advanced-stage schistosomiasis japonica.

A girl suffering from primary hyperparathyroidism associated with tuberous sclerosis was reported. The cutaneous manifestations of the latter syndrome had been apparent since the age of two. Brain lesions were demonstrated by computerized tomography. A parathyroid adenoma was excised on neck exploration. The association of these two diseases is apparently very rare, we have seen no reports of these cases. This case may represent a rare variety of the so-called apudoma category.

The in vitro effect of thymic polypeptide (TP) on active E rosette forming cells (EaRFC) was studied in 30 children with asthma and 15 with respiratory virus infections. 16 patients were treated with TP. The baseline average percentage of EaRFC in 31 normal controls was 27.1±3.4%. EaRFC % was significantly decreased in asthmatics (19.1±5.0%, p<0.01) and patients with respiratory virus infections (17.4±3.9%, p<0.01). The average percentage of EaRFC showed a significant increase after incubation with TP in vitro in the two groups of patients, and their stimulation rates were 63.1±26.8 (p<0.01) and 64.7±23.3 (p<0.01) as compared with 28.4±8.4 (P<0.01) in the the controls. The results suggested that a depression of T cell function and a high response to TP in vitro existed in these diseases. The fact that TP exhibited a better short term clinical effect in patients with low EaRFC level and high stimulation rate in vitro suggests that TP plays an important role in correcting immune imbalance and enhancing body defense against viral infections by ameliorating cellular immune dysfunction.

19 species of mycobacteria cultivated both in Löwenstein-Jensen and Dubos medium and observed by electron microscopy and ultrathin section are reported. The pathogenic mycobacteria in Löwenstein-Jensen medium are rodlike or short rodlike in shape, whereas the nonpathogenic mycobacteria grown in the same medium appear thick, short rodlike or spherorodlike. EM 400 energy dispersive X-ray spec troscopic analysis of mycobacterial cells reveals that the elementary potassium and calcium content is somewhat higher in metachromatic granules than in cytoplasm. In addition, mesosome within mycobacterial cells grown in liquid medium is more frequent than in those grown on solid medium. The mesosome outline is well-defined on oblique sections but on longitudinal or transverse sections, the outline is somewhat less clear.

Dipygus is a rare malformation. We encountered a case in 1980, and it is reported here-with.