Volume 98  ·   Issue 08  ·  1985

Seventy patients with endoscopically confirmed peptic ulcer were randomly divided into two groups and treated with Furazolidone. After a trial of two weeks' treatment, in F group 72.97% of ulcers were healed, 24.33 were improved, and in 1 (2.70) patient treatment failed. In the control group there was healing in 24.24%, improved in 51.51, and failure in 24.24 (p<0.001). No severe side-effect occurred.

Since the first large air pressure chamber for operation was established in Fujian province in 1964, the hyperbaric oxygen (OHP) treatment has been developed rapidly in China. The engineering, organization, personnel training, research and clinical application of OHP are reported. All the equipments and apparatus were home made. 70 large chambers and 200 small ones of various types were built from 1969 to 1983. The centres of OHP have been established in many cities. A national organization, the Committee of OHP Medicine of China, was instituted in September 1981. Today application and research of OHP has become more extensive in China. Covering a wide field of clinical medicine, OHP therapy can cure about l00 kinds of diseases, and it is most effective in acute carbon monoxide poisoning, decompression sickness, gas gangrene, arterial embolism, cerebral hypoxia, angina pectoris, sudden deafness and acute central retinitis. According to the statitics from some centres of OHP, over one million treatments were offered over nine years with successful results.

On the basis of the location and intensity of fluoresceinate estradiol or 17-fluoresceinate-estrone binding with breast cancer cells, the estrogen receptor (ER) status of breast cancer cells could be classified into Types A, B, C, D and E. Type A was entire cell with marked fluorescence, Type B was nucleus with marked fluorescence bat not cytoplasm, Type C was cytoplasm with marked fluorescence but nucleus, Type D was only fluorescence concentrated in the nucleolus, and Type E was very faint fluorescence of the entire cell. Types A, B and C were categorized as positive, Types D and E were negative. The evaluation of twenty human breast cancer cells binding with fluoresceinate-estradiol ligand by computer image processing technique showed that each of the five types of cells could be identified. Instant and contiguous observation after dropping 17-fluoresceinate-estrone revealed that these five types of cells existed ordinarily. The classification of breast cancer cells binding with fluorescence indicated the distribution of ER within a cell, which makes it possible for further study on the biological characteristics of ER with morphological patterns.

Effects of rifampin (REP) and rifandin (RFD) on tubercle bacilli H37Rv are quite similar. RFD is less effective on mycobacterial morphology than RFP, RFD can cause characteristic streptoglobular vacuolar defect in the mycobacterial cells, implicating that RFD might have a selective toxicity on tubercle bacilli H37Rv.

Sister chromatid exchange (SCE) frequencies and cell cycle of peripheral blood lymphocytes in 49 cases of acute leukemia (36 cases of acute non-lymphocytic leukemia (ANLL), 13 cases of acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) and 11 normal controls were studied. Increase of SCE frequencies was found in patients prior to treatment, and in those who were not in remission or those who were in relapse. For those who had attained their first complete remission within 6 months the SCE rate had decreased to a certain degree but did not return to the normal level. In 2 long-term survivors of acute myclocytic leukemia (AML) of 9.5 and 4 years, whose treatment had been discontinued for more than 1 year, the SCE frequencies were all within the normal limits. In cases of preleukemia the SCE frequencies were high. This finding may be of significance as a parameter for the disease process, diagnosis, therapeutic effect and prognosis. Our observations indicated that the prolongation of cell cycle corresponds to the elevation of SCE and supports the hypothesis that the cell kinetics of leukemic cells of peripheral lymphocyte is similar to the cells in the bone marrow. After remission, the cell cycle may return to normal, reflecting the relationship between therapeutic effect and cell proliferation. The increase of SCE frequencies and the prolongation of cell cycle were more obvious in ALL than in ANLL, probably due to the increase of T-cell division of ALL under phytohemagglutinin (PHA) stimulation.

Cell samples were collected from thyroid tissues of 13 rats, 10 with thyroid carcinomas induced by radioiodine and 3 with normal thyroids. The DNA content of 100 cells from each rat was measured microspectrophotometrically after Feulgen stain. The DNA content of nuclei was 13.7±2.7 in the normal thyroid (2), 53.4±19.5 in medullary carcinoma (1), 30.1±16.6 in anaplastic carcinoma (3), 31.5±5.8 in follicular carcinoma (3) and 19.4±6.4 in papillary carcinoma (1). Besides, under normal circumstances, the mean value was 9.8±1.7 and in the early stage of thyroid carcinoma (1) it was 15.9±2.8. Analysis of histogram of DNA content showed that histogram shifted to the right and displayed a double-peak or multiple-peak distribution in all the thyroid carcinomas. The polyploid cells dominated. However, there was still difference between different carcinomas, providing a valuable reference for the diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and even early diagnosis of thyroid carcinoma.

Seventy-six cases of vesicular nucleus cell carcinoma (VNCC) were diagnosed pathologically in 1,706 nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) biopsies according to the following criteria: a. Nuclear vesicular change was present in more than half of the carcinoma cells with a few giant vesicular nucleus cells scattering in carcinoma nests. b. Though the amount of vesicular nucleus cells was less than half (about 40-50%) of the total carcinoma cells on the slide the giant vesicular nucleus cells were very conspicuous. c. More than half of the carcinoma cells underwent vesicle-like transformation without any giant vesicular nucleus cells. In comparison with poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinomas (PDSCC) which accounted for the majority of NPC, the authors found that: a. The cytological appearance of VNCC on smears had some morphological characteristics, coincident with its histological features. b. The VCA-lgA antibody level of VNCC was not significantly different from that of PDSCC. c. The five-year survival rate of VNCC (61.86%) was higher than that of PDSCC (43.39%) statistically. So it is reasonable to separate VNCC as a subtype of NPC.

The liver tryptophan pyrrolase activity, the urinary excretion of xanthurenic acid and the con tent of serotonin of the brain were determined in rats with third degree burns (20% BSA by scalding). Their contents were all significantly increased during the early period after scalding. This indicates that the degradation of tryptophan was increased through both kynurenine and serotonin pathways. It is probably a main cause for the decline of plasma tryptophan in that period.

For the purpose of finding a rational basis for nutrition therapy in burns, we performed experiments in male rats. It was noted that the plasma tryptophan level was decreased when the scalded area was 15% or 20% of the total body surface. The drop began on the 1st, 3rd, and 7th day and returned normal on the 14th day of experiment. The tryptophan content was increased in the brain on the 1st and 14th post-scald day, in the liver at the 6th hour (turning to decrease thereafter), and in the muscle at the 6th hour and on the 1st day after injury. The urinary excretion of tryptophan remained normal. The causes of decline of the plasma tryptophan are discussed.

We studied the ultrastructure of 62 specimens of primary hepatic carcinoma collected between 1974 and 1980. Of the 62 specimens, 15 had lesions smaller than 3 cm in diameter and belonged to the category of small hepatic carcinoma. The biological characteristics were studied by electron microscope. Emphasis was put on the study of the ultrastructure of 1iver cell dysplasia and cancer cell, sensitized lymphocytes and cancer cells and lysosomes and cancer cells. Most of the liver cells around the cancer nodules were normal in appearance but a few scattered liver cell dysplasia might be precancerous. The infiltrating lymphocytes had lethal effects on the target cells in the following three ways: a. Being possibly T lymphocytes in nature, they closely attached them selves or were fused with the hepatoma cells and liberated lymphotoxin to kill or to dissolve the target cells. b. Those which might be B lymphocytes in nature showed transition to plasmacytes producing antibodies against the antigenic materials released by the cancer cells or degenerated cells. c. In some cases with actively proliferating cancer cells, the organelles in the lymphocytes were so sparse that only a few scattered mitochondria were observed in the cytoplasm.