Volume 99  ·   Issue 05  ·  1986

"Spontaneous" remission of leukemia has been observed in both humans and animals. Bierman et al in 1953 reported 11 cases of remission in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) of childhood following acute infectious disease. In 1979 we saw a case of ALL remission in a child following a severe attack of respiratory infection.

Tumor of the broad ligament, not including retention cysts, is relatively uncommon. So far as we know there have been about 14 cases of adenocarcinoma reported in the literature. Because it has not been reported in China, we report here a case of adenocarcinoma of the right broad ligament.

Achondroplasia is the prototype of short-limbed dwarfism characterized by enlarged head, short extremities, lumbar lordosis, "scooped-out" nose and trident hands. This paper reports a patient with classical clinical and roentgenographic manifestations.

A morphological study was made on the developmental stages of bancroftian and malayian filaria larvae of experimentally infected mosquitoes (Culex pipens pallens and Anopheles sinensis) in an endemic area of southeastern China. Some useful characteristics for identifying these larvae are described and illustrated.

This study of 49 male doctors and technicians (aged 30-50) shows that ratios of intra- to inter-individual variances of 24-hour and overnight urinary Na excretion are relatively low, compared with the American data. The number of measurements required for accurate estimation of correlation co-efficients are also less, being six instead of 14. This is probably due to less variation in Na intake by Chinese adults. The estimated correlation between the true mean 24-hour and true mean overnight sodium excretion is 0.94, so overnight urine samples can be used in large epidemioiogical studies.

Five groups of female LACA mice were injected intraperitoneally with water containing 4.7, 17, 37, 75 and 110 µCi3HOH/g body weight (bw). The accumulative doses absorbed by the ovaries 10 days after injection were 3.9, 14.1, 30.7, 62.2 and 91.2 rads. Six groups of female mice were exposed to 60Co gamma-rays for 10 days at decreasing dosages in accordance with ovarian tritium concentration exponential decrease, the accumulative doses were 52.60, 77.18, 108.22, 161.87, 194.25 and 269.88 rads. Preliminary results showed that the dose-response curves for dominant lethal mutation in mice irradiated with beta and gamma-rays seems to have a linear relationship with the slopes of 0.0221 and 0.0087. In this study, the relative biological effectiveness value is 2.5.

Giardiasis is relatively little known in China. Our investigations revealed that the positivity of anti-giardia antibodies among residents in the suburbs of Beijing and Zhangye county, Gansu Province was 13.5% and 12.7% respectively. This study shows a familial infection of giardiasis. Four of the five members of the family were found to be infected with this parasite. The mother was a symptomless cyst carrier, but the three children had marked clinical symptoms: chronic diarrhea, abdominal pain, hepatomegaly and edema. Their physical and mental development were also retarded. Histories of the four cases are described in the paper.

3,4-Methylenedioxycinnamoylpiperine (antiepilepsinine, AE), a derivative of piperine (an alkaloid in Piper nignum L.) was found to be a clinically effective antiepileptic agent in China. Its effects on the serotonergic system have not been studied. Our study showed that AE significantly raised concentrations oF 5HIAA in both striatum and limbic area and of 5HT in the limbic area to a lesser extent. Tryptophan in the whole brain and release of 3H-5HT from synaptosome preparations of rat brain were also increased. No effects of AE were observed on 3H-5HT binding. The data indicate that AE enhances serotonergic function by accelerating synthesis, metabolism and release of 5HT, rather than by acting on 5HT receptors. The changes of serotonergic function may be related to the anticonvulsant activities of the drug. AE appears to be of a novel structural class of compounds with the above-mentioned effects.

In order to further understand the pattern of activities of urethral tumor reappearance after cystectomy for cancer of with the condition and 10 the bladder, 900 patients cases undergoing cystoure-threctomy were evaluated. Of 184 male patients having total cystectomy, 18(10%) subsequently developed urethral tumors, whereas of 570 patients undergoing partial cystectomy only 6 (1%) developed this kind of tumor. Of additional 10 patients on whom en bloc cystourethrectomy was performed for concomitant presence of carcinoma in situ and suspected urethral abnormality, 2 were carcinoma in situ, 1 papillary transitional cell carcinoma, and 3 marked epithelial atypia of the urethra. Histo-pathologically, of the 24 bladder specimens, 15 were G2, 9 G3, 14 T1-T2, and 10 T3-T4 according to their grading and staging. Of the 24 urethras removed, 8 had cancer at the urethral stub, 5 had multiple lesions over the entire urethra, and 11 with lesions at the anterior urethra, of which most had no tumor cells microscopically at the excised margin. These indicate that tumor recurrence in the retained urethra following cystectomy could be a reflection of tumor multicentricity, particularly correlative to the histology and locality of the primary vesical tumor. En bloc cystourethrectomy is only justified when the extent of the bladder lesion and its urethral involvement are evident.

From October 1984 to February 1985, 109 lots of sera were obtained from 68 patients with pneumonia of unknown origin and detected by IFA's technique. Of the 109 lots, 101 were from 60 hospitalized patients and out-patients in the acute or convalescent stage. Five hospitalized patients were found to have titers of antibody against legionella pneumophila up to the serologic diagnostic standard, i.e., 4-fold or ≥1:256. The titers of 8 lots from 8 patients discharged for 4-5 months were either negative or very low. It is the first time legionellosis was found in Zhejiang province.