Study on the precision of the multiaperture scintillation sensor turbulence profiler (MASS) employed in the site testing campaign for the Thirty Meter Telescope.

The multiaperture scintillation sensor (MASS) has become a device widely employed to measure the altitude distribution of atmospheric turbulence. An empirical study is reported that investigates the dependence of the MASS results on the knowledge of the instrumental parameters. Also, the results of a side-by-side comparison of two MASS instruments are presented, indicating that MASS instruments permit measurements of the integrated seeing to a precision better than 0.05 arc sec and of the individual turbulence layer strength C(n)(2)(h)dh to better than 10(-14) m(1/3).

The relationship between the sympathetic nervous system and the renin-angiotensin system in renovascular hypertension.

UNLABELLED: The aim of this study is to evaluate and compare the activity of the sympathetic nervous system and the renin-angiotensin system in patients with unilateral or bilateral renovascular hypertension. Plasma noradrenaline (plNA) levels and plasma renin activity (PRA) were measured simultaneously in blood samples obtained both from a peripheral vein and from the renal veins, during catheterization of the venous cava system, in 17 patients with unilateral (group A) and in 9 patients with bilateral renal artery stenoses (group B). RESULTS: peripheral plNA levels were elevated in 6/17 patients of the group A and 3/9 patients of the group B, while in the remaining 11/17 and 6/9 were normal, respectively. The comparison of plNA levels between the renal veins showed that in both groups plNA levels were higher in the renal vein of the ischaemic (group A) or the more ischaemic kidney (group B), and the difference was statistically significant. Renal vein renin ratio was above 1.5 in both groups. Renin hypersecretion from the ischaemic or the more ischaemic kidney compared to renin suppression from the normal or the less ischaemic kidney showed statistically significant difference.

Changes of plasma noradrenaline levels in the renal and systemic circulation after successful percutaneous transluminal angioplasty in renovascular hypertension.

The sympathetic nervous system involvement in the pathogenesis of human renovascular hypertension was studied in 10 hypertensive patients with unilateral renal artery stenosis, who underwent percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA). Before PTA, systolic/diastolic BP readings were 185.3 +/- 7.8/123.2 +/- 5.1 mmHg, peripheral PRA values were 8.63 +/- 2.27 ngAl/ml/h, the ratio RVRR was 2.15 +/- 0.27, the ratio V1-IVC/IVC was 1.00 +/- 0.23 (V1 = PRA from the renal vein of the stenotic side, IVC = PRA from the inferior vena cava) and the ratio V2-IVC/IVC was 0.04 +/- 0.02 (V2 = PRA from the renal vein of the non-stenotic side); 30 min after successful PTA the respective values of the above measured parameters were: 144.2 +/- 6.7/98.2 +/- 3.1 mmHg (p less than 0.01), 8.13 +/- 2.21 ngAl/ml/h (p less than 0.005), 1.79 +/- 0.19 (p less than 0.01), 0.68 +/- 0.18 (p less than 0.001) and 0.06 +/- 0.02 (p less than 0.005). Peripheral plasma noradrenaline levels (plNA) were 0.694 +/- 0.058 ng/ml, plNA levels from the renal vein of the stenotic side were 0.962 +/- 0.108 ng/ml and plNA levels from the renal vein of the non-stenotic side were 0.759 +/- 0.092 ng/ml; 30 min after successful PTA the respective values were 0.518 +/- 0.055 ng/ml (p less than 0.01), 0.681 +/- 0.078 ng/ml (p less than 0.005) and 0.510 +/- 0.063 ng/ml (p less than 0.005). It is suggested that the reversal of chronic renal ischaemia by PTA induced statistically significant changes in the sympathetic nervous system activity, parallel to the changes of renin secretion.

Lymphoid tumors of the orbit and ocular adnexa: a long-term follow-up.

Retrospective review of 33 patients followed for up to 14 years showed that no signs, symptoms, or histopathologic classification were able to correlate with the long-term fate of the patient. In some cases the histologic pictures were diagnosed differently by different pathologists, pointing up the difficulty encountered in differentiating benign from malignant tumor. Among the interesting clinical findings were: (a) all eight cases of bilateral involvement of the eye or orbital involvement proved to be or developed later systemic lymphomas; (b) one half of the systemic cases (7 out of 15) had ophthalmic involvement from the start; (c) five out of six cases of the medial conjunctival involvement were found to be ultimately malignant. A long-term follow-up and the fate of the patient has to be the final arbiter as to whether the lesion was benign or malignant in a significant number of cases.

Cryptococcosis in a phthisical eye.

A case of an enucleated phthisical eye was examined pathologically and was diagnosed as uveitis, subretinal granuloma, detached retina, phthisis bulbi. Twenty years later a more detailed study of multiple sections with differential stains revealed the existence of yeast-like bodies morphologically compatible with Cryptococcus neoformans. Systemic involvement was not found in this case, and the patient died 17 years later from an unrelated disease of the cardiovascular system. However an autopsy was not performed. Indirect fluorescent antibody staining technique on unstained deparaffinized sections of the eye tissue was positive for C. neoformans.