Spontaneous haemothorax caused by costal exostosis.

We report a case of spontaneous haemothorax in a 19 year old boy with an exostosis of the left second rib. It may have been caused by nontraumatic rupture of markedly dilated pleural vessels, as a result of long-standing friction between the exostosis and the pleura. This is the first report of spontaneous haemothorax, without penetrative injury to the pleura or the diaphragm, in a patient with hereditary multiple exostosis.

Reconstitution of the F1-ATPase activity from purified alpha, beta, gamma and delta or epsilon subunits with glutathione S-transferase fused at their amino termini.

Systems for overexpression and purification of active alpha, beta and gamma subunits of Escherichia coli H(+)-ATPase were established. The alpha and beta subunits recovered as soluble form were purified by hydroxyapatite column chromatography. Since the gamma subunit was overexpressed as the insoluble form, this subunit was purified by polyacrylamide gel-electrophoresis containing sodium dodecyl sulfate. By subsequent denaturation of this subunit with guanidine hydrochloride and renaturation, the active gamma subunit for reconstitution of the F1-ATPase activity with the purified alpha and beta subunit was obtained. The delta and epsilon subunits which were fused to the carboxy terminus of glutathione S-transferase (GST) were overproduced and purified by affinity chromatography. These fused proteins (delta-GST and epsilon-GST) were incubated with the purified alpha, beta and gamma subunits and applied to affinity chromatography. The alpha beta gamma delta-GST and alpha beta gamma epsilon-GST complex were eluted specifically by addition of glutathione and exhibited high and low ATPase activity, respectively, with a subunit stoichiometry similar to that in the native F1-ATPase, indicating that active complexes could be reconstituted with the fused proteins. These results suggested that the amino-terminal ends of the delta and epsilon subunits are not involved in formation of the active complex. The fused epsilon-GST bound the gamma subunit strongly, and the alpha subunit weakly. The delta-GST bound the gamma subunit significantly, and the alpha and beta subunits very weakly.

A variant alkaline phosphatase detected in a patient with lung cancer.

A variant alkaline phosphatase (ALP), with heat-sensitivity characteristics similar to that of the bone type, was found in the serum of a patient suffering from lung cancer. In disc polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic studies most of this enzyme had migrated to the region corresponding to liver ALP, with the remainder affecting bone ALP. Like kidney ALP, this ALP was markedly inhibited by 0.5 mmol/l L-cysteine. The K(m) of this ALP for p-nitrophenylphosphate was 0.39 mmol/l, similar to that of kidney ALP. The sugar moiety of this enzyme bore greater resemblance to that of kidney ALP than liver or bone ALP. However, immunoprecipitation of this particular ALP was strong with a monoclonal antibody against liver ALP and moderate with an antibody against bone ALP.

[Effects of food intake, dietary habits and life style on health status as determined by clinical blood tests of adult men].

A survey of the frequency of various kinds of foods, dietary habits, life style, and health status was performed on 2,049 men aged from 40 to 59 living in an urban area who were participants in a "human dock" medical checkup. The relationships between these factors and health status were studied in order to identify a particular life style associated with good health status. The instrument utilized in this survey was a special form of a structured questionnaire. The results are summarized below. 1. The frequency of various kinds of foods were correlated with the kind of breakfast eaten, dietary habits, physical exercise habits, daily physical activity, smoking, and occupation. The strongest correlation to frequency of various kinds of foods was found to be with the kind of breakfast eaten and dietary habits. 2. Dietary habits were also correlated to various aspects of life style: smoking, drinking, the frequency of various kinds of foods, kind of breakfast eaten, daily physical activity, sleeping hours, habits related to physical exercise, and the frequency of meals eaten away from home. Dietary habits correlated most closely with the frequency of various kinds of foods and daily physical activity. The frequency of various kinds of food and dietary habits were found to correlate with various aspects of life style, and those subjects with good overall life styles were also found to have desirable dietary life styles. The correlation of desirable dietary habits, food intake and a suitable life style with good health status was confirmed by the results of clinical blood tests used as an index of health status.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

[Reduction of radiation dose to the worker in preparing the radiopharmaceutical solution by a simple shielding equipment].

In order to reduce radiation dose to the hands of examiners who prepare and aspirate radiopharmaceuticals, we made a prototype of simplified manually-operated dispense system, which the syringe and the vial shield with lead were set in the small box made of lead and lead glass. The result showed that our dispense system allowed substantial reduction of radiation dose to the hands and rapid preparation of radiopharmaceuticals compared with the conventional lead shield syringe system, and allowed closer operation, smaller dead volume and lower cost compared with the conventional automatic system.

Bronchiolo-alveolar adenocarcinoma with multiple cysts.

An autopsy case of bronchiolo-alveolar adenocarcinoma in the lung is reported. The patient is a 70-year-old male who complained of severe cough with 500-600 ml watery sputum a day, loss of weight. and general fatigue. Autopsy revealed numerous whitish tumors in various sizes with multiple cysts in both lungs, with no metastasis being found in any other organs. Histological findings identified the tumor as a bronchiolo-alveolar adenocarcinoma originating from the lungs. Electron-microscopic findings showed that the tumor cells were covered by prominent microvilli, and contained abundant irregularly-shaped cytoplasmic vacuoles suggestive of mucin.