The C-ring problem of sterol biosynthesis: TiCl(4)-induced rearrangement into the anti-Markovnikov cation corresponding to the C-ring.

[reaction: see text] Cation 9, generated by the reaction of diol 8 and BF(3).Et(2)O, SnCl(4), Sc(OTf)(3), FeCl(3), TiF(4), or CF(3)SO(3)H, leads to a hydride shift, providing cation 11, which corresponds to the initiation of backbone rearrangement. On the other hand, TiCl(4) selectively induces rearrangement to secondary cation 13 by ring expansion, which corresponds to the C-ring formation of sterol biosynthesis. AlCl(3) and ZrCl(4) induce further rearrangement into six-membered ring tert-cation 16.

Equine Getah virus infection: isolation of the virus from racehorses during an enzootic in Japan.

A primary enzootic of equine Getah virus infection involving 722 of 1,903 racehorses occurred at a training center in Japan between September and November of 1978. Sixty-two viral agents were isolated from the plasma of 209 sick horses which exhibited pyrexia with rectal temperatures ranging from 38.5--40 degrees C, urticarial rash on various portions of the body, and edema of the hind legs. The viruses were antigenically related to the AMM 2021, Haruna, and Sagiyama strains of Getah virus. Infection and disease were produced experimentally in horses when inoculated by the intramuscular or intranasal routes.

Pericardial hood repair of cardiac rupture secondary to extended myocardial infarction.

A surgical technique for simple and safe repair of oozing-type postinfarction cardiac rupture secondary to extended myocardial infarction is described. A hood-shaped pericardium was glued with gelatin-resorcinol and formaldehyde glue to cover the extended oozing infarcted myocardium. This technique was used on 3 elderly patients with good results.

Late true aneurysm after bypass grafting for long aortic coarctation.

Two adolescent patients who underwent a repair of long aortic coarctation using bypass grafting with subsequent late true aneurysm formation are reported. To our knowledge, only 1 case of late true aneurysm formation after bypass grafting has been reported in the English-language literature.

Cardiac hemangiopericytoma growing in the left atrium.

A 49-year-old woman was seen because of exertional dyspnea. Two-dimensional echocardiography revealed the presence of a large mass in the left atrium. An urgent operation was performed because the tumor suddenly stuck in the mitral orifice. The lesion, which occupied the entire left atrium, was resected during cardiopulmonary bypass. Histologic analysis revealed malignant hemangiopericytoma.

Repair of postinfarction ventricular septal defect on a beating heart.

Two elderly patients with postinfarction ventricular septal defect underwent repair by endocardial patch with infarct exclusion on a beating heart under normothermic cardiopulmonary bypass with ultra-short-acting beta-blocker infusion. Their hemodynamic states soon recovered, and postoperative angiographic studies showed improvement of cardiac function and no residual shunt. Ultra-short-acting beta-blocker has the potential to facilitate safe repair of postinfarction ventricular septal defect on a beating heart, and this operative approach can be beneficial for myocardial protection.

Serological diagnosis of equine influenza using the hemagglutinin protein produced in a baculovirus expression system.

The hemagglutinin (HA) protein of an equine influenza strain, A/equine/La Plata/1/93 (LP/93), was produced using a baculovirus expression system. Silkworm larvae inoculated with recombinant baculovirus expressed high quantities of the HA protein which was then purified to greater than 95% purity by fetuin-affinity chromatography. Purified HA protein was used subsequently in an ELISA for detection of antibodies in horse sera. Two hundred serum samples from vaccinated racehorses were reacted on ELISA plates coated with 40.0 ng/ml of purified HA protein. Subsequent optical density (OD) levels revealed titers which correlated highly with respective hemagglutinin inhibition (HI) antibody titers which ranged from <1:8 to 1:256 (correlation coefficient among them was 0.850). ELISA OD levels and HI titers increased at 5 and 7 days post-inoculation, respectively, in a horse inoculated intranasally with LP/93. Respective antibody levels were observed to change in an essentially parallel manner during a period of 1 month. Similarly, ELISA OD levels correlated with HI titers in horses during a period of 6 weeks following intramuscular inoculation with inactivated single-strain vaccines containing LP/93, A/equine/Kentucky/1/81 (H3N8) or A/equine/Rome/5/91 (H3N8). A similar pattern was also observed in eight horses throughout a 10-week period following inoculation with a commercially available inactivated trivalent vaccine containing A/equine/Newmarket/1/77(H7N7), A/equine/Kentucky/81 and LP/93. From these results, it is suggested that this ELISA system could be used for disease diagnosis and surveillance of HI antibody titers among vaccinated horses.

Synthesis of cyclopentadienones catalyzed by methylidynetricobalt nonacarbonyl.

Easily prepared and air-stable methylidynetricobalt nonacarbonyl could be used as a catalyst for the intramolecular [2 + 2 + 1]-cocyclization of diynes and carbon monoxide producing cyclopentadienones.

Complement-dependent serum neutralization with virulent and avirulent Bucyrus strains of equine arteritis virus.

Virulent and avirulent strains of Bucyrus equine arteritis virus (EAV) were used to raise antiserum in horses. Serum neutralization (SN) tests were performed with and without the addition of guinea pig complement. The inclusion of ten percent guinea pig serum in the virus suspension was sufficient for optimal enhancement of SN titres at any immune stages after immunization. Immune serum prepared against avirulent virus reacted only with homologous virus and there was no complement enhancement. Immune sera raised against live or inactivated virulent virus neutralized both virulent and avirulent virus. The reaction with virulent virus demonstrated complement enhancement. There was also moderate potentiation in the presence of complement when serum raised against inactivated virulent virus reacted with avirulent virus.

Detection of antibodies to the nonstructural protein (NS1) of influenza A virus allows distinction between vaccinated and infected horses.

Antibodies to the nonstructural protein (NS1) of A/equine/Miami/1/63 (H3N8) influenza virus were detected exclusively in the sera of mice experimentally infected with A/Aichi/2/68 (H3N2) and horses infected with A/equine/Kentucky/1/81 (H3N8) or A/equine/La Plata/1/93 (H3N8), but not in those of the animals immunized with the inactivated viruses, by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using a recombinant NS1 as antigen. The results indicate that the present method is useful for serological diagnosis to distinguish horses infected with equine H3 influenza viruses from those immunized with the inactivated vaccine.

Production of monoclonal antibodies to six isotypes of horse immunoglobulin.

Stable clones of 18 mouse hybridomas that produce monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to six isotypes of horse immunoglobulin were produced. The number of hybridomas of different specificities are: four to IgGa, four to IgGb, one to IgGc, four to IgG(T), two to IgM, and three to IgA. The immunoglobulin isotypes purified from affinity columns bound with each MAb showed variable mobility in agarose-gel electrophoresis. Migration proceeded from the anode as: IgG(T), IgA, IgM, IgGc, IgGb and IgGa. The purified isotypes also demonstrated a single precipitin line when in immunoelectrophoresis against isotype-specific or polyclonal antisera, raised against the purified isotype or whole equine serum, respectively.

Evaluation of left ventricular function utilizing transesophageal echocardiography during and after thoracic aortic aneurysm repair.

This study was designed to evaluate left ventricular (LV) function during aortic cross-clamping (ACC) by comparing left heart bypass (LHB) with a centrifugal pump and simple aortic cross-clamping (SC). The end-diastolic volume index (EDVI), ejection fraction (EF), fractional shortening (FS) and end-systolic meridional stress (ESS) were measured by transesophageal echocardiography. The measurements were performed 1) before ACC, 2) 2 min after ACC, 3) 20 min after ACC, 4) 2 min after unclamping and 5) 1 h after unclamping. With cross-clamping, a significant decrease was observed in both EDVI (108 vs 83 ml/m2) and EF (73 vs 67%) in patients with LHB. Patients utilizing SC showed a sustained increase in ESS (43 vs 64 10(3) dyne/cm2). The systolic blood pressure did not vary during LHB, but a transient increase occurred in patients with SC. With release of the cross-clamping, EDV and EF returned to the baseline values in patients with LHB. A significant decrease occurred in EDVI (101 vs 71 ml/m2) and ESS (61 vs 36 10(3) dyne/cm2) in the SC group. We conclude that circulatory support with LHB may offer greater stability of the LV function during thoracic aortic cross-clamping than SC because of the lower preload and afterload.

Idiopathic iliac arterial aneurysms in a child.

Arterial aneurysms are very rare in children, especially those who have no history of cardiac or vascular malformation, connective tissue disorder, or trauma. We describe a 3-year-old boy who had multiple arterial aneurysms of the left external iliac artery with a maximal diameter of 67 mm, with no history of these disorders. The iliac artery distal to the aneurysm and superficial femoral artery were occluded causing the growth disturbances of his left leg. He underwent graft replacement of the left iliac artery using a ringed Gore-Tex graft (6 mm in diameter). Postoperative angiogram showed a patent graft without any residual aneurysm in the left iliac artery. His ankleibrachial index improve from 0.2 to 0.6 after surgery.

Development of an expandable intra-aortic prosthesis for experimental aortic dissection.

To achieve transcatheter entry obliteration for Stanford type B dissection, the authors devised and developed a self-expandable intra-aortic prosthesis (IA graft). This graft consisted of a microporous polyurethane graft (wall thickness: 0.2 mm; average pore size: 0.1 mm) and an expandable metallic stent (Gianturco double stent) attached to the lumen surface of the polyurethane graft. Experimental dissections in the descending aorta of mongrel dogs were prepared. An IA graft was inserted through a femoral artery by a catheter sheath into which a compressed IA graft was installed and expanded at the entry site. After 30 min of graft implantation, closure of all the entry sites in four dogs was confirmed by aortography. The results suggest that the newly devised IA graft is extremely useful as a non invasive treatment for Stanford type B dissection.

Endovascular stent graft placement for patients with aortic aneurysm and end-organ dysfunction.

Endovascular stent grafts (ESGs) for the treatment of aortic aneurysm is becoming popular because it is less invasiveness for the patient. This new modality seems to be especially useful for treating high risk patients, such as those with end-organ dysfunction. In this study we retrospectively analyzed the results of ESG placement for patients with renal or hepatic dysfunction. From January 1996 to December 1997, six patients with end-organ dysfunction (two with descending thoracic aneurysm and four with abdominal aneurysm) underwent ESG placement. Five of these patients had renal dysfunction, with serum creatinine levels of 2.0 mg/dl or greater, and the remaining patient had hepatic dysfunction with a prothrombin time less than 60%. One of the patients also had severe atherosclerotic disease with a history of multiple brain infarctions. All the patients received custom made endovascular spiral Z stents covered with a woven Dacron (DuPont Co., Wilmington, DE) graft, which was delivered via a femoral artery under local anesthesia. None of the patients showed significant changes in renal or hepatic function after the procedure. None of the five patients with renal dysfunction needed hemodialysis after ESG placement, although the mean preoperative level of serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen was 3.4 mg/dl and 42.0 mg/ dl, respectively. All the patients left the recovery room on postoperative day 1. These results indicated that endovascular stent graft placement is extremely useful in the treatment of aortic aneurysm patients with end-organ dysfunction.

Development of a chronic endothelialized transcatheter implantable intra-aortic graft.

The authors developed a new intraluminal aortic prosthesis (IA graft) for internal obliteration of Stanford type B dissection. The newly devised intraluminal aortic graft is a self-expandable metallic stent (Gianturco stent) outer-jacketed with a thin open-cell structured microporous film made of segmental polyurethane (0.2 mm thick, 0.1 mm pore size). Through the femoral artery, the intraluminal aortic grafts (14-20 mm diameter-, 4 cm long) were inserted into a 12 Fr catheter sheath by compression, were implanted into the descending thoracic aortas of five mongrel dogs; they were removed at the projected times of death ranging from 1 to 6 months after implantation. Histopathologic examination revealed that an elastic fiber layer had regenerated and that on the inner surface of the graft adherent and proliferating endothelial cells were observed, even at 1 month after graft implantation. Complete epithelialization was observed over the entire inner surface of the graft within 4 months after implantation. This healing process suggests that the intraluminal aortic graft is highly biocompatible and might be stable in chronic use after the obliteration of acute Stanford type B dissections.

Venereal infection of mares by equine arteritis virus and use of killed vaccine against the infection.

Venereal infection with equine arteritis virus (EAV) was established in each of seven mares by inoculation via the cervix with 20 ml of viral suspension (> or = 8 x 10(6) plaque-forming units; PFU), following treatment with prostaglandin and oestradiol. A dose of < or = 8 x 10(5) PFU produced infection in only five of eight mares. Serum neutralizing antibody developed in mares manifesting clinical signs of equine viral arteritis (EVA), and a weak antibody was detectable in one apparently healthy mare inoculated with 8 x 10(5) PFU. Virus isolation was demonstrated not only in the buffy coat but also in nasal swabs of infected mares. EAV was isolated frequently from the body tissues of the mares (killed 10 to 34 days post-inoculation) up to day 12, but rarely from the reproductive tissues later than day 12. The virus persisted longest in the splenic and deep inguinal lymph nodes, followed by the spleen and internal iliac lymph nodes. Four mares immunized with a killed vaccine for EVA showed no clinical disease after venereal challenge with EAV; the virus was recovered from the buffy coat of three mares and from the nasal swab of one of them, but not from the remaining animal.

Epizootiological aspects of type 1 and type 4 equine herpesvirus infections among horse populations.

The dissemination of equine herpesvirus types 1 (EHV-1) and 4 (EHV-4) among various horse populations in Japan was investigated through the isolation and typing of virus strains from horses with respiratory diseases. Type specific monoclonal antibody pools were used for the typing of isolates. The 42 strains of EHV-1 and 64 strains of EHV-4 were isolated from 4593 nasal swabs and/or blood plasma samples collected from 3326 horses during a period from 1979 to 1990. All the strains of EHV-1 were isolated from racehorses only and during the winter season exclusively, when the epizootic of respiratory diseases occurred among racehorse populations at two Training Centers of the Japan Racing Association. In contrast, the strains of EHV-4 were isolated from horses irrespective of the season, facility, or horse population; foals and yearlings in breeding farms and our institute, rearing horses in rearing farms, and racehorses. Especially, 4 strains of EHV-4 were isolated from plasma samples containing buffy coat cells. We believe this is the first reported case of EHV-4 cell-associated viremia in the world. All 87 strains isolated from aborted fetuses were identified as EHV-1. The results suggest that EHV-1 is responsible for epizootic respiratory diseases in racehorses in the winter and abortion among mares at the late stage of gestation, and that EHV-4 causes respiratory diseases throughout the year among all horse populations.

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for serological survey of equine arteritis virus in racehorses.

To examine antibodies against equine arteritis virus (EAV), an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using purified virus antigen was developed. The results of ELISA were compared with those of serum neutralization (SN) tests. The ELISA absorbance values and the SN titers in sera collected weekly from EAV-infected horses showed a similar pattern. The ELISA could detect antibody to EAV in horses experimentally infected with not only a homologous virus strain, which was used as the ELISA antigen, but also a heterologous strain. Using the ELISA, serum samples collected in 1996 from racehorses in three prefectures (Hokkaido, Ibaraki, and Shiga) were examined and there was no evidence of recent EAV infection among these racehorse populations in Japan. The ELISA should be a simple and highly specific method for rapid screening of EAV infection in racehorses.

Effect of viral inoculum size on appearance of clinical signs in equine Getah virus infection.

A study was performed to examine the effect of viral inoculum size on the appearance of clinical signs in equine Getah virus (GV) infection by intramuscular inoculation with 10(1.3) to 10(6.3) TCID50 of the MI-110 strain in 6 experimental horses. When inoculated with more than 10(3.3) TCID50 of the virus, every horse developed pyrexia, edema in the hind legs, serous nasal discharge, lymphopenia and viremia in the relatively early stage of disease. On the other hand, enlargement of the submandibular lymph node was observed only in horses inoculated with 10(5.3) and 10(6.3) TCID50 of the virus, while typical eruptions were developed in every horse inoculated with 10(4.3) TCID50 or less. These results demonstrated that the appearance of clinical signs in equine GV infection was dependent on viral inoculum size. Besides, it was assumed to be rare chance that eruptions and enlargement of the submandibular lymph node were developed simultaneously in a horse.