Successful surgical treatment of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm without homologous blood transfusion in a Jehovah's Witness: report of a case.

We report herein the case of a 47-year-old woman of the Jehovah's Witness faith in whom Y-grafting for a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm was successfully performed without a homologous blood transfusion. We used a Cell Saver (Haemonetics, Braintree, MA. USA) red cell salvaging device and an aortic occlusion balloon catheter, and performed gentle and minimal dissection during the operation. Postoperatively. the patient was kept heavily sedated and required hypothermic therapy for only 14h. We treated her severe anemia using conventional drugs, including iron and folic acid, and her hemoglobin increased smoothly. Although her hemoglobin level decreased to 2.8g/dl during the operation, her postoperative course was uneventful.

[Partial volume effect in MRI--a phantom study].

According to the direction and the thickness of the imaging slice in tomography, the border between the tissues becomes unclear (partial volume effect). In the present MRI experiment, we examined border area between fat and water components using phantom in order to investigate the partial volume effect in MRI. In spin echo sequences, the intensity of the border area showed a linear relationship with composition of fat and water. Whereas, in inversion recovery and field echo sequences, we found the parameters to produce an extremely low intensity area at the border region between fat and water. This low intensity area was explained by cancellation of NMR signals from fat and water due to the difference in the direction of magnetic vectors. Clinically, partial volume effect can cause of mis-evaluation of walls, small nodules, tumor capsules and the tumor invasion in the use of inversion recovery and field echo sequences.

Effect of truncal vagotomy on intestinal phase of pancreatic polypeptide release in dogs.

In order to elucidate the role of the vagus nerve in the intestinal phase of pancreatic polypeptide (PP) release, mongrel dogs were given a 4-min intraduodenal infusion of saline, 20% glucose, or 10% soybean oil solution (50 ml each), before and one month after truncal vagotomy including pyloroplasty (TV). The saline infusion did not change the basal PP level, while the glucose infusion elicited a monophasic transient PP release, and the soybean oil infusion elicited a monophasic prolonged PP release in the intact dogs. The PP response following glucose infusion was almost abolished after TV, while the PP response to fat was attenuated, but a significant increase was nevertheless observed after TV. These results suggest that the vagus nerve has an important role in the intestinal phase of PP release and that other factors, e.g. hormonal, might also be involved in the regulatory mechanism, especially after fat loading.

The failure of truncal vagotomy to affect motilin release in dogs.

To elucidate the relationship between vagus nerve and motilin release, we have studied the influence of truncal vagotomy with pyloroplasty (TV) on motilin release in the fasting state and for 120 min following an intraduodenal administration of 10 g glucose in a 50-ml water solution or 5 g soybean oil. TV did not influence the intermittent fluctuation or concentration of plasma motilin in the fasting state. Intraduodenal glucose administration inhibited motilin release, but this was not affected by TV. Intraduodenal fat administration accelerated motilin release, but this effect also was not affected by TV. These results suggest that motilin secretion in the fasting state and after nutrient ingestion is not influenced by TV.

Effect of truncal vagotomy on GIP release induced by intraduodenal glucose or fat in dogs.

In order to elucidate the role of the vagus nerve in the release of gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP), mongrel dogs were given a 4-min intraduodenal infusion of 10 g glucose or 5 g soybean oil before and again 1 month after truncal vagotomy (TV). The basal GIP concentrations were significantly elevated after TV. The plasma GIP levels following glucose infusion in the vagotomized dogs were significantly higher than those in the untreated dogs, whereas the GIP levels following fat infusion were not affected by TV. These results suggest that TV influences glucose-induced GIP release but not fat-induced GIP release, indicating that different mechanisms of the vagus nerve may be involved in glucose- and fat-induced GIP secretions.