Quantification of chirality based on electric toroidal monopole.

Chirality ubiquitously appears in nature; however, its quantification remains obscure owing to the lack of microscopic description at the quantum-mechanical level. We propose a way of evaluating chirality in terms of the electric toroidal monopole, a practical entity of time-reversal even pseudoscalar (parity-odd) objects reflecting relevant electronic wave functions. For this purpose, we analyze a twisted methane molecule at the quantum-mechanical level, showing that the electric toroidal monopoles become a quantitative indicator for chirality. In the twisted methane, we clarify that the handedness of chirality corresponds to the sign of the expectation value of the electric toroidal monopole and that the most important ingredient is the modulation of the spin-dependent imaginary hopping between the hydrogen atoms, while the relativistic spin-orbit coupling within the carbon atom is irrelevant for chirality.

Significance of coupling device for vessel anastomosis in esophageal reconstruction.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To prevent an anastomotic failure due to impaired blood supply, several trials have been performed such as preoperative ischemic conditioning by transarterial embolization of the left gastric, right gastric and splenic arteries or microvascular anastomosis. We assess the significance of an automatic anastomotic coupling device for vessel anastomosis, which we have continuously utilized, to simplify the task and shorten the anastomotic time since March 1999. METHODOLOGY: 8 patients who underwent venous anastomosis by an automatic anastomotic coupling device were evaluated for the time of anastomosis, total ischemic time and outcomes. RESULTS: Venous anastomosis was completed within 5 minutes on average. Microscopic arterial anastomosis by hand took 35 minutes on average. For gastric tube reconstruction, venous anastomosis by an automatic coupling device took only 5 minutes. The top of the gastric tube showed congestion before venous anastomosis, but rapidly recovered from it after anastomosis. Postoperative endoscopic observation of the mucosal color of the replaced intestine or gastric tube was started 3 days after surgery and revealed no ischemia or congestion. The postoperative course was uneventful except one case suffering from pneumonia but leakage was not observed in any case. CONCLUSION: An automatic anastomotic coupling device can perform an easy and reliable vascular anastomosis for patients who undergo esophageal reconstruction. The device may shorten the operating time and consequently the ischemic time of the gastric tube or jejunal or colonic graft, which in turn may lead to a decrease of complications.

Concomitant laparoscopic splenectomy and cholecystectomy as an effective and minimally invasive treatment of pyruvate kinase deficiency with gallstones.

A 4-year-old girl with pyruvate kinase deficiency underwent partial splenic embolization initially. However, even after this procedure, she still had to be transfused every 2 months and then every month. At 5 years of age, she was admitted to our hospital to undergo splenectomy. She underwent laparoscopic splenectomy and concomitant cholecystectomy for gallstones. The hemogram recovered to the normal range after surgery, and her postoperative course was uneventful. Considering the absence of morbidity, the short hospitalization, the quick return to normal activity, the good cosmetic result, and the improved clinical and hematologic results, we consider that simultaneous laparoscopic splenectomy and cholecystectomy is safe and effective for the management of hemolytic anemia resulting from pyruvatre kinase deficiency and associated with cholelithiasis.

Hand-assisted laparoscopic total colorectal resection for familial adenomatous polyposis with coexisting rectal cancer.

When familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is diagnosed in a patient, prophylactic surgery must be performed whether colorectal cancer is present or not. Operations for FAP have been performed through a large median abdominal incision or an additional perineal incision, depending on the coexistence of rectal cancer. Recently, we reported a technique of laparoscopic rectal amputation without abdominal skin incision for patients with rectal cancer to minimize postoperative cardiac and respiratory complications [6]. In this article, we report a case of laparoscopically assisted proctocolectomy with ileostomy through a minimal abdominal and perineal skin incision performed by a hand-assisted procedure. The purpose of combining the perineal and laparoscopic approaches is to minimize the skin incision, while retaining a rate of cure and safety equivalent to those of conventional rectal amputation, by using the advantages of laparoscopic procedures, and to facilitate postoperative recovery and improve the quality of life for relatively young patients with FAP.

Immunochemical approach to characterize post-translational modification of serum albumin using anti-glutaraldehyde-treated serum albumin antibodies.

Polyclonal antibodies against glutaraldehyde-treated rabbit serum albumin (pRSA) and human serum albumin (pHSA) were prepared from rabbit and mouse, respectively. Anti-pRSA antibody had the structural determinant depending on the polymerization process of RSA and showed only a weak cross-reactivity with the other glutaraldehyde-treated albumins. Anti-pHSA antibody (after adsorption of anti-HSA antibody) recognized only pHSA, but not HSA and the other treated albumins. The cross-reactivity of those antibodies was examined with albumins treated by other methods such as modification of glucose and fructose, carbodiimide, and transglutaminase. Among the, RSA and HSA modified with glucose and fructose had an affinity for each antibody and the reactivity depended on the extent of formation of the polymerized albumin. The results suggests that functional groups involved in cross-linking of albumin are important for formation of the cross-reactivity with the antibody and that a definite structure immunochemically similar to glutaraldehyde-treated albumin could be formed by the Maillard reaction.

Cluster Analysis by Measurement of Peroxidase and Esterase from Citrus Flavedo.

The zymograms of peroxidase (POD) and esterase (EST) from seventy-two kinds of Citrus fruits and the fruit of both Poncirus and Fortunella were obtained by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. It was found that there was little variance in the band pattern of POD and EST of the fruits harvested after September. There were at least three bands of POD and approximately ten of EST in each cultivar. The density of each band for EST was measured with a densitometer. There was a characteristic band for POD identifying pummelos. The band patterns of EST were also characteristic among each species or cultivar. Two kinds of ootachibana (Citrus otachibana Hort. ex Tanaka) were shown to be different cultivars from each other according to their EST zymograms and peel oil analysis. Cluster analysis based on EST was done and discussed together with POD.