Features of nephrogenic systemic fibrosis on radiology examinations.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this article is to illustrate the spectrum of imaging findings with photographic and histopathologic correlation in patients with biopsy-proven nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF). CONCLUSION: Features of NSF may be evident on the patient's skin as well as on routine imaging studies, although these imaging findings are nonspecific and are more likely to occur with other diseases.

High-dose glycine treatment of refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder and body dysmorphic disorder in a 5-year period.

This paper describes an individual who was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) at age 17 when education was discontinued. By age 19, he was housebound without social contacts except for parents. Adequate trials of three selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, two with atypical neuroleptics, were ineffective. Major exacerbations following ear infections involving Group A beta-hemolytic streptococcus at ages 19 and 20 led to intravenous immune globulin therapy, which was also ineffective. At age 22, another severe exacerbation followed antibiotic treatment for H. pylori. This led to a hypothesis that postulates deficient signal transduction by the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR). Treatment with glycine, an NMDAR coagonist, over 5 years led to robust reduction of OCD/BDD signs and symptoms except for partial relapses during treatment cessation. Education and social life were resumed and evidence suggests improved cognition. Our findings motivate further study of glycine treatment of OCD and BDD.

A phase I study of 90yttrium-ibritumomab-tiuxetan in children and adolescents with relapsed/refractory CD20-positive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: a Children's Oncology Group study.

PURPOSE: The prognosis for children with recurrent CD20+ non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is dismal. A radiolabeled anti-CD20 antibody, 90yttrium-ibritumomab-tiuxetan (90Y-IT), is Food and Drug Administration approved for adults with recurrent indolent CD20+ B cell-non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. There is no data on the safety and feasibility of 90Y-IT in refractory childhood CD20+ lymphoma. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Children and adolescents with refractory/relapsed CD20+ lymphoma were eligible for this phase I radioimmunotherapy study. Patients (n=5) received rituximab (250 mg/m2 i.v.) on days 0 and 7 and indium-111 ibritumomab-tiuxetan (5 mCi i.v.) on day 0. Dosimetry studies were done on days 0, 1, 3, and 6. Immediately after rituximab on day 7, patients received 90Y-IT if dosimetry studies showed<2000 cGy exposure to all solid organs and<300 cGy to marrow, as well as 0.4 mCi/kg in patients with good marrow reserve (n=3) and 0.1 mCi/kg in patients with poor marrow reserve (after bone marrow transplant; n=2). RESULTS: No patients experienced nonhematologic or hematologic dose-limiting toxicity. Human antimurine antibody/human antichimeric antibody incidence was 0%. One patient experienced grade II infusion-related chills associated with rituximab. The following are the means of organ radiation exposure (cGy): kidneys 341 (112-515), liver 345 (83-798), lungs 309 (155-519), marrow 46 (20-78), spleen 565 (161-816), and total body 42 (14-68). CONCLUSIONS: Based on these findings, an expanded investigator-initiated limited institutional phase II study has been designed to further evaluate the safety, tolerability, and response rate with 90Y-IT dose stratification based on marrow reserve.

Peritransplant streptavidin recipient treatment prolongs rat cardiac allograft survival.

BACKGROUND: Because streptavidin shows high localization in inflamed tissues, it might also interfere with the proliferation of cells involved in allograft rejection. METHODS AND RESULTS: Treatment of naïve ACI recipients with 20 mg/kg streptavidin i.p. alone significantly prolonged Lewis cardiac allografts from a mean survival time of 9.8+/-0.7 days in controls to 19.8+/-6.5 days, with one recipient accepting the graft permanently (>250 days). Peritransplant streptavidin treatment combined with 0.5 ml of antilymphocyte serum (ALS) transient immunosuppression led to permanent graft survival (>250 days) in 6 of 10 recipients. Second-set skin grafts performed 60 days after the primary cardiac allograft were prolonged to 45 days, whereas the third party Wistar-Furth (WF) skin grafts were rejected in 15 days without the rejection of the primary Lewis cardiac allografts. Pathology of transplanted cardiac allografts at 100 days showed no mononuclear cell infiltration or chronic allograft vasculopathy. Streptavidin given for 5 days at 20 mg/kg caused a moderate initial weight loss but had no effect on hematologic, biochemical, and histologic parameters in the treated recipients. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that peritransplant recipient treatment with streptavidin combined with peritransplant ALS induces prolonged cardiac and second-set skin allograft survival. We conclude that recipient peritransplant streptavidin treatment may provide a new strategy for the induction of transplant tolerance.