Aneurysm of the superior labial artery.

This is a case report of a true and dissecting aneurysm of the superior labial artery in a 51-year-old patient without risk factors for vascular pathology. The patient complained of swelling of the upper lip, mostly on the left side. A Doppler ultrasonography was used in the diagnosis. The definitive treatment was surgical resection, and the histopathological analysis confirmed the diagnosis. The progress of the patient was satisfactory, leaving a slight change in sensitivity in the area. This seems to be the first reported case of true and dissecting aneurysm of the superior labial artery in the medical literature.

Burning mouth syndrome: an evaluation of in vivo microcirculation.

BACKGROUND: Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is an atypical orofacial algesic syndrome. The aim of the authors' research was to investigate the morphological characteristics of peripheral blood circulation in patients with BMS in comparison with those of the peripheral blood circulation in healthy people. METHODS: The authors examined 28 subjects, of whom 14 (10 women and four men) had BMS and 14 (nine women and five men) were healthy control subjects. They performed videocapillaroscopic examination with a capillaroscope with a fiber-optic probe at a magnification of x200, which allowed them to examine the morphological characteristics within the capillaroscopic area accurately. RESULTS: The capillaroscopic examination provided important diagnostic results regarding alterations of the local microcirculation in subjects with BMS when compared with healthy subjects. The results also showed a statistically significant increase in the diameter of the capillary ansae, afferent ansae and efferent ansae in subjects with BMS compared with subjects in the control group (P = .05). CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: The results revealed a vascular involvement in BMS. This information could improve the understanding of etiopathogenetic factors and aid in the development of therapeutic strategies for treating this disorder.

Neurogenic vasodilatation of canine isolated small labial arteries.

Mechanisms underlying vasodilatation to nerve stimulation by electrical pulses and nicotine were analyzed in isolated canine small labial arteries. Transmural electrical stimulation (5 and 20 Hz) produced a contraction followed by a relaxation in labial arterial strips denuded of the endothelium, partially contracted with prostaglandin F2alpha. The contraction was abolished by prazosin or combined treatment with alpha, beta-methylene ATP. In the treated strips, neurogenic relaxation was abolished by NG-nitro-L-arginine (L-NA), a nitric oxide (NO) synthase inhibitor, and restored by L-arginine. The D-enantiomers were without effect. Nicotine (10(-4) M) also relaxed the arteries, in which the contractile response was abolished by prazosin and alpha, beta-methylene ATP. The relaxant response was attenuated but not abolished by L-NA; the inhibition was reversed by L-arginine. The remaining relaxation by nicotine was abolished by calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP)-[8 to 37], a CGRP1 receptor antagonist. Relaxations elicited by a lower concentration of nicotine (2 x 10(-5) M) sufficient to produce similar magnitudes of response to those induced by 5-Hz electrical nerve stimulation were also inhibited partially by L-NA. Histochemical study with the NADPH-diaphorase method demonstrated positively stained nerve fibers and bundles in the arterial wall, suggesting the presence of neuronal NO synthase. It is concluded that the relaxation induced by electrical nerve stimulation of small labial arteries is mediated exclusively by NO synthesized from L-arginine in nerve terminals, whereas nicotine in the concentrations used evokes relaxations by a mediation of nerve-derived NO and also CGRP, possibly from sensory nerves. The reason why nicotine but not electrical pulses stimulates sensory nerves and elicits vasorelaxation remains unsolved.

Analysis of the consistency of objective measures of sexual arousal in women.

Eight adult women volunteers viewed the same erotic film in two different sessions. Their resulting genital responses were recorded simultaneously by three different measures: vaginal pressure pulse, vaginal blood volume, and labial temperature change. During the erotic stimulation, the vaginal pressure pulse and labial responses always increased, and the vaginal blood volume response increased on all but two occasions. Although there was considerable intersubject variability in each genital measure, all three measures were found to have some intrasubject consistency over sessions with respect to either their response amplitudes or patterns, with labial temperature being the most consistent on both parameters. The relationship between the response patterns of the three measures during the film was also relatively consistent across sessions, as was the correspondence between subjective ratings of arousal and both vaginal pressure pulse and labial responses but not vaginal blood volume response. To overcome the problem of considerable intrasubject variability of response amplitudes, it was suggested that the inclusion in the data analysis of several parameters of response patterns, which were relatively stable over sessions, might facilitate the evaluation of a treatment.