Volume 98 · Issue 06 · 1985

Double contrast roentgenography was performed in artificial stomachs and other models with various "lesions" and the images were compared with those obtained clinically. On the basis of the findings and principles of the physics of fluids, we analyze the mechanism of imaging and suggest more accurate and detailed interpretations for the signs and phenomena encountered in GI double-contrast studies, e.g. ring, rail, kissing, stafactite, protruding border, pressure indentation, overlapping, tide-rock. Certain phenomena including barium collection in recess, dependent barium accumulation, ad-gravitational wall, ab-gravitational wall, etc. should be em ployed to elucidate the sites of origin as well as the principles governing the emergence of the afore-men tioned signs in GI double contrast roentgenograms.

The overall prevalence of diabetic retinopathy in 662 diabetic patients in Beijing was 51.3%. The overall percentage of proliferative diabetic retinopathy was 6.19%. In 280 middle-aged diabetic patients, 38 eyes had proliferative diabetic retinopathy. The visual prognosis in these patients was poor, and 42.1% of them had severe visual loss.

Closed-loop pupillography for dynamic response to positive differential light stimulation was recorded in 36 cases of various forms of myasthenia gravis. After analyzing the dynamic changes of the pupillary area and pupillographic parameters of light reaction, we found the following characteristic features that pupillary sphincters and dilators are extremely liable to fatigue (decreased), the latent period of light reaction is lengthened (Td lengthened), the contractive velocity and acceleration of pupillary sphincters and dilators (Tr, Tf, Tu) are slowed, and pupil contractive amplitude (ΔS) is decreased. These changes in pupillographic parameters are relevant to clinical types of myasthenia gravis and are improved after injection of 0.5 mg neostigmine within 30 minutes. We suggest that myasthenia gravis is not only a neuromuscular disease involving the skeletal muscles, but also a disease of ACh receptors elsewhere in the body.

Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae, a drug activating the circulation and alleviating stagnation, was administered to 50 New Zealand rabbits that had received standardized fractures of the radius. Radio graphs of the fractures showed that callus formation appeared earlier and was denser than in 50 control rabbits studied earlier. Transmission electron micros copy revealed five favorable effects of the drug, the first three of which were cellular. First, the osteogenic cells (the progenitors of the osteoblasts and chondrocytes) increased in both number and sites of distribution. Second, the fibroblasts, in addition to changing in configuration, showed very active protein synthesis, with exuberant extracellular collagen fibril formation. The normal process of fibroblast degeneration was also expedited. Thus, the replacement of fibroblasts by bony tissue was promoted. Third, an increased number of osteoclasts emerged in different areas of fracture callus and thus remodeling was facilitated. Fourth, there was exuberant collagen fibril formation, which promoted production of organic matrix. Fifth, the swollen mitochondria of the fibroblasts contained more dense calcium granules and thus provided more calcium for the calcification of matrix vesicles and collagen fibrils.

507 patients underwent laryngectomy under acupuncture anesthesia within ten years. To raise the effect of acupuncture anesthesia, we used eight acupuncture points including ear points, body points and points around the skin incision. Surgical technics were also improved. The success rate of laryngectomy under acupuncture anesthesia in the 507 patients was 66.7%.

Thirteen experimental cerebral aneurysms found in our study proved that hypertension produced by clipping bilateral posterior branch of renal arteries with small Weck's clip combined with carotid ligation and administration of BAPN (β-aminopropionitrile fumarate) and saline was the best method to induce experimental cerebral aneurysms in rats. Estradiol could elevate blood pressure, promote pituitary hypertrophy, and increase degradation of collagen and elastin. But, estradiol could not increase the incidence of aneurysms in rats. Perhaps the variation of the hemodynamic stress plays a role in the diminished development of the cerebral aneurysms owing to the compression of cerebral arteries by pituitary hypertrophy.

A method of quantitative diagnosis, frequency ratio method (FRM) for differential diagnosis, was used successfully in 1976 for the determination of benzene absorption of the benzene-exposed workers. Then it was used for the differential diagnosis of 35 cases suspected of having early esophageal carcinoma with only one misdiagnosis. Later, it was used with even better results for the differential diagnosis of cerebral hemorrhage and cerebral thrombosis. Methods of calculation, clinical application of FRM with examples and case reports, and some other considerations are described in the paper.

Human bone marrow derived fibroblast colony-forming cells (F-CFU) and granulocytemacrophage colony-forming cells (GM-CFU) were simultaneously studied by liquid and semi-solid agar culture in 26 normal individuals and 33 hematological disorders in 13 patients with aplastic anemia, 9 acute non-lymphocytic leukemia, 6 acute lymphocytic leukemia and 5 malignant lymphoma. After 2 weeks of liquid culture, the growth rates and morphological characteristics of F-CFU from aplastic and leukemic mar rows did not differ markedly from the normal, except that patient groups show a wider range of colony number. The F-CFU incidence in patients with malignant lymphoma was lower than normal. Growth of GM-CFU from patients with aplastic anemia and leukemia was very poor. GM-CFU stimulation was not detected in any supernatants of F-CFU cultures. Confluent mono-layers of fibroblast cells grown from normal and aplastic marrow could directly stimulate the growth cf GM-CFU of normal marrow cells and little-GM-CFU was observed in areas lacking fibroblast cells. Fibroblast monolayers derived from acute leukemic marrows were poor stimulators of GM-CFU, this abnormality in interactions between stromal cells and hematopoietic progenitors may be important in the pathogenesis and clinical manifestation of leukemia. This study suggests that bone marrow fibroblast cells may directly affect hematopoietic stem cell proliferation and differentiation and supports the hypothesis that marrow fibrosis observed in patients with leukemia is of non-neoplastic origin and may be a reactive phenomenon. Analysis of the pathogenesis of aplastic patients with defective hematopoietic microenvironments may be possible.