Nagoya Journal of Medical Science

By stimulation of serial points of the caudate nucleus and internal capsule in cat with multilead electrode, pericruciate responses are elicited easily by internal capsule stimulation but responses by caudate nucleus stimulation are due to the current spread to the interpal capsule.
A part of the diffuse thalamic projection system has been inferred to pass through the internal capsule.
It was confirmed e!ectrophysiologically that the head of the caudate nucleus has some close fiber connections with the nucleus niger and globus pallidus.

The influence of pyridoxine upon the metabolic conversion of linoleic acid to arachidonic acid was studied in the livers of rats maintained with different kinds and conditions of dietary fats.
In the basal diet group, the liver phospholipid fraction of the pyridoxine deficient animals revealed significantly higher percentage of linoleic acid and sig- nificantly lower percentage of arachidohic acid, when compared with the control group, whereas in the liver phospholipid fraction, the proportion of arachidonic acid was higher and that of eicosatrienoic acid significantly lower in the pyridoxine deficient group fed the hardening oil diet. Recovery experiments were carried out. The time course of changes in the fatty acid composition of the liver lipids of rats fed cotton-seed oil, after 6 weeks on a hardening oil diet, revealed slower velocity of increase in arachidonate, slower velocity of decrease in eicosatrienoate and faster velocity of increase in linoleate in the pyridoxine de- ficient group. Changes in the fatty acid composition of the liver phospholipid after giving r-linolenate to rats previously fed a fat free diet showed also slower velocity of increase in arachidonate and lower velocity of decrease in eicosatrienoate.
It is concluded that pyridoxine plays an important role in the essential fatty acid metabolism, chiefly in the conversion of r-linolenate to arachidonate.

Change in stiffness of mammalian muscle fibers caused by stretch (conditioning stretch) was investigated. The stiffness was defined as initial rise of tension versus time at the beginning of linear stretch (test stretch) of equilibrated muscle. Effects of a sinusoidal conditioning stretch on the stiffness depended on the amplitude of the oscillation but were almost independent of the duration of the conditioning. Against a rapid decrease in stiffness caused by stretch, the recovery of stiffness during maintenance at a constant length was gradual. It has been established that a hump of the muscle tension usually observed at the beginning of linear stretch is caused by the initial great stiffness of muscle fibers and the following rapid decrease of it.

Venography furnishes a map of the otherwise invisible deep veins of the extremities, discloses pathological changes, localizes the communicating veins, and tests the function of veins and valves.
This clinical study, was carried out to evaluate the serial retrograde venography of the lower extremities with varicose veins, using the serial long film changer with a tilt. Forty-three extremities with varicose veins of twenty-six patients were examined with both ascending and retrograde venographies, and the visualization of the veins, their valves and communicating veins were dis- cussed.
Good contrast filling of the veins was obtained mainly in the part of the leg by ascending venography, but the superficial femoral vein was opacified only in a half of the cases studied. In retrograde venography, the contrast medium drifted downward, filling the superficial femoral and popliteal veins, and entered the more distal leg veins in about one half of the cases. The venous valves in the deep thigh veins were visualized in more than 40% the retrograde venography, but less frequently by ascending venography. In retrograde venography, the visualization of the communicating veins in the thigh was about 50%, but that in the leg about 25%.
It is concluded that retrograde venography is a safe and convenient method to study the hemodynamics of varicose veins in the lower extremities.

Histological and in vivo examinations of skins were made in order to offer one of the grounds of tympanic skin grafting in the following 14 regions: the external auditory canal (cartilagineous portion), the retroauricular region, the upper arm (medial and lateral parts), the forearm (anterior and posterior parts), the thorax, the back, the abdomen (lateral and hypogastric parts), the inguinal region, the gluteal region, and the thigh (medial and lateral parts). Although considerably different in relation to individuals, both the data show some common characteristic trends of skin in different regious of the body surface irrespective of age. The present data were summarized as follows: L Thick skin pieces can be usually removed from the gluteal region and the abdomen. 2. The distribution of sebaceous glands is relatively scarce in the upper and lower extremities. Accordmgly, irrespective of the methods of transplantation, skin pieces removed from both the extremities are of more advantage in preventing them from infection and crust formation. 3. The distribution of sweat glands in skin pieces is almost uniform in the major regions ot the body surface. Skin pieces removed by the split thickness graft method are evenly available for tympanic grafting, and those from the back and gluteal regions are of more advantage in preventing them from infection because of the deepest presence of sweat glands there. 4. The distribution and thickness of hairs have a relation with the success of tympanic skin grafting. Perforation of skin pieces, to be induced by the thin split thickness graft method, is prevented by using the thick split thickness graft method, due to regeneration from the remaining part of the hair roots in the deeper layer of skin pieces. The possibility of development of cholesteatoma from hair roots is, however, prevented by using the same skins in the full thickness graft method. 5. The extension and distribution of elastic fibers, especially of deep horizontal thick elastic fibers, has a relation with the success of tympanic skin grafting- skin pieces removed from the retroauricular region, the back and the gluteal region are of advantage, because the distribution and extension of deep horizontal thick elastic fibers are found far deeper in those regions than anywhere else. 6. Considering from the abovementioned data, it is probable that skin transplants removed from the thigh, the back, the gluteal and retroauricular regions are theoretically more avaiable as tympanoplastic material, although it is difficult to determine their superiority or inferiority in detail as tympanoplastic material in the skins of the whole body surface examined.