Nagoya Journal of Medical Science

Computed tomography (CT) of the pancreas shows specific images in cases of pancreatitis or malignant tumors. However. precise analysis of CT images of the pancreas in other diseases or in normal individuals has not been made. After an extensive study on the pancreatic CT images of patients without liver cirrhosis, gall stones, diahetes mellitus, malignant tumors or pancreatitis, we reponed that CT images of the outer margin or of the content of the pancreas can be divided into three types: smooth, fine-granule, and rough-granule. Since the CT values of the area surrounding rough granules were the same as those of fat, we concluded that the rough-granule type pancreas was rich in fat. We also reported that the incidence of the pancreas having rough-granule type content was low in lean individuals and high in obese ones. In the present study, CT images of the pancreas in patients with liver cirrhosis were analysed according to our classification with special references to clinical features: the following results were obtained:
1) The incidence of the pancreas having a rough-granule type margin was higher than that in the control patients (p<0.05).
2) No significant differences were observed in the incidence of rough-granule type pancreas between lean patients and obese ones.
3) In the patients with rough-granule type pancreas, the blood glucose levels two hours after meal were higher than those in the patients with the other types of pancreas.
4) The incidence of rough-granule type pancreas in patients of liver cirrhosis with asciles was significantly lower than that of the rough-granule lype pancreas in patients without ascites.

The skin of bull frog, Rana catesheiana was studied by a zinc iodide osmium method and an ATPase staining method to examine the occurrence of cells equivalent to the mammalian Langerhans cells. It was demonstrated that ATPase-positive and metallophilic Langerhans cells were absent from the skin of bull frogs. Birbeck granules, which are characteristic to the mammalian Langerhans cells, were also not found by electron microscopy. These results suggest that an advanced immunological defense system including the activities of Langerhans cells is not developed in the skin of bull frog, Rana catesheiana. The primitive features of the amphibian immune system were also discussed. In the course of this study, the techniques used to find out the Langerhans cells demonstrated metallophilia as well as ATPase and other nucleotide phosphatase (GTPase and GMPase) activities in the dermal yellow pigment cells,. xanthophores, which do not occur in mammals. The metal deposition consisted predominantly of zinc and osmium. The enzyme activities were localized in the pterinosomes of the xanthophore.

The physiological functions (contingent negative variation (CNV), critical flicker fusion frequency (CFF), oral temperature. blood pressure and heart rate) of five subjects were measured every three hours in 36-hour sleep deprivation and twice after the recovery night. The subjects were given tasks (Uchida-Kraepelin test. etc.) and were made to fill out a self-rating questionnaire of subjective symptoms and the Stanford sleepiness scale (SSS) before every measurement. The CNV area decreased sharply at and after 3:00 of the second day, and dropped to its minimum at 9:00 of the same day and still did not increase aiter the recovery night. The number of subjective symptoms reached its maximum at 6:00 and 9:00 of the second day. A close correlation was found between the number of subjective symptoms and the CNV area during sleep deprivation. The SSS was at its maximum at 6:00 of the second day and a good correlation was found between the SSS and the CNV area. The correlation between the CNV area and CFF and between the CNV area and oral temperature was slight. The CNV is meaningful as an index which objectively indicates the drop in arousal level caused by sleep deprivation.

Bactericidal activities of six commonly used disinfectants against seven different species of clinically isolatcd bacteria, mainly glucose-nonfermentative Gram-negative bacilli, were compared. In terms of mean values of the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), benzethonium chloride showed the highest efficacy, followed in order by chlorhexidine gluconate, alkyldiaminoethylglycine hydrochloride, glutaraldehyde, povidone-iodine, and phenol. However, mean MBCs of benzethonium chloride, alkyldiaminoethylglycine hydrochloride and chlorhexidine gluconate against individual species covered a far wider range from species to species compared with those of the other three disinfectants. In addition, bactericidal activities of the above-mentioned three disinfectants against Pseudomonas cepacia and Achromobacter xylosoxidans ranged more widely from strain to strain than against other species. When the minimum concentrations of individual disinfectants recommended for hospital use by the manufacturers were used, chlorhexidine gluconate (0.02%), alkyldiaminoethylglycine hydrochloride (0.1%), benzethonium chloride (0.1%) and povidone-iodine (0.75%) were not bactericidal to definite numhers of bacterial strains tested. Among them, chlorhexidine gluconate at the concentration recommended was ineffective against many strains of all bacterial species tested, especially against strains of glucose-nonfermentative Gram-negative bacilli except for Pseudomonas aerugillosa. Alkyldiaminoethylglycine hydrochloride was also remarkably ineffective against Staphylococcus aureus and P. cepacia. Among all the species tested, P. cepacia showed the strongest resistance to the disinfectants tested at the minimum concentrations of individual disinfectants recommended for hospital use by the manufacturers.

Hepatic and splenic amyloidosis was experimentally induced by casein injections in BALB/C mice and examincd biochemically for glycosaminoglycan constituents. Heparan sulfate and dermatan sulfate were shown to be major components by clectrophoresis on cellulose acetate membrane. It was demonstrated from the studies of DEAE-cellulose ion-exchanging chromatography that the amount of highly sulfated dermatan sulfate was increased in amyloid-laden liver and that the amount of highly sulfated chondroitin sulfate isomer was also increased in amyloid laden spleen. N-Acetyl-D-galactosamine 4-6 disulfate. L-Iduronic acid (chondroitin sulfate G or H) was shown to be increased in amyloid laden-liver by unsaturated disaccharide study with ehondroitinase and chondrosulfatase digestion. These changes of glycosaminoglycan constituents may play an important role in the formation of amyloid.