Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to C Lechner.
We report for the first time the treatment of an early rectal cancer by laparoscopically assisted rectosigmoidectomy with pullthrough. The low colorectal anastomosis was constructed using a double-stapling technique. We believe that this procedure might offer a promising new option for the treatment of midrectal cancer with sphincter saving. Further investigation is recommended.
Several structural analogs of verapamil were studied for their ability to reverse multi-drug resistance (MDR) in human KB cell lines. D595, D792 and verapamil completely reversed resistance to colchicine and adriamycin. D595 and D792 had a higher reversing potency than verapamil. Devapamil, gallopamil, emopamil and D528 partially reversed MDR. The reversing potency of a drug did not correlate with its calcium antagonistic activity. No differences in reversing potency between (R)-isomers, (L)-isomers and the racemic forms were observed in the case of both verapamil and emopamil. (R)-verapamil, which has less calcium antagonistic activity and less in vivo toxicity than racemic verapamil, and D792, which has higher reversing potency and less in vivo toxicity than racemic verapamil, should be suitable for clinical applications to overcome drug resistance in cancer patients.
Three of four patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia in blast crisis were found to express the multidrug resistance (MDR1) gene in their blast cells. Expression of the MDR1 gene may contribute to the poor response of these patients to chemotherapy.
Two cases of H.c.c. which occurred in winter 1987 in Vienna are described. Case one was a female Chow-Chow, 8 weeks of age, that died from the peracute form of the disease. The diagnosis was confirmed by histology and direct immunofluorescence. Case two, a 9-month old female Kuvacz, showed clinical signs of the subacute form of H.c.c. She was hospitalized and therapy was successful. The disease was diagnosed by the typical clinical signs and the raise of antibodies in paired serum samples. Etiology, clinical signs and immunology of H.c.c. are discussed.
Exceptional pathology whose preoperative diagnosis is based upon clinical and radiological signs; the herniation through the foramen of Winslow is a variety of internal herniation. About three recent cases observed in the service, it seemed interesting to see, reviewing literature, what are the diagnostic characters and therapeutic modalities knowing difficulties because of a quasi exclusive vascular collect.
The purposes of this study were 1) to establish the concurrent validity of the universal goniometer and the fluid-based goniometer and 2) to determine the intertester reliability of these two instruments. A correlational study was performed in which two testers used the universal goniometer and the fluid-based goniometer in measuring elbow range of motion in 30 healthy subjects. The fluid-based goniometer had high intertester reliability (R = .92), and the standard goniometer had poor reliability (R = .53). The Pearson product-moment correlation between the two instruments was .83. A significant difference was shown between the standard goniometer and the fluid-based goniometer by the t test (t = 4.4, df = 28, p less than .05). The results support the use of the fluid-based goniometer between testers on elbow range of motion; however, the two instruments cannot be used interchangeably.
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Experimental cerebral tumors have been induced by transplacental ENU. A systematic diachronic study of the brains has been performed starting from the 15th day of extrauterine life. The tumoral lesions firstly appear as "early stage proliferations" or oligodendroglial foci and develop as glial micro- and macrotumors or as isomorphic and polymorphic oligodendrogliomas respectively. Neurinomas appear later than glial tumors. The duration of the different lesions is sketched out. The usefulness of the model for chemotherapy studies is discussed.
At present, laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the treatment of choice for gallbladder stones. The operating technique reported by most authors includes the use of four trocars. We report a group of 710 consecutive patients treated by an original three-trocar technique. The use of the fourth trocar was necessary in only 55 cases (8%). However, among 56 cases of acute cholecystitis the use of the fourth trocar was necessary in 14 cases (25%) (p < 0.01). Twenty-six laparoscopies were converted to open procedures (3.6%). Four common bile duct injuries were observed (0.5%): two of them among the 655 operations with three trocars (0.3%) and two after application of the fourth trocar at the beginning of the procedure because of dissection difficulties. Our results are similar to those using the "classic" four-trocar technique. Moreover, this technique is less expensive and allows one less scar.
Bodily misperceptions are a frequent symptom in major depressive disorder. A reduced ability to deflect attention from somatosensory stimuli may contribute to the generation of unpleasant bodily sensations and co-occur with altered habituation of the brain electric reactions to somatosensory stimuli. The aim of the present study was to explore whether attention-related components of somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEP) and the habituation of these components are altered in major depression. Fifteen patients with major depressive disorder were compared to an age- and gender-matched group of 15 healthy controls. A series of identical, intrusive but not painful electric stimuli were applied to the left index finger for 48 min. Averaged SSEP were computed from multichannel EEG recordings for consecutive recording blocks of the experiment, each block containing 162 stimuli. Based on these data the habituation process of late components of the SSEP was analysed in two latency intervals (50-150, 170-370 ms). Patients showed significantly enhanced reactions throughout the entire experiment. The persistence of enhanced SSEP components throughout the habituation process may be caused by a deficit in reducing the activity of attention-related brain processes concerned with intrusive, yet behaviourally irrelevant, continued stimulation in the state of major depression.