Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to K Lamping.
Resection of metastatic liver tumors can be a difficult and risky procedure. Using a cryoprobe as a "handle" can greatly facilitate resection by providing a taut surface for transection and improving visualization of ductal and vascular structures. In addition, this technique may decrease the risk of contaminating surrounding tissues with cancer cells, and may inhibit tumor recurrence within the margins of resection.
Animals, chronically treated with alcohol, were inoculated with mycobacteria (bacillus Calmette-Guérin, 10.2 x 10(6) organisms) into the spleen to produce a granulomatous hepatitis. Before infection, chronic alcohol ingestion was associated with a depressed skin test response to phytohemagglutinin, 71.7% of baseline (P = 0.009). Mycobacterial (bacillus Calmette-Guérin) infection stimulated phytohemagglutinin skin test response to 417% of baseline in controls and 299% in alcoholics (P less than 0.001). The hepatic granuloma response was altered with smaller but more numerous granulomas (mean +/- SEM, 81.2 +/- 1.5 microns2 of area with a frequency of 1.8 granulomas per field in alcoholics vs. 129.8 +/- 5.71 microns2 and 1.2 granulomas per field in controls; P less than 0.001). These changes were associated with a 10-fold increase in colony-forming units per gram of liver (54.5 +/- 18.2 in alcoholics vs. 5.6 +/- 1.83 in controls; P = 0.0006). This model offers precise parameters for host response to infection and indicates that alcohol significantly impairs the clearing capacity for mycobacteria from the liver.
As an untoward effect of chronic anabolic steroid use, immunologic alterations may be induced. To evaluate this possibility five commercially available steroids with various types of structural differences were studied in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Animals were divided into five groups and treated with testosterone (Group 1), testosterone propionate (Group 2), testolactone (Group 3), oxandrolone (Group 4), and stanozolol (Group 5). Androgenic anabolic steroids were administered daily, subcutaneously dissolved in oil, at a dose of 1.1 mg/kg. Immune alterations were assessed by skin-test responses to phytohemagglutinin. After five days of treatment (1.1 mg/kg/day) a significant immuno-suppression was observed with all groups. However, by day 10, groups 3, 4, and 5 showed an immuno-stimulation. Using oxandrolone as the model stimulant, serum testosterone levels were significantly suppressed, while castration abolished the stimulatory effect. These observations indicate that immune alterations do occur with anabolic steroids which are immuno-suppressive when the steroid nucleus is intact and immuno-stimulatory with nuclear alterations. It appears that these changes are associated with altered gonadal testosterone release.
Intraocular and cutaneous melanomas developed in a family with features of the dysplastic nevus syndrome. (The proband had a choroidal melanoma, his son had a cutaneous melanoma, and his grandchildren have mildly atypical melanocytic lesions clinically.) The syndrome is characterized by clinically and histologically atypical nevi, which may serve as cutaneous markers to identify persons at high risk for melanomas, both of the skin and the eye. Although it has been proposed recently that the association of intraocular melanoma with cutaneous melanoma and the dysplastic nevus syndrome may be coincidental, statistical analysis suggests that the occurrence of the two forms of melanoma in the same patient and in different members of the same family is not explained by chance alone. Therefore, until the relationship between intraocular and cutaneous melanomas is more fully elucidated, recognition of the dysplastic nevus syndrome is important, and the skin of patients suspected of having intraocular melanomas should be examined routinely for evidence of atypical melanocytic lesions.