To evaluate the potential beneficial effect of a thromboxane synthetase inhibitor, OKY-1581, on increased pulmonary vascular permeability in pulmonary microembolization, we have measured the filtration coefficient in the nonembolized lung after unilateral microembolization in dogs. The unilateral microembolization caused marked elevations in pulmonary artery pressure and blood flow to the nonembolized lung, while pulmonary venous pressure in nonembolized lung did not change. The pulmonary vascular resistance in nonembolized lung did not increase significantly. The filtration coefficient (k_f) in nonembolized lung increased to 0.14±0.02 from the base line value of 0.07±0.01 ml/min/mmHg/ 100g at 30min after microembolization when the initial hemodynamic changes reduced toward the base line value. In OKY-1581 treated dogs, similar hemodynamic changes did not result in the filtration coefficient in nonemblized lung. Platelet aggregation was also inhibited after microembolization in OKY-1581 treated dogs. Based on these results, we could conclude that OKY-1581 will serve as a potent beneficial protective drug against pulmonary edema by inhibiting the release of thromboxane A₂ following microembolization in the pulmonary vascular bed.

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This report demonstrates the first trial for the clinical application of human urinary colony stimulating factor (CSF_HU) which was highly purified and well characterized in our laboratory. In the Phase I study, 6 healthy volunteers were administered with 2.5×10⁵ to 10⁶ units of CSF_HU intravenously. CSF_HU did not show any severe side effects, although slight depression of maximum blood pressure was observed in the group injected with 10⁶ units CSF_HU and one volunteer who received 5×10⁵ units CSF_HU complained sweating and itching during the infusion. In the Phase II study, six cases suffering from lecukocytopenia induced by anticancer drugs or irradiation were treated with 7 day intravenous CSF_HU injections. Although recovery of leukocyte number was not observed in the group injected with 7×10⁶ units CSF_HU, complete or partial recovery of leukocyte and granulocyte number was observed in the group injected with 1.3 to 1.4×10⁷ units CSF_HU, Phase II study in a large scale is under way to evaluate further the effectiveness of CSF_HU on leukocytopenic patients.

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It has been known that acute interstitial nephritis (AIN) has many characteristic manifestations such as fever, skin rash, hematuria, arthralgia, urinary and blood eosinophilia and raised serum IgE level. In addition, there have been reported many causative drugs. We present here a 30-year-old patient who develops AIN after taking herb medicine during his course of nephrotic syndrome. Histologically, he was diagnosed as a typical AIN. So far as we know, this may be the first case of AIN induced by herb medicine.

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A 62-year-old man with 11 years' duration of type II diabetes was hospitalized because of non-ketotic diabetic coma. He had never noted any symptoms of swallowing difficulty until 3 days before admission when they developed gradually and he became comatous. He had never received special medication such as diuretics except anticonvulsants. Even after the recovery from diabetic coma he could hardly swallow solid foods or saliva for about 15 days, but these symptoms subsided gradually. Motility dysfunction of esophagus and pharynx in diabetes mellitus, in most cases they are mild, has been described, although diabetic coma preceded by dysphagia has not been documented except in one report. We studied, therefore, the autonomic nerve function of the present patient and discussed the relationship between dysphagsa and diabetic coma together with the description of the clinical course of this patient. The relatienship between this case and the previously reported cases were compared in terms of the sex, age, txpe of diabetes, clinical course, medication and the automic nerve function.

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The case of a 26 year old man with acute respiratory difficulty was reported. Morphological and biochemical analysis of biopsied gastrocnemius muscle indicated a diagnosis of adult form acid maltase deficiency. Clinically, the most interesting point of our case wasthe presence of a thickening of the posterior papillary muscles and chordae without any functional disturbance, which was detected by echocardiogram. Another interesting point of our case was the existence of a sibling who died of progressive muscular dystrophy at the age of 31 years. This may raise the possibility that we are dealing with a familial type of adult form acid mlatase deficiency.

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Cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis (CTX) is a rare familiar disease characterized by tendon xanthomas, cataracts, cerebellar ataxia, dementia and an elevated serum cholestanol level. In this paper, a 50-year-old man with typical signs and symptoms of CTXis described. Serum cholestanol and chelesterol concentrations were 17.9-28.6 μg/ml and 109-153 mg/dl, respectively. The determination of non-sulfated bile acid concentration in the serum assayed by mass fragmentography disclosed an abnormal profile. The concentration of cholic acid (0.30-0.52 μg/ml) was higher than normal, while those of chenodeoxycholic acid, ursodeoxycholic acid, deoxycholic acid and lithocholic acid were extremely low or undetectable. Administration of ursodeoxycholic acid (300 mg per day, orally) for 2 weeks resulted in a marked reduction of serum cholic acid concentration. However, serum cholestanol levels remained unchanged.

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A rare case of primary pulmonary amyloidosis with hilar lymphadenopathy is described. Immunological studies showed decreases in serum IgG and IgM levels. However, both pokeweed mitogen (PWM)-induced IgG production and proliferation of peripheral blood B cells were not disordered. The response of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) to stimulation with PWM, phytohemagglutinin, or concanavalin A was found to be normal. In addition, the proportion of E and EACrosette-forming cells in PBL from this patient did not differ from that in PBL from normal donors. The positive response of skin test to recall antigens also gave an evidence that the patient had not a depression in systemic cell-mediated immunity. These findings contrast with those previously described for systemic amyloidosis in man and in animals.

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A case of pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) associated with Hashimoto's thyroiditis is reported. A 49-year-old woman had typical skin lesion of PXE and ocular lesions such as angioid streaks, peau d'orange pattern and suhretinal bleedings. She also had a goiter for which histological examination revealed the findings of Hahsimoto's thyroiditis. Antithyroidal autoantibodies were positive. Many members of her family for three generations back have had the ocular lesions of PXE, however, they did not have any findings supporting Hashimoto's thyroiditis. The present report was considered to be the first case of PXE associated with an immunological disorders.

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