A thermal desorption method is proposed for the measurement of single- and bi-component organic solvents adsorbed on activated carbon. The adsorbed amount was obtained from the measured desorbed amount and the estimated thermal desorption efficiency. Two estimation methods are proposed to determine the desorption efficiency. One is a numerical method, and the other is a simplified analytical method. The numerical method is generally more accurate than the simplified method in estimating the desorption curve and the desorption efficiency, but much time is needed for calculating. By the simplified method, the desorption efficiency could be estimated quickly by using a personal computer. The estimated desorption efficiencies determined by the two methods are compared with the experimental values. A determination procedure of the adsorbed amount by the proposed method is described.

View full abstract

Effects of intracerebroventricular (i. c. v.) administration of angiotensin Ⅱ (AⅡ) on renal sympathetic nerve activity (RSNA), arterial pressure, and heart rate were examined in rats anesthetized with a mixture of urethane and α-chloralose. Administration of AⅡ evoked an increase in arterial pressure and a decrease in RSNA with no significant change in heart rate. Prior i. c. v. administration of an AⅡ antagonist, saralasin, greatly attenuated the pressor response and inhibition of RSNA induced by i. c. v. AⅡ. Rats with sinoaortic denervation showed the same magnitude presser response and decrease in RSNA as intact animals. The result suggests that central AⅡ directly inhibits RSNA via AⅡ specific receptors.

View full abstract

Simultaneous overnight recordings of intracranial pressure (ICP) and electroencephalography (EEG) were conducted on 85 neurosurgical patients with intracranial hypertension and/or ventriculomegaly. Intracranial pressure waves were classified into five types according to the pattern of appearance, and their correlation with sleep cycles and clinical conditions of patients were investigated. A-waves appeared exclusively in patients with long-standing intracranial hypertension, and episodic B-waves appeared in patients with chronic hydrocephalus or a postoperative tumor-free condition. When these episodic pressure waves appeared, the patients were conscious and sleep cycles including REM stage were observed. Persistent, high pressure B-waves were seen mostly in patients with an acute phase of intracranial hemorrhages. The consciousness of these patients ranged from drowsy to stupor. EEG showed alternate appearances of light sleep and waking rhythms in accordance with cyclic oscillations of B-waves which coincided with periodic, apneic respiratory rhythms. When markedly regular B-waves of moderately high pressure appeared continuously, the patients were severely impaired in consciousness and were mainly in a subacute phase of intracranial hemorrhages. EEG showed continuous slow activities and sleep stages were not scored in these patients. No characteristic clinical features were found in patients whose ICP remained within normal range without pressure waves throughout the recording.

View full abstract

Changes in intracranial pressure (ICP) during sleep were investigated in 37 patients with chronic intracranial hypertension or chronic hydrocephalus, in whom episodic pressure waves characterized by A-waves or episodic B-waves were seen in Part Ⅰ of this paper. The patients were conscious, and sleep stages including REM sleep were observed in all of them. During non-REM sleep, ICP significantly rose in Stage Ⅱ on many occasions, and was always lower in Stage Ⅳ than in other sleep stages. A marked elevation of ICP was seen in REM sleep. ICP changes during REM sleep were characterized by frequent appearances of the pressure waves; 88.9% of A-waves and 95.1% of episodic B-waves appeared during REM sleep. The initiation of REM sleep scored on EEG began 1 to 2 minutes prior to or at the onset of the episodic pressure waves. The episodic pressure waves are assumed to be induced by the intracranial conditions in REM sleep, when increased brain activity and reduced sympathetic tone are known to occur simultaneously.

View full abstract

It is a well-known fact that a thyroid stimulation blocking antibody (TSBAb) may play an important role in primary hypothyroidism. However, it has rarely been reported that TSBAb appears in only a few cases of Graves' disease which became hypothyroidism in their clinical courses. We examined TSBAb in 120 sera from 79 cases with Graves' disease before or while under methimazole (MMI)-treatment. TSBAb value was expressed as the percentage inhibition of TSH-stimulated cAMP response of porcine thyroid cells by the patient's IgG. TSBAb was positive in 9 cases (11.4%) of 79 cases of Graves' disease. In 6 of the 9 cases, TSBAb was detected at the untreated period. In the other 2 of the 9 cases, it was detected during the exacerbation related with their pregnancy. It was difficult to control Graves' disease in all 9 cases. These results suggest that TSBAb appears not only in primary hypothyroidism but also even in the hyperthyroid state of Graves' disease, and that the combination of TSAb and TSBAb may regulate the pathogenesis of Graves' disease.

View full abstract

To develop a well controlled working environment including a mental health supporting system, it is important to survey the health status of workers. The authors analyzed results of the Todai Health Index (THI), which was administered to employees of a large-sized enterprise in Osaka in 1984, 1986, and 1987. The results were as follows: 1) Female workers had more complaints of "eye and skin", "many subjective symptoms", "mental instability", and "psychosomatic disorder" than males. Male workers complained more of "aggressiveness", "lie scale", and "arousal" than females. 2) The authors could not detect any annual changes of each scale during the 3 years. These results are similar to previous reports. 3) Some people had continuous complaints of "psychosomatic disorder" and "neurosis". These results indicate that THI is useful in obtaining information regarding mentally high risked workers.

View full abstract

The production of hydrofluoric acid (HF) and its use have increased remarkably due to the rapid development of the electronic and petrochemical industries. HF has a highly corrosive and penetrating action when it comes in contact with organic material, including body tissue. When burns are caused by a high concentration of HF, fatal cases have been reported, even when the contact with HF is only for a short time or on a small area of the body. The causes of death have been reported to be lung edema, mineral disturbance and systemic injury. But no pathological experiments have been reported. In the present study, experiments of HF burns using mice (d.d.Y., 6w, male) were performed, mainly histopathologically and ultramicroscopically. Histological examination revealed that thrombosis occurred in the lung, and that the group in which mice had more thrombi showed a higher death rate. Thrombosis in the lung may be one of the main causes of death by hydrofluoric acid burns. Other organs showed no significant change. Ultrastructual examination of the lungs, revealed that the thrombi were seen in the capillary of the alveolar septa much more than in the pulmonary arteries and were mainly composed of platelets. The endothelial cells in the lungs were injured and had condensed cytoplasm, intracellular edema, or dilation of the intercellular gap. The basement membrane of the capillary was sometimes bared between the strongly condensed endothelial cells, but no platelets directly touched the membrane. Moreover, that no platelets directly touched the subendothelial tissue and the mechanism of the platelet aggregation is interesting. Platelet aggregation was thought to have resulted from the unbalance between thrombogenic factors and antithrombogenic factors in the blood above the surface of endothelial cells caused by endothelial injury. Endothelial cells in the lungs were assumed to be injured by fluoride, directly or indirectly, because the group which showed higher fluorine contents in the lungs showed more severe injury to the endothelial cells and because the fluorine contents in the lung increased much more than that in the other organs which had no thrombi.

View full abstract

Vibratory detection threshold (VDT) was determined on the plantar side of the distal phalanx of the right great toe of 22 diabetic (NIDDM) patients. In addition, a neurological examination and a sural nerve conduction study were performed. Peripheral neuropathy, based on our criteria, was found in 41% of the patients. VDT was abnormally high in 23% of the patients. The combined frequency of the abnormality of the amplitude of the action potential of the sural nerve or the conduction velocity or both was 73%. The nerve conduction study showed the highest sensitivity in detecting the abnormality of the peripheral nerve in this study; this is in agreement with the result shown in the literature. Seven patients showed no response to electrical stimulation of the sural nerve, although VDT was obtained in these patients. Among the 6 patients that underwent the normal sural nerve conduction study, no one showed abnormally high VDT. The determination of VDT seems to be a useful examination for the follow-up study of diabetic neuropathy, although it is less sensitive than the sural nerve conduction study.

View full abstract

Using 109 hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC), 34 cholangiocellular carcinomas (CCC), 4 mixed hepatocellular-cholangiocellular carcinomas (MHC) and 24 metastatic adenocarcinomas in the liver (MA), an immunohistochemical study on primary carcinoma of the liver was performed by means of the ABC method for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), epithelial membrane antigen (EMA), tissue polypeptide antigen (TPA) and keratin. The material consisted of surgical specimens of Kosin Medical College including 50 HCC, 17 CCC and 1 MHC, surgical specimens of 20 HCC from the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan (UOEH) and autopsied specimens from UOEH that included 39 HCC, 17 CCC, 3 MHC and 24 MA. All the specimens were fixed with 10－15% formalin and embedded in paraplast manually at Kosin Medical College and by utilizing an automatic embedding machine with a decompressing procedure at UOEH. The antigenicity of TPA and keratin was preserved better in the specimens of Kosin Medical College than in those from UOEH. It is therefore assumed that manually embedded specimens are superior to specimens embedded by using an embedding machine with regard to the preservation of some antigenicities. The immunoreactivity of the 4 antigens in CCC cells was significantly higher than that in HCC cells, and the intracellular localization of antigens generally showed several characteristics in HCC and CCC. However, as the same localization of antigens is also seen in both HCC calls and CCC cells, it is considered that the immunohistochemical examination using plural antibodies is not always useful for a differential diagnosis between HCC and CCC, which is difficult in conventional sections. That TPA in HCC may be an oncodevelopmental antigen is suggested by the facts that the higher the grade of HCC, the higher the immunoreactivity of HCC cells, that hepatocytes with possible higher activity sometimes showed a positive reaction in the present study and that TPA is expressed in fetal hepatocytes in a fetus up to 20 weeks in the literature.

View full abstract

Hyperbaric chamber dives at 19 ATA with helium-oxygen were performed at the Japan Marine Science Technology Center from November 15 to December 3 in 1988 and from January 25 to February 4 in 1989. During simulated underwater experiments, auditory middle latency responses (MLRs) and short latency somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) were recorded in 3 professional divers (2 divers in each dive) for assessment of brain function. During the saturation dive (180 m below sea level) component Pa on MLR was lost, while component Po remarkably increased in amplitude. These MLR changes rapidly recovered between the beginning of decompression and at about 90 m below sea level. On the other hand N9－N20 interpeak latency on SSEP slightly or moderately increased in the both divers, but N9－N14 interpeak latency was not affected by the 19 ATA saturation dive. These results suggest that the hyperbaric environment corresponding to 180 m below sea level cause some cerebral dysfunctions, probably between the brainstem and the cortex, but these dysfunctions are only transient.

View full abstract

A case of optic neuropathy induced by thinner sniffing is reported. A 17-year-old girl, who had been sniffing a lacquer thinner for three months, suffered acute blindness followed by optic atrophy. Brain computed tomography revealed symmetrical low attenuation areas in the bilateral putamen. An analysis of the thinner by gas chromatography showed that its major components in a vaporized state were methyl alcohol and methyl acetate. The optic neuropathy was induced by these solvents. In the diagnosis of the intoxication of mixed organic solvents, the measurement of each solvent in its vapor phase is considered to be quite important.

View full abstract

Pyridoxine hydrochloride, 125 mg/kg, 250 mg/kg, 500 mg/kg or 1,000 mg/kg, daily, was intraperitoneally injected into Wistar male rats and its effects on weights and mature spermatid or sperm counts in the testis and the epididymis were investigated. After six weeks administration, weights of the testis and the epididymis in the 500 mg/kg and 1,000 mg/kg groups dramatically decreased and weights of the epididymis in the 125 mg/kg and 250 mg/kg groups also decreased significantly. Mature spermatid counts in the testis and sperm counts in the epididymis decreased in the 500 mg/kg and 1,000 mg/kg groups, and sperm counts in the tail plus body of the epididymis also decreased in the 250 mg/kg group. From these results, it was elucidated that megadoses of pyridoxine induced testicular damage in rats.

View full abstract

Technical conditions were examined to obtain more intensified stainings of the enzyme activity band(s) of mosquito larvae after polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis by comparing buffer systems, pH conditions, metal ions, additives, and body parts. Improvements were achieved for several enzymes, making it easier to analyze biochemical polymorphism. For practical purposes, technical notes and revised recipes are given for the following 17 enzymes: ADH, LDH, MDH, ME, IDH, G6PD, Aox, XDH, AIP, AcP, Est, LAP, HK, Tre, Fum, PGM, and GPl.

View full abstract

Ethylene oxide (EO) gas is widely used for sterilization of medical instruments and supplies. The gas being used in our hospital consists of 20% EO and 80% carbon dioxide and is packed in a cylinder as liquefied gas. We investigated the relationship between the composition of the gas and the amount of EO gas used by measuring the EO concentration in a sterilizer. The concentration of EO was increased as the amount of gas increased, and it decreased sharply when the remaining gas in the cylinder decreased up to about 12% of its initial value. This value agreed with the calculated one by gas-liquid equilibrium when all of the liquefied gas was consumed and only saturated gas remained in the cylinder.

View full abstract

Psychosine (galactosylsphingosine) is enzymatically synthesized from UDP-galactose and sphingosine and degradated by galactosylceramidase. Galactosylceramidase is genetically deficient in Krabbe disease (globoid cell leukodystrophy) and psychosine accumulates in the brain of humans, dogs or mice affected by the disease. Psychosine has a very potent inhibitory effect on cytochrome c oxidase (COX) in mitochondria. When COX is purified, psychosine does not suppress the enzyme activity. However, a clear inhibitory effect is seen when the enzyme is "reconstituted" with sonicated phosphatidylcholine, suggesting that the inhibition of the enzymatic activity is caused by perturbation of the environment of COX in the mitochondrial membrane. Studies using analogues suggest that the free amino group in the sphingosine moiety plays an important role in exerting the effects of psychosine. The effects of psychosine are not only potent but fast and reversible. It is noteworthy that a powerful inhibitor of cellular respiration is synthesized in mammals' brain, an organ vulnerable to hypoxia.

View full abstract

About a century has passed since the first case of bladder cancer due to occupational exposure to carcinogenic aromatic amines was reported. In the major developed countries of the world, it is forbidden to manufacture and/or to use such aromatic amines. In Japan in the 1950's, many workers were exposed to carcinogenic aromatic amines, but in 1972, the Labor Safety and Health Act came into force and manufacturing and/or using of four kinds of aromatic amines were forbidden. Recently it has been reported that the risk of bladder cancer in workers exposed to aromatic amines before the ban of these chemicals is approximately from several times to a hundred times compared with the general population, and some reports say that dose-response relationship was observed. The important issues now are the carcinogenecity of other kinds of aromatic amines besides benzidine and 2-naphthylamine, carcinogenecity of metabolites of several substances like synthetic dyes, and carcinogenic aromatic amines as impurities in substances imported from developing countries. The type of exposure to these carcinogens changes low level and long period exposures. In addition to the chemical or dye industries, an increased risk of bladder cancer was observed among workers handling leather and rubber and those engaged in printing, textile industries, hairdressing, truck driving and so on. In the future, it will be necessary to cooperate with the departments of epidemiology, toxicology and clinical medicine for the purpose of estimating the risk of these occupations and the health care administration of the exposed workers.

View full abstract

The histories and parables contained in the Bible have tempted many fiction writers to retell them in their own fashions. Some of them neglected a fact of the Bible as Holy Scripture, and imposed their own prejudiced views and ideas on other people, fiddling with indelicate as well as imprudent words. On the other hand, however, there are not a few cases in which the reconstruction of the Bible is made in unison with the authors' inner "réalité", and the stories retold by R. Graves seem to belong to this group. Graves himself began his interaction with the Bible with heretical scepticism toward the Bible and then excelled it through his mysterious internalization of these heretical and sceptical ideas. When we speak of internalization of something in the mind of a poet, we ought to first clarify the parameters that functioned for the fundamental changes that occurred in the poet. This task, in my view, can be possible by an inquiry into the mental process of the authors' story-faking. I took Graves's first Biblical story, My Head ! My Head !, and attempted an explanation of these parameters through close reading of the text and detailed study of relevant references.

View full abstract