Juntendo Medical Journal

The human placental villi in the first, second and third trimester of normal pregnacy, in the cases of toxemia of the late pregnancy and of small for date and large for date of pregnancy, were studied by scanning and transmission electrcn microscope. 1. Scanning electron microscope During the first trimester of pregnancy, the placental villi had thick stems with a small number of branches and many sprouts. In the second trimester, the sprouts grew spreading many branches and became showing a treelike as a whole at the terminal stage of pregnancy. 2. Transmission electron microscope Throughout the course of pregnancy, the merging of syncytial cells was noted, the number of the Langhans cells decrased and the stromal capillary vessels and intervillous spaces were closer to each other, while any change of basement membrane was not evident. 3. Abnormal changes in the villi of the term placenta of the toxemia, SFD and LFD. a. The irregular branches, the coarse stumpy appearance of the microvilli and the marked change of syncytial nuclei were observed in the placental villi of toxemia as compare to those in normal pregnancy. b. In the cases of SFD, decrease in number of the branches of the villi, defect of microvilli and many myeline structures were observed in syncytial cells. c. In the placental villi of LFD, many complicating branches of the villi, clump of microvilli, and increase in numbers of the mitochondria, Golgi apparatus endoplasmic reticulum were observed.

View full abstract

Show abstractHide abstract

1. Among VII types of spina bifida ccculta classified X-raymorphologically, type III, IV and V abound with cases suffering pain, that is, the greater part of cases with painful spina bifida occulta belong to type III, VI and V. 2. Measurements of sacral angles or Ferguson angles in spina bifida occulta provided a result which suggested that the angle was especially steep in type III, IV and V. The results of chronological measurements also showed an upward trend in the degree of lordosis concerning the lumbar vertebrae in type III. IV and V. Besides, symptoms begin in the age group from20°s to 30°s by an overwhelming majority. 3. In the weight tolerance test on healthy male students with a rucksack of 20kg weight, Ferguson angles in cases of spina bifida occulta in type III, IV and V were steep. In cases where the load was specially increased, upward trends of degrees of Ferguson angle were obvious. 4. 29 cases operated upon for painful spina bifida occulta made favorable progress. In cases where a backward fixative operation was performed, the Ferguson angle, which had been steep before operation, was reduced. On the other hand, in cases where residual spinous process was enucleated, minimal pain remained, and slight increase in the degree of lordosis was found after the operation. 5. From a histopathological viewpoint, there existed findings which could be regarded as overt inflammations of surrounding ligaments, such as middle and lower parts of spinous processes, ligamentum flavum etc. As shown in the findinds on operation, the causes of pain may be pressure and adhension through interstitial tissues in a deficient region of bones or a residual process or extension process on the epidermis and nerve roots. Further, pathological findings and the fact that the Ferguson angle is increased clarify the strengthening of interstitial tissue changes caused by a deficiency of the lumbar process or from lack of function of an isolated process as a stopper in cases of kyphosis.

View full abstract

Download PDF (3346K)

In protruding lesions of the surgically resected stomach, were there polyp (further subdivided into hyperplastic and metaplastic polyp) and protruding type of early cancer. The emphasis was laid on the atrophic mucosal changes and the degree of mucosal intestinal metaplasia which changes would have some relationships between the originations of these polypoid lesions. Histopathological examination of these mucosal changes shows that the afore-mentioned mucosal changes were far less evident in the stomach with hyperplastic polyp, and displayed no tendency to become more manifest with advancing age. On the other hand, atrophic changes and intestinal metaplasia were observed to be very high degree around the lesions in protruding variety of early gastric cancer.

View full abstract

Register with J-STAGE for free!