Two hundred and twenty-eight deaths due to the use of contrast media are reported, including 15 from intravenous cholangiography, 69 from angiography, 140 from urography and four other. The causes are analyzed and the various explanations for reactions to contrast media are considered. Data concerning the high incidence of cardiac death, the large number of deaths due to pulmonary edema, and the known transgression of the blood-brain barrier by contrast media are used to construct a theory that bases all reactions on the effect of contrast media on the central nervous system.
1223 patients underwent aspiration biopsy with a diagnostic yield of 86.4%; 24.2% of the patients had a small pneumothorax, but only 4.4% required treatment; one patient developed a moderate hemothorax. The method, problems, and complications including morbidity and mortality are discussed. The relative success of aspiration biopsy with different lesions of the lung and mediastinum is identified.
Emphasis is placed on the minor degree of caliectasis often observed in the presence of severe renal failure in patients with retroperitoneal fibrosis. This finding should suggest the diagnosis in individuals presenting with obscure causes of renal failure. A possible explanation for this is based upon an interference with ureteral dynamics and subsequent interference with normal ureteral peristatic activity rather than mechanical obstruction of the ureter per se. Twenty-one patients with retroperitoneal fibrosis are reported with the usual sex and age distribution (mostly male, aged 40-55 years). Two of the patients are interesting because of associated cardiac disease and 31 had been on prolonged methysergide therapy for migraine headaches. Eighteen patients appeared to be improved or cured and 3 died.
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