BACKGROUND: Recently, a highly sensitive fluorescent imaging technique was developed for the real-time identification of hepatic tumors. The authors applied this procedure for the intraoperative detection of radiographically occult hepatic micrometastases from pancreatic cancer. METHODS: Forty-nine consecutive patients with pancreatic cancer who underwent surgical intervention were examined. Preoperative clinical images had not revealed any hepatic metastases. On the day before surgery, indocyanine green was injected intravenously. During the operation, the liver was observed with a near-infrared camera system, and abnormal fluorescent foci were examined by frozen-section histology. The patients with hepatic micrometastases were judged to have unresectable disease and underwent only palliative surgery followed by systemic chemotherapy using gemcitabine. RESULTS: Abnormal hepatic fluorescence at least 1.5 mm in greatest dimension without any apparent tumor was observed in 13 patients. Among them, histologic examination confirmed micrometastases in 8 of 49 patients (16%). All patients with hepatic micrometastases had clinical T3 or T4 disease and high serum CA19-9 levels (P ¼ .042). On follow-up computed tomography images that were obtained within 6 months after surgery, the patients with hepatic micrometastases manifested hepatic overt metastases (7 of 8 patients; 88%) more frequently than the patients without hepatic micrometastases (4 of 41 patients; 10%; P < .001). Regardless of histologic confirmation, the positive predictive value of abnormal fluorescence for the manifestation of hepatic relapse within 6 months was 77% (10 of 13 patients), and the negative predictive value was 97% (35 of 36 patients). CONCLUSIONS: Indocyanine green-fluorescent imaging can detect hepatic micrometastases of pancreatic cancer during surgery. The hepatic micrometastases seem to have an adverse clinical impact identical to that of evident distant metastases. Cancer 2012;118:2813-

These experiences show that one of the differential diagnoses of hypoechoic hepatosplenomegaly is TAM and that the change of live size is a predictor of prognosis.

Sudo N, Kamoi K, Ishibashi M, Yamaji T. Plasma endothelin-1 and big endothelin-1 levels in women with pre-eclampsia. Acta Endocrinol 1993:129:114-20. ISSN 0001-5598 To examine a possible role for endothelin-1 (ET-1) and conversion of big ET-1 to ET-1 in the pathophysiology of pre-eclampsia, we measured plasma levels of ET-1 and big ET-1 in 16 women with pre-eclampsia in the third trimester and compared them with those in 11 age-matched normotensive pregnant women and in 10 age-matched pregnant women with chronic hypertension in the third trimester. The plasma concentrations of ET-1 and big ET-1 in the normotensive pregnant women were significantly lower than those in 16 non-pregnant women with a higher molar ratio of big ET-1 to ET-1 in the former group. The plasma concentrations of ET-1 and big ET-1 in the women with pre-eclampsia, on the other hand, were significantly higher than those in the normotensive pregnant women and the molar ratio of big ET-1 to ET-1 in the former group was less than that in the latter group. In sharp contrast, plasma ET-1 and big ET-1 levels in the pregnant women with chronic hypertension were not significantly different from those in the normotensive pregnant women. When examined after delivery, elevated plasma ET-1 and big ET-1 in the women with pre-eclampsia declined, with restoration of normal blood pressure, to the levels in the normotensive women after parturition. There were no significant differences of the levels of ET-1 and big ET-1 in umbilical venous plasma and simultaneously drawn maternal plasma at cesarean section between normotensive pregnant women and women with pre-eclampsia, respectively. These results suggest that normal pregnancy is associated with decreased plasma concentrations of ET-1 with reduced conversion of big ET-1 to ET-1 in maternal vascular endothelial cells, and the derangement of this regulatory system plays an important role in the pathophysiology of pre-eclampsia.An increasing body of evidence indicates that the vascular endothelium plays an important role in the regulation of vascular tone and regional blood flow by the production of both vasodilators and vasoconstictors (1). Endothelin (ET) is an endothelium-derived peptide that possesses the most potent vasoconstrictor activity of naturally occurring pressor substances known (2). Infusion of ET into experimental animals markedly increases vascular resistance and decreases renal per¬ fusion and glomerular filtration (3, 4). We have shown previously that, of the three isopeptides, endothelin-1 (ET-1) is the major molecular form of ET present in human plasma (5). Endothelin-1 is produced from big ET-1, an intermediate generated from proendothelin, by an as yet unidentified converting enzyme presented within the vascular endothelial cells or blood vessels (6). Plasma ET-1 levels are elevated in certain pathological conditions ( 7-11 ), whereas the conversion of big ET-1 to ET-1 is reduced in diabetes mellitus (12), suggesting a possible role for ET-1 and the activity of its converting enzyme in the...

In the current study, risk factors for developing cervical cancer were tobacco smoking and GSTM1 null; however, no association was observed between these two factors. We could not prove that smoking-GSTM1 null interaction was responsible for the increase in cervical cancer among young Japanese, and further studies with more detailed smoking status, not only active but passive smoking, will be required.

No abstract