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To evaluate the safety of cryopreserved and thawed peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) autografts in children with active cancer, a toxicity assessment was made of 54 PBSC transfusions to 52 children (aged 1-16 years; median, 9 years). Patients were conditioned with high-dose chemotherapy without total body irradiation. The volume of PBSCs transfused varied from 46 to 500 mL (219.6 +/- 118.4 mL, mean +/- SD), with a mean of 0.91 g per kg of dimethyl sulfoxide. Insignificant and transient toxicities included hemoglobinuria in 40 patients (74%), headache in 38 (70%), nausea in 37 (69%), and vomiting in 25 patients (46%). Significant shock developed in 8 patients (15%), but they recovered quickly, whether they had supportive therapy or not. Vomiting and hyperbilirubinemia were the only toxicities that showed a correlation with the amount of PBSCs transfused. The data suggest that transient toxicity associated with PBSC autografts is rather common in children, and close observation of patients for possible serious morbidity is required.

Bending properties and thermal behavior of twenty commercial Ni-Ti alloy orthodontic arch wires were investigated quantitatively to characterize their suitability for clinical use. There was substantial difference related to super-elasticity. There were clear thermal peaks in the DSC curves of the super-elastic wires. However, wires without super-elasticity had no peak in the DSC curves.

Clostridium perfringens (C.P) gas gangrene is one of the most fulminant infectious diseases. We encountered fulminant massive gas gangrene in a 56-year-old man with alcoholic liver cirrhosis. The patient died 14 hours after diagnosis of gas gangrene (54 hours after admission). Dramatic changes in abdominal CT imaging revealed development of a massive volume of gas in the intra-portal vein, retroperitoneum and abdominal subcutaneous tissue within 24 hours. We also proved C.P infection by immunohistological staining, leading to a diagnosis of C.P gas gangrene.

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Background:The molecular mechanism of anti-allergic (Ϫ)-maackiain remains unknown. Results: (Ϫ)-Maackiain and Hsp90 inhibitors inhibited PKC␦ activation and suppressed H1R gene expression. Conclusion: (Ϫ)-Maackiain is a novel Hsp90 pathway inhibitor, and its anti-allergic activity underlies the disruption of Hsp90-PKC␦ interaction. Significance: Hsp90 is involved in H1R gene up-regulation, and its inhibition could be a novel therapeutic strategy for allergic rhinitis.

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SUMMARY Ventricular muscle fibers from dog hearts were superfused with K + -free, high Ca 2+solutions after exposure to a K + -free, Ca 2+ -free superfusate. Following a series of driven action potentials, oscillatory afterpotentials (OAPs) were elicited in all 40 preparations at a resting potential of > -60 mV. The OAPs appeared not to represent either an electrotonic influence from Purkinje fibers or reentry. They showed a non-monotonic dependence on the basic cycle length, as well as on the number of preceding action potentials. When the OAPs attained threshold, there was extra-excitation (triggered activity) and, occasionally, sustained rhythmic activity. Single premature impulses increased the amplitude of the OAPs, but single or multiple stimuli applied during sustained rhythmic activity failed to stop it. RECENTLY, oscillatory afterpotentials have received considerable attention in relation to the genesis of arrhythmias, especially digitalis-induced arrhythmias (Ferrier, 1977) and those observed in depolarized fibers (Cranefield, 1975). This is because oscillatory afterpotentials (OAPs) can induce triggered activity when they become large enough to attain threshold. The resultant triggered activity is not the result of reentry but, rather, is abnormal pacemaker activity, resulting from a mechanism other than normal pacemaker activity (Cranefield, 1975;Ferrier, 1977).OAPs have been observed in digitalis-poisoned Purkinje and atrial plateau fibers (Rosen et al., 1973;Davis, 1973;Hashimoto and Moe, 1973), in canine Purkinje fibers exposed to a Na + -free, Ca 2+ -rich solution (Cranefield and Aronson, 1974), in fibers of the simian mitral valve (Wit and Cranefield, 1977), and in rabbit right atrial fibers (Saito et al., 1978). The OAPs and triggered activity in these cases were associated with the specialized fibers of the heart, as well as with fibers depolarized to -60 mV or less. However, a few reports have described OAPs in working myocardium (Bozler, 1943;Kaufmann et al., 1963;Jensen and Katzung, 1968;Ferrier, 1976; Eisner etal., 1978). Recently, we reported that dog ventricular muscle fibers could generate OAPs and triggered activity in the presence of high resting potential levels (more negative than -60 mV) (Hiraoka et al., 1979a(Hiraoka et al., , 1979b. This activity developed while the muscle fibers were exposed to K + -free, high Ca 2+ solutions after exposure to K + -free, Ca 2+ -free conditions. The present experiments were done to characterize more fully the OAPs and triggered activity in dog ventricular muscle fibers. MethodsMongrel dogs weighing 8-15 kg were anesthetized with sodium pentobarbital (25-30 mg/kg, iv), and their hearts were removed rapidly through a thoracotomy. Fine papillary or trabecular muscles were dissected from the right ventricle. These preparations usually were 5-8 mm in length and 1-2.5 mm in diameter. Preparations were placed in the tissue chamber and superfused with a modified Tyrode's solution. The volume of the tissue chamber was about 1 ml and the superfusate flow r...