Significance of lymph node metastasis in differentiated thyroid cancer

In age-matched patients with differentiated carcinoma of the thyroid, the tumor recurred in 32 per cent of those with lymph node metastases and in 14 per cent of those without lymph node metastases. Twenty-four per cent of patients with nodal involvement at the initial examination died of thyroid cancer, whereas only 8 per cent of those without nodal involvement died of thyroid cancer. In patients less than forty years old, there were no deaths in those without nodal metastases bu there were three deaths (11 per cent) in patients with nodal metastases. In patients more than forty years old, nine (41 per cent) iwth nodal metastases died of tumor, and four (15 per cent) without nodal metastases died of tumor. In the presence of positive nodes the death rate was substantially greater in the older than in the younger patients. Nodal involvement has an adverse effect on prognosis, but appears to be less important than the age of the patient.

Comparison of methods for the determination of total and free tryptophan in plasma

A comparison is made between two fluorimetric techniques for the determination of total and free plasma tryptophan. Comparison is also made between methods for the separation of the unbound and bound fraction of plasma tryptophan using ultrafiltration, Centricones and small-scale equilibrium dialysis.

The effects of inhaled silica and chrysotile on the elastic properties of rat lungs; physiological, physical and biochemical studies of lung surfactant

When rats breathed air containing approximately 70 mg m-3 of respirable crystalline silica 7 h daily for 10 days (2000 mg m-3 h) the surface tension forces of the alveolar lining film were reduced. This was shown both by surface tension measurements on lung extracts and by pressure-volume studies with air and saline filling of excised lungs. Larger quantities of inhaled silica produced similar effects. Chrysotile inhalation caused an even more marked decrease in the surface tension forces. In the chrysotile studies these findings were supported by biochemical estimations of the quantity of surfactant in the lungs, which was increased 10-fold by an inhalation of 6500 mg m-3 h. Electron microscopy showed an increased number of the type II alveolar cells which produce surfactant and of free phospholipid lattices in the air spaces of the lungs of rats exposed to chrysotile and silica. Both the surface tension and biochemical estimations on a control group of rats suggest that there is an increase in the amount of surfactant in the lungs up to about 12 months of age.

Right Hemihypertrophy and Pubertas Præcox

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