[Hemispheric lateralization of EEG in early infantile autism]

Autoregressive (AR) analysis and component analysis were applied to EEGs during sleep stage 2 of normal and autistic children, since AR-coefficients of EEG characterize the autocovariance and power spectral density of EEG. In addition, as the Mahalanobis' generalized distance of the average AR coefficient vector of an EEG group at one side from that at the opposite side follows a F-distribution, the statistical inferences were carried out, whether or not there is hemispheric specialization in EEG in 21 right handed autistic children and whether there is difference between AR-spectral pattern of EEG in the autistic children and that of 28 normal children of the same age range or not. The results obtained were as follows: 1) The significant hemispheric lateralization in EEG at the significant level of 0.01 was observed in normals, whereas none of the lateralization was confirmed in autistic children. 2) The random click stimulation caused a cumulative effect on the hemispheric lateralization in the normals, but not in the autistic children. On the contrary, the effects of random flash light stimulation on hemispheric asymmetry were verified in the autistic children as well as in the normals. 3) The EEG components of autistic children were significantly different from the normal ones in frequency range of alpha-2 component wave at bilateral frontal (F1 and F2) regions and the activity of these component waves were higher in the autistic children than in the normal ones over 5 years-old. 4) These findings suggest that autistic children are not only less responsive to external stimuli, but also neurophysiologically less active in the internal regulatory mechanism.

[Neutrophil chemotaxis by polarization assay in Behçet's disease and sarcoidosis]

The early phase reaction of neutrophil chemotaxis (polarization) was studied in 47 cases with Behçet's disease and 24 cases with sarcoidosis by polarization assay. 53 normal subjects served as controls. The titer of polarization in Behçet's disease was significantly higher than in the controls (p < 0.05, t-test). The titer of the active stage was significantly higher than in the controls (p < 0.05), but there was no difference in the titers between the inactive stage and the controls. The age, the sex, type of disease, and colchicine did not influence the titers. The titer of polarization in sarcoidosis, however, was significantly lower in both the active and inactive stages than in the controls and the inactive stage of Behçet's disease (p < 0.05). There was no difference in the titers between each stage. In Behçet's disease, neutrophil chemotaxis may be activated, whereas it may be suppressed or disturbed in sarcoidosis. Polarization assay is an excellent method for detecting neutrophil polarization in Behçet's disease and is useful to make a differential diagnosis between Behçet's disease and sarcoidosis. In the etiology and pathology of these diseases, neutrophils may play an opposite role.

[Clinical evaluation of terodiline hydrochloride in patients with urinary frequency or incontinence]

A clinical trial with the collaboration of 15 department of urology was performed to determine the usefulness of terodiline hydrochloride in 99 patients whose chief complaints were of pollakisuria or incontinence due to neurogenic bladder, psychogenic disease or chronic cystitis. The patients were orally given 24 mg once daily for 4 weeks. The final global improvement rate was 88.5% and the effective rates on subjective symptoms were; 66.2% for diurnal urinary frequency, 68.0% for nocturnal urinary frequency, 68.8% for urinary incontinence and 78.3% for nocturnal enuresis. Even for the cases having mild bladder outlet obstructive disease, the clinical effective rates were good. Mild side effects were observed in 10 patients, which were dry mouth and others. The results obtained from this trial suggest that terodiline hydrochloride may be useful for the treatment of urinary frequency and incontinence caused by detrusor instability.

[Detection of rubella virus antibody by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay with parallel line method]

An attempt was made to measure the antibody to rubella virus in human sera by ELISA by calculating the relative potency by the method of the parallel line assay. As a standard serum, adult serum 8 months after rubella infection was used. Sample sera were collected from 42 infants before MMR vaccination and 8-10 weeks after the vaccination and 48 adults three years or more after rubella vaccination. In addition, three infant sera with rubella 6-19 days after onset of rash and three gamma immunoglobulin products were used. The dose response curve of the standard serum and that of the sample serum showed the lineality and the regression line of the sample serum was parallel to that of the standard serum. And the relative potency of sample sera was successfully calculated. The good correlation was observed between the rubella antibody titer by hemagglutination inhibition test and that measured by ELISA. The coefficients of variance of relative potency obtained from four repeated measurements for two weeks showed from 15% to 25% in four sera of HI high titer. The reproducibility of parallel line assay was also satisfactory.

[A case of bilateral testicular tumors--a review of 115 cases in Japanese literature]

A case of bilateral testicular tumours of germ cell origin is reported. A 35-year-old man with bilateral testicular swelling visited our clinic. Bilateral high orchiectomy was performed. Histological examination of both resected testis revealed typical seminoma. Postoperative irradiation was performed. The patient is doing well after one year of postoperative follow-up without any sign of metastasis. Besides this case, we found 115 cases of bilateral testicular germ cell tumours in the Japanese literature. There were 39 cases with different and 76 cases with similar histology between the left and right testis. The age distribution, location of testis, time of onset and histological classification of these cases is discussed.

[Evaluation of a tumor-associated antigen CA 15-3 in the sera of patients with breast cancer]

Serum levels of CA 15-3 were determined in normal women and patients with breast cancer and other diseases. The serum concentration of normal subjects was 9.8 +/- 4.4 units/ml (mean +/- S.D., n = 97). The patients with primary and recurrent breast cancer had significantly higher levels of CA 15-3, their values being 23.1 +/- 59.6 (n = 47) and 127.6 +/- 179.7 (n = 32) units/ml, respectively. When the value of 20 units/ml was used as the cutoff for the normal value, the positive rates were 4%, 26% and 75% in normal women and breast cancer patients primary and recurrent, respectively. No increased levels were found in the sera of patients with benign breast diseases or with gastrointestinal, thyroid, lung and other cancers. The elevated levels of CA 15-3 decreased after successful therapy both in primary and recurrent breast cancer patients, while there was no change in nonresponders. The measurement of serum CA 15-3 would be useful for monitoring the therapy and for detection of the recurrence of breast cancer.