An 82-year-old man presented with signs and symptoms that were suggestive of acute cholecystitis. He underwent a laparoscopic cholecystectomy. During the intervention, a wooden foreign body was removed from the infiltrated omentum, probably after it had perforated the gastric antrum. The gastric perforation had led to a secondary infection of the gallbladder. The presumed gastric perforation wa...

Adult female hypogonadal mice, in whom hypogonadism is secondary to a genetic deficiency in hypothalamic gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), are infertile. Mating, pregnancy, and delivery of healthy litters were achieved after transplantation of normal fetal preoptic area tissue, a major site of GnRH-containing cell bodies, into the third ventricle of adult female hypogonadal mice. Immunocyt...

Fecal impaction is a mass of hardened and compacted stools that the patient can not evacuate spontaneously. It usually occurs in elderly patients disabled or institutionalized but cases have also been reported secondary to foreign bodies, bezoars, etc. The usual symptom is constipation, but overflow diarrhea can also occur. The diagnosis of fecal impaction is made with digital rectal examinatio...

Primary malignant myelomatous pleural effusion (PMMPE) occurs in less than 1% of patients with multiple myeloma and is diagnosed either by visualization of plasma cells on cytology or by positive flow cytometry. The presence of immature plasma cells characterized by high nucleus to cytoplasm ratio, visible nucleolus and presence of Mott cells and Russell bodies are independent poor prognostic f...

Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome (HPS) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder presenting with oculocutaneous albinism, bleeding diathesis and lysosomal accumulation of ceroid lipofuscin which leads to interstitial fibrosis in lung. Pulmonary fibrosis which is usually associated with HPS-1 and HPS-4 subtypes usually manifests in the third/fourth decades of life representing with giant lamellar bodies o...

DEAR SiRs-I think the paper published by A. J. Boase in the October, 1950, issue of the British Journal of Ophthalmology, regarding the treatment of trachoma by means of aureomycin, might give unwarranted hopes to those practising in heavily infected areas like ours. Boase has completely disregarded the secondary bacterial infection which is always the cause of severe clinical signs in trachoma...

It was recently reported that factor H, a regulatory component of the alternative complement pathway, is stored with von Willebrand factor (VWF) in the Weibel-Palade bodies of endothelial cells. If this were to be the case, it would have therapeutic importance for patients with the atypical hemolytic-uremic syndrome that can be caused either by a heterozygous defect in the factor H gene or by t...

Sympathetic neurons internalize nerve growth factor (NGF) and transport it retrogradely to their cell bodies where it appears to serve a trophic function in maintaining neuronal survival. We have characterized the binding, internalization, and retrograde transport of 125I-NGF by cultured rat sympathetic neurons. After 3 to 4 weeks in culture, sympathetic neurons possessed approximately 2 X 10(7...

Reflective writing is one established method for teaching medical students empathetic interactions with patients. Most such exercises rely on students' reflecting upon clinical experiences. To effectively elicit, interpret, and translate the patient's story, however, a reflective practitioner must also be self-aware, personally and professionally. Race, gender, and other embodied sources of ide...

Aims and ObjectivesForeign bodies are often encountered by oral and maxillofacial surgeons and may present a diagnostic challenge, due to many factors such as the size of the objects, the difficult access and a close anatomic relationship of the foreign body to the vital structures. These problems are challenging and involve multidisciplinary evaluation and treatment planning. The aim of this s...