Peritoneal inclusion cysts: ovarian fluid in peritoneal adhesions

In four women pelvic peritoneal inclusion cysts were diagnosed with ultrasound or computed tomography. Three patients had a history of multiple surgical procedures, whereas the fourth had prior severe abdominal trauma. Imaging studies showed large cystic structures contiguous with the adnexa. The normal ovarian appearance was distorted in two women. Pathologic confirmation was obtained in all cases. When large adnexal cystic structures are identified in young women with a history of surgery or trauma, the diagnosis of peritoneal inclusion cysts should be entertained. Recognition should result in conservative therapy rather than salpingo-oophorectomy.     

DOES THE METHOD OF TRANSLUMINAL CORONARY REVASCULARISATION INFLUENCE RE-STENOSIS? BALLOON ANGIOPLASTY,ATHERECTOMY AND STENTS COMPARED

SUMMARY Luminal renarrowing after successful coronary angioplasty is now recognised as a continuously distributed process which is determined largely by the extent of luminal increase achieved at angioplasty. In this study an alternative analytical approach is applied to determine whether luminal renarrowing following coronary intervention is related to the mechanism of luminal increase (ie by balloon, by atherectomy, by a self-expanding stainless steel mesh stent, or by a balloon-expandable tantalum coil stent). The results confirm the known proportional relationship between luminal renarrowing during follow-up and luminal improvement at intervention, regardless of the device used. However, significant differences were observed between the devices, which may reflect device-specific characteristics of the hyperplastic response to vessel injury and may have clinical implications.     

Allogeneic blood transfusion-induced enhancement of tumor growth: two animal models showing amelioration by leukodepletion and passive transfer using spleen cells [see comments]

Allogeneic blood transfusions have been reported to induce immunomodulation in recipients of blood products. While the mechanism(s) of this immunomodulatory effect is unknown, it has been suggested that this effect of allogeneic blood transfusions could adversely affect patients with a malignant disorder. These concerns have been supported by a number of nonrandomized, mainly retrospective, clinical studies which indicate that allogeneic blood transfusions can adversely affect prognosis following the surgical treatment of oncology patients. Recently, we have shown that allogeneic blood transfusions enhance primary tumor growth and increase metastatic pulmonary nodule formation in inbred mice. The tumor growth-promoting activity of allogeneic blood transfusions was studied also using outbred rabbits. In this present study, we demonstrate that the tumor growth-promoting effect of allogeneic blood transfusions is mediated by donor leukocytes and that this effect can be abolished by their removal before transfusion. We show also that the allogeneic blood transfusion tumor growth-promoting effect can be passively transferred to naive animals (both mice and rabbits) using spleen cells from allogeneically transfused animals. In these experiments, numbers of metastatic pulmonary nodules were significantly increased in both mice and rabbits that had received spleen cells from allogeneically transfused animals compared with those that had received spleen cells from syngeneically transfused animals, or from animals that had been transfused with leukodepleted allogeneic blood.