Hodgkin's disease and acute promyelocytic leukaemia : a case report

CITATION: Rosenstrauch, W. J. C. J., Van der Merwe, A. M. & King, J. B. 1980. Hodgkin's disease and acute promyelocytic leukaemia : a case report. South African Medical Journal, 58:454-456.The original publication is available at http://www.samj.org.zaA case of Hodgkin's disease is reported in which acute promyelocytic leukaemia developed within 5 months of initiation of chemotherapy. Only 3 other cases, possibly of a similar nature, were found in the literature; these had occurred 15, 77, and 226 months respectively after the initial diagnosis of Hodgkin's disease.Publisher’s versio

Multiple myeloma in South Africa : is the incidence increasing?

The original publication is available at http://www.samj.org.zaCITATION: Brink, S. & Rosenstrauch, W. J. C. J. 1984. Mielomatose in Suid-Afrika : neem die insidensie toe? South African Medical Journal, 65:515-519.Multiple myeloma was once thought to be extremely rare, with an estimated frequency of less than 0.1% of all malignant tumours. In 1964 Oettle reported that available mortality statistics showed 171 deaths in the 10-year period 1949-1958 in the RSA for Whites, Coloureds and Asiatics aged 20 years and older. During the 5-year period 1968-1972 however, 222 cases of multiple myeloma appeared in the mortality records of the Central Statistical Service. Since 1964 150 new cases have been diagnosed at Karl Bremer Hospital and later at Tygerberg Hospital, with an average of 15 new cases per year from 1978 to 1982. Four examples of familial myelomatosis and one of familial macroglobulinaemia were found at these two hospitals. On 1 January 1983, 48 patients were on record who had attended the Tygerberg Hospital Haematology Clinic and 78 who had attended Groote Schuur Hospital, giving a total of 126 patients under treatment in the Western Cape during 1982. In addition, for the 6-year period from January 1971 to December 1976, 162 patients were reported from the haematology clinics at the Johannesburg General Hospital and Baragwanath Hospital. The true incidence of multiple myeloma in the RSA is problematical because there is no National Cancer Register; establishment of such a register would need the co-operation of all doctors in the country.Publisher’s versio

Ex Vivo Resuscitation of Adult Pig Hearts

One possible way to expand the human heart donor pool is to include non-heart-beating human donors. To begin validating this approach, we developed an ex vivo cardiac perfusion circuit to support large mammalian hearts in Langendorff mode and beating-ejecting mode and to assess and improve their ischemic tolerance. In vivo hemodynamic data and heparinized blood (4.0 ± 0.5 L) were collected from 6 anesthetized pigs. Hearts were isolated and connected to a recirculating perfusion circuit primed with autologous buffered blood (pH, 7.40). After retrograde aortic perfusion in Langendorff mode, the left atrium was gravity-filled at 10–20 mmHg, and the left ventricle began to eject against a compliance chamber in series with a systemic reservoir set to a hydraulic afterload of 100–120 mmHg. Left ventricular function was restored and maintained in all 6 hearts for 30 min. Cardiac output, myocardial oxygen consumption, stroke work, aortic pressure, left atrial pressure, and heart rate were measured. The mean myocardial oxygen consumption was 4.8 ± 2.7 mL/min/100 g (95.8% of in vivo value); and mean stroke work, 5.3 ± 1.1 g · m/100 g (58.95% of in vivo value). One resuscitated heart was exposed to 30 min of normothermic ischemic arrest, then flushed with Celsio® and re-resuscitated. The ex vivo perfusion method described herein restored left ventricular ejection function and allowed assessment of ischemic tolerance in large mammalian hearts, potentially a 1st step toward including non-heart-beating human donors in the human donor pool. (Tex Heart Inst J 2003;30:121–7