An Insufficient Preoperative Diagnosis of Borrmann Type 4 Gastric Cancer in Spite of EMR

Borrmann type 4 gastric cancers are notorious for the difficulty of finding cancer cells in the biopsy samples obtained from gastrofiberscopy. It is important to obtain the biopsy results for making surgical decisions. In cases with Borrmann type 4 gastric cancer, even though the radiological findings (such as an upper gastrointestinal series, abdominal computed tomography and positron emission tomography/computed tomography) or the macroscopic findings of a gastrofiberscopy examination imply a high suspicion of cancer, there can be difficulty in getting the definite pathologic results despite multiple biopsies. In these cases, we have performed endoscopic mucosal resection under gastrofiberscopy as an alternative to simple biopsies. Here we report on a case in which no cancer cells were found even in the endoscopic mucosal resection specimen, but the radiologic evidence and clinical findings were highly suspicious for gastric cancer. The patient finally underwent total gastrectomy with lymph node resection, and she was pathologically diagnosed as having stage IV gastric cancer postoperatively

Harvesting electrical energy using plasmon-enhanced light pressure in a platinum cut cone

We have designed a method of harvesting electrical energy using plasmon-enhanced light pressure. A device was fabricated as a cut cone structure that optimizes light collection so that the weak incident light pressure can be sufficiently enhanced inside the cut cone to generate electrical energy. An increase in the device's current output is a strong indication that the pressure of incident light has been enhanced by the surface plasmons on a platinum layer inside the cut cone. The electrical energy harvested in a few minutes by irradiating pulsed laser light on a single micro device was possible to illuminate a blue LED

Development of a dual optical fiber probe for the hydrodynamic investigation of a horizontal annular drive gas/liquid ejector

A dual-channel optical fiber probe was developed to quantify the bubble characteristics (void fraction, velocity, and bubble size) in a gas–liquid annular ejector system. Water is pumped upstream of the ejector contraction. Since a low pressure region exists downstream in the ejector diffuser, this permits air to be sucked into the flowing liquid by jet pump action and the inlet air volumetric flow rate is measured by a flow meter. Verification of the void fraction (range 0.15–0.5) measured by the optical fiber probe was then possible and deviations were generally around ± 5%. Also, bubble velocity was measured using the optical probe by cross-correlating signals from the two fibers whose tips are separated by a known distance. Alternatively measuring bubble velocity using a particle image velocimetry method provided validation for the optical fiber probe system where a high speed camera was used to capture instantaneous bubble images at time intervals of 0.125 ms. Excellent agreement between the velocities using both methods is reported. For bubble size measurements, analyzing the temporal signals from a single probe enabled estimation of the size of a bubble. Bubble sizes measured ranged between 1.5 and 6.0 mm and size distributions were constructed for different ejector water volumetric flow rates ranging from 0.0022 to 0.0063 m3/s. LabVIEW provided a convenient platform for coding the algorithms for estimating the void fraction, bubble velocity and bubble size. For further comparison, a CFD study of the ejector system was done, and the vertical radial profiles of the void fraction were compared with those obtained by the optical fiber system and these showed good agreement

A two-photon fluorescent probe for lysosomal zinc ions

The selective detection of zinc ions in lysosomes over that in cytosol is achieved with a fluorescent probe, which enabled the fluorescence imaging of endogenous zinc ions in lysosomes of NIH 3T3 cells as well as mouse hippocampal tissues by two-photon microscopy under excitation at 900 nm.open

A Korean Female Patient with Thiamine-responsive Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex Deficiency Due to a Novel Point Mutation (Y161C)in the PDHA1 Gene

Pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHC) deficiency is mostly due to mutations in the X-linked E1α subunit gene (PDHA1). Some of the patients with PDHC deficiency showed clinical improvements with thiamine treatment. We report the results of biochemical and molecular analysis in a female patient with lactic acidemia. The PDHC activity was assayed at different concentrations of thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP). The PDHC activity showed null activity at low TPP concentration (1×10-3 mM), but significantly increased at a high TPP concentration (1 mM). Sequencing analysis of PDHA1 gene of the patient revealed a substitution of cysteine for tyrosine at position 161 (Y161C). Thiamine treatment resulted in reduction of the patient's serum lactate concentration and dramatic clinical improvement. Biochemical, molecular, and clinical data suggest that this patient has a thiamine-responsive PDHC deficiency due to a novel mutation, Y161C. Therefore, to detect the thiamine responsiveness it is necessary to measure activities of PDHC not only at high but also at low concentration of TPP

A Case of Acute Myocardial Infarction Caused by Distal Embolization of a Left Main Coronary Artery Thrombus

Coronary embolism is an uncommon cause of myocardial infarction. A 48-year-old male presented with typical chest pain of an MI. There was no definite ST segment change on electrocardiogram (ECG) and no elevation of myocardial enzymes. Coronary angiography (CAG) revealed occlusion of the distal left anterior descending coronary artery (dLAD), the distal left circumflex coronary artery (dLCX), the diagonal branch (D) and the obtuse marginal branch (OM), with a large filling defect in the left main coronary artery (LMA) that caused the myocardial infarction. We considered the possibility that coronary embolization was caused by the migration of a thrombus in the LMA during CAG. We did balloon angioplasty in the dLAD, dLCX, OM and D and treated the patient with glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor antagonist. However, thrombi remained in the dLAD, OM, and dLCX. After 3 days of anti-thrombotic treatment, follow-up CAG revealed only slight resolution of thrombi in the LAD. After triple antiplatelet agent medication for 1 year, a follow-up CAG showed a resolution of the thrombi in all coronary arteries