Diagnosis of Rejection in the Allografted Rat Lung: Using Monoclonal Antibodies to T Cell Subsets for Immunologic Monitoring

Early diagnosis of rejection and timely immunosuppression are absolutely important in clinical lung transplantation. We studied surface markers of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL), graft infiltrating lymphocytes (GIF) and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) in a rat using flow cytometric monitoring to diagnose rejection. Left lung transplantation was performed on Brown Norway (BN) rats and Lewis (LEW) rats in the following groups; Group 1: LEW-LEW (isograft), Group 2: BN-LEW (allograft; no immunosuppression), Group 3: BN-LEW (allograft; treated with Cyclosporine A at a dose of 15 mg/kg/day i.m.). In each group, rats were killed 3, 5, 7 days postoperatively (n = 6 on each day). Monoclonal antibodies investigated in this study were W3/25 (anti-helper T lymphocyte), OX8 (anti-suppressor/cytotoxic T lymphocyte), and OX39 (anti-interleukin 2 receptor). Histological classification of rejection in Group 2 showed vascular phase at 3 days, alveolar phase at 5 days, and destructive phase at 7 days, respectively. No evidence of rejection was found in Group 1 or 3. In Group 2, W3/25 positive cell proportion in GIL and BALF significantly decreased as the rejection progressed, but OX8 positive and OX39 positive cell proportion increases were significantly greater than in Groups 1 and 3 as the rejection progressed. These results lead us to speculate that the studies of T cell subsets in GIL and BALF lymphocytes are useful for diagnosis of rejection in lung transplantation.</p

Effective preoperative and postoperative respiratory training in a lung cancer patient with chronic respiratory failure.

A case illustrating the value of aggressive respiratory training in improving the prognosis of lung cancer complicated by low pulmonary function is reported. Preoperative and postoperative respiratory training enabled the patient with chronic respiratory failure to survive a lengthy operation and eventually breathe without assistance. The patient has survived more than 71 months, and experiences only exertional dyspnea at the time of publication. Aggressive preoperative and postoperative respiratory management may make more of the growing number of lung cancer patients eligible for standard surgical procedures.</p

A case of trans-sternal bilateral thoracotomy for bilateral lung cancer.

Trans-sternal bilateral thoracotomy was performed to resect the right upper lobe and the left S1 + 2 + S3, and to complete lymphadenectomy in a 35-year-old female case of lung cancer in whom multiple lesions were suspected. Trans-sternal bilateral thoracotomy was considered to be useful for one-stage surgery in patients in whom bilateral lung cancer is suspected or confirmed, because it provides a sufficient surgical field enabling the resection of lung and lymph nodes. This may be the first case report of trans-sternal bilateral thoracotomy to treat multiple primary lung cancer.</p

Survival of geriatric patients after percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy in Japan

AIM: To examine the long term survival of geriatric patients treated with percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) in Japan