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We evaluated the plasma homocysteine (tHcy) and nitric oxide metabolites (nitrite plus nitrate; NOx) data of consecutive patients undergoing diagnostic coronary angiography (n=79) with respect to the presence and severity of coronary artery disease (CAD), the presence of acute coronary syndromes (ACS), and the risk status of patients. Hyperhomocysteinemia (>15 micromol/L) was detected in 11% of the controls (n=19) and 37% of CAD patients (n=60) (p=0.03). Plasma tHcy in CAD patients was not significantly different from controls, but those with 3-vessel disease had a significantly higher tHcy concentrations than did controls (p=0.049). The patients with 3-vessel disease and ACS had the highest concentrations of tHcy (16.9 +- 4.4 micromol/L), and the difference from the ACS patients with 1- and 2-vessel involvement was significant (p=0.03). In patients with 1-vessel involvement, tHcy was correlated with NOx (r=0.62, p=0.005); in patients with 2- and 3-vessel disease this correlation could not be observed. The high-risk patients (n=51) had a higher mean number of vessel involvement and tHcy (p<0.001, p<0.05, respectively) but lower NOx (p<0.05) when compared to the low-risk patients (n=28). It appears that in the early stages of atherosclerosis hyperhomocysteinemia causes an increase in NOx production, but with progression of the disease this compensatory increase disappears.

The experiment was designed to observe the possible relation between myelopoietic and erythropoietic activities of circulating nucleated cells. Wistar rats were lethally irradiated with 60Co, 100 r once. Two days after irradiation the bone marrow cells had faded completely. At this stage animals were conjugated with normocythemic or polycythemic rats by aortic anastomoses. After conjugation the aplastic bone marrow of the irradiated animal rapidly regained its hemopoietic activity in cases having normocythemic and polycythemic partners. Active erythropoiesis and myelopoiesis were found 96 h after parabiosis in those having normocythemic partners. In animals having polycythemic partners, however, erythropoiesis was successfully suppressed. An increase in lymphoid cell numbers was found in place of decreased erythroid cells, but there was no change in the myeloid cell proliferation rate. No hemopoietic precursor cells or immature cells were found in circulating blood all through the experimental period before and after parabiosis. The data suggest that circulating nucleated cells have marked erythropoietic activity. Erythropoietic cells may be somehow related to lymphoid cells independent of myelopoietic activity.

In the fields of psychiatry and neurology, the dopaminergic system is one of the most important neurotransmitter systems in the brain. Whereas pharmacological and biochemical studies had initially indicated two subclasses of dopamine receptors (DA-R), recent progress in molecular biology techniques has led to the identification of five distinct genes of DA-Rs (D1-R-D5-R) and splice variants. The gene products are classified into the D1-R family (D1-R and D5-R) and D2-R family (D2-R, D3-R and D4-R) based on their structure and pharmacological features. This review summarizes the structure, localization, function and pharmacology of DA-R subtypes on the basis of knowledge obtained during the past few years. The genes encoding the D1-R family have no intron and the D2-R family genes have introns. The distributions of mRNAs encoding these five DA-R subtypes in the brain were different from their respective receptors. The localization of DA-R subtypes to particular brain regions and specific pharmacological profiles of DA-R subtypes allow new insights to be made into the mechanism of action of DA in the control of psychiatric and motor functions. The availability of detailed information about DA-R subtypes will not only clarify their roles in the brain, but will probably also lead to the development of new therapeutic drugs with more specific actions.

The purpose of this study was to determine the aerobic training intensity from the maximal and submaximal running exercise in 21 untrained adult men. To accomplish this, we evaluated the relationship between physiological (oxygen intake and heart rate) and physical parameters (running speed) of training intensity, and determined the training intensity at the submaximal exercise. Oxygen intake and heart rate were measured by a treadmill test. The maximal oxygen intake (VO2 max), and the aerobic threshold (AerT) and anaerobic threshold (AT) were measured to determine respiratory gas exchange. Running capacity was measured by a 12-min running and treadmill test. For the maximal exercise, there was a significant correlation (r = 0.88, P < 0.01) between VO2 max and 12-min running distance (speed). In addition, the oxygen intake and heart rate at AerT and AT in the submaximal exercise were linearly correlated with running speed. Three levels of training intensity at the submaximal exercise were termed: light, moderate, and heavy. Since AerT was the lower limit intensity and AT was the upper limit, we took the middle of their values as the moderate intensity. The end point for the determination of the training intensity at the submaximal exercise was estimated to be 85% VO2 max and 180 beats.min-1.

This study was conducted to retrospectively analyzed the outcome of 192 total knee arthroplasties in 132 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (118 women, 14 men). The Okayama Mark II prosthesis, which requires the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) to be resected, was used in 83 knees (group I), the Mark II prosthesis, which allows the PCL to be retained, was used in 68 knees (group II), and the new Okayama PCL-R prosthesis, which also allows the PCL to be retained, was used in 41 (group III). According to the Japanese Orthopaedic Association knee scoring system, the clinical outcome of groups I, II and III at 1 year after the operation were 64.9, 71.2 and 72.3 points, respectively, and the average flexion angles in each group at 1 year were 78.4, 92.6 and 101.3 degrees. Postoperative flexion in groups III was significantly greater than in groups I and II. These results suggest that postoperative flexion is greater when the posterior cruciate ligament is retained.

Six quantitative psychometric tests were performed on 51 healthy subjects, 19 cirrhotic patients with subclinical hepatic encephalopathy (SHE), 32 cirrhotic patients without SHE, and 26 patients with other diseases. Strong correlations between age and the results of all the psychometric tests were observed in the healthy subjects (p less than 0.005). Sex and etiology of liver cirrhosis did not affect the test results. SHE patients, compared with non-SHE and health subjects, presented impairment in the ability to perform the tests, even in the absence of obvious clinical and electroencephalogram findings. In SHE patients, trailmaking test A (TMT A) yielded the highest frequency of abnormal values, 63%. TMT A results were abnormal in 80% of SHE patients with abnormal scores in other tests, and thus it seemed to be the most sensitive test. Liver function tests did not correlate with psychometric testing in any of the groups. Blood ammonia levels in SHE patients with abnormal TMT A scores correlated with TMT A scores (r = 0.752, p less than 0.01); this was not the case in SHE nor non-SHE patients with normal TMT A results. These data demonstrate the usefulness of psychometric tests in detecting SHE.