31 December 1979 performed at the University Hospital Gasthuisberg over a three-year period, the anatomy of the thymus was carefully examined as a routine. Ten patients with agenesis or hypoplasia of the thymus were found. Stress involution was differentiated from hypoplasia on the basis of the symmetrical aspect of the shrinkage and the persistence of the normal bilobed anatomy. In hypoplasia at least one lobe of the thymus is completely absent. Thymic aplasia was defined as the absence of thymic tissue in the upper mediastinum. In nine of the 10 patients the tissue of the anterosuperior mediastinum and neck, which had been removed en bloc, was serially sectioned at 5 V. and every 10th section was stained and histologically examined. All 10 patients had presented to the departments of paediatric cardiology or neonatology with cardiac symptoms and signs. Ventricular septal defects were classified after Goor and Lillehei4 and truncus arteriosus after Collett and Edwards.5 Two types of interrupted aortic arch6 were distinguished: interruption distal to the left subclavian artery (type A) and interruption distal to the left common carotid artery (type B). This terminology was also applied, 452

"Skip areas" in focal steatosis describes a newly proposed "subsegmental type" of focal steatosis, which differs in both extent and topography from the more classic "lobar or segmental type" of focal steatosis. In the subsegmental type of steatosis, fatty infiltration can be considered homogeneous throughout the liver, with the exception of small flattened portions of less affected parenchyma, called "skip areas." These regions are mainly located in the subcapsular areas or along the interlobar fissures or the gallbladder bed. Observations using ultrasound in vivo, as well as on postmortem in vitro angiograms, suggest that both the extent and topography of these skip areas can be explained by local differences in vascular anatomy.

Increased concentrations of interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) have been found in the synovial fluid of patients with osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and crystal‐related joint deseases. It is therefore of great interest to identify the cells responsible for the production of IL‐6, and to investigate whether IL‐6 plays a role in the pathogenesisof degenerative or inflammatory joint diseases. Here we show that human interleukin‐1β (IL‐1β) induces IL‐6 synthesis and secretion in differentiated human chondrocytes. In organ cultures resembling closely the in vivo system 106 chondrocytes incubated with 100 units of interleukin‐1β per ml of medium led to the release of 6 × 103 units of IL‐6 within 24 h. Chondrocytes cultured in agarose or as monolayers similary incubated with IL‐1β produced even higher amounts of IL‐6: 70 × 103 units per 106 cells within 24 h. The induction of IL‐6 synthesis by IL‐1β was also shown at the mRNA level. IL‐6 secreted by stimulated chondrocytes showed heterogeneity upon Western blot analysis.

The aim of the study was to determine the pathways and site of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) catabolism during lung ischemia, which thus far are largely unknown. For this purpose we used the isolated rabbit lung. Rabbit lungs were flushed in situ with a modified Krebs-Henseleit solution (60 ml/kg), the deflated heart lung blocks were isolated, immersed in saline solution, and stored at 37 degrees C. In group I (normothermic ischemia; n = 6) tissue content of ATP decreased progressively from 9.42 +/- 0.58 mumol/g dry wt to 3.42 +/- 0.24 mumol/g dry wt after 30 min of ischemia and further to 0.51 mumol/g dry weight after 4 h. Hypoxanthine was the major catabolite (92% of the nucleoside and purine base fraction at 4 h ischemia). Adenosine did not accumulate (preischemic 0.08 +/- 0.02 mumol/g dry weight vs. 0.13 +/- 0.01 mumol/g dry weight; P > 0.05). AMP accumulated, but also inosine monophosphate (IMP), which was undetectable before ischemia, increased significantly during ischemia. To determine the breakdown pathway of AMP, 400 microM of the adenosine deaminase inhibitor EHNA was added to the flush solution in group II (n = 6). During ischemia, ATP breakdown was unaltered but adenosine became the major catabolite (2.8 times the concentration of hypoxanthine at 4 h ischemia). By pretreatment of the rabbits with the nucleoside transport inhibitor R 75231 (group III; n = 6) no effect was observed on the concentrations during ischemia of inosine and hypoxanthine and only a minor increase of adenosine was found. Cytochemical localization of nucleoside phosphorylase revealed activity predominantly in the endothelial cells.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The feasibility of imaging the adrenal glands during routine upper abdominal examinations was studied for 100 consecutive patients, 47 males and 53 females. The mean patient age was 46 years and the mean weight 63 kg. The suprarenal areas were scanned in a slightly oblique frontal plane through the intercostal spaces with the patient recumbent. The right adrenal gland was detected in 92 per cent of the patients, with a mean examination time of less than one minute. Visualization of the left adrenal gland was more difficult and was successful in only 71 per cent, even where additional views in the right lateral decubitus or erect position were added. The mean examination time on the left was 2 1/2 minutes. Complete visualization of the adrenal gland is impossible in one single plane because of the complex shape of the organ, which necessitates multiple contiguous scan planes. In 13 per cent of the visualized adrenals, cortex and medulla could be differentiated.