Overall, approximately 1% of ectopic pregnancies are abdominal pregnancies, which can be life-threatening even when surgical intervention with laparotomy is performed. We present a case in which abdominal pregnancy was successfully managed by operative laparoscopy. A 25 year old Japanese woman presented 6 weeks after her last menstruation with elevated basal body temperature, lower abdominal pain, and light vaginal bleeding. The urinary human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) concentration was 2137 IU/I, and laparoscopic findings (i.e. the implantation site was the posterior serosa of the uterus with normal adnexae) established a diagnosis of primary abdominal pregnancy. The gestational product was completely removed by laparoscopic surgery with no uncontrollable loss of blood. The urinary concentration of HCG declined rapidly and the patient made an uneventful recovery. Operative laparoscopy is a safe alternative for the management of appropriately selected patients with early abdominal pregnancy.

Epidural anesthesia, when used in laparoscopic surgery for infertility treatment, has advantages over general anesthesia in terms of analgesic effects, postoperative respiratory function, and a return to preoperative daily activities.

A protein which resembles spectrin from mammalian erythrocyte or brain was found in sea urchin eggs. This protein comigrated with mammalian a-spectrin on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, bound brain calmodulin in the presence of both 6 M urea and Ca", and cross-reacted with antibodies against chicken erythrocyte spectrin. It appeared to be a flexible, rod-like molecule as observed by lowangle rotary shadowing electron microscopy. Attachment ofthis protein to the actin filament was also observed.