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We present a case of esophageal cancer with multiple lymph node metastases successfully performed early response evaluation for preoperative chemotherapy by FDG-PET. The decrease of SUV from baseline to 11 days after initiation of low-dose FP chemotherapy were 32.8% in the primary lesion, 60.4% in the cervical lymph node and 13.5% in the abdominal lymph node. He underwent extended radical esophagectomy 4 weeks after the end of chemotherapy. The histopathologic response was Grade 1 in the primary lesion, Grade 3 in the cervical lymph node and Grade 0 in the abdominal lymph node. The early response evaluation by FDG-PET in each lesions were consistent with histopathologic response evaluation of after chemotherapy.

An autopsy was performed on a 42-year-old Japanese female who had been suffering from both ulcerative colitis (UC) and Takayasu's disease. Her UC started at age 27 with bloody stool, and Takayasu's disease was diagnosed at age 30 on the basis of absence of pulse in her left arm. After more than ten years she died of multiple cerebral infarction. An autopsy study revealed the scarring stage of UC in the entire colon and aortitis in the aortic arch and its major branches and pulmonary arteries. Her HLA type was positive for HLA-A2, 24, Bw52 and 61. Clinical features of a total of 13 Japanese cases that had both UC and Takayasu's disease have been reviewed in the Japanese and Western literature.

The numbers and the percent of eosinophils in peripheral blood of thirty patients with primary biliary cirrhosis were serially measured and were compared with their clinical data. eosinophils of 22 patients at non icteric stage (total bilirubin less than 2.0 mg/dl) were significantly higher (P less than 0.05) than those of 8 patients at icteric stage (total bilirubin more than 2.0 mg/dl). Seven patients (23.3%) showed eosinophilia with value of 6% or more and in which four patients (13.3%) showed eosinophilia more than 8%. These eosinophilia was found in non icteric patients alone but not in icteric. In two patients who have shown eosinophilia at their non icteric stage, numbers of their eosinophils decreased gradually following the increment of their total bilirubin levels. These results would indicate that eosinophils in the peripheral bloods of PBC patients could reflect some clinical conditions at their non icteric stage.

We studied the clinical significance of serum Gc levels in the sera of patients with acute hepatic necrosis. Gc concentration were measured using an EIA in double sandwich technique with purified Gc as standard. Mean levels of serum Gc were 6.0 +/- 7.4 mg/dl in fulminant hepatitis, 20.8 +/- 13.6 mg/dl in acute hepatitis and 39.4 +/- 13.8 mg/dl in normal subjects respectively. There was slight correlation between Gc and PTT (P less than 0.05). In the observation of sequential study in patients with fulminant hepatitis, serum Gc levels of live cases elevated but those of dead cases slightly elevated, thereafter decreased. These results suggested that serum Gc levels was the useful marker as a grade of liver cell damage and a parameter of regeneration in liver cells.