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Saccomanno変法のブレンダーとして, DREMEL社製の装置に別途製作したスクリューつきシャフトを接続したものを紹介した. 操作や消毒が簡単なので喀痰の集検に役立つ. このブレンダーを用い, 同一検体につき10,000rpm (LG) と21,000rpm (HG) の2群にわけて細胞所見を比較した. 観察の対象は肺癌23例 (扁平上皮癌12, 腺癌8, 小細胞癌3) である. 単個の扁平上皮化生細胞数は肺癌の組織型と関連性はないが, 扁平上皮癌には高度の異型化生細胞が著しく多くみられた. 攪拌回転数を半減しても扁平上皮化生細胞のclusterの分散に影響はみられない. LGとHGの問で有意差を示したものは次の3項目である. (1) 扁平上皮癌はHGで密集しやすい. (2) 腺癌では疎結合がHGに多く, 密集を保つものはLGに多い. (3) 変性細胞はHGに多い. 有意差はないが小細胞癌でもHGで密集の傾向が強い. 以上から攪拌回転数について21,000rpmにこだわらず, 細胞形態に最も影響の少ない攪拌法を検討してみたい.

Sialyl stage-specific mouse embryonic antigen (SSEA-1) levels were measured in pleural effusions obtained from patients with lung cancer and benign pulmonary disease, using a solid-phase immunoradiometric sandwich assay. The mean (+/- SEM) levels (unit/ml) of pleural fluid sialyl SSEA-1 were 3620 +/- 1419 in adenocarcinoma (n = 25), 123 +/- 30 in nonadenocarcinoma (n = 13) and 95 +/- 19 in benign pulmonary disease (n = 13), respectively. The positive rate was 64% in adenocarcinoma, 7.7% in nonadenocarcinoma, and 0% in benign pulmonary disease, respectively, when a cutoff level was defined as the mean + 3 SD value (300 unit/ml) based on pleural fluid sialyl SSEA-1 levels in benign pulmonary disease. There was a significant positive correlation between pleural fluid levels of sialyl SSEA-1 and those of carcinoembryonic antigen in adenocarcinoma patients (r = 0.8246, P less than 0.01). Pleural fluid sialyl SSEA-1 levels correlated with cytologic findings in adenocarcinoma patients. These observations suggest that sialyl SSEA-1 in pleural effusion is a useful marker to discriminate malignant from nonmalignant and adenocarcinoma from nonadenocarcinoma of the lung.