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A 77-year-old male was admitted to our hospital for a bulky abdominal mass. He had a history of appendectomy under the diagnosis of appendiceal rupture 23 years previously. He also had received a radical lung resection for an early lung cancer 2 years earlier in another hospital. Tentative diagnosis of peritoneal metastases from the lung cancer was made. He then received 3 courses of chemotherapy, but failed to reach a remission. The final diagnosis of pseudomyxoma peritonei was made by means of abdominocentesis, and he underwent debulking surgery. However, he died on day 56 after the surgery. Pseudomyxoma peritonei requires careful observation, as it has the possibility to be detected after a long-term follow-up period of more than 20 years.

OBJECTIVES Prior studies have indicated that endogenous or exogenous cholecystokinin (CCK) induces transient acinar cell proliferation at about 24 hours after its stimulation. The aims of the present study were to determine the time point when the administration of the CCK-A-receptor antagonist loxiglumide had its maximal suppressive effect on the proliferation of pancreatic acinar cells and to investigate the effects of loxiglumide on the cell cycle time of pancreatic acinar cells during transient acinar cell proliferation induced by endogenous or exogenous CCK. METHODS Eight-week-old Wistar rats were divided into the following groups: preadministration of loxiglumide (40 mg/kg) intravenously at 120, 60, and 0 minutes before endogenous CCK stimulation induced by a single oral administration of camostat (50 mg/kg) or exogenous CCK stimulation by a subcutaneous injection of CCK-8 (6 g/kg body weight). For the controls, intravenous saline was used instead of loxiglumide (n = 7 in each group). The proliferative activity of pancreatic acinar cells at 24 hours after CCK stimulation and the cell cycle time of these proliferating pancreatic acinar cells were studied using an immunohistochemical technique. RESULTS The most significant suppression of the proliferation of the acinar cells was observed in those groups which received loxiglumide 60 minutes before CCK stimulation (P < 0.016), but preadministration of loxiglumide had no effect on the cell cycle time of the proliferating acinar cells (not significant). CONCLUSION CCK antagonist loxiglumide is expected as an excellent clinical applicable agent for acute pancreatitis. Previous researches suggest that CCK is an aggravating factor during the acute phase of acute pancreatitis, but CCK may be a healing factor during the recovery period. From the results of the present study, it can be said that the excess chronic administration of CCK antagonists during the acute phase of acute pancreatitis may prevent any regrowth of pancreatic cells during the healing period of acute pancreatitis.

Kaposi's sarcoma is an uncommon neoplasm that occasionally involves the gastrointestinal tract in immunosuppressed individuals. Infection with human herpes virus 8 is known to be necessary for developing all forms of Kaposi's sarcoma. We report a renal transplant recipient who developed visceral Kaposi's sarcoma 18 months after the transplantation. In Oriental countries, the incidence of Kaposi's sarcoma is extremely low, and this is the first case of Kaposi's sarcoma arising from a transplant recipient in Japan. Standard forceps biopsies of the gastric lesions failed to make the correct diagnosis. However, endoscopic resection successfully led to the correct diagnosis of Kaposi's sarcoma and herpes simplex virus 8 infection as well. This is the first report of a patient with visceral Kaposi's sarcoma who underwent endoscopic resection that reliably confirmed histological diagnosis and the viral genome at the same time.

OBJECTIVES Increased dispersion of the QT interval has been proposed to be a novel marker for increased risk of ventricular arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death. This study examined whether QT dispersion is affected in patients with alcoholic pancreatitis. METHODS We measured the QT interval, corrected QT interval, activation recovery interval, activation time, recovery time, and their respective dispersions in 3 age- and gender-matched groups: patients with alcoholic pancreatitis [age, 58.9 +/- 11.8 years; male/female (M/F), 33/3], patients with alcohol dependence (age, 59.3 +/- 8.9 years; M/F, 33/4), and a healthy control group (age, 55.8 +/- 8.8 years; M/F, 33/3). RESULTS The QT dispersions in patients with alcoholic pancreatitis (62.4 +/- 19.9 milliseconds; P < 0.001) or alcohol dependence (58.2 +/- 19.6 milliseconds; P < 0.001) were significantly greater than in the control group (41.4 +/- 13.3 milliseconds). Similarly, the corrected QT dispersions in patients with alcoholic pancreatitis (68.5 +/- 22.8 milliseconds; P < 0.001) or alcohol dependence (65.3 +/- 23.6 milliseconds; P < 0.001) were significantly greater than in the control group (42.8 +/- 13.2 milliseconds). Both QT dispersion and QTc dispersion were longer in patients with alcoholic pancreatitis than those with alcohol dependence (P = 0.011 and P = 0.039, respectively). Simple linear regression analysis of the relationship between the RR and QT intervals revealed that the regression lines for patients with alcoholic pancreatitis and alcohol dependence were almost parallel. However, the slope of the regression line for the control group was significantly greater (P < 0.05) than for the other 2 lines. CONCLUSION The findings demonstrate increased QT and QTc dispersions in patients with either alcoholic pancreatitis or alcohol dependence. The QT dispersion and QTc dispersion were longer in patients with alcoholic pancreatitis than those with alcohol dependence.

Acute pancreatitis is not commonly seen in the first presentation of pancreatic neoplasms. Solid pseudopapillary tumor as a cause of acute pancreatitis has not yet been reported. This is the first report of acute pancreatitis resulting from solid pseudopapillary tumor.We report the case of a 21-year-old female who presented with a sudden onset of severe abdominal pain associated with elevated serum pancreatic enzyme concentration. The initial diagnosis was acute pancreatitis. However, subsequent ultrasonography and computed tomography showed an abdominal mass in the tail of the pancreas, retroperitoneal fluid and left pleural effusion. There was scarce pain relief even with large doses of analgesics. A distal pancreatectomy was then performed and a final diagnosis of solid pseudopapillary tumor was made histologically. The surrounding pancreatic tissue was characterized as hemorrhagic edematous pancreatitis.Solid pseudopapillary tumor is generally known as a slow-growing pancreatic neoplasm with few, if any, symptoms. However, solid pseudopapillary tumors should be kept in mind as a possible cause of acute pancreatitis, especially in cases of non-alcoholic young women having an acute pancreatitis attack.