Internal drainage was performed with expandable metallic stents in a 79-year-old male with lung abscess secondary to bronchogenic carcinoma. Initial external drainage was prolonged, and internalization of drainage allowed removal of the external drainage catheter. Connection of abscess cavity to obstructed bronchus was created after passing a steerable guidewire percutaneously through the abscess into the bronchus. This new type of internal drainage technique may be applicable to patients with prolonged standard percutaneous external drainage of lung abscesses.

Gianturco self-expanding metallic stents were successfully placed to treat incomplete balloon dilatation of the abdominal aorta in 2 patients with Takayasu's aortitis. In 1 case eleven 1-cm long, 1-cm diameter stents were inserted in tandem to bridge a long stenosis. In the other patient, four stents 1.5 cm long, 1.5 cm in diameter were inserted in tandem to bridge what had been a complete occlusion prior to balloon angioplasty. Clinical symptoms, as well as angiographic findings, improved significantly after placement of the stents. The patients underwent repeat aortography at 10 and 8 months, respectively, and were followed clinically for a total of 18 months and 15 months, respectively, without clinical evidence of deterioration. Our results show the usefulness of expandable metallic stents in the treatment of aortic stenosis due to Takayasu's aortitis that remains unresponsive to balloon dilatation.

Chondroitin sulfate iron colloid (CSIC), a stable iron colloid preparation, is used for the treatment of iron deficiency anemia in Japan. CSIC administered intravenously accumulates in reticuloendothelial cells and reduces the signal intensity of the liver at magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) because of its T2*-shortening effect. Accordingly, CSIC produces a contrast between normal liver tissue and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) which has diminished reticuloendothelial function, enabling improved detection of HCC by MRI. In this study, we compared CSIC-enhanced MRI with computed tomography during arterial portography (CT-AP), which is considered the most reliable imaging modality to detect HCC. Of 20 HCCs pathologically confirmed in 16 patients, 18 (90%) were detectable with CT-AP. Sixteen HCCs (80%) were detectable with unenhanced MRI. After the administration of CSIC, 18 (90%) could be detected. CSIC-enhanced MRI was found to be superior to CT-AP in the detection of HCCs in patients with portal flow abnormalities, i.e., porto-systemic shunting, laminal flow of contrast material and wedge-shaped perfusion defect. In contrast, CT-AP was found to be superior to CSIC-enhanced MRI in detecting HCCs of less than 1 cm in diameter. We consider that these imaging procedures are complementary to each other, and their combined use is the most reliable method by which to detect HCC.

A thermodynamic study of the vaporization of U-0.3 at%Fe alloy was performed by using the Knudsen-effusion mass spectrometric method in the temperature range of 1,780~2,180 K. Vapor pressures of U and Fe were determined as a function of temperature and the activity coefficients were derived which were compared with the activity coefficients calculated from phase diagrams. Both experimental and calculated values of Fe activity coefficient were considerably small and agreed well with each other, suggesting the estimation method of this study to be appropriate.

Vaporization of a series of U-Zr alloys, a fundamental subsystem of the promising metallic fuel U-Pu-Zr, was studied by using a tantalum Knudsen cell coupled with a mass spectrometer in the temperature range 1700–2060 K. Thermodynamic activities, partial molar Gibbs free energies and integral molar Gibbs free energies of mixing were calculated from the partial vapor pressures of uranium over these alloys. The activities of uranium exhibit negative deviations from ideality, especially in the uranium-rich composition region. Both the solidus and liquidus lines for this system estimated from the activities show negative deviations from the tentative phase diagram previously reported.