We report on a patient with left upper quadrant pain as a result of splenic infarction; the patient was subsequently found to have a thoracoabdominal aortic thrombus extending through the celiac axis. The patient was successfully treated with an aortic thrombectomy guided by intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography.

Renal allografts and isografts were carried out between and within inbred strains of rats. All recipients were Lewis rats. Brown-Norway rats were used as allograft donors. All grafted animals retained their own kidneys and immunosuppression was not used. Daily 24-hr fluorescence assay of the urinary excretion of histamine revealed a three-to-four fold higher level of histamine excretion by allografted animals than by isografted ones (P < 0.005). This finding suggests an involvement of histamine metabolism in cellular immunity and the biochemical processes involved in organ allograft rejection.

The normal or “resting” level of thymic histidine decarboxylase (HDC) enzyme activity in rats has been found to be quite high in comparison with the normal or “resting” levels observed in prior studies of other lymphoid organs. The resting level of activity is affected by age. It is higher in young rats and lower in old rats. The effect of organ allografting (heart and kidney) and of nonallografting surgical stress (renal isografting and simple laparotomy) on thymic HDC activity in the initial 10 days following operation was studied in 113 inbred Lewis rats. Both organ allografting and simple surgical stress produced a marked early (days 1 and 2) depression in thymic HDC activity. A significant later increase in thymic HDC activity above normal levels occurred after cardiac allografting. A mild decrease in thymic weights occurred. Lower thymic weights often were associated with high levels of thymic HDC activity. It is suggested that thymic HDC activity may play an important role in normal thymus function and in the thymic response to immunologic and nonimmunologic surgical stress. These changes may be involved in the release and recruitment of lymphoid cells to and from lymphoid organs and also may be related to changes in the metabolism of other vasoactive substances in thymic and other lymphoid tissues, to vasoactive substance receptors on lymphocytes, and to levels of lymphoid cellular cyclic adenosine monophosphate (AMP) activity.

One hundred and ninety-nine cases of major abdominal and thoracic surgical procedures for trauma in childhood and adolescence have been reported. One-third were in children under 13. The ratio of blunt to penetrating trauma was 8:1 in the childhood group with most injuries occurring in the 5- to 7-yr age range. The highest death rate occurred in children under 5. In adolescents, the ratio of penetrating to nonpenetrating trauma was 2:1.

Major injury to hollow abdominal viscera was encountered in 16 of 112 children and adolescents who were operated on because of symptoms resulting from blunt abdominal trauma (14 per cent). Eighty-one per cent of the injuries resulted from automobile or motorcycle accidents. Seven of the sixteen injuries (44 per cent) involved the duodenum or jejunum relatively close to the fixed area of the ligament of Treitz, two (13 per cent) the extrahepatic biliary tract, and seven (44 per cent) the urinary tract. No more than one hollow abdominal viscus was injured in any case.

Analysis of kinin-forming activity in central systemic (intracardiac) blood was carried out at intervals after fifty kidney allografts were constructed in inbred strains of rats (BN to Lewis). Recipient animals' kidneys were left intact and immunosuppression was not used. Levels of kallikrein, prekallikrein, and kallikrein inhibitor were obtained.

The twenty-four hour urinary excretion of histamine was determined daily in five rats for nine days after sheep red blood cell (SRBC) immunization. Our prior and current studies in rats have shown an increase in splenic and gastric histamine formation by elevated histidine decarboxylase activity after SRBC immunization.