[A study on relation between active pulmonary tuberculosis and underlying diseases]

A study was made on the relation between active pulmonary tuberculosis and underlying diseases in 119 tuberculosis patients. Out of total 119 patients, 87 patients (73.1%) had underlying diseases. The most common underlying disease was diabetes mellitus in 34 patients (39.1%), followed by HCV (+) chronic hepatitis, sequela of cerebral infarction, hypertension and gastric ulcer. In patients who had underlying diseases, the mean age was higher, proportion of sputum smear positive cases was higher, albumin was lower, and period until sputum culture negative conversion was longer. In patients who had diabetes mellitus, proportion of cases with cavity on chest X-P was higher, and in patients who had sequela of cerebral infarction or hypertension, mean age was higher. In patients who had diabetes mellitus and whose HbA1C was > or = 9%, proportion of smear positive cases was higher, albumin was lower and period until culture negative conversion was longer than in patients who had diabetes mellitus and whose HbA1c was < 9%, suggesting that control of blood sugar in diabetes mellitus related to severity of pulmonary tuberculosis. In patients who had diabetes mellitus and whose albumin was < 3 g/dl, period until culture negative conversion was longer than in patients who had diabetes mellitus and whose albumin was > or = 3 g/dl. In patients who had underlying diseases, these diseases caused decline of tuberculous immunity and nutritional disturbance represented by lower albumin also promoted decline of tuberculous immunity. It is suggested that the underlying diseases affected the onset and progression of pulmonary tuberculosis.

Lens-free in-line optical isolators

We constructed a lens-free in-line optical isolator by embedding an isolator chip in a thermally expanded core (TEC) fiber without complicated optical alignment. The chip consists of two pairs of rutile wedges and garnet plates. We fabricated the TEC fibers by heating a single-mode fiber with a 200-mum outer diameter; low loss and a spot diameter as large as 49 mum were successfully obtained. The fabricated isolator has excellent optical properties, an insertion loss of 0.45 dB, and an isolation of more than 50 dB at a 1.55-mum wavelength, which confirms the usefulness of the integration techniques.

[Familial occurrence of von Hippel-Lindau disease--a case report]

It is well known that von Hippel-Lindau disease is defined as the association of retinal angiomatosis and cerebellar hemangioblastomas. This disease is frequently associated with extra-neural vascular neoplasma, especially visceral angiomatous tumors. In this paper we report the familial occurrence of von Hippel-Lindau disease in a 55-year-old mother and her 24-year-old son. The mother had simultaneous multiple angiomas of the liver, stomach and head of the pancreas. The initial symptom was sudden onset of vertigo, possibly caused by a slow-growing cystic cerebellar lesion. An apparent genetic factor indicates that clinical settings begin in the early life of the patients.