John R. Schenken

Acute isolated myocarditis

Abstract The term “acute isolated myocarditis,” now used instead of “acute primary myocarditis,” should designate a disease in which inflammation of the myocardium is the only important active acute lesion in the body. The disease may be due to actual infection of the myocardium, or, as in experimental animals and very probably in man, to the effect of chemical action alone or chemical and other factors acting simultaneously on the heart. In some cases the etiology remains obscure, hence the term “idiopathic.” The disease regularly runs its full course without being recognized, despite the fact that it has been periodically considered and quite well defined in the foreign medical literature during the past thirty-six years. It is only recently that a few reports have appeared in the American literature. Our recent experience with a case prompted us to make a survey of the literature, from which we learned that there is a group of symptoms which seem distinctive. Our survey was extended to include the various chemicals used singly or in combination in the experimental production of acute myocarditis. We wished to know particularly whether experimental myocarditis paralleled acute isolated myocarditis in severity of injury and reaction. Our own case afforded an unusually good opportunity to study the development of the myocardial lesions. By reporting it, and summarizing the important clinical and pathologic characteristics of all the cases in the literature, we hope to facilitate the diagnosis of this elusive disease.

A study and classification of nodular lesions of the fallopian tubes

Abstract 1. 1. Three hundred and twenty-nine nodules in the walls of Fallopian tubes of two hundred and eight patients were studied. 2. 2. Eighty-one and seven-tenths per cent of the nodules were due to diverticula of tubal epithelium alone or in association with acute or chronic inflammatory lesions. We have suggested the term diverticulosis of the Fallopian tubes for these types of lesions. 3. 3. Eleven and two-tenths per cent of the nodules were due to inflammatory lesions without diverticulosis; six and seven-tenths per cent were due to endometriosis and three-tenths per cent were due to metastatic carcinoma of the endometrium.

Quantitative Studies on Relationship Between Estrogen and Mammary Gland Carcinoma in Strain C3H Mice

Summary 1. Beginning at the age of 2 weeks, 122 non-breeding male strain C3H mice were treated with estrogen for varying periods of time. At the end of the specified course of injections the mice received no further treatment until they died or were sacrificed. 2. Four weekly doses of 100 rat units of estrogen produced no mammary gland carcinomas; 8 and 12 weekly doses of 100 rat units produced a low incidence of these tumors. 3. After 16 weekly doses of 100 rat units of estrogen had been given a relatively high percentage of carcinoma of the mammary gland developed; the administration of 20 weekly doses or an average of 32.7 weekly doses of 100 rat units did not raise the incidence of tumors above this level. 4. Three thousand rat units of estrogen administered over a period of 3 days at the age of 2 weeks produced no tumors.

Acute isolated myocarditis: Report of a case due to micro-aerophylic streptococcus hemolyticus☆

1. 1. A case of diffuse type of acute isolated myocarditis is reported. 2. 2. A micro-aerophylic Streptococcus hemolyticus was isolated in pure culture from the myocardium. Cultures of the blood and spleen remained sterile. 3. 3. Many cases of acute isolated myocarditis are probably due to an infectious agent, but the failure to recognize the condition clinically or grossly at necropsy has prevented proper bacteriologic studies.

Occurrence of Urinary Calculi in Inbred Strain (C3H) of Mice Treated with Estrogen

Summary Urinary calculi occurred in 33.1% of the 151 strain C3H male mice treated with estogren, and in 4.1% of 96 controls. The highest incidence was noted in mice 5 months of age or older, which had received from 9 to 20 weekly injections of 100 rat units. The calculi appeared at an earlier age in the treated animals.