Mitsusuke Murakami

Internal spermatic vein prostaglandins in varicocele patients

Blood was collected from 20 patients with varicocele (15 in the infertile group and 5 in the incidental varicocele group) at the time of high ligation by insertion of a catheter into the internal spermatic vein toward the renal side. Simultaneously, blood was obtained from the antecubital vein. The levels of cortisol, prostaglandin (PG)(A + B), PGE, and PGF in these blood samples were measured. Although no differences in cortisol and PG(A + B) levels were observed between internal spermatic and peripheral vein bloods in varicocele patients examined, PGE and PGF levels were higher in internal spermatic venous bloods than in peripheral venous bloods. Differences in PGF levels between the samples of blood from the internal spermatic vein and from the peripheral vein in cases of the infertile group were larger than those of the incidental varicocele group. PGE and PGF in internal spermatic vein blood samples were correlated. The possibility that PGE and PGF, refluxed from the renal vein to the testes via the internal spermatic vein in varicocele patients, disturbs spermatogenesis is discussed.

The Incidence of Cystinuria in Japan

Screening tests for cystinuria were done in approximately 110,000 children and students. The rates of discovery were chemical cystinuria 920 to 1, cystine crystalluria 16,000 to 1 and homozygous cystinuria 18,000 to 1 (8,000 to 1 if a correction was made by the rates of performances of secondary screening and urinary amino acid assay). No stone formation was observed in a 7-year followup of 6 patients considered to be homozygotes. A correlation was observed between urinary cystine and urinary uric acid levels in 39 cases of chemical cystinuria.