What makes the difference between the natural course of a remaining type B dissection after type A repair and a primary type B aortic dissection?

To analyse the outcome and need for intervention [surgery or thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR)] in patients after surgery for remaining type B dissection after type A repair and primary type B aortic dissection.

Clinical course of a malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor in a Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica)

A 14-year-old male Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) was admitted with an ulcerating mass on the right thoracic wall. Radiographic and computed tomographic evaluation indicated 2 isolated cutaneous masses without any signs of metastasis. Histology of a Tru-Cut biopsy revealed an anaplastic sarcoma with giant cells. Both tumors were resected with appropriate normal tissue margins. The size of the defect did not allow primary closure of the wound; therefore, a mesh expansion technique was attempted. Three months later, the tiger had to be euthanized due to extensive metastasis to the lungs. Histomorphological features and immunohistochemical results confirmed the diagnosis of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor. In contrast to domestic animal experience, the tumor had spread extensively to the lungs without local reccurrence in a short period of time. Correct diagnosis requires various immunohistochemical evaluations of the tumor tissue.

Do Central Hypersensitivity and Altered Pain Modulation Predict the Course of Chronic Low Back and Neck Pain?

OBJECTIVES:: Widespread central hypersensitivity and altered conditioned pain modulation (CPM) have been documented in chronic pain conditions. Information on their prognostic values is limited. This study tested the hypothesis that widespread central hypersensitivity (WCH) and altered CPM, assessed during the chronic phase of low back and neck pain, predict poor outcome. METHODS:: A total of 169 consecutive patients with chronic low back or neck pain, referred to the pain clinic during 1 year, were analyzed. Pressure pain tolerance threshold at the second toe and tolerance time during cold pressor test at the hand assessed WCH. CPM was measured by the change in pressure pain tolerance threshold (test stimulus) after cold pressor test (conditioning stimulus). A structured telephone interview was performed 12 to 15 months after testing to record outcome parameters. Linear regression models were used, with average and maximum pain intensity of the last 24 hours at follow-up as endpoints. Multivariable analyses included sex, age, catastrophizing scale, Beck Depression Inventory, pain duration, intake of opioids, and type of pain syndrome. RESULTS:: Statistically significant reductions from baseline to follow-up were observed in pain intensity (P<0.001). No evidence for an association between the measures of WCH or CPM and intensity of chronic pain at follow-up was found. DISCUSSION:: A major predictive value of the measures that we used is unlikely. Future studies adopting other assessment modalities and possibly standardized treatments are needed to further elucidate the prognostic value of WCH and altered CPM in chronic pain.

Gerbu adjuvant modulates the immune response and thus the course of infection in C56BL/6 mice immunised with Echinococcus multilocularis rec14-3-3 protein

Vaccination with Echinococcus multilocularis 14-3-3 protein can protect mice against primary E. multilocularis infection. The present study investigated the efficacy and efficiency of the adjuvant muramyl dipeptide Gerbu, alone or together with recombinant 14-3-3 protein, to modulate the course of secondary E. multilocularis infection in C56BL/6 mice. The application of Gerbu alone already resulted in a parasite weight reduction when compared with infected control mice, while rec14-3-3 did not add to this effect. Immunological parameters were concurrently assessed with a mixed cell reaction including bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) together with lymph node cells from mice with or without immunisation and/or infection. While mice having received Gerbu adjuvant were found to highly proliferate in response to co-cultivation with 14-3-3-stimulated bone marrow dendritic cells, a sensitisation of BMDCs with vesicle fluid (VF) antigen lead to a striking decrease of the lymphoproliferative response in comparison to that of control mice, raising the hypothesis that immunosuppressive components may be part of this VF-antigen. Anti-14-3-3 antibody production was only found in those mice that had been previously 14-3-3-immunised, whereas all other only-infected mice failed to produce such antibodies. Conclusively, Gerbu adjuvant appears to directly generate a non-specific immune response that contributes to the control of the metacestode growth, putatively in association with a BMDC activity suppressed by components of the VF-antigen.

[Improve your skills!: evaluation of a 2.5-day basic course in vascular surgery for surgical trainees]

The traditional surgical training in the operating room (OR) is often complemented by participation in workshops and on simulators. The foundation Vascular International offers basic courses for vascular surgery techniques with training on pulsatile circulation, lifelike anatomical models. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of a 2.5-day intensive course on basic skills in vascular surgery.

Time course based artifact identification for independent components of resting-state FMRI

In functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) coherent oscillations of the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal can be detected. These arise when brain regions respond to external stimuli or are activated by tasks. The same networks have been characterized during wakeful rest when functional connectivity of the human brain is organized in generic resting-state networks (RSN). Alterations of RSN emerge as neurobiological markers of pathological conditions such as altered mental state. In single-subject fMRI data the coherent components can be identified by blind source separation of the pre-processed BOLD data using spatial independent component analysis (ICA) and related approaches. The resulting maps may represent physiological RSNs or may be due to various artifacts. In this methodological study, we propose a conceptually simple and fully automatic time course based filtering procedure to detect obvious artifacts in the ICA output for resting-state fMRI. The filter is trained on six and tested on 29 healthy subjects, yielding mean filter accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of 0.80, 0.82, and 0.75 in out-of-sample tests. To estimate the impact of clearly artifactual single-subject components on group resting-state studies we analyze unfiltered and filtered output with a second level ICA procedure. Although the automated filter does not reach performance values of visual analysis by human raters, we propose that resting-state compatible analysis of ICA time courses could be very useful to complement the existing map or task/event oriented artifact classification algorithms.