Activity

  • Lacroix Bowen posted an update 3 weeks, 1 day ago

    A 43-year-old woman with no past medical history presented with a complaint of left nasal swelling, with finding of a tumor resected on September 2015. Nineteen months later, a growing recurrent mass was noticed in the surgical bed, with subsequent examination by contrast-enhanced computed tomography, where an expansive lesion on the left nasal wing was noted, infiltrating the subcutaneous tissue, nasal cavity and tear duct (Figure 1).Background Right anterior minithoracotomy (RAMT) is an alternative to full or partial sternotomy for accessing the aortic valve. The adoption of this approach for aortic valve replacement has been limited by its perceived technical complexity. Resection of a mobile aortic valve tumor is a simple procedure that is conventionally done through a sternotomy. Aim The following case describes the resection of an aortic valve papillary fibroelastoma through an RAMT. Materials & methods This is a report on a single patient’s case. Results The fibroelastoma was safely excised through a RAMT approach. Discussion An aortic valve fibroelastoma offers an ideal starting point for surgeons to begin using a RAMT approach. Conclusion The excision of aortic valve masses is a procedure that is well suited to minimally invasive strategies, and we suggest sternum-sparing RAMT is the optimal approach.Multiphoton microscopy (MPM) is a promising non-invasive imaging tool for discriminating benign nevi from melanoma. In this study, we establish a MPM morphologic catalogue of common nevi, information that will be critical in devising strategies to distinguish them from nevi that are evolving to melanoma that may present with more subtle signs of malignancy. Thirty common melanocytic nevi were imaged in vivo using MPM. Quantitative parameters that can distinguish between different types of nevi were developed and confirmed by examining the histology of eleven of the imaged nevi. MPM features of nevi examined included cytologic morphology of melanocytes in the epidermis and dermis, the size and distribution of nevomelanocytes both within and around nests, the size of rete ridges, and the presence of immune cells in the dermis. Distinguishing features include cytological morphology, the size of nevomelanocytes, the size of nevomelanocyte nests, and the distribution of nevomelanocytes. Notably, these distinguishing characteristics were not easily appreciated in fixed tissues, highlighting essential differences in the morphology of live skin. Taken together, this work provides a morphologic compendium of normal nevi, information that will be critical in future studies directed at identifying melanocytic nevi that are evolving to melanoma.Combined use of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin was globally adopted, in part due to paucity and high cost of alternative therapies. However the utility of these medications has been questioned; and thus safety becomes a major concern given clinical equipoise regarding efficacy. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.In 2019, the annual congress of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) was held in Madrid, Spain with around 13,000 visitors from over 100 countries, providing a jaw dropping number of 1,280 lectures and 1,941 posters1 . Because of the sheer volume, it is hard to grasp which topics were especially focused on and which, conversely, were rather underrepresented. An upcoming computational method to process, analyze, and visualize big data of any size to make it accessible for interpretation is network analysis,, which is widely used in social and political sciences2,3 but rarely in the medical field4,5 . Terephthalic chemical To gain an in-depth insight into the EADV 2019, its collaborators and themes, we performed a network analysis based on the titles of all lectures and posters Data were extracted from the official program pdf file using tabula v1.2.1 open-source software6 and then preprocessed using custom written python code. The extracted data were first split into titles, countries, cities, and authors, cleaned from filling words like ‘and’ and standardized e.g. ‘Acne inversa’ and ‘Hidradenitis suppurativa’.The migration of sternal wires into vital structures is a rare but potentially life-threatening complication and associated with infection in some cases. While a few cases have been reported the sternal wires were broken in those cases. To our knowledge, this is the first report of multiple, nonbroken, migrated sternal wires stabbing vascular grafts.Paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy (PIPN) is often associated with neuropathic pain and neuroinflammation in the central and peripheral nervous system. Antihypertensive drug losartan, an angiotensin II receptor type 1 (AT1R) blocker, was shown to have anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects in disease models, predominantly via activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ). Here, the effect of systemic losartan treatment (100 mg/kg/d) on mechanical allodynia and neuroinflammation was evaluated in rat PIPN model. The expression of pro-inflammatory markers protein and mRNA levels in dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) and spinal cord dorsal horn (SCDH) were measured with Western blot, ELISA and qPCR 10 and 21 days after PIPN induction. Losartan treatment attenuated mechanical allodynia significantly. Paclitaxel induced overexpression of C-C motif chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2), tumour necrosis alpha (TNFα) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in DRGs, where the presence of macrophages was demonstrated. Neuroinflammatory changes in DRGs were accompanied with glial activation and pro-nociceptive modulators production in SCDH. Losartan significantly attenuated paclitaxel-induced neuroinflammatory changes and induced expression of pro-resolving markers (Arginase 1 and IL-10) indicating a possible shift in macrophage polarization. Considering the safety profile of losartan, acting also as partial PPARγ agonist, it may be considered as a novel treatment strategy for PIPN patients.Multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis is a worldwide problem, and there is an urgent need for host-derived therapeutic targets, circumventing emerging drug resistance. We have previously shown that hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (Hif-1α) stabilisation helps the host to clear mycobacterial infection via neutrophil activation. However, Hif-1α stabilisation has also been implicated in chronic inflammatory diseases caused by prolonged neutrophilic inflammation. Comorbid infection and inflammation can be found together in disease settings, and it remains unclear whether Hif-1α stabilisation would be beneficial in a holistic disease setting. Here, we set out to understand the effects of Hif-1α on neutrophil behaviour in a comorbid setting by combining two well-characterised in vivo zebrafish models – TB infection (Mycobacterium marinum infection) and sterile injury (tailfin transection). Using a local Mm infection near to the tailfin wound site caused neutrophil migration between the two sites that was reduced during Hif-1α stabilisation.