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Background and Purpose: The safety of bare platinum coils has been widely described in the literature. This study aimed to report the first series of intracranial aneurysms treated with Barricade bare platinum coils with a comprehensive evaluation of their procedural safety and postprocedural anatomical results., Methods: Patients with intracranial aneurysms treated between October 2013 and December 2015 by simple coiling or balloon-assisted coiling with Barricade coils (Blockade Medical, Irvine, California, USA) were prospectively included in a database and retrospectively studied. For all included patients, the patient and aneurysm characteristics, procedural complications, technical issues, postoperative anatomical results, and one-month clinical outcome (modified Rankin Scale) were evaluated by an independent interventional neuroradiologist., Results: Eighty-eight patients harboring 97 aneurysms were included. Procedural complications and technical issues were encountered in 17 and 5 patients (19.3 and 5.7%, respectively), but clinical worsening in only 2 patients (2.2%). There was no treatment-related mortality. After one month, morbidity (mRS≥1) was observed in 19 patients (21.8%), 17 related to subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) in patients with ruptured aneurysms (19.4%) and 2 related to thromboembolic events in patients with unruptured aneurysms (2.3%). Nine patients initially presenting with a ruptured aneurysm were deceased at 1 month as a consequence of SAH (10.2%). Adequate occlusion was observed postoperatively in 94.8% of the aneurysms (complete occlusion in 81.4% and residual neck in 13.4%)., Conclusion: Endovascular treatment of intracranial aneurysms with Barricade coils is feasible and the demonstrated overall safety results are within the ranges found in the literature for other coils. Immediate anatomical results are satisfying., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

The aetiology of breast cancer is multifactorial. While there are known genetic predispositions to the disease it is probable that environmental factors are also involved. Recent research has demonstrated a regionally specific distribution of aluminium in breast tissue mastectomies while other work has suggested mechanisms whereby breast tissue aluminium might contribute towards the aetiology of breast cancer. We have looked to develop microwave digestion combined with a new form of graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry as a precise, accurate and reproducible method for the measurement of aluminium in breast tissue biopsies. We have used this method to test the thesis that there is a regional distribution of aluminium across the breast in women with breast cancer. Microwave digestion of whole breast tissue samples resulted in clear homogenous digests perfectly suitable for the determination of aluminium by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. The instrument detection limit for the method was 0.48 μg/L. Method blanks were used to estimate background levels of contamination of 14.80 μg/L. The mean concentration of aluminium across all tissues was 0.39 μg Al/g tissue dry wt. There were no statistically significant regionally specific differences in the content of aluminium. We have developed a robust method for the precise and accurate measurement of aluminium in human breast tissue. There are very few such data currently available in the scientific literature and they will add substantially to our understanding of any putative role of aluminium in breast cancer. While we did not observe any statistically significant differences in aluminium content across the breast it has to be emphasised that herein we measured whole breast tissue and not defatted tissue where such a distribution was previously noted. We are very confident that the method developed herein could now be used to provide accurate and reproducible data on the aluminium content in defatted tissue and oil from such tissues and thereby contribute towards our knowledge on aluminium and any role in breast cancer., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: HER2 depended signalling pathway is dereg-ulated in a subset of non small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). The tumor suppressor gene PTEN (10q21) regulates the HER2/PI3K/Akt signalling pathway. Our aim was to evaluate PTEN protein expression in NSCLC based on a quantitative analysis method correlating also the results with clinicopathological parameters., Methods: Protein expression was determined by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in 61 paraffin-embedded cases of patients with NSCLC. Digital image analysis (staining intensity levels) was performed in the corresponding immunostained slides., Results: Loss of PTEN expression was observed in 24 (39.34%) cases, low expression in 29 (47.54%) and overexpression in 8 (13.12%) cases. Multivariate analysis determined that PTEN overexpression was associated with lower risk to develop metastases (p=0.05)., Conclusion: PTEN deregulation is a relatively frequent genetic event in NSCLC, associated with progressive metastatic process in those patients. Because of binding to the ErbB2 receptor, trastuzumab stabilizes and activates PTEN gene, and loss of its expression negatively affects the response rates in such patients.

Design and development of novel targeted therapeutic strategies is an innovation in handling patients with solid malignancies including breast, colon, lung, head & neck or even pancreatic and hepatocellular carcinoma. For a long time, immunohistocytochemistry (IHC/ICC) has been performed as a routine method in almost all labs for evaluating protein expression. Modern molecular approaches show that identification of specific structural and numerical imbalances regarding genes involved in signal transduction pathways provide important data to the oncologists. Alterations in molecules such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), HER2/neu, PTEN or Topoisomerase IIa affect the response rates to specific chemotherapeutic agents modifying also patients' prognostic rates. In situ hybridization (ISH) techniques based on fluorescence and chromogenic variants (FISH/CISH) or silver in situ hybridization (SISH) are applicable in both tissue and cell substrates. Concerning cytological specimens, FISH/CISH analysis appears to be a fast and very accurate method in estimating gene/chromosome ratios. In this paper, we sought to evaluate the usefulness of FISH/ CISH analysis in cytological specimens, describing also the advantages and disadvantages of these methods from the technical point of view.

Since hepatorenal syndrome is a functional renal failure due to renal ischemia in cirrhotics with refractory ascites, we investigated whether increased intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) impairs the renal function and perfusion in cirrhotic portal hypertensive rats. Eight groups of 32 rats each were studied, including 4 control and 4 CCl(4) cirrhotic groups. These were subdivided into two groups each, with and without an increased IAP, and further subdivided into groups of rats with and without NO inhibition. IAP was increased to 20 mm Hg for 7 consecutive days by means of an intraperitoneally placed balloon filled with water. The animals were studied in normal conditions and after inhibition of NO synthesis. Changes in mean arterial pressure and renal microcirculation by means of femoral artery catheterization and laser-Doppler technique, respectively, were recorded. Venous samples for determination of plasma renin-aldosterone activity, biochemical parameters of liver and renal function, and plasma nitrite/nitrate levels as an index of NO synthesis were drawn. Cirrhotic rats showed decreased renal microcirculation (P = 0.05), while elevated IAP produced a further decrease (P = 0.01). Renin-aldosterone levels found increased (P = 0.001) in cirrhotics, and elevated IAP produced a further increase (P = 0.01] in both groups. Inhibition of NO synthesis resulted in a nonsignificant decrease in both renal microcirculation and renin-aldosterone levels in all experimental groups. Liver and renal function was found to be impaired in cirrhotics, but increased IAP had a nonsignificant further functional impairment in both organs. In conclusion, chronically elevated IAP in cirrhotic rats is associated with an increase in renin-aldosterone levels and significant impairment of renal perfusion.

P wave dispersion (P dispersion), defined as the difference between the maximum and the minimum P wave duration, and maximum P wave duration (P maximum) are electrocardiographic (ECG) markers that have been used to evaluate the discontinuous propagation of sinus impulses and the prolongation of atrial conduction time, respectively. To study the effects of myocardial ischemia on P dispersion and P maximum, 95 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and typical angina pectoris and 15 controls with angina like symptoms underwent 12-lead surface ECG during and after the relief of pain. During pain and during the asymptomatic period, P maximum and P dispersion were calculated from the averaged complexes of all 12 leads. P dispersion increased significantly during spontaneous angina (45+/-17 ms) compared to the asymptomatic period (40+/-15 ms), P < 0.001 only in the patient group. Both P maximum and P dispersion showed higher values during angina in those patients who developed diffuse ischemia, as estimated with ST segment changes in multiple ECG leads. P dispersion showed higher values during the anginal episode in patients with left ventricular dysfunction, independently of the presence of a previous myocardial infarction. Atrial conduction abnormalities, as estimated with P maximum and particularly P dispersion, are significantly influenced by myocardial ischemia in patients with CAD and spontaneous angina.

Myocardial ischemia induced by pacing, angioplasty, or stress results in a significant increase in QT dispersion (QTd = QT maximum - QT minimum). This study investigated the effects of ischemia on QTd and the rate-corrected QTd (QT(c)d) during spontaneous anginal episodes in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Ninety-five patients with CAD and typical angina pectoris and 15 control subjects complaining of anginalike symptoms were studied. QTd and QT(c)d were calculated from 12-lead surface electrocardiograms recorded during and after the relief of pain. QTd and QT(c)d were significantly higher during the anginal episode (84+/-31 ms and 98+/-51 ms) compared to the painless conditions (69+/-24 ms and 71+/-24 ms) (P = .003 and P = .001 for QTd and QT(c)d, respectively) only in the 57 CAD patients who had a history of an old previous myocardial infarction. QTd and QT(c)d are significantly increased during spontaneous angina in patients with documented CAD and history of previous myocardial infarction.

An und-splaced fracture of each fibula was produced in 20 rabbits. Into the fracture of the right fibula, a cathode was inserted, which delivered 15 microamperes of galvanic current for more than one week. The source of current was 5v small transistor batteries which acted like a pacemaker. This stimulated healing of the fracture for 15 days. The left fibula fractures were used as controls. Both fibulae were studied roentgenographically and microscopically. This experiment suggested that galvanic current with a cathode placed in the fracture gap stimulated fracture healing.