Response of pulmonary artery intimal sarcoma to surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Pulmonary artery intimal sarcoma is a rare disease with no characteristic symptoms. It is difficult to diagnose early and is frequently misdiagnosed as a pulmonary embolism.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>Here we report a case of pulmonary artery intimal sarcoma in a 54-year-old woman presenting with complaints of shortness of breath on exertion. Echocardiography and a computed tomography scan showed that the right pulmonary artery trunk was blocked by a low-density mass. The patient was diagnosed with pulmonary artery intimal sarcoma by pathology and a complete mass resection was performed. After experiencing 10 months of disease-free survival, she was re-admitted because of the recurrence and metastasis of the tumor. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy were performed; however, only limited success was achieved. The patient died 15 months after the initial onset of symptoms.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Some patients with intimal sarcoma of the pulmonary artery can benefit from radiotherapy and chemotherapy as well as surgery.</p

Species richness and distribution of copepods and cladocerans and their relation to hydroperiod and other environmental variables in Donana, south-west Spain

Twenty-five sites located in five wetland zones within Donana, south-west Spain were studied for copepod and cladoceran species richness and composition in relation to habitat characteristics from January to March 2004. The c-diversity of copepods and cladocerans combined varied between wetland zones, which differed significantly in conductivity, surface area and abundance of vegetation. However, there were no significant differences between zones in local species richness of either copepods or cladocerans or the two combined. Species richness was significantly higher in sites with intermediate hydroperiods (duration between 3 and 5 months) than in sites with shorter or longer hydroperiods. CCA analyses performed separately for copepods and cladocerans extracted conductivity, surface area, and vegetation cover as the main factors structuring species composition of both groups. Ours is one of the first studies of zooplankton in the natural marshes of the Donana World Heritage Site, and we recorded five species new to the Donana areaPeer reviewe

A Single Amino Acid Change within Antigenic Domain II of the Spike Protein of Bovine Coronavirus Confers Resistance to Virus Neutralization

The spike glycoprotein is a major neutralizing antigen of bovine coronavirus (BCV). Conformational neutralizing epitopes of group A and group B monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) have previously been mapped to two domains at amino acids 351 to 403 (domain I) and amino acids 517 to 621 (domain II). To further map antigenic sites, neutralization escape mutants of BCV were selected with a group A MAb which has both in vitro and in vivo virus-neutralizing ability. The escape mutants were demonstrated to be neutralization resistant to the selecting group A MAb and remained sensitive to neutralization by a group B MAb. In radioimmunoprecipitation assays, the spike proteins of neutralization escape mutants were shown to have lost their reactivities with the selecting group A MAb. Sequence analysis of the spike protein genes of the escape mutants identified a single nucleotide substitution of C to T at position 1583, resulting in the change of alanine to valine at amino acid position 528 (A528V). The mutation occurs in domain II and in a location which corresponds to the hypervariable region of the spike protein of the coronavirus mouse hepatitis virus. Experimental introduction of the A528V mutation into the wild-type spike protein resulted in the loss of MAb binding of the mutant protein, confirming that the single point mutation was responsible for the escape of BCV from immunological selective pressure