Predictive value of serum prolactin levels measured immediately after transsphenoidal surgery

Journal ArticleObject. Prolactin-secreting pituitary adenomas may be managed by surgery, medication, radiotherapy, or observation. The authors reviewed a consecutive series of patients who were followed for at least 5 years after surgery to assess the prognostic significance of preoperative factors (tumor size and prolactin level) and an immediate postoperative factor (prolactin level obtained the morning after surgery) on long-term hormonal outcome, thereby clarifying the indications for surgical removal of tumor, the definition of successful treatment outcomes, and the nature of "recurrent" tumors. Methods. Between 1979 and 1991, 241 patients with prolactinomas underwent transsphenoidal resection. Nineteen patients were lost to follow-up review, whereas the remaining 222 patients underwent measurement of their prolactin levels on postoperative Day 1 (POD 1), at 6 and 12 weeks, and every 6 months thereafter for a minimum of 5 years. On POD 1, prolactin levels in 133 patients (Group 1) were lower than 10 ng/ml, in 43 patients (Group 2) between 10 and 20 ng/ml, and in 46 patients (Group 3) higher than 20 ng/ml. At 6 and 12 weeks, normal prolactin levels (≤ 20 ng/ml) were measured in 132 (99%) of the 133 patients in Group 1 but only in 32 (74%) of the 43 patients in Group 2. By 5 years postoperatively, normal levels of prolactin were still measured in 130 patients (98%) in Group 1 compared with only five patients (12%) in Group 2. No patient with a prolactin level lower than 3 ng/ml on POD 1 was found to have an elevated hormone level at 5 years. The likelihood of a long-term chemical cure was greater for patients with microadenomas (91% cure rate) than for those with macroadenomas (33%). Preoperative prolactin levels also correlated with hormonal outcome. Conclusions. Prolactin levels lower than 10 ng/ml on POD 1 predict a long-term chemical cure in patients with microadenomas (100% cure rate) and those with macroadenomas (93% cure rate). In contrast, a cure is not likely to be obtained in patients with normal levels ranging between 10 and 20 ng/ml on POD 1 if they harbor macroadenomas (0% cure rate). A recurrence reported several years after surgery probably represents the presence of persistent tumor that was not originally removed. If the initial operation was performed by an experienced surgeon, however, reoperation is not likely to yield a chemical cure

Angioarchitectural evolution of clival dural arteriovenous fistulas in two patients.

Dural arteriovenous fistulas (dAVFs) may present in a variety of ways, including as carotid-cavernous sinus fistulas. The ophthalmologic sequelae of carotid-cavernous sinus fistulas are known and recognizable, but less commonly seen is the rare clival fistula. Clival dAVFs may have a variety of potential anatomical configurations but are defined by the involvement of the venous plexus just overlying the bony clivus. Here we present two cases of clival dAVFs that most likely evolved from carotid-cavernous sinus fistulas

Cold- and salinity stress-induced bipolar pea DNA helicase 47 is involved in protein synthesis and stimulated by phosphorylation with protein kinase C

Helicases are involved in the metabolism of nucleic acid; this is very sensitive to the abiotic stresses that reduce plant growth and productivity. However, the molecular targets responsible for this sensitivity have not been well studied. Here we report on the isolation and characterization of cold- and salinity stress-induced pea DNA helicase 47 (PDH47). The transcript of PDH47 was induced in both shoots and roots under cold (4°C) and salinity (300 mm NaCl) stress, but there was no change in response to drought stress. Tissue-specific differential regulation was observed under heat (37°C) stress. ABA treatment did not alter expression of PDH47 in shoots but induced its mRNA in roots, indicating a role for PDH47 in both the ABA-independent and ABA-dependent pathways in abiotic stress. The purified recombinant protein (47 kDa) contains ATP-dependent DNA and RNA helicase and DNA-dependent ATPase activities. With the help of photoaffinity labeling, PDH47 was labeled by [α-32P]-ATP. PDH47 is a unique bipolar helicase that contains both 3' to 5' and 5' to 3' directional helicase activities. Anti-PDH47 antibodies immunodeplete the activities of PDH47 and inhibit in vitro translation of protein. Furthermore, the PDH47 protein showed upregulation of protein synthesis. The activities of PDH47 are stimulated after phosphorylation by protein kinase C at Ser and Thr residues. Western blot analysis and in vivo immunostaining, followed by confocal microscopy, showed PDH47 to be localized in both the nucleus and cytosol. The discovery of cold- and salinity stress-induced DNA helicase should make an important contribution to a better understanding of DNA metabolism and stress signaling in plants. Its bipolar helicase activities may also be involved in distinct cellular processes in stressed conditions

Serum Lysozyme Pattern and Hematological Changes in the Host During Growth of a Transplantable Murine Lymphoma

The serum lysozyme concentrations were determined in the host mice bearing a transplantable ascitic lymphoma during growth of the tumour. Simultaneously, the hematological changes were also recorded. These ob-servations were made at weekly intervals till the animals survived and were made at weekly intervals till the animals survived and were compared with their normal counterparts. It has been shown that there is a progressive increase in the concentration of lysozyme along with the growth of the tumour cells within the peritoneal cavity which reaches a peak on the third week following transplantation of tumour cells and then falls off. The con-centration of the enzyme, however, never reaches the normal values ob-served. This shows a parallelism with the growth pattern of the tumour in general. Total and differential counts of white blood cells revealed a marked rise in the total leukocyte counts and a reversal of the lymphoid-myeloid ratio during the growth of the tumour in the host

Identification and characterization of miRNAome in root, stem, leaf and tuber developmental stages of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) by high-throughput sequencing

BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are ubiquitous components of endogenous plant transcriptome. miRNAs are small, single-stranded and ~21 nt long RNAs which regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level and are known to play essential roles in various aspects of plant development and growth. Previously, a number of miRNAs have been identified in potato through in silico analysis and deep sequencing approach. However, identification of miRNAs through deep sequencing approach was limited to a few tissue types and developmental stages. This study reports the identification and characterization of potato miRNAs in three different vegetative tissues and four stages of tuber development by high throughput sequencing. RESULTS: Small RNA libraries were constructed from leaf, stem, root and four early developmental stages of tuberization and subjected to deep sequencing, followed by bioinformatics analysis. A total of 89 conserved miRNAs (belonging to 33 families), 147 potato-specific miRNAs (with star sequence) and 112 candidate potato-specific miRNAs (without star sequence) were identified. The digital expression profiling based on TPM (Transcripts Per Million) and qRT-PCR analysis of conserved and potato-specific miRNAs revealed that some of the miRNAs showed tissue specific expression (leaf, stem and root) while a few demonstrated tuberization stage-specific expressions. Targets were predicted for identified conserved and potato-specific miRNAs, and predicted targets of four conserved miRNAs, miR160, miR164, miR172 and miR171, which are ARF16 (Auxin Response Factor 16), NAM (NO APICAL MERISTEM), RAP1 (Relative to APETALA2 1) and HAM (HAIRY MERISTEM) respectively, were experimentally validated using 5′ RLM-RACE (RNA ligase mediated rapid amplification of cDNA ends). Gene ontology (GO) analysis for potato-specific miRNAs was also performed to predict their potential biological functions. CONCLUSIONS: We report a comprehensive study of potato miRNAs at genome-wide level by high-throughput sequencing and demonstrate that these miRNAs have tissue and/or developmental stage-specific expression profile. Also, predicted targets of conserved miRNAs were experimentally confirmed for the first time in potato. Our findings indicate the existence of extensive and complex small RNA population in this crop and suggest their important role in pathways involved in diverse biological processes, including tuber development

Attendance System Using Face Recognition and Class Monitoring System

In this paper, we propose a system that takes the attendance of students in the lecture. This system takes the attendance automatically using face recognition. However, it is difficult to estimate the attendance exactly using each result of face recognition independently because the face detection rate is not sufficiently high. In our paper, we propose a method for estimating the attendance exactly using all the results of face recognition obtained by continuous observation. Continuous observation improves the performance for the estimation of the attendance. We constructed the attendance system based on face recognition, and applied the system to classroom lecture. In our system, we are using raspberry pi. we use OpenCv library which is installed in pi for face detection and recognition. The camera is connected to raspberry pi and student database is stored in the pi. With the help of this system time will reduce and attendance will be marked. In this paper first review similar works in the field of attendance system and recognition of face. Then, it showing our system structure and plan. At the last, experiments are implemented to provide as manifest to support our plan. The result shows that uninterrupted observation improved the performance for the approximation of the attendance