AMNIOTIC MEMBRANE TRANSPLANTATION FOR OCULAR SURFACE RECONSTRUCTION IN VETERINARY MEDICINE

The fetal membrane is composed by the chorion, allantois and amnion. The AM is the inner layer. It consists of a single layer of ectodermally derived cuboidal to columnar cells, which form the epithelium, a basement membrane that connects with the chorion by a layer of mesenchyme which contains large amounts of collagen (stroma). Amniotic basement membrane and stroma contain cytokines, proteoglycans, collagen type I, III, IV, V and VII, laminin and fibronectin. Different interesting properties of the AM have been described. Amniotic basement membrane, by serving as a \u201ctransplanted basement membrane\u201d, acts as a new healthy substrate that facilitates migration of epithelial cells, reinforces adhesion of basal epithelial cells, promotes epithelial differentiation, and prevents epithelial apoptosis. Additionally AM produces various growth factors, inhibits protease activity, has anti-inflammatory, anti-angiogenic and antifibrotic effects. The non-immunogenicity of the AM was believed to be another important property. AM transplantation (AMT) has been widely described in human ophthalmology for the reconstruction of corneal and/or conjunctival surface in different diseases, such as: ocular surface neoplasia, pterygium, chemical and thermal burns, cicatrizing conjunctivitis, symblepharon release, bleb leakage, filtering surgery, persistent epithelial defects, non healing stromal ulcers, deep stromal ulcers and descemetoceles, neurotrophic keratopathy, limbal stem cells deficiency, bullous keratopathy, infectious keratitis, Stevens Johnson syndrome, melting ulcers, scleral melt and band keratopathy. In veterinary ophthalmology AMT has been described for the treatment of ocular surface neoplasia, bullous keratopaty, melting ulcers, symblepharon, immun-mediated keratitis and in conjunction with penetrating keratoplasty. The objective of our study was to evaluate the effects of amniotic membrane transplantation for reconstruction of the ocular surface in different diseases in dogs, cats and horses. We evaluated the cosmesis and visual function. In our case series we performed AMT with the inlay technique in 3 dogs (3 eyes), 6 cats (7 eyes) and 11 horses (11 eyes). The diseases treated were: 7 feline corneal sequestra, 4 corneal melting (1 dog and 3 horses), 2 dermoids (2 dogs), 4 keratomycosis (4 horses), 2 corneo-conjunctival squamous cell carcinoma (2 horses), 1 immunomediate keratitis (1 horse) and 1 corneal edema (1 horse). In our results the objective was obtained: we had successful outcome in 17 of the 21 eyes treated; no ocular pain was detected in the immediately postoperative period, the AM epithelialized quickly and, after the fibrovascular invasion of the AM, all the corneas obtained a good transparency and no recurrence was detected in our follow-up periods

Final Project Report: Deliverable D1.14

Barachetti, A: CERN Rossi, L: CERN Szeberenyi, A: CER

Gestures and speech during shared picture-book reading with preschoolers with specific language impairments

Several studies have shown children with specific language impairment (SLI) to be less conversationally responsive than typically-developing (TD) children; however, it is not clear whether these children present a \u201cgesture advantage\u201d as found in other children with atypical development. This study examined (a) the relationship between gesture and speech in children with SLI as compared with TD children during shared book-reading with their mothers, (b) the effectiveness of maternal communicative strategies to elicit conversational responsiveness in children with SLI. Fourteen preschoolers with SLI, 14 age-matched TD children, and 14 MLU-matched TD children were videotaped during two sessions of shared picture-book reading with their mothers at home. Each child and maternal communicative act was coded on the basis of modality (Vocal, Gestural, Bimodal); each maternal question according to the level of provided support; and each child\u2019s answer according to linguistic and content adequacy. Children with SLI, as compared to younger TD children matched by linguistic competence, produced significantly fewer Vocal utterances than age-matched TD children. No differences were found in maternal communicative modalities among the three groups. Results from sequential analysis reveal that when maternal questions were accompanied by gestures, they had a higher probability of eliciting answers from children with SLI and MLU-matched children, regardless of the answer\u2019s adequacy. Interestingly, only maternal questions containing a main clue about the requested information were significantly followed by acceptable answers from children with SLI. These initial results suggest that bimodal and highly supportive maternal questions facilitate the conversational participation of children with SLI

Pharmacological cytoreduction and sliding skin graft (h-plasty) for bilateral lower-eyelid squamous cell carcinoma in a pony

Purpose. To describe the surgical approach to a bilateral lower eyelid squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in a pony. Methods. A 9 year old mare, Connemara Pony, light hair, presented for a bilateral lower-eyelid infiltrating mass. No diagnostic test was performed and a bilateral SCC was suspected. The neoplasia invaded 50% of the length of the lower-eyelid in both eyes, including the medial cantus in the left one. Because of new promising approaches to SCC (Hyperthermia, Brachytherapy, Photodynamic therapy) as well as most immunotherapy and chemotherapy molecules were not available, palpebral surgery was considered. Due to the size of the lesions, a pre-surgical cytoreduction was performed by using Piroxicam 0,3mg/kg/24 hours PO associated to local application of Imiquimod cream 3 times a week for 3 weeks. Slight reduction of the lateral portion of the mass was noted in both eyes, and surgical approach with H sliding skin graft was performed under general anesthesia. Lower lacrimal punctum in left eye was sacrificed, but the canaliculus was cannulated for one month. Tobramycin ointment was given topically after surgery q 6 h OU until healing occurred and systemic antibiotics and non-steroidal antiinflammatory (Flunixin M.) were administered for 7 days. cells. Results. Hystopathology confirmed the diagnosis of bilateral SCC infiltrating lower eyelid and the surgical margins appeared free from neoplastic cells. A normal palpebral function was maintained bilaterally; no recurrence was noticed 2 years after surgery. Conclusions. Whenever a new approach to palpebral SCC is not available, cytoreduction associated to surgery can be considere

Charge-based on-chip measurement technique for the selective extraction of cross-coupling capacitances

We present a simple test structure (derived from the CBCM technique proposed by Sylvester et al.) that enables the selective extraction of cross-coupling capacitance between arbitrary on-chip interconnects. We discuss the silicon implementation on a 0.18um CMOS process and report preliminary experimental result

Use of four-layer porcine small intestinal submucosa alone as a scaffold for the treatment of deep corneal defects in dogs and cats: Preliminary results

Background: To describe the efficacy of four-layer porcine small intestinal submucosa (Vetrix BioSIS plus+) as single scaffold for the treatment of deep corneal lesions in dogs and cats. Methods: 10 dogs and 3 cats with deep or full thickness corneal defects were treated surgically with BioSIS plus graft. Corneal transparency scores and vision were evaluated. Results: Lesions in dogs were four perforations, three descemetoceles, two limbal melanocytomas and one deep corneal ulcer. In cats, there were one limbal melanocytoma and two perforations. The average length of the follow-up was 86 days. In all, 12 out of 13 eyes treated were visual at last recheck (92.3 per cent). The scars were mild eight cases (66.7 per cent), but denser in four cases (33.4 per cent). Complication were partial collagenolysis in three cases (25 per cent), which resolved with medical therapy, mild corneal pigmentation in one case (8.4 per cent) and anterior synechia in one case (8.4 per cent). One case experienced severe collagenolysis and was enucleated 21 days postoperatively. Conclusions: Four-layer porcine SIS graft was successfully used for surgical treatment of deep corneal lesions in selected corneal diseases in a small series of dogs and cats, with good results in terms of mechanic support and corneal transparency