Antigenic expression in human choroid plexus carcinoma : report of two cases

Neoplasias provenientes do epitélio de revestimento do plexo coróide são inco-muns, tendo sido descritos 6 padrões morfológicos. O padrão anaplásico, também denominado carcinoma do plexo coróide, é o de menor freqüência e pode dar metastases fora do SNC. A distinção histológica desses tumores, particularmente da variedade anaplásica, com outras neoplasias primárias e metastáticas no SNC pode ser difícil. O uso de técnicas imunocitoquimicas em parafina tem-se mostrado útil no esclarecimento das linhagens tumorais. Os papilomas do plexo coróide têm, no entanto, sido objeto de controvérsia, por sua complexa expressão antigênica. Usando a técnica de imunoperoxidase (sistema avidina-biotina-peroxidase) pesquisaram-se, em dois casos da variedade anaplásica, os seguintes marcadores: proteína glial fibrilar ácida (GFAP) com anticorpo monoclonal e policlonal; ceratinas de 40-50kDa, ceratinas de 60-70kDa (callus ceratina), enolase neuronal específica (NSE) e proteína S-100, com anticorpos monoclonais. Os dois tumores mostraram positividade para NSE, proteína S-100 e ceratina de 40-50kDa; uma das duas neoplasias mostrou diferenciação glial, revelando positividade para GFAP tanto com anticorpo monoclonal quanto policlonal.Primary neoplasms of choroid plexus are rare. Six morphological variants have been described: papillary, cystic, acinar, mucus-secreting, oncocytic, and anaplastic. The anaplastic variant, the so-called choroid plexus carcinoma, is the rarest of all and can metastasize. The differential diagnosis of the anaplastic variant of choroid plexus neoplasms with adenocarcinomas, melanomas and indifferentiated neoplasms can be troublesome chiefly in adults. The now large use of immunocytochemical techniques in tissue section has become a powerful tool in the analysis of cell lineages, tumoral and non-tumoral. Nevertheless, the choroid plexus neoplasms have shown a complex and a somewhat confusing pattern of antigenic expression. In two choroid plexus carcinomas (one localized in the right lateral ventricle from a boy of 1 year and 9 months old, and the other localized in the left lateral ventricle from a girl of 3 years old) the following antigens were searched (using the avidin-biotin-peroxydase complex): glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) with monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies; cytokeratins of 40-50kDa, cytokeratins of 60-70kDA (callus cytokeratin), neuronal specific enolase (NSE) and S-100 protein with monoclonal antibodies. The two neoplasms showed immunoreactivity against NSE, S-100 protein and cytokeratin of 40-50kDA The neoplasm of the boy exhibited glial differentiation having immunoreactivity against GFAP with monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies

Politics versus Policies: Fourth Wave Feminist Critiques of Higher Education’s Response to Sexual Violence

This article uses the lens of fourth wave feminism to examine media accounts of institutional and student responses in two cases of sexual violence at institutions of higher education. Competing discourses reveal a disconnect between what institutions say they do and students’ actual experiences of the institutional handling of sexual violence cases. When policies, actions, and values are not fully aligned, institutions of higher education are unable to respond to societal and institutional injustices. Hence, recommendations for better alignment between institutional values and actions are proposed

Effects of high-flow nasal cannula in patients with persistent hypercapnia after an acute COPD exacerbation: A prospective pilot study

Background: Persistent hypercapnia after COPD exacerbation is associated with excess mortality and early rehospitalization. High Flow Nasal cannula (HFNC), may be theoretically an alternative to long-term noninvasive ventilation (NIV), since physiological studies have shown a reduction in PaCO2 level after few hours of treatment. In this clinical study we assessed the acceptability of HFNC and its effectiveness in reducing the level of PaCO2 in patients recovering from an Acute Hypercapnic Respiratory Failure (AHRF) episode. We also hypothesized that the response in CO2 clearance is dependent on baseline level of hypercapnia. Methods: Fifty COPD patients recovering from an acute exacerbation and with persistent hypercapnia, despite having attained a stable pH (i.e. pH > 7,35 and PaCO2 > 45 mmHg on 3 consecutive measurements), were enrolled and treated with HFNC for at least 8 h/day and during the nighttime Results: HFNC was well tolerated with a global tolerance score of 4.0 \ub1 0.9. When patients were separated into groups with or without COPD/OSA overlap syndrome, the "pure" COPD patients showed a statistically significant response in terms of PaCO2 decrease (p = 0.044). In addition, the subset of patients with a lower pH at enrolment were those who responded best in terms of CO2 clearance (score test for trend of odds, p = 0.0038). Conclusions: HFNC is able to significantly decrease the level of PaCO2 after 72 h only in "pure" COPD patients, recovering from AHRF. No effects in terms of CO2 reduction were found in those with overlap syndrome. The present findings will help guide selection of the best target population and allow a sample size calculation for future long-term randomized control trials of HFNC vs NIV

Sex differences in the association of psychological status with measures of physical activity and sedentary behaviour in adults with type 2 diabetes

Aim – To assess the association of psychological variables on leisure time physical activity and sedentary time in men and women with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D). Methods – In this cross-sectional study, we evaluated 163 patients with T2D, consecutively recruited at the Diabetes Centre of the Verona General Hospital. Scores on depression and anxiety symptoms, psychosocial factors (including self-efficacy, perceived interference, perceived severity, social support, misguided support behaviour, spouse’s positive behaviour), physical activity and time spent sitting were ascertained using questionnaires responses to the Beck Depression Inventory-II, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Multidimensional Diabetes Questionnaire, International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Results – Physical activity was significantly associated with higher social support in women, and with increased self-efficacy in men. Sedentary time was significantly associated with higher perceived interference, anxiety and depressive symptoms, and with reduced diabetes self-efficacy in women, while it was associated solely with anxiety in men. Depressive symptoms and self-efficacy in women and anxiety symptoms in men were independent predictors of sedentary time when entered in a multivariable regression model also including age, BMI, hemoglobin A1c, diabetes duration, perceived interference and self-efficacy as covariates. Conclusions – Lower self-efficacy and higher symptoms of depression were closely associated with increased sedentary time in women, but not in men, with T2D. It is possible that individualized behavioral interventions designed to reduce depressive symptoms and to improve diabetes self-efficacy would ultimately reduce sedentary behaviours, particularly in women with T2D

Mathematical modelling of polyamine metabolism in bloodstream-form trypanosoma brucei: An application to drug target identification

© 2013 Gu et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedThis article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.We present the first computational kinetic model of polyamine metabolism in bloodstream-form Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of human African trypanosomiasis. We systematically extracted the polyamine pathway from the complete metabolic network while still maintaining the predictive capability of the pathway. The kinetic model is constructed on the basis of information gleaned from the experimental biology literature and defined as a set of ordinary differential equations. We applied Michaelis-Menten kinetics featuring regulatory factors to describe enzymatic activities that are well defined. Uncharacterised enzyme kinetics were approximated and justified with available physiological properties of the system. Optimisation-based dynamic simulations were performed to train the model with experimental data and inconsistent predictions prompted an iterative procedure of model refinement. Good agreement between simulation results and measured data reported in various experimental conditions shows that the model has good applicability in spite of there being gaps in the required data. With this kinetic model, the relative importance of the individual pathway enzymes was assessed. We observed that, at low-to-moderate levels of inhibition, enzymes catalysing reactions of de novo AdoMet (MAT) and ornithine production (OrnPt) have more efficient inhibitory effect on total trypanothione content in comparison to other enzymes in the pathway. In our model, prozyme and TSHSyn (the production catalyst of total trypanothione) were also found to exhibit potent control on total trypanothione content but only when they were strongly inhibited. Different chemotherapeutic strategies against T. brucei were investigated using this model and interruption of polyamine synthesis via joint inhibition of MAT or OrnPt together with other polyamine enzymes was identified as an optimal therapeutic strategy.The work was carried out under a PhD programme partly funded by Prof. Ray Welland, School of Computing Science, University of Glasgo

Extração radicular de água e Kc em cultura de café

Basic information for a rational soil-water management of the coffee crop is still insufficient, particularly under irrigated conditions. Of great importance for the estimation of water requirements of coffee crops are their root distribuition and evapotranspiration crop coefficients. This study compares soil water extraction by roots of coffee plants of the variety Catuaí Vermelho (IAC-44), grown in Piracicaba, SP, Brazil, 3 to 5 years old, with direct measurements of root dry matter, showing a good agreement between both approaches, and confirming that most of the root system is distributed in the top soil layer (0-0.3 m) and that less than 10% of the root system reaches depths greater than 1.0 m. Calculated evapotranspiration crop coefficients are in agreement with those found in the literature, with an average of 1.1, independent of shoot dry matter, plant height and leaf area index.A informação básica para o manejo racional de água e solo na cultura de café ainda é insuficiente, sobretudo em condições de cultura irrigada. A distribuição radicular e os coeficientes de cultura para evapotranspiração são de grande importância para a estimativa da necessidade de água na cultura café. Este estudo compara a extração radicular de água de plantas de café, variedade Catuaí Vermelho (IAC-44), cultivado em Piracicaba, SP, Brasil, de 3 a 5 anos de idade, com medidas diretas de material seca de raiz, mostrando boa relação entre as metodologias e confirmando que a maioria do sistema radicular está distribuída na camada superficial de solo (0-0,3 m) e que menos de 10% do sistema radicular atingem profundidades maiores que 1,0 m. Os coeficientes de cultura medidos estão de acordo com aqueles encontrados na literatura, com média de 1,1, independentemente da matéria seca, altura de planta e índice de área foliar

Histopathological comparison of intramural coronary artery remodeling and myocardial fibrosis in obstructive versus end-stage hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Background: Although imaging techniques have demonstrated the existence of microvascular abnormalities in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a detailed histopathological assessment is lacking as well as a comparison between different phases of the disease. We aimed to compare microvasculopathy and myocardial fibrosis in hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM) versus end-stage (ES) HCM. Methods: 27 myectomy specimens of HOCM patients and 30 ES-HCM explanted hearts were analyzed. Myocardial fibrosis was quantitatively determined with dedicated software and qualitatively classified as scar-like or interstitial. Intramural coronary arteries were evaluated separately according to lumen diameter: 100–500 μ versus <100 μ. Microvasculopathy assessment included the description of medial and intimal abnormalities and stenosis grading. The two subgroups were compared considering only the anterobasal septum of ES explanted hearts. Results: Median value of fibrosis in the anterobasal septum of explanted hearts was 34.6% as opposed to 10.3% of myectomy specimens (p < 0.001). Scar-like fibrosis was widely found in ES hearts while interstitial fibrosis was distinctive of HOCM (p < 0.001). All slides showed 100–500 μ microvasculopathy without any differences between subgroups in terms of lumen narrowing, extent of the disease and type of parietal involvement. Among ES hearts these lesions were associated with scar-like fibrosis (p = 0.034). <100-μ microvasculopathy was also frequent with no differences between subgroups. Conclusions: Microvasculopathy is an intrinsic feature of HCM with similar characteristics across the natural phases of the disease. Conversely, myocardial fibrosis changes over time with ES hearts showing a three-fold greater amount, mainly scar-like. ES showed a closer association between microvasculopathy and replacement fibrosis

Uso de diferentes métodos na quantificação das raízes de uma aveia forrageira.

Resumo expandid

Paracoccidioidomycosis brasiliensis. Case report of female genital involvement

A paracoccidioidomicose é doença sistêmica que atinge mais o sexo masculino do que o feminino. Modelos experimentais mostram maior sensibilidade dos machos do que as fêmeas à dsseminação da doença. A literatura médica é rica em relatos de casos de Pbmicose do trato genital masculino. A raridade da Pbmicose sistêmica na mulher devido à ação hormonal tornou inusitada a descrição de um caso com envolvimneto genital. Paciente de 57 anos, branca, procedente de Conchas (SP), queixando-se de dor abdominal há 10 anos, difusa, seguida de eólica periumbelical periódica, com diarréia e obstipação alternadas. Piorou desse quadro e evoluiu para abdome agudo cirúrgico. O anátomo patológico revelou Pbmicose no epiplon e ovário direito. A biópsia do endométrio mostrou endometrite crônica granulomatosa. A radiologia e a planigrafia revelaram nódulo parahilar direito. Os achados clínicos e laboratoriais permitiram explicar a provável origem do envolvimento genital.Paracoccidioidomycosis is a systemic disease that predominantly affects males. Experimental models suggest that males are more susceptible to the disseminated form of the disease. In vitro studies have documented growth inhibition in the presence of estradiol and progesterone whereas testosterone does not. Paracoccidioidomycosis has been "well described involving the male genitalia. Female genital involvement is rare; perhaps related to hormonal inhibition of fungal growth. A 57 year-old causasian female is described who presented with a ten year history of diffuse abdominal pain with alternating diarrhea and. constipation. She went on to present with an acute surgical abdomen and proceeded to laparotomy. Histopathological study revealed involvement of the omentum, fallopian tubes and right ovary with Paracoccidioidomycosis. Endometrial biopsy revealed chronic granulomatous endometritis, however, no fungus was visualized. Chest X ray and tomography were consistent with right parahilar involvement. We suggest, pathophysiologically, that the genital disease represents reactivation of an abdominal focus