MESECTODERMAL LEIOMYOMA EXCLUSIVELY INVOLVING THE POSTERIOR CHOROID.

PURPOSE: To report a mesectodermal leiomyoma of the posterior choroid. DESIGN: Observational case report. METHODS: A 23-year-old man was referred to us because of a progressive blurred vision in his left eye. Ophthalmologic examination revealed the presence of a 12 x 10 x 7.2-mm amelanotic choroidal mass in his left posterior pole. Fluorescein angiography, A-scan ultrasonography, and B-scan echography findings were suggestive for a diagnosis of choroidal amelanotic melanoma. These clinical features prompted us to enucleate the left eye. RESULTS: Histopathological and immunohistochemistry examinations established a definitive diagnosis of mesectodermal leiomyoma of the posterior choroid. CONCLUSION: This case represents the first report describing the occurrence of an intraocular mesectodermal leiomyoma that may exclusively involve the posterior choroid

Flexible dosing of adjunctive zonisamide in the treatment of adult partial-onset seizures: a non-comparative, open-label study (ZEUS)

Objectives - To assess the efficacy and tolerability of zonisamide in a study allowing flexible dosing in a more diverse and less refractory population than assessed in randomized controlled trials. Methods - This 19-week, non-comparative study of adjunctive zonisamide included 281 adults who had at least four partial-onset seizures within 8 weeks on one or two antiepileptic drugs. Alterations to zonisamide doses were allowed after titration, except during two fixed-dose periods (weeks 10-13 and 16-19). Results - At the end of the second fixed-dose period (median dose 300 mg/day), the median reduction in monthly seizure frequency was 33.3-41.1%; >= 50% responder rate was 40.9-44.2%; and seizure freedom rate was 15.0-15.9%, depending on the analysis used. The most common adverse events were fatigue (16.7%) and somnolence (15.3%). Conclusions - Zonisamide demonstrated efficacy in a setting more reflective of clinical practice and was generally well tolerated

A survey of microarchitectural timing attacks and countermeasures on contemporary hardware

Published online: 26 December 2016Microarchitectural timing channels expose hidden hardware states though timing. We survey recent attacks that exploit microarchitectural features in shared hardware, especially as they are relevant for cloud computing. We classify types of attacks according to a taxonomy of the shared resources leveraged for such attacks. Moreover, we take a detailed look at attacks used against shared caches. We survey existing countermeasures. We finally discuss trends in attacks, challenges to combating them, and future directions, especially with respect to hardware support.Qian Ge, Yuval Yarom, David Cock, Gernot Heise

Recurrence and death in non small cell lung carcinomas: a prognostic model using pathological parameters, microvessel count and gene protein products.

The 5-year survival rate of non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) has only marginally improved during the past two decades, despite advances in surgery and chemoradiotherapy, Major efforts are currently directed toward biological characterization of these tumors to define biomarkers able to add further prognostic information, thus improving new therapeutic protocols, We analyzed the predictive relevance of the microvessel count (MC), bcl-2 and p53 proteins, proliferative activity, and usual postsurgical parameters on recurrence and overall survival in a series of 70 patients with NSCLC. The expression of biological parameters (p53, bcl-2, proliferative activity, and MC) was detected using immunohistochemistry on paraffin-embedded and frozen sections from the tumors treated with surgical resection alone until relapse, In the univariate analysis, the histotype, tumor status, node status, p53, bcl-2, and MC have been shown to significantly affect progression and death, In the multiple logistic regression analysis, the MC (P < 0.000001), tumor status (P < 0.005), and node status (P < 0.0002) influenced the overall survival while prediction of relapse was strongly revealed by tumor status (P < 0.005), nodal metastatic involvement (P < 0.000001), and the assessment of the vascular count (P < 0.0004), These data have allowed the creation of a multivariate model which may add more information on risk of recurrence and death in patients with NSCLC and can form the basis for future randomized clinical trials

Influence of body mass index, comorbidities and prior systemic therapies on the response of psoriasis to adalimumab: An exploratory analysis from the aphrodite data

Adalimumab is a fully human monoclonal antibody directed against tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, which is effective for the treatment of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis (PsA). The aim of this study is to determine whether the response of psoriasis to adalimumab treatment might be influenced by certain particular factors, such as body mass index (BMI), history of biologic therapy, blood hypertension and metabolic comorbidities. For this reason, an exploratory analysis was conducted on 144 patients with psoriasis and concomitant PsA treated with adalimumab 40 mg every other week, evaluating the influence of such factors on the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) response rate at week 12. Our preliminary results suggest that the response rate at week 12, in terms of both PASI-50 and PASI-75, appeared to be independent of the presence of hypertension and/or metabolic comorbidities. The PASI-50 response was observed more frequently in patients with BMI less than 30 as compared to obese patients (79% vs 58%, p = 0.02). Previous use of anti-TNF biologics did not appear to affect per se the rate of responders, although it was associated with a lower PASI-75 rate among responders. Copyright © by BIOLIFE, s.a.s