Ovarian teratoma presenting as small bowel obstruction in an elderly lady—A case report

Teratomas of the ovary are of the mature or immature type. The mature variety is called dermoid cysts, which is the most frequent benign germ cell tumour of the ovary in the reproductive age group. They are usually asymptomatic until they reach a significant dimension.1 Pressure effect, torsion and rupture of an ovarian cyst may present as an acute abdomen. A case is presented where an elderly lady presented with small bowel obstruction due to a very large, non-adherent to the intestine, dermoid cyst

Difficulties of the Tactile Sensory System Sensory Integration of Children with Autism

Sensory integration represents the organization of the senses for their use. It is a neuro-biological activity that allows the reception and processing of sensory information, which in arrive from the senses in huge quantities into the brain, at any time. The ability of the brain to successfully process tactile information allows the child to feel safe and develop a connection with those around it. An autistic child is not able to register many stimuli from their environment, so insufficient or poor sensory processing can contribute to the image of autism. Children with autism spectrum difficulties have specific difficulties in touch perception. The aim of the study was to examine the prevalence of sensory integration difficulties of the tactile sensory system of children with autism spectrum disorders, and to establish the statistical significance of differences in relation to children without developmental difficulties. The total sample of subjects (N=30) consisted of two subsamples. The first subsample of subjects (N=15) consisted of children with difficulties from the autism spectrum, and the second subsample of subjects (N=15) consisted of children without developmental difficulties. The measurement instrument was the „Questionnaire for testing tactile sensory sensitivity“ with 11 variables and the offered answers of possible sensory response was applied. The Mann-Whitney U test and the Wilcoxon W test at the level of statistical significance of p<0.05 were used to examine the statistical significance of the differences between the subsamples of the subjects. The results of the study showed that 86.67 % of children with autism have difficulties in sensory integration of the tactile sensory system. The hypersensitive type of sensory response has 26.67 %, and the hyposensitive sensory response 20 % of children with autism. 40.00 % of children with autism have a mixed type of tactile sensory. There is a statistically significant difference between children with autism and children without developmental difficulties on 4 variables

Cytotoxicity and fibroblast properties during in vitro test of biphasic calcium phosphate/poly-dl-lactide-co-glycolide biocomposites and different phosphate materials

Reconstruction of bone defects is one of the major therapeutic goals in various clinical fields. Bone replacement materials must satisfy a number of criteria. Biological criteria are biocompatibility, controlled biodegradability, and osteoconductive or even osteogenic potential. The material should have a three-dimensional structure with an interconnected pore system so as to permit cell growth and transport of substances. The surface must permit cell adhesion and proliferation. Composite biomaterials have enormous potential for natural bone tissue reparation, filling and augmentation. Calcium hydroxyapatite/polymer composite biomaterials belong to this group of composites and, because of their osteoconductive and biocompatible properties, can be successfully implemented within bone tissue reparations. In this study, possible differences between BCP/DLPLG, pure BCP, and Bio-Oss® materials were examined in vitro. During overnight incubations, fibroblast and fibroblast-like cells (L929, MRC5) were able to adhere, spread, and remain viable on BCP, BCP/PLGA, and Bio-Oss® discs, as was evidenced by using light- and LVSEM-microscopy. Inhibiting influence over the cell growth is more pronounced in the cases of BCP usage on both cell lines—41.29% for L929 and 43.08% for MRC-5 cells. MRC-5 cells are, within the given experimental conditions, less sensitive on inhibiting effects for the materials BCP/PLGA and Bio-Oss® (10.13% and 10.76%, respectively) than for the L929 cell lines (23.02% and 15.44%, respectively)