Intimal aortic sarcoma mimicking ruptured thoracoabdominal type IV aneurysm. a rare case report and review of the literature

Primary intimal aortic sarcoma represents a very rare and highly lethal medical entity. Diagnosis is made either by embolic events caused by the tumor or by surrounding tissue symptoms such as pain. Herein we report an extremely rare case of a 51-year-old man previously operated for ascending aortic aneurysm, who presented with clinical and radiological findings suggestive of a ruptured thoracoabdominal type IV aneurysm. The patient underwent radical resection of the aorta and surrounding tissue with placement of a composite 4-branched graft. The diagnosis was made by frozen section and regular histopathologic examination of the specimen and the patient received adjuvant chemotherapy. Nine months after surgery the patient is still alive and has no signs of recurrence. We review the literature and discuss the option of postoperative chemotherapy

A Systematic Classification of the Congenital Bronchopulmonary Vascular Malformations: Dysmorphogeneses of the Primitive Foregut System and the Primitive Aortic Arch System

Purpose: We reviewed the cases of 33 patients from our clinic and 142 patients from the literature with congenital bronchopulmonary vascular malformations (BPVM), systematically analyzed the bronchopulmonary airways , pulmonary arterial supplies, and pulmonary venous drainages, and classified these patients by pulmonary malinosculation( PM). Materials and Methods: From January 1990 to January 2007, a total of 33 patients (17 men or boys and 16 women or girls), aged I day to 24 years (median, 2.5 months), with congenital BPVM were included in this study. Profiles of clinical manifestations, chest radiographs, echocardiographs , esophagographs, computer tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) , magnetic resonance angiography (MRA ), cardiac catheterizations with angiography, contrast bronchographs, bronchoscopies, chromosomal studies, surgeries, and autopsies of these patients were analyzed to confirm the diagnosis of congenital BPVM. A total of 142 cases from the literature were also reviewed and classified similarly. Results: The malformations of our 33 patients can be classified as type A isolated bronchial PM in 13 patients, type B isolated arterial PM in three, type C isolated venous PM in two, type D mixed bronchoarterial PM in five, type F mixed arteriovenous PM in one, and type G mixed bronchoarteriovenous PM in nine. Conclusion: Dysmorphogeneses of the primitive foregut system and the primitive aortic arch system may lead to haphazard malinosculations of the airways, arteries, and veins of the lung. A systematic classification of patients with congenital BPVM is clinically feasible by assessing the three basic bronchovascular systems of the lung independently

Stereotypic horses (Equus caballus) are not cognitively impaired

Stereotypies in animals are thought to arise from an interaction between genetic predisposition and sub-optimal housing conditions. In domestic horses, a well-studied stereotypy is crib-biting, an abnormal behaviour that appears to help individuals to cope with stressful situations. One prominent hypothesis states that animals affected by stereotypies are cognitively less flexible compared to healthy controls, due to sensitization of a specific brain area, the basal ganglia. The aim of this study was to test this hypothesis in crib-biting and healthy controls, using a cognitive task, reversal learning, which has been used as a diagnostic for basal ganglia dysfunction. The procedure consisted of exposing subjects to four learning tasks; first and second acquisition, and their reversals. For each task, we measured the number of trials to reach criterion and heart rate and heart-rate variability. Importantly, we did not try to prevent crib-biters from executing their stereotypic behaviour. We found that the first reversal learning task required the largest number of trials, confirming its challenging nature. Interestingly, the second reversal learning task required significantly fewer trials to reach criterion, suggesting generalisation learning. However, we did not find any performance differences across groups; both stereotypic and control animals required a similar numbers of trials and did not differ in their physiological responses. Our results thus challenge the widely held belief that crib-biting horses, and stereotypic animals more generally, are cognitively impaired. We conclude that cognitive underperformance may occur in stereotypic horses if they are prevented from crib-biting to cope with experienced stress.PostprintPeer reviewe

Microscale thermal characterization at temperatures up to 1000˚C by photoreflectance microscopy. Application to the characterization of carbon fibres

International audienceMicrometric scale thermal diffusivity measurement by photoreflectance microscopy is now a well-known technique. Until now the experiments were performed essentially at room temperature. In this paper we explore temperature resolved tests. We describe the modifications introduced in the experimental setup and the procedure followed to determine the temperature dependent diffusivity. Different analysis methods are described and first tests performed on known materials and a C/C composite is presented. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version

Microscopic thermal characterization at temperatures up to 1000C by photoreflectance microscopy

International audienceMicrometric scale thermal diffusivity measurement by photoreflectance microscopy is now a well-known technique. Until now the experiments were performed essentially at room temperature; in this article we explore temperature resolved tests. We describe the modifications introduced in the experimental setup and the procedure followed to determine the temperature dependent diffusivity. Different analysis methods are described: 2D scanning, least squares adjustment of one or several 1D phase profiles, and a new one better adapted to studies at high temperatures: the fixed pump/probe offset technique

Do atmospheric conditions influence the first episode of primary spontaneous pneumothorax?

International audienceOBJECTIVES: Several studies suggest that changes in airway pressure may influence the onset of primary spontaneous pneumothorax(PSP). The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of atmospheric changes on the onset of the first episode of PSP.METHODS: We retrospectively analysed cases of pneumothorax admitted to our department between 1 January 2009 and 31 October2013. Patients with recurrent pneumothorax, traumatic pneumothorax, older than 35 years or presenting history of underlying pulmonarydisease were excluded. Meteorological data were collected from the Météo-France archives. Variation (Δ) of mean atmospheric pressure,and relative humidity, were calculated for each day between the day at which symptoms began (D-day), the day before first symptoms(D-1), 2 days before the first symptoms (D-2) and 3 days before the first symptoms (D-3).RESULTS: Six hundred and thirty-eight cases of pneumothorax were observed during the period of this study; 106 of them (16.6%) were afirst episode of PSP. We did not observe any significant differences between days with or without PSP admission for any of the weatherparameters that we tested. We could not find any thresholds in the variation of atmospheric pressure that could be used to determinethe probability of PSP occurrence.CONCLUSIONS: Variation of atmospheric pressure, relative humidity, rainfall, wind speed and temperature were not significantly relatedto the onset of the first episode of PSP in healthy patients. These results suggest that the scientific community should focus on otherpossible aetiological factors than airway pressure modifications

Resection of anterior mediastinal tumor through a ministernotomy: Preliminary experience with ten cases

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