A morphometric analysis of the infant calvarium and dura

Literature addressing the anatomic development of the dura and calvarium during childhood is limited. Nevertheless, histological features of a subdural neomembrane (NM), including its thickness and vascularity, developing in response to an acute subdural hematoma (SDH) have been compared to the dura of adults to estimate when an injury occurred. Therefore, we measured the morphometric growth of the calvarium and dura and the vascular density within the dura during infancy. The mean thicknesses of the calvarium and dura as a function of occipitofrontal circumference (OFC), as well as the mean number of vessels per 25× field, were determined from the right parasagittal midparietal bone lateral to the sagittal suture of 128 infants without a history of head trauma. Our results showed that as OFC increased, the mean thicknesses of the calvarium and dura increased while the vascular density within the dura decreased. Our morphometric data may assist in the interpretation of subdural NM occurring during infancy. We recommend future investigations to confirm and extend our present data, especially by evaluating cases during later infancy and beyond as well as by sampling other anatomic sites from the calvarium. We also recommend morphometric evaluation of subdural NM associated with SDH in infancy and childhood

Non-functional paraganglioma of the urinary bladder: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Paragangliomas that originate from the urinary bladder are extremely rare. In most series, bladder paragangliomas often cause micturitional attacks. Treatment modalities include transurethral resection and cystectomy (partial or total). Prognosis of bladder paraganglioma is similar to that of adrenal pheochromocytoma.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 55-year-old Chinese woman presenting with the sole complaint of lower abdominal pain for one month was admitted to our hospital. Ultrasound and computed tomography revealed a mass on the dome of the bladder measuring 4.0 × 3.0 cm. The tumor was completed removed by laparoscopic partial cystectomy. Histological examination of the tumor indicated paraganglioma of the urinary bladder. The clinical features, diagnosis, management and pathological findings of paraganglioma of the urinary bladder are discussed.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Bladder paraganglioma should be considered as a differential diagnosis to neoplasm in the urinary bladder, although there is no characteristic symptom. Laparoscopic partial cystectomy may be the first choice in treating paraganglioma of the urinary bladder, offering several advantages such as less invasion, rapid recovery and early discharge from the hospital.</p

Looking at Cerebellar Malformations through Text-Mined Interactomes of Mice and Humans

WE HAVE GENERATED AND MADE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE TWO VERY LARGE NETWORKS OF MOLECULAR INTERACTIONS: 49,493 mouse-specific and 52,518 human-specific interactions. These networks were generated through automated analysis of 368,331 full-text research articles and 8,039,972 article abstracts from the PubMed database, using the GeneWays system. Our networks cover a wide spectrum of molecular interactions, such as bind, phosphorylate, glycosylate, and activate; 207 of these interaction types occur more than 1,000 times in our unfiltered, multi-species data set. Because mouse and human genes are linked through an orthological relationship, human and mouse networks are amenable to straightforward, joint computational analysis. Using our newly generated networks and known associations between mouse genes and cerebellar malformation phenotypes, we predicted a number of new associations between genes and five cerebellar phenotypes (small cerebellum, absent cerebellum, cerebellar degeneration, abnormal foliation, and abnormal vermis). Using a battery of statistical tests, we showed that genes that are associated with cerebellar phenotypes tend to form compact network clusters. Further, we observed that cerebellar malformation phenotypes tend to be associated with highly connected genes. This tendency was stronger for developmental phenotypes and weaker for cerebellar degeneration