Solitary osteochondroma of the twelfth rib with intraspinal extension and cord compression in a middle-aged patient

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Osteochondroma is a disease of growing bone and thus typically presents in younger patients. It has rarely been described in middle-aged and elderly patients. Data on the occurrence of osteochondroma show that the reported incidence of costal osteochondroma is very low. Moreover, costal osteochondroma arising at the costovertebral junction with neural foraminal extension and spinal cord compression is extremely rare.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>This study reports the case of a 58-year-old patient with a solitary osteochondroma of the 12th rib with intraspinal extension and spinal cord compression. The clinical history, plain radiographs, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging, and pathologic findings of the reported patient have been reviewed. The relevant medical literature has also been reviewed. The patient was treated with surgery for complete tumour excision to avoid tumour recurrence. After surgery, the patient's symptoms improved. An additional CT scan obtained at 1 year after surgery did not show any evidence of recurrence.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This patient is the oldest patient reported to have this rare form of costal osteochondroma. The age of the patient and the erosion of the adjacent bones raised clinical suspicion of malignancy; therefore, surgical management involved complete tumour excision with thoracolumbar fixation and fusion.</p

Effects of glycine on the solid-state synthesis of barium titanate micro-particles with high tetragonality

Addition of glycine (Gly), an amino acid, decreases the decomposition temperature of barium carbonate. This accelerates the solid-state addition reaction of BaCO$_{3}$ with TiO$_{2}$. By adding Gly and subsequent vibro-milling for 3h, well-dispersed BaTiO$_{3}$ (BT) micro-particles were obtained with their average size 180 nm and lattice tetragonality 1.0098. The acceleration of the reaction toward BT by Gly is basically attributed to the coordination of Gly to barium to loosen the metal – CO$_{3}$ bonds and to facilitate the detachment of CO$_{2}$ and thus providing higher nucleation site density