Pseudoaneurysm of Lumbar Artery following a Vertebral Biopsy: A Case Report

A 74-year-old man developed a severe low back pain and a fever. In the initial examinations, a collapse of the L5 anterosuperior vertebral body and narrowing of the L4/5 disc space were identified on radiographs, and the laboratory data showed inflammatory results. A computed tomography (CT) and a magnetic resonance imaging showed collapse of L5. A needle biopsy was performed to make a diagnosis; however, an abdominal pain and a hypotension appeared after the biopsy. An abdominal CT showed a hematoma in the retroperitoneal space, and an angiography revealed a left fourth lumbar artery pseudoaneurysm. The pseudoaneurysm was treated with transcatheter placement of microcoils. Although haemorrhagic complications following needle biopsy are very rare, patients with large amounts of vertebral destruction may have unusual anatomical positions of the lumber artery. Therefore, surgeons should be aware of the possibility of lumbar artery injury during a needle biopsy and take care of prebiopsy plans

Management of Intolerance to Casting the Upper Extremities in Claustrophobic Patients

Introduction. Some patients showed unusual responses to the immobilization without any objective findings with casts in upper extremities. We hypothesized their that intolerance with excessive anxiety to casts is due to claustrophobia triggered by cast immobilization. The aim of this study is to analyze the relevance of cast immobilization to the feeling of claustrophobia and discover how to handle them. Methods. There were nine patients who showed the caustrophobic symptoms with their casts. They were assesed whether they were aware of their claustrophobis themselves. Further we investigated the alternative immobilization to casts. Results. Seven out of nine cases that were aware of their claustrophobic tendencies either were given removable splints initially or had the casts converted to removable splints when they exhibited symptoms. The two patients who were unaware of their latent claustrophobic tendencies were identified when they showed similar claustrophobic symptoms to the previous patients soon after short arm cast application. We replaced the casts with removable splints. This resolved the issue in all cases. Conclusions. We should be aware of the claustrophobia if patients showed unusual responses to the immobilization without any objective findings with casts in upper extremities, where removal splint is practical alternative to cast to continue the treatment successfully

Flow Injection Analysis for Hydrogen Peroxide in Environmental Waters

先に開発した過酸化水素のフローインジェクション分析法（FIA）のシステムや触媒カラムに詳細な検討を加え，ppbレベルの過酸化水素の定量法を開発した。また，本研究で得られたFIAを用いて，57～944ppbになるように過酸化水素を雨水に添加し，回収実験を行った。その結果，回収率と再現性とも良好で，化学発光法より優れていた。なお，FIAでの検出下限は，約10ppbであった。We tried to determine a low-level hydrogen peroxide by using a flow injection analysis (FIA) which was reported in our previous paper. For this purpose, the constituents of the system including the catalytic column were re-examined in detail. As the result, we developed a new system of the FIA which is available for the determination of ppb-order hydrogen peroxide. When hydrogen peroxide spiked in rain-waters(57-944ppb)was analyzed by the FIA, better recovery and reproducibility were attained compared to chemiluminescent analyses. The lower-limit of determination was 10 ppb hydrogen peroxide

Isolation and characterization of human anterior cruciate ligament-derived vascular stem cells

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) usually fails to heal after rupture mainly due to the inability of the cells within the ACL tissue to establish an adequate healing process, making graft reconstruction surgery a necessity. However, some reports have shown that there is a healing potential of ACL with primary suture repair. Although some reports showed the existence of mesenchymal stem cell-like cells in human ACL tissues, their origin still remains unclear. Recently, blood vessels have been reported to represent a rich supply of stem/progenitor cells with a characteristic expression of CD34 and CD146. In this study, we attempted to validate the hypothesis that CD34- and CD146-expressing vascular cells exist in hACL tissues, have a potential for multi-lineage differentiation, and are recruited to the rupture site to participate in the intrinsic healing of injured ACL. Immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry analysis of hACL tissues demonstrated that it contains significantly more CD34 and CD146-positive cells in the ACL ruptured site compared with the noninjured midsubstance. CD34+CD45- cells isolated from ACL ruptured site showed higher expansionary potentials than CD146+CD45- and CD34-CD146-CD45- cells, and displayed higher differentiation potentials into osteogenic, adipogenic, and angiogenic lineages than the other cell populations. Immunohistochemistry of fetal and adult hACL tissues demonstrated a higher number of CD34 and CD146-positive cells in the ACL septum region compared with the midsubstance. In conclusion, our findings suggest that the ACL septum region contains a population of vascular-derived stem cells that may contribute to ligament regeneration and repair at the site of rupture. © 2012 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc