Malignant Oncocytoma of the Parotid Gland: Report of a Case and Review of Literature

We reported a case of malignant oncocytoma arising from the right parotid gland through neck metastasis. In 1992, the patient was treated by surgical removal of a lymph-node mass, diagnosed as malignant unclassified tumor. In 1995, a right parotid gland tumor and right neck lymph-node masses occurred. We suspected the patient of having a malignant tumor of the right parotid gland through neck metastasis, especially recurrence of the previous clear-cell carcinoma. In July 1995, a right-side total parotidectomy and a neck dissection were carried out. A definite diagnosis was based on histological findings of the resected tumor as malignant oncocytoma: large eosinophilic granular cells were detected, and electron-microscopically, cytoplasms of tumor cells were rich in mitochondria with no encapsulation, perineural and intravascular invasion, and metastases to the cervical lymph nodes. Additional therapy such as chemotherapy and irradiation were not applied. To date, he has had no evidence of disease for 6 years

A Case of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Metastasizing to the Palatine Tonsil

This report presented the very rare case of a patient with a metastasis in the left palatine tonsil from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A 69-year-old man suffered from an about 20-mm mass in the left palatine tonsil. The biopsy revealed that the mass in the palatine tonsil was a metastatic lesion from HCC. The patient underwent a left palatine tonsillectomy, and metastasis from HCC has not recurred after the operation. With the presentation of the present case, we looked through the so-far reported literature

How Are Statistical Parameters of the Velocity Vector of Body Sway Distributed in Normal Human Subjects?

The velocity vector when the human body sways has been qualitatively evaluated in clinical sessions. We quantitatively measured the velocity vector for 1 min in 89 normal subjects standing in a stable posture, and examined distributions of quantities of the velocity vector. The velocity vector was measured with a stabilometer, which visualizes the vector as magnitudes radially projected from the center to the periphery into 36 directions by 10°. The 3 quantities we calculated from the 36 scalars of the vector per subject were the coefficient of correlation (CV), skewness and kurtosis, which were analyzed statistically. Values of skewness were normally distributed. Values of CV and kurtosis were log-normally distributed when adjusted with log transformation. Then, we calculated standardized values of the normal distributions, from which the lower and upper cutoff values in the 95% and 99% areas were available. The 3 quantities showed statistically significant correlations with one another, although the levels were low. Thus, in the present study, use of the 3 parameters enabled us to quantitatively evaluate the whole image of velocity vector, which would simplify the procedures of examination and shorten the time required for differential diagnosis

Decoding distributed oscillatory signals driven by memory and perception in the prefrontal cortex.

Sensory perception and memory recall generate different conscious experiences. Although externally and internally driven neural activities signifying the same perceptual content overlap in the sensory cortex, their distribution in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), an area implicated in both perception and memory, remains elusive. Here, we test whether the local spatial configurations and frequencies of neural oscillations driven by perception and memory recall overlap in the macaque PFC using high-density electrocorticography and multivariate pattern analysis. We find that dynamically changing oscillatory signals distributed across the PFC in the delta-, theta-, alpha-, and beta-band ranges carry significant, but mutually different, information predicting the same feature of memory-recalled internal targets and passively perceived external objects. These findings suggest that the frequency-specific distribution of oscillatory neural signals in the PFC serves cortical signatures responsible for distinguishing between different types of cognition driven by external perception and internal memory

Complete response to pembrolizumab in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma with microsatellite instability

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has limited systemic treatment options and a poor prognosis. The immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab was recently approved for the treatment of solid tumors with microsatellite instability (MSI). However, its clinical utility for the management of HCC remains to be clarified. Here, we present a case of unresectable HCC with MSI that showed an impressive response to pembrolizumab treatment. A 64-year-old man with chronic HCV infection was diagnosed with a large HCC. His severe liver dysfunction and poor performance status prevented any treatment option other than sorafenib. However, sorafenib failed after a few days due to the rapid progression of the tumor. Based on the finding of MSI in a biopsy specimen, immunotherapy using pembrolizumab was initiated. A dramatic improvement in his general condition and a reduction in tumor size were observed after the initiation of pembrolizumab treatment. Among a cohort of 50 consecutive patients with advanced HCC who were refractory to standard systemic therapy, MSI was found only in the present case. Immune checkpoint blockade therapy induced prominent anti-tumor effects in HCC with MSI. Screening for defects in DNA mismatch repair function may be warranted in HCC patients despite the low frequency of MSI

Yang-Mills Theory as a Deformation of Topological Field Theory, Dimensional Reduction and Quark Confinement

We propose a reformulation of Yang-Mills theory as a perturbative deformation of a novel topological (quantum) field theory. We prove that this reformulation of the four-dimensional QCD leads to quark confinement in the sense of area law of the Wilson loop. First, Yang-Mills theory with a non-Abelian gauge group G is reformulated as a deformation of a novel topological field theory. Next, a special class of topological field theories is defined by both BRST and anti-BRST exact action corresponding to the maximal Abelian gauge leaving the maximal torus group H of G invariant. Then we find the topological field theory ($D>2$) has a hidden supersymmetry for a choice of maximal Abelian gauge. As a result, the D-dimensional topological field theory is equivalent to the (D-2)-dimensional coset G/H non-linear sigma model in the sense of Parisi and Sourlas dimensional reduction. After maximal Abelian gauge fixing, the topological property of magnetic monopole and anti-monopole of four-dimensional Yang-Mills theory is translated into that of instanton and anti-instanton in two-dimensional equivalent model. It is shown that the linear static potential in four-dimensions follows from the instanton--anti-instanton gas in the equivalent two-dimensional non-linear sigma model obtained from the four-dimensional topological field theory by dimensional reduction, while the remaining Coulomb potential comes from the perturbative part in four-dimensional Yang-Mills theory. The dimensional reduction opens a path for applying various exact methods developed in two-dimensional quantum field theory to study the non-perturbative problem in low-energy physics of four-dimensional quantum field theories.Comment: 58 pages, Latex, no figures, version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D (additions of Discussion, references and minor changes

Effect of trinucleotide repeat expansion on the expression of TCF4 mRNA in Fuchs' endothelial corneal dystrophy

Purpose: CTG trinucleotide repeat (TNR) expansion is frequently found in transcription factor 4 (TCF4) in Fuchs' endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD), though the effect of TNR expansion on FECD pathophysiology remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of TNR expansion on TCF4 expression in corneal endothelium of patients with FECD. Methods: Peripheral blood DNA and Descemet membrane with corneal endothelium were obtained from 203 German patients with FECD. The CTG TNR repeat length in TCF4 was determined by short tandem repeat (STR) assays and Southern blotting using genomic DNA. Genotyping of rs613872 in TCF4 was performed by PCR. TCF4 mRNA levels in corneal endothelium were evaluated by quantitative PCR using three different probes. Control corneal endothelial samples were obtained from 35 non-FECD subjects. Results: The STR assay and Southern blotting showed that 162 of the 203 patients with FECD (80%) harbored CTG trinucleotide repeat lengths larger than 50. Quantitative PCR using all three probes demonstrated that TCF4 mRNA is significantly upregulated in the corneal endothelium of patients with FECD, regardless of the presence of TNR expansion. However, the length of the TNR tended to show a positive correlation with TCF4 expression level. No correlation was shown between the genotype of TCF4 SNP, rs613872, and the level of TCF4 expression. Conclusions: Our findings showed that TCF4 mRNA is upregulated in the corneal endothelium of patients with FECD. Further studies on the effects of TCF4 upregulation on corneal endothelial cell function will aid in understanding the pathophysiology of FECD