Conservative Surgical Treatment of Tongue Hemangiopericytoma

Hemangiopericytoma is a vascular tumor that is believed to arise from the Zimmermann's pericytes, smooth muscles cells localized around the blood vessels. This tumor presents as a slowly enlarging painless mass with a clear predilection for the musculoskeletal system. The aim of this work was to introduce a peculiar case of a tongue hemangiopericytoma managed by conservative surgical treatment

A generalizable definition of chemical similarity for read-across

Background: Methods that provide a measure of chemical similarity are strongly relevant in several fields of chemoinformatics as they allow to predict the molecular behavior and fate of structurally close compounds. One common application of chemical similarity measurements, based on the principle that similar molecules have similar properties, is the read-across approach, where an estimation of a specific endpoint for a chemical is provided using experimental data available from highly similar compounds. Results: This paper reports the comparison of multiple combinations of binary fingerprints and similarity metrics for computing the chemical similarity in the context of two different applications of the read-across technique. Conclusions: Our analysis demonstrates that the classical similarity measurements can be improved with a generalizable model of similarity. The proposed approach has already been used to build similarity indices in two open-source software tools (CAESAR and VEGA) that make several QSAR models available. In these tools, the similarity index plays a key role for the assessment of the applicability domain.Pubblicat

Ecological Constraints Limit the Fitness of Fungal Hybrids in the Heterobasidion annosum Species Complex▿

The ability of two closely related species to maintain species boundaries in spite of retained interfertility between them is a documented driving force of speciation. Experimental evidence to support possible interspecific postzygotic isolation mechanisms for organisms belonging to the kingdom Fungi is still missing. Here we report on the outcome of a series of controlled comparative inoculation experiments of parental wild genotypes and F1 hybrid genotypes between closely related and interfertile taxa within the Heterobasidion annosum fungal species complex. Results indicated that these fungal hybrids are not genetically unfit but can fare as well as parental genotypes when inoculated on substrates favorable to both parents. However, when placed in substrates favoring one of the parents, hybrids are less competitive than the parental genotypes specialized on that substrate. Furthermore, in some but not all fungus × plant combinations, a clear asymmetry in fitness was observed between hybrids carrying identical nuclear genomes but different cytoplasms. This work provides some of the first experimental evidence of ecologically driven postzygotic reinforcement of isolation between closely related fungal species characterized by marked host specificity. Host specialization is one of the most striking traits of a large number of symbiotic and parasitic fungi; thus, we suggest the ecological mechanism proven here to reinforce isolation among Heterobasidion spp. may be generally valid for host-specialized fungi. The validity of this generalization is supported by the low number of known fungal hybrids and by their distinctive feature of being found in substrates different from those colonized by parental species

Direct access to a frontal sinus osteoma and reconstruction of the orbital roof displaced by the lesion by titanium mesh.

Osteomas are the most common benign tumors of the paranasal sinuses. They are usually localized in the frontal sinus and less often in the other paranasal sinuses. In this article, we report the surgical treatment of an unknown frontal sinus osteoma discovered after an acute exophthalmos. We have chosen an external approach to obtain a radical excision of the tumor, but we prefer a direct frontal incision following a horizontal wrinkle to the classic bicoronal flap to avoid an unsightly scar because of patient's hair loss. We discuss the surgical approach, the reconstruction of the roof of the orbit involved, and patient's satisfaction

Retrospective analysis of incidence of peroneal artery hypoplasia in 101 free fibula transfers and new classification of popliteal branch anomalies

It is generally recognised by surgeons that there are anatomical variations of the popliteal artery and its branches, and knowledge of these has important clinical implications for fibula flap harvest. The aim of this study was to report our experience on 101 fibula free flaps, highlighting a new type of anatomical variation of the peroneal artery in a patient undergoing osteocutaneous fibula free flap for tibial reconstruction. During flap harvest, the peroneal vascular pedicle was shown to be hypoplastic and aberrant to its origin, branching between the proximal and medium third of the leg from the posterior tibialis artery with a diameter of 1 mm. A modification of Kim's classification with the addition of a further "type IIID" group is suggested, to include peroneal artery hypoplasia or aplasia. This is an uncommon case of a rare infrapopliteal branching pattern that was undetected clinically and sonographically, exposing both the surgeon and patient to high risk of flap failure and/or leg ischaemic complication. Surgeons conducting free fibula transfer surgery should be aware of such a possibility as well as other variations, and could consider performing routine angiographic study on the donor limb, or they may be skilful enough to apply instant tricks to enable them to conduct the procedure safely. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Sagittal Split Osteotomy of the Fibula for Modeling the New Mandibular Angle

Fibula modeling techniques for mandible reconstruction carry a high risk of bone perfusion impairment and low predictability of osteotomy angles. To restore the parabolic shape of the mandible, the number of osteotomies should be as small as possible to preserve both periosteal and endosteal perfusion. We report our approach with sagittal split osteotomy (SSO) technique for mandibular angle reconstruction. Obwegeser-Dal Pont SSO of fibula flaps was performed on 10 patients who underwent mandibular angle reconstruction. Bone segments were tilted according to stereolithographic template and fixed with 3 bicortical screws in triangular fashion. Fibula-gonial angle at 15 days and 6 months from surgery was compared with the contralateral-mandibular-gonial angle using Kruskal-Wallis test with a P 0.05) between fibula-gonial angle at 15 days (mean, 122.88 +/- 0.55 degrees; range, 122.49-123.27 degrees) and 6 months (mean, 123.36 +/- 0.88 degrees; range, 122.73-123.99 degrees) and contralateral-mandibular-gonial angle (mean, 123.20 +/- 0.80 degrees; range, 122.62-123.77 degrees) were observed. Fibula SSO allows for new-mandible angle shaping, reducing risk of pedicle and endosteal vascular impairment. Triangular bone fixation thereby emerges as a reliable technique, enhancing functional and aesthetic long-term outcomes