Cases with manifestation of chemodectoma diagnosed in dogs in Department of Internal Diseases with Horses, Dogs and Cats Clinic, Veterinary Medicine Faculty, University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Wroclaw, Poland

In the period of 3 years, 9 tumours of chemodectoma were supravitally diagnosed and histopathologically verified in dogs. In this period 15 351 dogs were admitted to the Clinic of Dogs and Cats and 2 145 dogs were examined in the cardiological outpatient clinic for dogs. This tumour is located in a typical place - at the base of the heart. Most frequently the tumour manifested in older boxers. Only in one case such a tumour was diagnosed in another breed of dogs. The tumours ranged in size between 3 and 16 cm in diameter. The principal sign accompanying tumours of cardiac base involved dyspnoea but in 3 cases the tumours yielded no clinical signs. All the diagnoses were additionally verified using immunohistochemical examination. We used antibodies to chromogranin A (clone DAK-A3 1:100), synaptophysin (clone SY38 1:20) and neuron-specific enolase (clone BBS/NC/VI-H14 1:150). An immunohistochemical examination is vital for the diagnosis since it allows to differentiate histologically distinct types of neoplasia which may locate in the same site and may manifest a similar histological pattern

Why more needs to be done to improve national judges’ knowledge of EU law

The European Union and its courts cannot ensure the effective application of EU law alone, with courts at the national level also playing a vital role in its application within individual countries. But how knowledgeable are national judges concerning EU law? Outlining results of a recent survey, Juan A Mayoral, Tobias Nowak and Urszula Jaremba write that the level of knowledge of EU law exhibited by national judges is not as high as might be expected. They propose a number of potential changes which could be implemented to improve the training of national judges and ensure that EU law is applied more effectively in domestic courts

Transforming Growth Factor-Beta (TGF-beta) Signaling in Paravertebral Muscles in Juvenile and Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis

Most researchers agree that idiopathic scoliosis (IS) is a multifactorial disease influenced by complex genetic and environmental factors. The onset of the spinal deformity that determines the natural course of the disease, usually occurs in the juvenile or adolescent period. Transforming growth factors (TGF-s) and their receptors, TGFBRs, may be considered as candidate genes related to IS susceptibility and natural history. This study explores the transcriptional profile of TGF-s, TGFBRs, and TGF- responsive genes in the paravertebral muscles of patients with juvenile and adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (JIS and AIS, resp.). Muscle specimens were harvested intraoperatively and grouped according to the side of the curve and the age of scoliosis onset. The results of microarray and qRT-PCR analysis confirmed significantly higher transcript abundances of TGF-2, TGF-3, and TGFBR2 in samples from the curve concavity of AIS patients, suggesting a difference in TGF- signaling in the pathogenesis of juvenile and adolescent curves. Analysis of TGF- responsive genes in the transcriptomes of patients with AIS suggested overrepresentation of the genes localized in the extracellular region of curve concavity: LTBP3, LTBP4, ITGB4, and ITGB5. This finding suggests the extracellular region of paravertebral muscles as an interesting target for future molecular research into AIS pathogenesis

The influence of kinetin on regeneration of the protonema from isolated protoplasts of the moss Funaria hygrometrica L. Sibth.

Nie stwierdzono stymulującego wpływu kinetyny na tworzenie się ściany komórkowej wokół izolowanych protoplastów mchu Funaria hygrometrica, natomiast kinetyna w stężeniu 1 pM wyraźnie przyspieszała podziały komórek otrzymanych z protoplastów oraz stymulowała tworzenie się splątka i gametoforów. Przy wyższym stężeniu kinetyny (5 jiM) protoplasty, a później komórki powiększały głównie swoją objętość, natomiast procesy regeneracyjne przebiegały znacznie wolniej niż w kontroli

Dylematy opracowania zbiorów kartograficznych – Na przykładzie Biblioteki Wydziału Nauk o Ziemi Uniwersytetu Śląskiego

Cataloguing and indexing cartographic collections can be a great challenge for cataloguing librarians. Cataloguing this category of documents is a difficult and laborious activity due to the particular character of these documents, their variety, the necessity of expert terminology and the adjustment of current praxis of cataloguing and indexing cartographic collections in local libraries to the guidelines of Polish standard and instructions of use of format MARC21. The article presents the dilemmas that appear in the cataloguing process on the example of Library of Faculty of Earth Sciences of University of Silesia. Resources of cartographic documents in the Library of Faculty of Earth Sciences were catalogued and indexed in Bibmap programme. It is planned to catalogue this type of documents in integrated library system consisting in shared cataloguing with use of format MARC21. The article deliberates upon advantages and disadvantages of both methods and presents the conclusions deriving from practical use of these methods

Familial or Sporadic Idiopathic Scoliosis - classification based on artificial neural network and GAPDH and ACTB transcription profile

Background: Importance of hereditary factors in the etiology of Idiopathic Scoliosis is widely accepted. In clinical practice some of the IS patients present with positive familial history of the deformity and some do not. Traditionally about 90% of patients have been considered as sporadic cases without familial recurrence. However the exact proportion of Familial and Sporadic Idiopathic Scoliosis is still unknown. Housekeeping genes encode proteins that are usually essential for the maintenance of basic cellular functions. ACTB and GAPDH are two housekeeping genes encoding respectively a cytoskeletal protein β-actin, and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, an enzyme of glycolysis. Although their expression levels can fluctuate between different tissues and persons, human housekeeping genes seem to exhibit a preserved tissue-wide expression ranking order. It was hypothesized that expression ranking order of two representative housekeeping genes ACTB and GAPDH might be disturbed in the tissues of patients with Familial Idiopathic Scoliosis (with positive family history of idiopathic scoliosis) opposed to the patients with no family members affected (Sporadic Idiopathic Scoliosis). An artificial neural network (ANN) was developed that could serve to differentiate between familial and sporadic cases of idiopathic scoliosis based on the expression levels of ACTB and GAPDH in different tissues of scoliotic patients. The aim of the study was to investigate whether the expression levels of ACTB and GAPDH in different tissues of idiopathic scoliosis patients could be used as a source of data for specially developed artificial neural network in order to predict the positive family history of index patient. Results: The comparison of developed models showed, that the most satisfactory classification accuracy was achieved for ANN model with 18 nodes in the first hidden layer and 16 nodes in the second hidden layer. The classification accuracy for positive Idiopathic Scoliosis anamnesis only with the expression measurements of ACTB and GAPDH with the use of ANN based on 6-18-16-1 architecture was 8 of 9 (88%). Only in one case the prediction was ambiguous. Conclusions: Specially designed artificial neural network model proved possible association between expression level of ACTB, GAPDH and positive familial history of Idiopathic Scoliosis

Geriatric Assessment as a qualification element for elective and emergency cholecystectomy in older patients

BACKGROUND: Older patients experience a higher incidence of postoperative complications after cholecystectomy compared with younger patients. However, most studies have not considered patient frailty, particularly regarding emergency cholecystectomy. The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate outcomes in frail older patients eligible for elective and emergency cholecystectomy. METHODS: Preoperative Geriatric Assessment (GA) was performed in consecutive patients aged 65+ years, operated for biliary disease. The GA evaluated the functional, cognitive, comorbidity, depressive, nutritional, and polypharmacy status and patients with two or more abnormal domains were considered frail. Outcomes of interest were 30-day postoperative mortality, morbidity, and length of hospital stay (LOS). RESULTS: A total of 126 patients (median age 74; range 65–93 years) were included. There was no difference between elective frail and non-frail patients regarding postoperative mortality (0 %) and morbidity (6 % vs. 5 %; p = 0.76). LOS was not significantly longer in the frail group (5.6 vs. 4 days; p = 0.22). In the emergency-admitted patients, almost all complications occurred in the frail population (mortality 5 % vs. 0 %; morbidity 36.7 % vs. 3.3 %, compared with non-frail patients, respectively; p < 0.01) and LOS was significantly longer (10.3 (frail) vs. 6 days (non-frail);p = 0.03). Frail status was a significant independent predictive factor for postoperative complications in the emergency population, only (odds ratio: 3.4 (1.2–9.7); p = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy is a safe and effective surgical technique also for older frail patients. In emergency settings, frail patients have significantly more complications and a longer LOS. However, the role of severity of frailty and the most reliable GA tools require further study. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN14976998 (retrospectively registered

Cardiomyocyte marker expression in dogs with left atrial enlargement due to dilated cardiomyopathy or myxomatous mitral valve disease

Introduction. Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) are common heart conditions in dogs. They have different etiology and pathogenesis and although other studies focused on changes in the left ventricles of the affected hearts, the aim of our study was to assess the expressions of some intrinsic proteins in the enlarged left atria. Material and methods. We performed an immunohistochemical analysis of left atrial specimens obtained from 15 dogs with DCM, 35 dogs with MMVD and six control dogs. We assessed the expression of following proteins: SERCA1, SERCA2, sarcomeric actinin, smooth muscle actin, and dystrophin. Results. We noted a higher percentage of SERCA1-positive cells in the MMVD group and lower percentage of dystrophin-positive cells in the DCM group as compared to control group. The expression of other proteins was similar in the hearts of control dogs and dogs with heart diseases. Conclusions. The observed changes in the expression patterns of some proteins in the atria of dogs with DCM and MMVD suggest that atrial enlargement relies not only on volume overload, but also alterations of the intrinsic proteins can contribute to the pathogenesis of dilated cardiomyopathy.