Epithelioid finger-sarcoma in an 11 year old girl – a case report

Malignant tumors of pediatric hand are very rare. This case report describes an epithelioid sarcoma at the finger of an 11 year old girl and discusses general treatment options in this rare patient population

Complete circumferential congenital constriction of the trunk – operation procedures and results

Constriction ring syndrome is an uncommon deformity with unknown etiology and multiple manifestations. The most common change occurs at the lower extremities. A complete circular amniotic band syndrome of the trunk is an extremely rare condition. There are less than ten other reported cases in the literature. We present a new case of this congenital abnormality, the operation procedure and the results

Severe infantile wrist empyema due to dental bacteremia

Pediatric wrist empyema are very rare, this is the first case report in the current literature describing a hematogenic spreading of bacteria from dental caries, leading to a severe wrist empyema

Transdermal fluid loss in severely burned patients

Introduction: The skin protects against fluid and electrolyte loss. Burn injury does affect skin integrity and protection against fluid loss is lost. Thus, a systemic dehydration can be provoked by underestimation of fluid loss through burn wounds

Mammary gland-derived nestin-positive cell populations can be isolated from human male and female donors

INTRODUCTION: Nestin-expressing cells isolated from different human tissues reveal self-renewal capacity and a multilineage differentiation potential. In particular, adult stem/progenitor cell populations from exocrine glands such as the pancreas, salivary gland and sweat gland are characterized by prominent nestin expression. Interestingly, human mammary gland histological examinations also demonstrated the existence of nestin-positive cells in the ductal compartments. Within the scope of our previous work we wonder whether an isolation of nestin-positive cell populations from human mammary gland biopsies is possible and what characteristics they have in vitro. Cell populations from both sexes were propagated and subjected to a comparison with other gland-derived cell populations. METHODS: Human mammary tissue biopsies were mechanically and enzymatically treated, and the isolated acini structures were observed with time-lapse microscopy to track adherently outgrowing cells. The proliferation potential of the cell population was assessed by performing growth curves. On the gene and protein levels we investigated the expression of stem cell markers as well as markers indicating multilineage differentiation. RESULTS: We succeeded in establishing proliferating cell populations from breast tissue biopsies of both sexes. Our results display several similarities to the glandular stem cell populations from other exocrine glands. Beside their proliferation capacity during in vitro culture, the obtained cell populations are characterized by their prominent nestin expression. The cells share surface proteins commonly expressed on adult stem cells. We demonstrated the expression of stem cell-related genes like Oct4, Sox2, KLF4 and Nanog, and confirmed multipotent differentiation capacity by detecting transcripts expressed in endodermal, mesodermal and ectodermal cell types. CONCLUSION: With this study we present an efficient procedure for isolation and propagation of nestin-positive stem cells obtained from male and female breast tissue, which is frequently available. The established multipotent cell populations could be easily expanded in vitro and thus hold promise for cell-based therapies and personalized medicine

Increased mortality in hypernatremic burned patients

Introduction: In-hospital hypernatremia develops usually iatrogenically from inadequate or inappropriate fluid prescription. In severely burned patient an extensive initial fluid resuscitation is necessary for burn shock survival. After recovering of cellular integrity the circulating volume has to be normalized. Hereby extensive water and electrolyte shifts can provoke hypernatremia

Hyperspectral imaging of the degradation of meat and comparison with necrotic tissue in human wounds

The objective evaluation of scattering tissue and the discrimination of tissue types is an issue that cannot be solved with colour cameras and image processing alone in many cases. Examples can be found in the determination of freshness and ageing of meat, and the discrimination of tissue types in food technology. In medical applications tissue discrimination is also an issue, e.g. in wound diagnostics. A novel hyperspectral imaging setup with powerful signal analysis algorithms is presented which is capable of addressing these topics. The spectral approach allows the chemical analysis of material and tissues and the measurement of their temporal change. We present a method of hyperspectral imaging in the visible-near infrared range which allows both the separation and spatial allocation of different tissue types in a sample, as well as the temporal changes of the tissue as an effect of ageing. To prove the capability of the method, the ageing of meat (slices of pork) was measured and, as a medical example, the application of the hyperspectral imaging setup for the recording of wound tissue is presented. The method shows the ability to discriminate the different tissue components of pork meat, and the ageing of the meat is observable as changes in spectral features. An additional result of our study is the fact that some spectral features, which seem to be typical for the ageing of the meat, are similar to those observed in the necrotic tissue from wound diagnostics in medicine

Progressive fluid removal can avoid electrolyte disorders in severely burned patients

Introduction: Extensive burn injury has systemic consequences due to capillary leak. After restoration of cellular integrity, infused fluid volume has to be removed partially. This can provoke electrolyte disorders

Does hypernatremia impact mortality in Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis?

Introduction: In-hospital hypernatremia is associated with increased mortality rates. We want to elucidate the impact of in-hospital acquired hypernatremia in mortality of Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN)