Confusion after spine injury: cerebral fat embolism after traumatic rupture of a Tarlov cyst: Case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Acute low back pain is a very common symptom and reason for many medical consultations. In some unusual circumstances it could be linked to a rare aetiology.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report a 70-year-old man with an 8-month history of left posterior thigh and leg pain who had sudden confusion after a fall from standing. It was due to cerebral fat embolism suspected by computed tomography scan, later confirmed by brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A spinal MRI scan was then performed and revealed a sacral fracture which drained into an unknown perineurial cyst (Tarlov cyst). Under medical observation the patient fully recovered within three weeks.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Sacral perineurial cysts are rare, however they remain a potential cause of lumbosacral radiculopathy.</p

Mycobacterium tuberculosis Lipolytic Enzymes as Potential Biomarkers for the Diagnosis of Active Tuberculosis

BACKGROUND: New diagnosis tests are urgently needed to address the global tuberculosis (TB) burden and to improve control programs especially in resource-limited settings. An effective in vitro diagnostic of TB based on serological methods would be regarded as an attractive progress because immunoassays are simple, rapid, inexpensive, and may offer the possibility to detect cases missed by standard sputum smear microscopy. However, currently available serology tests for TB are highly variable in sensitivity and specificity. Lipolytic enzymes have recently emerged as key factors in lipid metabolization during dormancy and/or exit of the non-replicating growth phase, a prerequisite step of TB reactivation. The focus of this study was to analyze and compare the potential of four Mycobacterium tuberculosis lipolytic enzymes (LipY, Rv0183, Rv1984c and Rv3452) as new markers in the serodiagnosis of active TB. METHODS: Recombinant proteins were produced and used in optimized ELISA aimed to detect IgG and IgM serum antibodies against the four lipolytic enzymes. The capacity of the assays to identify infection was evaluated in patients with either active TB or latent TB and compared with two distinct control groups consisting of BCG-vaccinated blood donors and hospitalized non-TB individuals. RESULTS: A robust humoral response was detected in patients with active TB whereas antibodies against lipolytic enzymes were infrequently detected in either uninfected groups or in subjects with latent infection. High specifity levels, ranging from 93.9% to 97.5%, were obtained for all four antigens with sensitivity values ranging from 73.4% to 90.5%, with Rv3452 displaying the highest performances. Patients with active TB usually exhibited strong IgG responses but poor IgM responses. CONCLUSION: These results clearly indicate that the lipolytic enzymes tested are strongly immunogenic allowing to distinguish active from latent TB infections. They appear as potent biomarkers providing high sensitivity and specificity levels for the immunodiagnosis of active TB

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Imagerie des anomalies hippocampiques

STRASBOURG-Medecine (674822101) / SudocSudocFranceF

Évaluation de l'IRM de perfusion dans les tumeurs cérébrales

L'angiogénèse joue un rôle important dans le développement tumoral et la dissémination métastatique. Dans ce travail nous avons cherché à montrer l'intérêt de l'IRM de perfusion pour l'évaluation non invasive de l'angiogénèse dans les tumeurs cérébrales. Nous avons dans un premier temps évalué l'IRM de perfusion de premier passage dans les tumeurs cérébrales humaines. Mais cette technique présente un certain nombre de limites qui peuvent être supprimées par l'utilisation d'agents de contraste à base de particules de fer (USPIO), qui autorisent l'utilisation de séquences d'IRM de perfusion à l'équilibre. Nous avons dans un deuxième temps cherché à adapter cette technique à l'évaluation de l'angiogénèse tumorale cérébrale chez l'homme. Ces techniques en permettant une approche de la valeur absolue du volume sanguin et de l'indice de taille de vaisseaux, en plus de l'intérêt pour le diagnostic différentiel, pourraient présenter un intérêt pour le suivi de traitements anti-angiogéniques.Evaluation of perfusion MRI in cerebral tumors Tumoral angiogenesis plays a significant role in tumoral development and metastatic dissemination. In this work we tried to show the interest of perfusion MRI for noninvasive evaluation of brain tumour angiogenesis. We initially evaluated first pass perfusion MRI in human brain tumours. But this technique presents some limitations which can be suppressed by the use of Ultra Small Particle of Iron Oxide (USPIO) contrast agents, which authorize steady state perfusion MRI techniques. We tried to adapt these techniques to the evaluation of angiogenesis in human brain tumors. Steady state perfusion MRI techniques provide absolute values of cerebral blood volume and a vessel size index, and therefore could be of interest for the therapeutic follow-up of anti-angiogenic treatments. This is the subject of the third part of this work, in which we tried to evaluate by steady state perfusion MRI an antiangiogenic treatment on a rodent model of brain tumour.GRENOBLE1-BU Médecine pharm. (385162101) / SudocPARIS-BIUP (751062107) / SudocSudocFranceF