Rare Variants of Carotid-Vertebrobasilar Anastomoses

Carotid-vertebrobasilar anastomoses generally disappear during embryogenesis. However, if a problem exists during regression, these arteries persist in adult period and are named as persistent arteries. Their persistence in adult patients is sometimes pathological and may result in the development of an aneurysm or a compressive syndrome. These anastomoses are frequently associated with proximal or distal arterial pathology. Herein, we present three rare variants of carotid-vertebrobasilar anastomoses: a persistent trigeminal artery, persistent hypoglossal artery, and a persistent otic artery. These variants should be kept in mind to avoid errors both in clinical reporting and surgical procedures

Distance and Location of Both Mobile Phones and Health Care Units: Determines the Interference Level

Abstract 60 Million mobile phone holders in the country forces clinics and cellular phones have been started to be in concern as an electromagnetic interference (EMI) source in hospitals. Hospital buildings are very huge buildings that they are not allowing deep radio penetration through the hole those results in higher uplink power transmission (2W of maximum). These two reasons were our motivation to make an investigation to examine the EMI issues surrounding medical equipment, due to interference from communication devices, including GSM900, GSM1800, and 3G digital mobile phones. Electromagnetic interference, particularly of the ECG and ted EEG device was observed, and exposure begins within the range of 1.25m. It has been observed that uplink power is not a reason of interference itself, but the locations of mobiles and health care units are also the reason of interference

Immunohistochemical study of the expression CD44 in serous, borderline, malign surface epithelial ovarian tumors and metastatic ovarian tumors

WOS: 00024945460088

The DESCARTES-Nantes survey of kidney transplant recipients displaying clinical operational tolerance identifies 35 new tolerant patients and 34 almost tolerant patients

Kidney recipients maintaining a prolonged allograft survival in the absence of immunosuppressive drugs and without evidence of rejection are supposed to be exceptional. The ERA-EDTA-DESCARTES working group together with Nantes University launched a European-wide survey to identify new patients, describe them and estimate their frequency for the first time.status: publishe

The DESCARTES-Nantes survey of kidney transplant recipients displaying clinical operational tolerance identifies 35 new tolerant patients and 34 almost tolerant patients.

BACKGROUND Kidney recipients maintaining a prolonged allograft survival in the absence of immunosuppressive drugs and without evidence of rejection are supposed to be exceptional. The ERA-EDTA-DESCARTES working group together with Nantes University launched a European-wide survey to identify new patients, describe them and estimate their frequency for the first time. METHODS Seventeen coordinators distributed a questionnaire in 256 transplant centres and 28 countries in order to report as many 'operationally tolerant' patients (TOL; defined as having a serum creatinine <1.7 mg/dL and proteinuria <1 g/day or g/g creatinine despite at least 1 year without any immunosuppressive drug) and 'almost tolerant' patients (minimally immunosuppressed patients (MIS) receiving low-dose steroids) as possible. We reported their number and the total number of kidney transplants performed at each centre to calculate their frequency. RESULTS One hundred and forty-seven questionnaires were returned and we identified 66 TOL (61 with complete data) and 34 MIS patients. Of the 61 TOL patients, 26 were previously described by the Nantes group and 35 new patients are presented here. Most of them were noncompliant patients. At data collection, 31/35 patients were alive and 22/31 still TOL. For the remaining 9/31, 2 were restarted on immunosuppressive drugs and 7 had rising creatinine of whom 3 resumed dialysis. Considering all patients, 10-year death-censored graft survival post-immunosuppression weaning reached 85% in TOL patients and 100% in MIS patients. With 218 913 kidney recipients surveyed, cumulative incidences of operational tolerance and almost tolerance were estimated at 3 and 1.5 per 10 000 kidney recipients, respectively. CONCLUSIONS In kidney transplantation, operational tolerance and almost tolerance are infrequent findings associated with excellent long-term death-censored graft survival