A Rare Case of Idiopathic Spinal Cord Herniation Treated by DuraGen® Collagen Matrix Graft

We report a rare case of idiopathic spinal cord herniation (ISCH) with a history of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leakage. ISCH is a protrusion of the spinal cord through a dural defect. Thin constructive interference in steady-state (CISS) images clearly demonstrated the herniated cord in the present case. The myelopathy worsened and the patient underwent surgery for reduction of herniated spinal cord; the dural defect was filled by placing collagen matrix graft (DuraGen®) between the inner and outer dural layers. The patient’s symptoms have improved without relapse for 8 months since surgery. This method may be a good surgical option for cases of spinal cord herniation

Association between Histological Types and Enhancement of Dynamic CT for Primary Lung Cancer

The aim of this study was to explore enhancement patterns of different types of primary lung cancers on 2-phase dynamic computed tomography (CT). This study included 217 primary lung cancer patients (141 adenocarcinomas [ADs], 48 squamous cell carcinomas [SCCs], 20 small cell lung carcinomas [SCLCs], and 8 others) who were examined using a 2-phase dynamic scan. Regions of interest were identified and mean enhancement values were calculated. After excluding the 20 SCLCs because these lesions had different clinical stages from the other cancer types, the mean attenuation values and subtractions between phases were compared between types of non-small cell lung carcinomas (NSCLCs) using the Kruskal–Wallis test. Late phase attenuation and attenuation of the late minus unenhanced phase (LMU) of SCCs were significantly higher than those of ADs (p<0.05). To differentiate SCC and AD in the late phase, a threshold of 80.21 Hounsfield units (HU) gave 52.9% accuracy. In LMU, a threshold of 52.16 HU gave 59.3% accuracy. Dynamic lung CT has the potential to aid in differentiating among NSCLC types

Instability of a membrane intersecting a black hole

The stability of a Nambu-Goto membrane at the equatorial plane of the Reissner-Nordstr{\o}m-de Sitter spacetime is studied. The covariant perturbation formalism is applied to study the behavior of the perturbation of the membrane. The perturbation equation is solved numerically. It is shown that a membrane intersecting a charged black hole, including extremely charged one, is unstable and that the positive cosmological constant strengthens the instability.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Physical Review

Achieving LDL cholesterol target levels <1.81 mmol/L may provide extra cardiovascular protection in patients at high risk: Exploratory analysis of the Standard Versus Intensive Statin Therapy for Patients with Hypercholesterolaemia and Diabetic Retinopathy study

Aims To assess the benefits of intensive statin therapy on reducing cardiovascular (CV) events in patients with type 2 diabetes complicated with hyperlipidaemia and retinopathy in a primary prevention setting in Japan. In the intension-to-treat population, intensive therapy [targeting LDL cholesterol = 2.59 to = 100 to = 2.59 to <3.10 mmol/L in patients with hypercholesterolaemia and diabetic retinopathy