Oberlin partial ulnar nerve transfer for restoration in obstetric brachial plexus palsy of a newborn: case report

An 8 month old male infant with Erb's birth palsy was treated with two peripheral nerve transfers. Except for rapid motor reinnervations, elbow flexion was obtained by an Oberlin's partial ulnar nerve transfer, while shoulder abduction was restored by an accessory-to-suprascapular nerve transfer. The initial contraction of the biceps muscle occurred two months after surgery. Forty months after surgery, elbow flexion reached M5 without functional loss of the ulnar nerve. This case demonstrates an excellent result of an Oberlin's nerve transfer for restoration of flexion of the elbow joint in Erb's birth palsy. However, at this time partial ulnar nerve transfer for Erb's birth palsy is an optional procedure; a larger number of cases will need to be studied for it to be widely accepted as a standard procedure for Erb's palsy at birth

Visceral-to-subcutaneous fat ratio is a possible prognostic factor for type 1 endometrial cancer

[Background] Associations have been observed between obesity defined by the body mass index (BMI) and the incidence of endometrial cancer. However, the impact of obesity on the prognosis of endometrial cancer is not yet clear. Recently, visceral fat has been considered to have a greater impact on malignant disease in obese patients than subcutaneous fat. In this study, we investigated the association between prognostic factors of type 1 and type 2 endometrial cancer and obesity parameters. [Methods] The impacts of clinical factors on the progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were analyzed retrospectively in 145 primary endometrial cancer patients. The factors included age, BMI, pathological findings, Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage, status of lymph node metastasis, and the amounts of visceral and subcutaneous fat obtained from computed tomography (CT) data. [Results] Only the visceral-to-subcutaneous fat ratio (V/S ratio) (cutoff value 0.5) corresponded to a significant difference in OS and PFS in type 1 endometrial cancer (p = 0.0080, p = 0.0053) according to the results of log-rank tests of Kaplan–Meier curves. The COX regression univariate analysis revealed that only the V/S ratio was a significant prognostic factor for PFS, but not OS (p = 0.033 and p = 0.270, respectively). [Conclusion] A V/S ratio > 0.5 is a possible factor for poor prognosis in type 1 endometrial cancer. Further research is needed to investigate the preventive and therapeutic effects of reducing visceral fat on the prognosis of this type of cancer

Quantitative ultrasound can assess the regeneration process of tissue-engineered cartilage using a complex between adherent bone marrow cells and a three-dimensional scaffold

Articular cartilage (hyaline cartilage) defects resulting from traumatic injury or degenerative joint disease do not repair themselves spontaneously. Therefore, such defects may require novel regenerative strategies to restore biologically and biomechanically functional tissue. Recently, tissue engineering using a complex of cells and scaffold has emerged as a new approach for repairing cartilage defects and restoring cartilage function. With the advent of this new technology, accurate methods for evaluating articular cartilage have become important. In particular, in vivo evaluation is essential for determining the best treatment. However, without a biopsy, which causes damage, articular cartilage cannot be accurately evaluated in a clinical context. We have developed a novel system for evaluating articular cartilage, in which the acoustic properties of the cartilage are measured by introducing an ultrasonic probe during arthroscopy of the knee joint. The purpose of the current study was to determine the efficacy of this ultrasound system for evaluating tissue-engineered cartilage in an experimental model involving implantation of a cell/scaffold complex into rabbit knee joint defects. Ultrasonic echoes from the articular cartilage were converted into a wavelet map by wavelet transformation. On the wavelet map, the percentage maximum magnitude (the maximum magnitude of the measurement area of the operated knee divided by that of the intact cartilage of the opposite, nonoperated knee; %MM) was used as a quantitative index of cartilage regeneration. Using this index, the tissue-engineered cartilage was examined to elucidate the relations between ultrasonic analysis and biochemical and histological analyses. The %MM increased over the time course of the implant and all the hyaline-like cartilage samples from the histological findings had a high %MM. Correlations were observed between the %MM and the semiquantitative histologic grading scale scores from the histological findings. In the biochemical findings, the chondroitin sulfate content increased over the time course of the implant, whereas the hydroxyproline content remained constant. The chondroitin sulfate content showed a similarity to the results of the %MM values. Ultrasonic measurements were found to predict the regeneration process of the tissue-engineered cartilage as a minimally invasive method. Therefore, ultrasonic evaluation using a wavelet map can support the evaluation of tissue-engineered cartilage using cell/scaffold complexes

Organs Blood Flow during Elevation of Body Temperature in Sevoflurane Anesthetized Rats

The aim of this study is to investigate how elevation of body temperature changes organs blood flow during sevoflurane anesthesia. We conducted in vivo research on 14 male Wistar rats to monitor pulse rate and arterial blood pressure and measure hepatic, small intestinal, renal, and descending aortic blood flow using a laser Doppler blood flowmeter. We assessed the changes in organ blood flow, pulse rate, and arterial blood pressure during elevation of the rats’ body temperatures up to 41.5°C under anesthesia with 2.0% or 3.0% sevoflurane. We concluded that elevation of body temperature up to 39.5°C does not change hepatic, small intestinal, and renal blood flow during 2.0 and 3.0% sevoflurane anesthesia