ICAR: endoscopic skull‐base surgery

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Uterine Artery Embolization in the Management of Symptomatic Uterine Fibroids: An Overview of Complications and Follow-up

Uterine artery embolization (UAE) evolved as a treatment for symptomatic uterine fibroids in the early 1990s, after initially being used as a temporizing measure prior to hysterectomy or myomectomy. Since that time, over 100,000 UAEs have been performed. Technical success rates have been quoted ranging from 94 to 99%. The overall incidence of major complications associated with the procedure is low, the majority of which can be prevented. Knowledge of the potential complications and the measures that can be taken to avoid these complications is essential. Furthermore, because UAE is a relatively new procedure, no standardized recommendations for patient follow-up exist. Common practice for patient follow-up includes both clinic visits at increasing time intervals postprocedure, as well as telephone follow-up, and imaging follow-up when necessary. As symptomatic improvement is subjective, some institutions have developed standardized questionnaires to better assess patient improvement postprocedure. Aggressive pain control is a crucial component of follow-up, as uncontrolled pain can result in readmission and patient dissatisfaction

Association of bovine DRB3 alleles with immune response to FMDV peptides and protection against viral challenge

We have analysed the influence of bovine MHC (BoLA) polymorphism on the immune response and degree of protection induced by peptide vaccines against foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in cattle. The peptides used for animal immunisation were A (VP1138-156), AT (peptide A linked to VP121-40) and ACT (peptide A, linked to VP1196-209 and VP121-40). Sixteen different DRB3 types were found among the 46 cattle analysed by PCR-RFLP typing. No absolute correlation was observed, for any type, with the serum neutralising titres (SNT) values and the protection induced. However, among the most common haplotypes present, associations were observed between expression of different types with the levels of SNT and/or protection induced by peptides A and ACT. Thus, types DRB3.2* 1, 3 and 7 were associated with increased levels of protection. In contrast, types DRB3.2* 12 and 18 were associated non-protection, and DRB3.2* 12 was also associated with low SNT titres. Overall, the results indicate that the polymorphism in BoLA class II molecules affects both the immune response and protection induced by potential FMD peptide vaccines. © 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd

Current Tumor Ablation Technologies: Basic Science and Device Review

Image-guided tumor ablation is an increasingly utilized tool to treat focal malignancy. Tumor ablation can be divided into two large categories, thermal and chemical ablation. The authors provide an overview of the current methods used to achieve thermal and chemical ablation of tumors, specifically addressing the basic science behind the ablation methods as well as providing a brief synopsis of the commercial devices currently available for use in the United States

A large-scale evaluation of peptide vaccines against foot-and-mouth disease Lack of solid protection in cattle and isolation of escape mutants

A large-scale vaccination experiment involving a total of 138 cattle was carried out to evaluate the potential of synthetic peptides as vaccines against foot-and-mouth disease. Four types of peptides representing sequences of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) C3 Argentina 85 were tested A, which includes the G-H loop of capsid protein VP1 (site A); AT, in which a T-cell epitope has been added to site A; AC, composed of site A and the carboxy- terminal region of VP1 (site C); and ACT, in which the three previous capsid motifs are colinearly represented. Induction of neutralizing antibodies, lymphoproliferation in response to viral antigens, and protection against challenge with homologous infectious virus were examined. None of the tested peptides, at several doses and vaccination schedules, afforded protection above 40%. Protection showed limited correlation with serum neutralization activity and lymphoproliferation in response to whole virus. In 12 of 29 lesions from vaccinated cattle that were challenged with homologous virus, mutant FMDVs with amino acid substitutions at antigenic site A were identified. This finding suggests the rapid generation and selection of FMDV antigenic variants in vivo. In contrast with previous studies, this large- scale vaccination experiment with an important FMDV host reveals considerable difficulties for vaccines based on synthetic peptides to achieve the required levels of efficacy. Possible modifications of the vaccine formulations to increase protective activity are discussed