Onychoheterotopia in children

The ectopic nail (EN) is an additional nail located in an abnormal site. It belongs to the onycho-heterotopia, a rare condition whose pathogenesis is indeterminate. This article illustrates the clinical-morphological and dermoscopic points of view, the diagnostic criteria, the possible pathogenesis, and surgical treatment of this pediatric onycho-heterotopia

Sunlight and Herpes Virus

The Herpesviridae are a family of viruses widely spread in nature that can infect a wide variety of species. After the primary infection, the human alphaherpesvirinae sub-family remains quiescent in the nerve ganglia from which it can periodically reactivate, causing clinical manifestations. Although spontaneous recurrences are possible, a wide variety of internal and external triggers may lead to transformation of the Herpes Simplex and Varicella-Zoster Viruses from a dormant to a proliferative state. Sunlight is a potent stimulus for the alphaherpesvirinae reactivation. The purpose of this paper is to analyze various features of this correlation and several steps you can take to lower your risk of triggering a herpes outbreak after sun exposure. Learning how to reduce the recurrence is extremely important and it is necessary: to perform a gradual and progressive sun exposure; to know what garments to wear; to know the environmental conditions of exposure; to know each skin phototype; to use a protective product against UVB and UVA with sun protection factor suitable for each phototype and environmental conditions

First evidence of vivianite in human bones from a third millennium BC Domus de Janas : Filigosa tomb 1, Macomer (NU), Sardinia

Altres ajuts: Acord transformatiu CRUE-CSICSardinia is an island located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Due to its position geologically acquired in the Middle Miocene (around 16 Ma ago), this island had a very strategic position in antiquity, as it was involved into all the trade routes that crossed the Mediterranean Sea; however, it developed original archaeological features up to the Iron Age. During the Final Neolithic, the Ozieri's Culture developed throughout the Sardinian territory, with diffusion of typically hypogea graves named Domus de Janas. The study was conducted inside the Domus de Janas at Filigosa necropolis, located on a tuffaceous hillside near the village of Macomer in the area of Marghine, Central-Western Sardinia. Tomb 1 dating back to the beginning of the third millennium BC had been excavated by Professor E. Contu in 1965 At the time of first excavation, this tomb showed very particular conditions that had enabled an excellent conservation of several osteological and wooden samples. This paper focuses on the presence of vivianite deposits on human bones and its origin. For such a mineral to be formed an interaction between phosphate, iron and water has to occur. These findings can be considered the first evidence of such mineral in a Sardinian archaeological site, and one of the most ancient findings of this mineral in Italy, as well as the first evidence observed in prehistoric sites related to a period before the introduction of iron use

Is the corpus callosum degeneration a predictor of long-term disability in Multiple Sclerosis patients?

Axonal injury and loss of white matter has been well documented in corpus callosum (CC) of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), an inflammatory demyelinating disorder of the of Central Nervous System (CNS). The CC is the largest compact white matter fiber bundle of the brain connecting the two cerebral hemispheres. It seems that CC continue to mature structurally from infancy to adulthood (Muetzel RL, 2008). The topographical organization of its fibers allows the association of its abnormalities with those of specific cortical regions. It is one of the few white matter tracts that can be adequately evaluated by conventional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), having sharply demarcated two-dimensional limits on a mid-saggital T1W imaging (Fiqueira FF, 2007). So, as a consequence of these anatomic characteristics, it is reasonable to assume that CC morphometrics might be used as a possible marker for the analysis of its integrity. Conventional and non-conventional MRI techniques have been used to characterize pathological damages of the CC; for instance, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can show white matter changes undetected by conventional MRI (Bester M, 2008). We carried out a review focusing our interest on the diagnostic efficacy of MRI to predict MS disability. PubMed search engine was used to select manuscripts with predefined search terms: “corpus callosum”, “multiple sclerosis”, “disability” and “magnetic resonance imaging”. Only manuscripts in English language, published from January 2003 to January 2013, were selected. Abstracts and unpublished studies were excluded. References of all relevant retrieved articles, of review articles, were also evaluated manually in order to find additional articles. For data extraction an electronic form was prepared. The findings of the review suggest that CC atrophy is a more sensitive marker of disease activity than the global atrophy measures, predicting clinically definite multiple sclerosis (CDMS)conversion as early as 6 months of clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) (Kalincik T, 2012). Furthermore, the occurrence or growth of lesions over the first year in the splenium of corpus callosum, together with the cerebellum and the thalamus, was associated with cognitive worsening at year 5. CC atrophy seems to be a simple and an accurate predictor of disability, mostly for secondary progressive MS (Fiqueira FF, 2007), and it seems helpful for routine clinical activities (Vaneckova M, 2012)

Neuroanatomy, the Achille's heel of medical students. A systematic analysis of educational strategies for the teaching of neuroanatomy

Neuroanatomy has been deemed crucial for clinical neurosciences. It has been one of the most challenging parts of the anatomical curriculum and is one of the causes of “neurophobia,” whose main implication is a negative influence on the choice of neurology in the near future. In the last decades, several educational strategies have been identified to improve the skills of students and to promote a deep learning. The aim of this study was to systematically review the literature to identify the most effective method/s to teach human neuroanatomy. The search was restricted to publications written in English language and to articles describing teaching tools in undergraduate medical courses from January 2006 through December 2017. The primary outcome was the observation of improvement of anatomical knowledge in undergraduate medical students. Secondary outcomes were the amelioration of long‐term retention knowledge and the grade of satisfaction of students. Among 18 selected studies, 44.4% have used three‐dimensional (3D) teaching tools, 16.6% near peer teaching tool, 5.55% flipped classroom tool, 5.55% applied neuroanatomy elective course, 5.55% equivalence‐based instruction‐rote learning, 5.55% mobile augmented reality, 5.55% inquiry‐based clinical case, 5.55% cadaver dissection, and 5.55% Twitter. The high in‐between study heterogeneity was the main issue to identify the most helpful teaching tool to improve neuroanatomical knowledge among medical students. Data from this study suggest that a combination of multiple pedagogical resources seems to be the more advantageous for teaching neuroanatomy

SEM low vacuum study of fat transfer Coleman’s technique: effect of centrifugation and sedimentation on adipocyte morphology

Introduction. The concept of beauty has always been important for man, if we think that cosmetics existed in ancient times and the body care had a crucial role. Among various techniques to repair physical defects exist lipofilling, that is an explant of fat tissue from a part of body and the implant in other areas; however, autologous fat graft is not very simple and often it causes damages to the cells. The procedure used is Coleman’s technique and, in literature, we find many variations of this method to overcome its limitations such as reabsorption of the implanted cells, formation of oil cysts and fibrous tissue. Today, there are some works that study what kind of modifications we can find utilizing Coleman’s technique but no one of these analyses with SEM the alterations that may suffer the fat. Therefore, our work is to evaluate changes induced by this procedure and to validate SEM for analyses of the tissue explanted. Materials and Methods. From 10 clinical surgeries of lipofilling we used: a) fragments of adipose tissue taken with Coleman’s technique. These fragments were divided in: untreated specimen, sedimented specimen for 15 minutes and centrifuged specimen at 1500 rpm for 3 minutes. Purpose of sedimentation and centrifugation was to remove blood and tryglicerides released by adipocytes during explants; b) a biopsy specimen of adipose tissue taken from the site of graft, as a control. Each fat graft specimen was freshly washed in PBS, fixed in glutaraldehyde and osmium tetroxide and observed at SEM FEI Quanta 200 in low vacuum. Results. The technique of lipofilling we studied causes different types of damage on the adipocytes during liposuction. The modifications we observed compared to control are: presence of oily surface veil, above all detectable in sedimented specimens and in centrifuged specimens; a reduction of the numbers of adipose cells up to 50% and an augmentation of damages to cell membrane about in 20% of adipocytes of centrifuged fragments. There aren’t differences of diameter of the cells after sedimentation and centrifugation. In the three observed specimens about a 90% of adipose cells with a normal structure without changements of volume and a 10-20% of altered cells was found. Conclusions. We can say that adipose tissue during fat graft has some modifications mainly due to the technique utilized. It justifies the higher engraftment of sedimented specimens compared to those centrifuged. We can say also that SEM in low vacuum can be easily applied to study new methods of lipofilling to improve Coleman’s technique

Medical student perceptions of near peer teaching within an histology course at the University of Sassari, Italy

Near peer teaching (NPT) is becoming recognized as a valuable instrument with advantages for both students and teachers. Despite the recognized benefits, NPT programmes are not usually embedded within university healthcare curricula and, to our knowledge, there have been few studies assessing medical students’ attitudes towards NPT for histology courses. Our study is the first that assess medical students’ perceptions concerning the value of NPT for a course in the human organ histology component of anatomy. A NPT programme was provided for second-year medical students and delivered during laboratory sessions for microscopic anatomy. The NPT tutors were recruited from third-, fourth- or fifth-year medical students. The medical tutees completed a questionnaire to assess their attitudes towards NPT. The initial hypothesis tested was that students preferred to be taught by their professional teachers and not by NPT tutors. A total of 113 students completed the questionnaire (46% response rate). Of these, 70% of respondents rated the support of the NPT tutors as being excellent or good. Furthermore, 60% of respondents agreed that the NPT programme should be introduced officially into the medical curriculum. The findings are not consistent with our initial hypothesis, and suggest that NPT could be a valuable instrument for the understanding of histological concepts