Guzy mózgu z punktu widzenia neurochirurga; przyczynek do chirurgicznego leczenia nowotworów śródczaszkowych

W pracy przedstawiono techniki służące pogłębieniu diagnostyki guzów mózgu oraz metody leczenia neurochirurgicznego nowotworów pierwotnych i przerzutowych mózgu. Do pierwszej grupy należą metody przeznaczone do analizy funkcji określonych obszarów mózgu: 1) mapowanie kliniczne i badanie śródoperacyjne obszarów elokwentnych, czyli tylko tych - jak się uważa - które wiążą się bezpośrednio z funkcją mowy, ale też takich, których uszkodzenie prowadzi do inwalidztwa; 2) metody farmakologiczne, służące określeniu dominującej półkuli mózgu. Zalicza się do nich także metody strukturalnej analizy nowotworu i jego otoczenia: biopsję stereotaktyczną i neuronawigacyjną, biopsję otwartą, biopsję endoskopową oraz cytodiagnostykę płynu mózgowo-rdzeniowego komór bocznych i zbiornika wielkiego. Do drugiej grupy - metod terapeutycznych - należą: kraniotomia, neuronawigacja, mikrochirurgia sprzężona z neuronawigacją, neuronawigacja wspomagana badaniem ultrasonograficznym, procedury endoskopowe, wszczepianie implantu terapeutycznego. W artykule omówiono również chirurgiczne procedury paliatywne w leczeniu guzów mózgu. W podsumowaniu autorzy podkreślają, że dalszy postęp w terapii guzów glejowych mózgu należy do metod pozachirurgicznych - genetycznych czy farmakologicznych (aplikacja terapeutyków). Obowiązujący kanon trzech filarów terapeutycznych w onkologii, czyli chirurgia, chemioterapia, radioterapia, i musi być traktowany w sposób kompleksowy

Release of Lungworm Larvae from Snails in the Environment: Potential for Alternative Transmission Pathways

Background: Gastropod-borne parasites may cause debilitating clinical conditions in animals and humans following the consumption of infected intermediate or paratenic hosts. However, the ingestion of fresh vegetables contaminated by snail mucus and/or water has also been proposed as a source of the infection for some zoonotic metastrongyloids (e.g., Angiostrongylus cantonensis). In the meantime, the feline lungworms Aelurostrongylus abstrusus and Troglostrongylus brevior are increasingly spreading among cat populations, along with their gastropod intermediate hosts. The aim of this study was to assess the potential of alternative transmission pathways for A. abstrusus and T. brevior L3 via the mucus of infected Helix aspersa snails and the water where gastropods died. In addition, the histological examination of snail specimens provided information on the larval localization and inflammatory reactions in the intermediate host. Methodology/Principal Findings: Twenty-four specimens of H. aspersa received ~500 L1 of A. abstrusus and T. brevior, and were assigned to six study groups. Snails were subjected to different mechanical and chemical stimuli throughout 20 days in order to elicit the production of mucus. At the end of the study, gastropods were submerged in tap water and the sediment was observed for lungworm larvae for three consecutive days. Finally, snails were artificially digested and recovered larvae were counted and morphologically and molecularly identified. The anatomical localization of A. abstrusus and T. brevior larvae within snail tissues was investigated by histology. L3 were detected in the snail mucus (i.e., 37 A. abstrusus and 19 T. brevior) and in the sediment of submerged specimens (172 A. abstrusus and 39 T. brevior). Following the artificial digestion of H. aspersa snails, a mean number of 127.8 A. abstrusus and 60.3 T. brevior larvae were recovered. The number of snail sections positive for A. abstrusus was higher than those for T. brevior. Conclusions: Results of this study indicate that A. abstrusus and T. brevior infective L3 are shed in the mucus of H. aspersa or in water where infected gastropods had died submerged. Both elimination pathways may represent alternative route(s) of environmental contamination and source of the infection for these nematodes under field conditions and may significantly affect the epidemiology of feline lungworms. Considering that snails may act as intermediate hosts for other metastrongyloid species, the environmental contamination by mucus-released larvae is discussed in a broader context

Singularity spectra of strongly inhomogeneous multifractals

Generalized multifractal formalism is used to study singularity spectra of strongly inhomogeneous multifractals characterized by coarse-grained probability measures with zero minimal and/or infinite maximal Hölder exponents. Due to involving two additional types of scaling indices, the generalized formalism is shown to be able to describe complex multifractal objects by families of bivariate spectra rather than familiar single spectra of singularity strengths of one type, providing a more complete and adequate characteristics of such objects. It is proved that the families of extended singularity spectra can reveal unusual forms with many maxima, reflecting complex scaling structures of strongly inhomogeneous multifractals

Multiscaling and multifractality in an one-dimensional Ising model

Scaling properties of the Gibbs distribution of a finite-size one-dimensional Ising model are investigated as the thermodynamic limit is approached. It is shown that, for each nonzero temperature, coarse-grained probabilities of the appearance of particular energy levels display multiscaling with the scaling length $\ell=1/M_n$, where n denotes the number of spins and Mn is the total number of energy levels. Using the multifractal formalism, the probabilities are argued to reveal also multifractal properties

THE PREVALENCE OF TRYPANOSOMES IN BREAM ABRAMIS BRAMA IN GOSŁAWSKIE AND GOPŁO LAKES

20 individuals of Abramis brama from Gosławskie Lake and 10 individuals from Gopło Lake, central Poland, were investigated on the presence of trypanosomes. The infections of Trypanosoma abramidis LAVERAN and MESNIL, 1904 were detected in three breams from Gosławskie Lake and two in Gopło Lake. The question of the distinctivity of T. abramidis from T. carassii MITROPHANOW, 1883 found in other Cyprinidae in Poland is discussed

The Dynamic Dielectric Function "Anomaly" for HgSe:Ga and HgSe:Fe

Reflectivity spectra of HgSe crystals highly doped with Ga and Fe, respectively, were investigated in the spectral region close to the absorption edge at temperatures between 12 K and 295 K. From the analysis of the structure observed in reflectivity the temperature dependence of the Fermi energy was determined for both kinds of crystals