Endovascular repair for acute traumatic transection of the descending thoracic aorta: experience of a single centre with a 12-years follow up

Background: Most blunt aortic injuries occur in the proximal proximal descending aorta causing acute transection of this vessel. Generally, surgical repair of the ruptured segment of aorta is associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality and in this view endovascular treatment seems to be a valid and safer alternative. Aim of this article is to review our experience with endovascular approach for the treatment of acute traumatic rupture of descending thoracic aorta. Methods: From April 2002 to November 2014, 11 patients (9 males and 2 females) were referred to our Department with a diagnosis of acute transection of thoracic aorta. Following preoperative Computed Tomography (CT) evaluation, thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) with left subclavian artery coverage was performed. Follow-up consisted clinical and instrumental (CT, Duplex ultrasound) controls at discharge, 1, 3 and 6 months and yearly thereafter. Results: At 12-year follow up, the overall survival for the entire patients cohort was 100 %, no major or minor neurological complications and no episode of left arm claudication occurred. Cardiovascular, respiratory and bleeding complications, in the early period, was represented by minor, non fatal events. No stent graft failure, collapse, leak or distal migration were detected at CT scan during the entire follow up period. Conclusions: According to our experience, despite the small number of patient population, TEVAR procedure with with left subclavian artery coverage, performed in emergency settings, seems to provide excellent long term results. Trials registration: The protocol was registered at a public trials registry, www.clinicaltrials.gov (trial identifier NCT02376998)

The phlebological surgery in elderly patients

The pathogenesis of the lower limbs varicose veins in the elderly patients is the same one as in the juvenile and adult age. What changes is the severity of the clinical picture, because the disease is a chronic pathology and it is aggravated with the passing of the years in absence of prophylaxis and missed or inadequate therapy. Equally the surgical operations on the superficial venous system of the elderly patients from a technical point of view are the same that are practiced in other ages of life. What changes is the anaesthesiological risk, which is increased, because other chronic pathologies are frequently associated with the old ones. Currently both the use of techniques of peripheral anesthesia, as the blocks of the lower limbs nervous trunks, and the introduction of poor toxic anesthetics for the heart in therapeutical practice allow in an inci¬sive way to submit elderly people to surgical procedures. Above all the out-patient hemodynamic surgery of the superficial chronic venous insufficiency, which requires a careful and meticulous instrumental investigation aimed surgical gestures, but simple, effective, of brief duration, has convinced many surgeons of the possibility to operate on the varicose patients of a more and more advance age. On the other hand the rapid postoperative mobiliza¬tion of those sick, in absence of immediate complica¬tions, means that they can be discharged from the hospital on the same day of the operation. This undoubtedly involves positive reflexes on the sanitary expense and it increases at the same time the compliance in terms of motivation and acceptance of the proposed procedure. The elderly patient, perhaps more than the younger adult, once informed of the new anaesthesiological and surgical techniques, gladly gives his consent to the inter¬vention, pleased to return to his own house and tquickly return to his daily occupations. How much I dictate you is translated in our experi¬ence, that is carried out near the Phlebological Center of the Siena University, in a progressive increase in the last 5 years both in absolute terms (223) and percen¬tages (12%) of the number of subjects older than sixty¬five years old that have been submitted to surgical operations for the venous disease. Of all 223 patients, males are 68 and females are 155; 144of them have an age between 66 and 70 years, 73 belonging to the eighty years of life and 6 subject to the ninty. All patients have been operated in Day Hospi¬tal admission. No mortality has been found. Local post-operative complications was encountered in 1,8% of the cases

Ruptured Left Subclavian Artery Aneurysm in a 41-Year-Old Woman with Neurofibromatosis Type 1

Abstract Introduction Intrinsic lesions of the arterial wall are important manifestations of Neurofibromatosis type 1. Report A 41-year-old woman with Neurofibromatosis type 1, suffering sudden onset of upper back as well as left shoulder and upper chest pain is addressed to our hospital. The contrast-enhanced thoracic computed tomogram demonstrated a huge hematoma due to ruptured left subclavian artery aneurysm treated with endovascular therapy. Discussion A ruptured left subclavian artery is an uncommon but life threatening manifestation in Neurofibromatosis type 1

Angiogenesis and vessel co-option in a mathematical model of diffusive tumor growth: The role of chemotaxis

This work considers the propagation of a tumor from the stage of a small avascular sphere in a host tissue and the progressive onset of a tumor neovasculature stimulated by a pro-angiogenic factor secreted by hypoxic cells. The way new vessels are formed involves cell sprouting from pre-existing vessels and following a trail via a chemotactic mechanism (CM). Namely, it is first proposed a detailed general family of models of the CM, based on a statistical mechanics approach. The key hypothesis is that the CM is composed by two components: i) the well–known bias induced by the angiogenic factor gradient; ii) the presence of stochastic changes of the velocity direction, thus giving rise to a diffusive component. Then, some further assumptions and simplifications are applied in order to derive a specific model to be used in the simulations. The tumor progression is favored by its acidic aggression towards the healthy cells. The model includes the evolution of many biological and chemical species. Numerical simulations show the onset of a traveling wave eventually replacing the host tissue with a fully vascularized tumor. The results of simulations agree with experimental measures of the vasculature density in tumors, even in the case of particularly hypoxic tumors

Anti-Ri-associated paraneoplastic ophthalmoplegia-ataxia syndrome in a woman with breast cancer. A case report and review of the literature

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. However, in the management of breast cancer, paraneoplastic neurological syndromes represent a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. The diagnosis of paraneoplastic neurological syndromes is difficult due to the heterogeneity of symptoms, the timing of presentation, and the absence of antibodies, and it generally occurs before the diagnosis of breast cancer in 80% of patients who develop paraneoplastic neurological syndromes. We describe a 72-year-old woman with subacute ophthalmoplegia-ataxia syndrome who was subsequently diagnosed as having breast cancer and anti-Ri antibodies. Case presentation: A 72-year-old post-menopausal Caucasian woman, with a positive medical history for diabetes mellitus and hypertension, presented with a 3-month onset of blurred vision, diplopia, and progressive gait disturbance. Serological tests were positive for well-characterized onconeural antibodies (anti-Ri). A whole-body computed tomography scan revealed a nodular opacity under her left nipple and axillary adenopathy. A biopsy of her left breast was performed, and histological examination showed ductal carcinoma. She underwent a superoexternal quadrantectomy with left axillary dissection. The final diagnosis showed infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the breast (T1c N1 M0, stage IIA) associated with paraneoplastic ophthalmoplegia-ataxia syndrome. At a 6-month follow-up, she showed no clinical or instrumental evidence of neoplastic recurrence with partial clinical improvement of neurological symptoms, such as ataxia and diplopia. Conclusion: The diagnosis of paraneoplastic neurological syndromes is often late, as in this patient, but treatment at an early stage may provide a good prognosis. Furthermore, this is one of several cases of an anti-Ri paraneoplastic neurological syndrome not associated with myoclonus, which reinforces the belief that opsoclonus myoclonus syndrome is not pathognomonic of the associated anti-Ri paraneoplastic neurological syndromes

Fractal analysis applied to light curves of δ\delta Scuti stars

Fractal behaviour, i.e. scale invariance in spatio-temporal dynamics, have been found to describe and model many systems in nature, in particular fluid mechanics and geophysical related geometrical objects, like the convective boundary layer of cumulus cloud fields, topographic landscapes, solar granulation patterns, and observational astrophysical time series, like light curves of pulsating stars. The main interest in the study of fractal properties in such physical phenomena lies in the close relationships they have with chaotic and turbulent dynamic. In this work we introduce some statistical tools for fractal analysis of light curves: Rescaled Range Analysis (R/S), Multifractal Spectra Analysis, and Coarse Graining Spectral Analysis (CGSA), an FFT based algorithm, which can discriminate in a time series the stochastic fractal power spectra from the harmonic one. An interesting application of fractal analysis in asteroseismology concerns the joint use of all these tools in order to develop classification criteria and algorithms for {\delta}-Scuti pulsating stars. In fact from the fractal and multi-fractal fingerprints in background noise of light curves we could infer on different mechanism of stellar dynamic, among them rotation, modes excitation and magnetic activity.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure

Nucleic Acids in Human Glioma Treatment: Innovative Approaches and Recent Results

Gliomas are the most common primary central nervous system tumors with a dismal prognosis. Despite recent advances in surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, current treatment regimens have a modest survival benefit. A crucial challenge is to deliver drugs effectively to invasive glioma cells residing in a sanctuary within the central nervous system. New therapies are essential, and oligonucleotide-based approaches, including antisense, microRNAs, small interfering RNAs, and nucleic acid aptamers, may provide a viable strategy. Thanks to their unique characteristics (low size, good affinity for the target, no immunogenicity, chemical structures that can be easily modified to improve their in vivo applications), these molecules may represent a valid alternative to antibodies particularly to overcome challenges presented by the blood-brain barrier. Here we will discuss recent results on the use of oligonucleotides that will hopefully provide new effective treatment for gliomas