Endovascular management of renal angiomyolipomas: Do coils have a benefit in terms of clinical success rates?

PURPOSEThis study evaluated single center results of endovascular treatment in renal angiomyolipoma (AML) to determine whether there is clinical relevance of adding proximal coil embolization to distal particle embolization in terms of safety, efficacy and retreatment rates.METHODSA retrospective analysis was performed to evaluate patients undergoing transarterial embolization for renal AMLs from January 2007 to October 2020. Parameters regarding patient and tumor characteristics, embolization technique, treatment outcome and complications were recorded. Patients were divided into two groups as A (only particle group) and B (particle + coil group) based on the type of embolic agent used for treatment. Comparative analysis was performed between the two groups in terms of tumor size reduction, retreatment and complication rates.RESULTForty-two patients (37 (88.1%) female, 5 (11.9%) male) harboring 48 AMLs were included in the study. The mean age was 43.46 (range 20 to 78). The technical success rate was 95.8% (46 of 48 procedures). The mean size reduction was 1.94±1 cm (p < 0.001) after treatments however, no significant difference was seen between groups in terms of tumor size reduction. Retreatment rates were 3.1% (1 of 32 cases) in group A and 14.3% (2 of 14 cases) in group B (p = 0.21). No significant difference was found between groups in terms of bleeding and complication rates during the perioperative period. Mean follow-up duration was 26.48±25.71 (range from 2 to 102) months. CONCLUSIONIn this study, no clear supplementary benefit was observed in terms of safety, and efficacy with the adjunction of coils to distal particle embolization in the management of AMLs

Twin Probes as a Novel Tool for the Detection of Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are the most common form of DNA sequence variation. There is a strong interest from both academy and industry to develop rapid, sensitive and cost effective methods for SNP detection. Here we report a novel structural concept for DNA detection based on fluorescence dequenching upon hybridization. The so-called “twin probe” consists of a central fluorene derivative as fluorophore to which two identical oligonucleotides are covalently attached. This probe architecture is applied in homogeneous hybridization assays with subsequent fluorescence spectroscopic analysis. The bioorganic hybrid structure is well suited for sequence specific DNA detection and even SNPs are identified with high efficiency. Additionally, the photophysical properties of the twin probe were investigated. The covalent attachment of two single stranded oligonucleotides leads to strong quenching of the central fluorescence dye induced by the nucleobases. The twin probe is characterized by supramolecular aggregate formation accompanied by red-shifted emission and broad fluorescence spectra.

Immunohistochemical expression of atrial- and brain natriuretic peptide in Anatolian ground squirrel (Spermophilus xanthoprymnus) kidney and lung

Our primary hypothesis is that it should be possible to enrich data fusion by semantic processing, with wide potential application. In order to achieve our aim we need to represent the semantic data and enable reasoning about it in a framework that can be aligned with data fusion. Ontologies are most suited to this task as they allow for rich representation of data structure; some approaches include probabilistic representation. These can be aligned with data fusion approaches, such as Bayesian, which can fuse by including estimates of uncertainty. We shall describe our initial approaches towards establishing our hypothesis. We shall survey the enabling technologies, showing how they can contribute to our goal. We shall describe our selection of application data which derives from an acoustic sensor (military) scenario. We shall show how feature subset selection can reduce information-redundancy and improve efficiency in these domains, prior to fusion to enhance performance further. We shall explore the semantic attributes and the representations that can be deployed for enrichment purposes, showing how ontologies can be used in this context. In these respects we shall show how we can approach enrichment of data fusion by semantic technologies, how this can capitalise on the current stock of techniques, and illustrate the potential benefits associated with this new approach