Pancreatic acinar cell carcinoma: A comprehensive review

Acinar cell carcinoma (ACC) is a rare pancreatic malignancy with distinctive clinical, molecular, and morphological features. The long-term survival of ACC patients is substantially superior to that of pancreatic adenocarcinoma patients. As there are no significant patient series about ACCs, our understanding of this illness is mainly based on case reports and limited patient series. Surgical resection is the treatment of choice for patients with the disease restricted to one organ; however, with recent breakthroughs in precision medicine, medicines targeting the one-of-a-kind molecular profile of ACC are on the horizon. There are no standard treatment protocols available for people in which a total surgical resection to cure the condition is not possible. As a result of shared genetic alterations, ACCs are chemosensitive to agents with activity against pancreatic adenocarcinomas and colorectal carcinomas. The role of neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemoradiotherapy has not been established. This article aims to do a comprehensive literature study and present the most recent information on acinar cell cancer.     

Immunohistochemical study on distribution of endocrine cells in gastrointestinal tract of flower fish （Pseudophoxinus antalyae）

INTRODUCTION Gastrointestinal hormones are secreted by endocrine cells which are distributed throughout the mucosa of the gastrointestinal tract. They play important roles in the overall regulation of digestive processes such as nutrient absorption, gut m…     

Anatomical variations of the carotid-vertebral arteries: "double-vessel" sign on Doppler ultrasonography

We describe the "double-vessel" sign and its relevance for the diagnosis of carotid and vertebral arterial anatomical variations in a series of four patients with stroke. In these four patients, two arteries could be seen at the expected location of the common carotid artery (CCA), leading to the diagnosis of anatomical variations including separate origin of internal and external carotid artery from the aortic arch on the left side and from the brachiocephalic trunk and the subclavian artery on the right side, early bifurcation of the CCA on both sides, and an aberrant course of the vertebral artery on the left side. The presence of two arteries at the expected location of the CCA should raise the suspicion of carotid or vertebral arterial variations.     

Diffusion tensor imaging of forearm nerves in humans

Purpose:

To implement a diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) protocol for visualization of peripheral nerves in human forearm.

Materials and Methods:

This Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)‐compliant study was approved by our Institutional Review Board and written informed consent was obtained from 10 healthy participants. T₁‐ and T₂‐weighted turbo spin echo with fat saturation, short tau inversion recovery (STIR), and DTI sequences with 21 diffusion‐encoding directions were implemented to acquire images of the forearm nerves with an 8 channel knee coil on a 3T MRI scanner. Identification of the nerves was based on T₁‐weighted, T₂‐weighted, STIR, and DTI‐derived fractional anisotropy (FA) images. Maps of the DTI‐derived indices, FA, mean diffusivity (MD), longitudinal diffusivity (λ_//), and radial diffusivity (λ_?) along the length of the nerves were generated.

Results:

DTI‐derived maps delineated the forearm nerves more clearly than images acquired with other sequences. Only ulnar and median nerves were clearly visualized on the DTI‐derived FA maps. No significant differences were observed between the left and right forearms in any of the DTI‐derived measures. Significant variation in the DTI measures was observed along the length of the nerve. Significant differences in the DTI measures were also observed between the median and ulnar nerves.

Conclusion:

DTI is superior in visualizing the median and ulnar nerves in the human forearm. The normative data could potentially help distinguish normal from diseased nerves. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2012;36:920–927. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.