Surgical outcome in PET-positive, MRI-negative patients with temporal lobe epilepsy

Purpose: Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission computed tomography (FDG‐PET) hypometabolism is important for surgical planning in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), but its significance remains unclear in patients who do not have evidence of mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We examined surgical outcomes in a group of PET‐positive, MRI‐negative patients and compared them with those of patients with MTS. Methods: We queried the Thomas Jefferson University Surgical Epilepsy Database for patients who underwent anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) from 1991 to 2009 and who had unilateral temporal PET hypometabolism without an epileptogenic lesion on MRI (PET+/MRI?). We compared this group to the group of patients who underwent ATL and who had MTS on MRI. Patients with discordant ictal electroencephalography (EEG) were excluded. Surgical outcomes were compared using percentages of Engel class I outcomes at 2 and 5 years as well as Kaplan‐Meier survival statistic, with time to seizure recurrence as survival time. A subgroup of PET+/MRI? patients who underwent surgical implantation prior to resection was compared to PET+/MRI? patients who went directly to resection without implantation. Key Findings: There were 46 PET+/MRI? patients (of whom 36 had 2‐year surgical outcome available) and 147 MTS patients. There was no difference between the two groups with regard to history of febrile convulsions, generalized tonic–clonic seizures, interictal spikes, depression, or family history. Mean age at first seizure was higher in PET+/MRI? patients (19 ± 13 vs.14 ± 13 years, Mann‐Whitney test, p = 0.008) and disease duration was shorter (14 ± 10 vs. 22 ± 13 years, student’s t‐test, p = 0.0006). Class I surgical outcomes did not differ significantly between the PET+/MRI? patients and the MTS group (2 and 5 year outcomes were 76% and 75% for the PET+/MRI? group, and 71% and 78% for the MTS group); neither did outcomes of the PET+/MRI? patients who were implanted prior to resection versus those who went directly to surgery (implanted patients had 71% and 67% class I outcomes at 2 and 5 years, whereas. nonimplanted patients had 77% and 78% class I outcomes, p = 0.66 and 0.28). Kaplan‐Meier survival statistics for both comparisons were nonsignificant at 5 years. Dentate gyrus and hilar cell counts obtained from pathology for a sample of patients also did not differ between groups. Significance: PET‐positive, MRI‐negative TLE patients in our study had excellent surgical outcomes after ATL, very similar to those in patients with MTS, regardless of whether or not they undergo intracranial monitoring. These patients should be considered prime candidates for ATL, and intracranial monitoring is probably unnecessary in the absence of discordant data.     

草药复方Bresol(R)抵抗化合物48/80诱导的肥大细胞脱颗粒及组胺释放:促使肥大细胞稳定的一种非免疫机制

目的:研究一种草药复方制剂Bresol(R)对于肥大细胞脱颗粒以及组胺释放的保护作用.方法:使用大鼠腹膜内肥大细胞,在体外经化合物48/80诱导肥大细胞脱颗粒及组胺释放,评估Bresol(R)稳定肥大细胞的作用.结果:显微镜下正常对照组涂片显示较多完整的肥大细胞,有极少量的脱颗粒肥大细胞和微量的组胺释放.阳性对照组中用化合物48/80培养的肥大细胞出现了显著的肥大细胞脱颗粒现象以及高浓度的组胺释放.而100 mg/L浓度的Bresol(R)明显抑制了化合物48/80诱导的肥大细胞脱颗粒.此外,Bresol(R)可有效抑制化合物48/80诱导的组胺释放,且抑制效果与剂量有关.结论:Bresol(R)能够在体外抑制化合物48/80诱导的肥大细胞脱颗粒和组胺释放.本研究的发现可解释Bresol(R)对多种过敏疾病有效可能是通过一种非免疫机制.     

Correlation of interleukin-6, serum lactate, and C-reactive protein to inflammation, complication, and outcome during the surgical course of patients with acute abdomen

In the present scenario, doctors have to rely on radiological methods for diagnosis of acute abdomen in addition to their clinical skill. The use of serum markers for assessing the outcome of such patients is still debatable. Our aim was to evaluate whether the combined use of serum lactate, interleukin (IL)-6, and C-reactive protein (CRP) is able to simultaneously establish both the septic status and the prognosis of acute abdomen. Ninety-nine patients undergoing surgery for acute abdomen were taken up for the study. The patients were divided into 4 groups based on the level of sepsis. Serum lactate, IL-6, and CRP were determined in the serum of all the subjects. It was found that serum lactate determination, using the cutoff value < 3.9 mM, had a high sensitivity (100%) and specificity (83%) in differentiating patients with severe sepsis from those with sepsis. IL-6 came next with a sensitivity of 87% and a specificity of 81%. The AUC for serum lactate (0.922), IL-6 (0.912), and CRP (0.719) in differentiating between patients with severe sepsis and those with sepsis also proves the superiority of serum lactate and IL-6. The combined use of serum lactate and IL-6 would allow us to simultaneously establish the prognosis of patients with acute abdomen (r(2) = 0.368, P = 0.008). The combined use of serum lactate and IL-6 is useful in simultaneously establishing both the severity of sepsis and, hence, the prognosis of acute abdomen.     

Use of an indwelling pleural catheter for the management of recurrent chylothorax in patients with cancer

BACKGROUND: Recurrent chylothorax is a debilitating condition. We describe the usefulness of an indwelling pleural catheter (IPC) in the palliative management of recurrent symptomatic chylothorax in patients with cancer relapse or progressive disease despite adequate treatment. METHODS: In 10 years, 5,594 patients underwent 8,498 pleural procedures at our institution. Pleural fluid triglycerides were measured in 1,343 patients; of these patients, 130 had a chylothorax. Their medical records were reviewed. In 19 patients, recurrent symptomatic chylothorax appeared in association with cancer relapse. Treating physicians decided to place an IPC in 10 patients, and 9 patients had other palliative interventions. Baseline and postintervention changes in weight, absolute lymphocyte counts, and albumin levels in both groups were statistically compared. Hazard ratio and Kaplan-Meier curves of time to second pleural intervention after index procedure were also evaluated. RESULTS: The risk of requiring a second pleural intervention after the index procedure during the following 500 days was lower in the IPC group compared to the other pleural interventions (p=0.030), and Kaplan-Meier curves of time to second intervention were statistically different (p=0.025). Albumin levels decrease in the IPC group (p=0.007), but the decline was not worse than the decline observed in the control group (p=0.329), and recovered rapidly after IPC removal. CONCLUSIONS: Placement of an IPC may be considered as first-line palliative management for patients with symptomatic recurrent chylothorax poorly responsive to the treatment of the underlying malignancy.     

Predicting hospital-acquired acute kidney injury--a case-controlled study

Acute kidney injury is a major complication of hospitalization, occurring in 5-7 percent of hospitalized patients. The patient characteristics and prognostic variables that help predict acute kidney injury have not been studied in the general hospitalized population. The objectives of this study are to derive and validate a predictive score for hospital-acquired acute kidney injury (HAKI). We conducted a case-controlled study of HAKI involving 180 cases and 360 controls. A multivariate logistic regression model was developed in two-thirds of the subjects and validated in the other third. Upon admission, cases in the developmental sample were older (67 vs. 63 yrs, p = .008) and more likely to have diabetes (51% vs. 35%; p = .003), hypertension (77% vs. 60%, p = .001), heart failure (34% vs. 20%, p = .004), blood urea nitrogen >or=25 mg/dL (38% vs. 20%, p = <.001), creatinine >or=1.1 mg/dL (65% vs. 39%; p <.001), albumin 30 mEq/L (42% vs. 29%; p = .05) compared to controls. The final risk score included pulse, bicarbonate, creatinine, and specific medications (NSAIDs, ACE inhibitors, ARBs, and/or diuretics). The c-statistic for the risk score in the developmental sample was 0.69. In the validation sample, an increasing number of risk factors was associated with increased risk of HAKI (16% and 62% in the low and high-risk groups, respectively). In conclusion, a simple model based on readily available data stratifies patients according to their risk of developing HAKI and may guide clinical decision making and provide a basis for further research into HAKI.     

Stimulation better targets fast-ripple generating networks in super responders to the responsive neurostimulator system

How responsive neurostimulation (RNS) decreases seizure frequency is unclear. Stimulation may alter epileptic networks during inter-ictal epochs. Definitions of the epileptic network vary but fast ripples (FRs) may be an important substrate. We, therefore, examined whether stimulation of FR-generating networks differed in RNS super responders and intermediate responders. In 10 patients, with subsequent RNS placement, we detected FRs from stereo-electroencephalography (SEEG) contacts during pre-surgical evaluation. The normalized coordinates of the SEEG contacts were compared with those of the eight RNS contacts, and RNS-stimulated SEEG contacts were defined as those within 1.5 cm³ of the RNS contacts. We compared the post-RNS placement seizure outcome to (1) the ratio of stimulated SEEG contacts in the seizure-onset zone (SOZ stimulation ratio [SR]); (2) the ratio of FR events on stimulated contacts (FR SR); and (3) the global efficiency of the FR temporal correlational network on stimulated contacts (FR SGe). We found that the SOZ SR (p = .18) and FR SR (p = .06) did not differ in the RNS super responders and intermediate responders, but the FR SGe did (p = .02). In super responders, highly active desynchronous sites of the FR network were stimulated. RNS that better targets FR networks, as compared to the SOZ, may reduce epileptogenicity more.