Über das Auftreten von eosinophilen Zellen im Auge

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Posterior fossa tumors in children – indications for ventricular drainage and for V-P shunting

A clinical analysis of 95 patients with posterior fossa tumors treated in the Department of Neurosurgery of the Medical University in Gdansk over a period of 16 years (1979–1995) is presented. The following preoperative factors were studied: localization, size and suspected type of tumor, size of the ventricular system, and presence or absence of the “halo” symptom. The indications for ventricular drainage (Fisher) versus V-P shunting as a preliminary treatment are discussed. Finally, the advantages of each of these procedures are emphasized. Received: 19 December 1997     

Polymorphism of Promoter Region of TNFRSF1A Gene (−610 T > G) as a Novel Predictive Factor for Radiotherapy Induced Oral Mucositis in HNC Patients

Every year, about 650 thousand new cases of Head and Neck Cancer (HNC) are diagnosed globally. Apart from surgery, radiotherapy (RTH), chemotherapy (CHT) or its combination is used in the treatment of HNC. One of the most frequent complications and, at the same time, limitations of RTH is oral mucositis (OM). Proinflammatory cytokines (including TNF-α) play a key role in the development of OM. Genetic alterations, i.e. single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within genes encoding for receptors for TNF (ie. TNFRSF1A) may change their function. The aim of this study was to investigate relationship between a polymorphism of TNFRSF1A and occurrence and severity of acute reaction after RTH for HNC patients. Data from 58 HNC patients (stages I-IV) were analyzed. All of them were irradiated using IMRT technique with doses 50-70Gy. Oral mucositis (OM) was evaluated according to RTOG/EORTC guidelines. DNA from HNC patients were isolated from whole blood and genotypes were determined by sequencing method. Patients with TT or GT genotype demonstrated higher risk of manifestation of grade 3 OM in 5th week of RTH (p=0.041; OR=9.240; 95% CI: 1.101–77.581) compared to GG carriers. Similarly, high risk of grade 3 OM in patients with T allele presence was noted in 6th week (p=0.030; OR=10.50; 95%CI:1.257–87.690) and in 7th week (p=0.008; OR=5.625; 95% CI: 1.584–19.975) of treatment compared to patients with GG homozygote. Our results indicate an association between SNP of TNFRSF1A (rs4149570) gene and risk of more severe OM related to radiation therapy for HNC patients.     

Plasma copeptin for short term risk stratification in acute pulmonary embolism

Copeptin (COP) was reported to have prognostic value in various cardiovascular diseases. We hypothesized that COP levels reflect the severity of acute pulmonary embolism (PE) and may be useful in prognostic assessment. Plasma COP concentrations were measured on the Kryptor Compact Plus platform (BRAHMS, Hennigsdorf, Germany). The study included 107 consecutive patients with diagnosed acute PE (47 males, 60 females), with median age of 65 years (range 20–88). High risk PE was diagnosed in 3 patients (2.8 %), intermediate risk in 69 (64.5 %), and low risk PE in 35 (32.7 %) patients. Control group included 64 subjects (25 males, 39 females; median age 52.5 year, range 17–87). Four patients (3.7 %) died during 30-day observation. Complicated clinical course (CCC) was experienced by 10 (9.3 %) patients. COP level was higher in PE patients than in controls [11.55 pmol/L (5.16–87.97), and 19.00 pmol/L (5.51–351.90), respectively, p < 0.0001], and reflected PE severity. COP plasma concentration in low risk PE was 14.67 nmol/L (5.51–59.61) and in intermediate/high risk PE 19.84 mol/L (5.64–351.90) p < 0.05. Median COP levels in nonsurvivors was higher than in survivors, 84.6 (28.48–351.9) pmol/L and 18.68 (5.512–210.1) pmol/L, respectively, p = 0.009. Subjects with CCC presented higher COP levels than patients with benign clinical course 53.1 (17.95–351.9) pmol/L and 18.16 (5.51–210.1) pmol/L, respectively, p = 0.001. Log-transformed plasma COP was the significant predictor of CCC, OR 16.5 95 % CI 23.2–111.9, p < 0.001. AUC—for prediction of CCC using plasma COP was 0.811 (95 % CI 0.676–0.927). The COP cut off value of 17.95 nmol/l had sensitivity of 100 %, specificity 49.5 %, positive predictive value of 16.9 % and negative predictive value of 100 %. We conclude that plasma COP levels can be regarded for promising marker of severity of acute PE and show potential in risk stratification of these patients.     

Segmental longitudinal strain as the most accurate predictor of the patchy pattern late gadolinium enhancement in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

BackgroundThe prognostic value of myocardial fibrosis in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) has been well-established. Although cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is the method of choice in its revealing as the presence of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE), this technique still has limited availability in daily clinical practice. Two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography (2D STE) seems to be helpful in verification which HCM patient has the highest probability of LGE presence and hence needs to be qualified to CMR. While the majority of HCM patients have a patchy pattern of myocardial fibrosis, the aim of this study was to evaluate whether segmental rather than global longitudinal strain is more accurate in the identification of the presence of LGE.MethodsForty-six HCM patients had transthoracic echocardiography and CMR imaging performed. Each patient had global longitudinal strain and rotation parameters calculated, as well as segmental analyses for wall thickness, longitudinal strain, and LGE presence based on 736 segments of the left ventricle (LV). The presence of LGE in CMR was confirmed on a per-segment basis, which was similar to LV segments in the echocardiographic examination. All patients were divided into two groups according to the CMR result: LGE (+) and LGE (?).ResultsReceiver-operating characteristic analyses identified peak global longitudinal strain and peak twisting velocity with the cut-off values ?14.4% and 116°/s respectively as the accurate predictors of LGE presence in CMR, whereas segmental longitudinal strain of ?12.5% cut-off value had the highest area under the curve value (87.4%, confidence interval 84.5–90.3%), with 93.7% sensitivity, 86.5% negative predictive value, and 55% specificity.ConclusionsSegmental longitudinal strain with the cut-off value of ?12.5% has the highest discriminatory power for LGE presence and seems to be more adequate than global speckle tracking parameters in identification of HCM patients with strong indications for CMR for more accurate risk stratification.