Diabetic retinopathy complications--12-year retrospective study

It is analyzed, on a retrospective study on 12 years, the incidence of diabetus melitus cases, hospitalized in the Ophthalmologic Clinic from Craiova with special mention to the frequency of the diabetic retinopathy, of it's complications and in an accordance to other general diseases, especially cardiovascular's, which contributes to the aggravation of the diabetic ocular in juries evolution. The study underlines the high incidence of the new founded cases with diabetus melitus in complicated diabetes retinopathy stage; the high frequency of ocular complications is explained, according to our statistic facts and through an insufficient treatment, sometimes incorrect and many other cases total neglected by the patients.     

Chemoembolization in the treatment of metastatic ileocolic carcinoid

Carcinoid tumours are enigmatic, slow growing malignancies, which occur most frequently (74%) in the gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms of the carcinoid syndrome (flushing and diarrhoea) are infrequent, occurring in approximately 10% of the patients with small bowel carcinoid. A 45-year-old patient with multiple liver metastases, diagnosed in 1994 with nonHodgkin's lymphoma after undergoing surgery for a distal ileal tumour, was referred to us by the Department of Haematology. At that moment the issue of a differential diagnosis with a carcinoid tumour arose, due to the long evolution and lack of evidence to support the initial diagnosis. The carcinoid syndrome was in fact present (the patient experiencing flush after small amounts of alcohol and emotions) and also we identified elevated values of 5HIAA. Reevaluation of the histologic sections of the ileal tumour as well as an ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration of an intrahepatic lesion confirmed the diagnosis of "carcinoid tumour". This conclusion lead to new therapeutic options for this patient. One of the main therapeutic options used in treating multiple liver metastases from a carcinoid tumour is chemoembolization and this case offered an excellent opportunity to present this therapy.     

Homeostatic synaptic plasticity can explain post-traumatic epileptogenesis in chronically isolated neocortex

Chronically isolated neocortex develops chronic hyperexcitability and focal epileptogenesis in a period of days to weeks. The mechanisms operating in this model of post-traumatic epileptogenesis are not well understood. We hypothesized that the spontaneous burst discharges recorded in chronically isolated neocortex result from homeostatic plasticity (a mechanism generally assumed to stabilize neuronal activity) induced by low neuronal activity after deafferentation. To test this hypothesis we constructed computer models of neocortex incorporating a biologically based homeostatic plasticity rule that operates to maintain firing rates. After deafferentation, homeostatic upregulation of excitatory synapses on pyramidal cells, either with or without concurrent downregulation of inhibitory synapses or upregulation of intrinsic excitability, initiated slowly repeating burst discharges that closely resembled the epileptiform burst discharges recorded in chronically isolated neocortex. These burst discharges lasted a few hundred ms, propagated at 1-3 cm/s and consisted of large (10-15 mV) intracellular depolarizations topped by a small number of action potentials. Our results support a role for homeostatic synaptic plasticity as a novel mechanism of post-traumatic epileptogenesis.     

Vinyl polymers with aromatic substituents, 2. Polymerization of 9-allylanthracene and structures of the polymers

Radical, cationic, and Ziegler-Natta polymerizations of 9-allylanthracene ( 1 ) were carried out. The radical polymerization was found to be an inefficient method leading to oligomers with complex structure. Reaction of initiator radicals and growing macroradicals with the anthryl group or with the allylic hydrogen leads to resonance stabilized radicals which stop the polymerization. The cationic and Ziegler-Natta polymerizations gave a copolymer with 9-anthrylmethylethylene units ( 8 ) (from normal 1,2 addition) and 9,10-anthrylenepropylene units ( 11 ) (from the electrophilic attack of carbocations at the aromatic nucleus). Low polymerization temperatures lead to a preference for the alkylation reaction.     

Maternal dietary choline availability alters the balance of netrin-1 and DCC neuronal migration proteins in fetal mouse brain hippocampus

Alterations in maternal dietary choline availability during days 12-17 of pregnancy led to an increase in the level of immunoreactive netrin-1 and a decrease in the level of DCC protein in the developing fetal mouse brain hippocampus compared with controls. Changes in the expression of cell migration cues during development could account for some of the lifelong consequences of maternal dietary choline availability for cognitive and memory processes.     

The extraperitoneal transomphalic drainage of the postoperative hydatid cavity through the transposed round ligament detached from the liver

The transomphalic and then the transligamentary extraperitoneal drainage imagined by D. Burlui and its multiple use in the liver and the biliary tract surgery, is well known. Concerning the hepatic hydatid cysts, the drainage of the remaining cavity by the round ligament way is possible for most of the locations of the parasite, but it is less performed in the right liver lateral segments locations, too far situated, and also in the left liver locations. On the other hand, this specific method implies to place the drainage tube using the round ligament "in situ ", normally placed and inserted. We encountered an extremely large hydatid cyst of the left hepatic lobe, adherent to the anterior and posterior abdominal wall, spleen, stomach, pancreas and large bowel, which required to extend the incision to the left and make the necessary segmentation of the round ligament at its hepatic insertion. After pericystotomy and the evacuation of the cyst, the remaining cavity drainage was performed through the same round ligament whose free end was tightly fixed to the partial pericystotomy border. This transposition allowed the exteriorisation of the drainage tube in the same way as for the transligamentary and total extraperitoneal original method.