A coronary aneurysm complicated by acute myocardial infarction. A case report

Coronary artery aneurysm (CAA) is a relatively rare disease that may cause angina, myocardial infarction, sudden death due to thrombosis, embolisation, or rupture. This report describes the case of a man aged 65 years old who had an anterior myocardial infarction due to left anterior descending artery (LAD) aneurysm. We attempted early percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) for treatment of acute myocardial infarction, but were not successful. He was then treated with intracoronary streptokinase. Serial coronary angiographies showed recanalisation and aneurysm on the LAD. The patient was operated on with coronary bypass surgery, and treated with an oral anticoagulant, nitrate, and blocker. He was well after one year of follow-up.     

Anatomic limitations of posterior exposure of the sinus tympani.

OBJECTIVE: The sinus tympani is a challenging area for the otologic surgeon to access and from which to remove the disease process. Recently, a posterior approach to the sinus tympani through the mastoid was proposed as an alternative technique in cases of deep sinus tympani. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: The posterior approach was performed by dissecting the triangular bony area formed by the facial nerve, lateral semicircular canal, and posterior semicircular canal in 8 temporal bone specimens. RESULTS: The edges of the triangle on the facial nerve and lateral semicircular canal were almost constant at 5 mm. The edge on the posterior semicircular canal was about 4 mm. CONCLUSION: It is possible to expose the sinus tympani from the posterior by careful dissection through this triangle, which has almost constant dimensions.     

Application of 3D-QSAR techniques in anti-HIV-1 drug design--an overview

Despite the availability of several classes of drugs against acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) caused by human immunodeficiency virus type 1(HIV-1), this deadly disease showing very little sign of containment, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia. More than 20 million people died since the first diagnosis of AIDS more than twenty years ago and almost 40 million people are currently living with HIV/AIDS. Structure-based drug design effort was immensely successful in identifying several drugs that are currently available for the treatment of HIV-1. Many applications have been reported on the use of quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) studies to understand the drug-receptor interactions and help in the design of more effective analogs. Extensive application was also reported on the application of 3D-QSAR techniques, such as, Comparative Molecular Field Analysis (CoMFA), Comparative Molecular Similarity Analysis (CoMSIA), pharmacophore generation using Catalyst/HypoGen, free-energy binding analysis, GRID/GOLPE, HINT-based techniques, etc. in anti-HIV-1 drug discovery programs in academia and industry. We have attempted to put together a comprehensive overview on the 3D-QSAR applications in anti-HIV-1 drug design reported in the literature during the last decade.     

Intravesical wire as foreign body in urinary bladder

Foreign bodies in the urinary bladder are frequently the objects of jokes among doctors, but they may sometimes cause serious implications to the patients. Here we present our experiences in 3 such cases where long segments of wire were introduced into the urinary bladder through the urethra.     

Vestibular gaze stabilization: different behavioral strategies for arboreal and terrestrial avians

In birds, it is thought that head movements play a major role in the reflexive stabilization of gaze and vision. In this study, we investigated the contributions of the eye and head to gaze stabilization during rotations under both head-fixed [vestibuloocular (VOR)] and head-free conditions in two avian species: pigeons and quails. These two species differ both in ocular anatomy (the pigeon has 2 distinct foveal regions), as well as in behavioral repertoires. Pigeons are arboreal, fly extended distances, and can navigate. Quails are primarily engrossed in terrestrial niches and fly only short distances. Unlike the head-fixed VOR gains that were under-compensatory for both species, gaze gains under head-free conditions were completely compensatory at high frequencies. This compensation was achieved primarily with head movements in pigeons, but with combined head and eye-in-head contributions in the quail. In contrast, eye-in-head motion, which was significantly reduced for head-free compared with head-fixed conditions, contributed very little to overall gaze stability in pigeons. These results suggest that disparity between the stabilization strategies employed by these two birds may be attributed to differences in species-specific behavior and anatomy.     

Effect of thermal energy produced by drilling on the facial nerve: histopathologic evaluation in guinea pigs

The effect of thermal energy due to drilling around the facial nerve canal on the facial nerve was histopathologically evaluated in four guinea pigs. The bony canal of the facial nerve was drilled using a 3 mm diamond burr for one minute. The temperature changes on the facial nerve canal were noted before and after dissection. The temporal bones of the animals were histopathologically examined under light microscopy using haematoxylin & eosin (H&E) and solochrome cyanine staining for myelin, and immunohistochemical staining for neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS). Compared to the control group, it was observed with H&E staining that there was oedema among the axonal fibres and with solochrome cyanine staining that the thickness of the myelin fibres was decreased, and that the severity and extent of nNOS activity was decreased in the axonal fibres. It was concluded that a temperature increase on the facial canal may potentially lead to inflammation of the nerve, and may also cause deterioration of nerve conduction to some extent.