The Catch Mini stent retriever for mechanical thrombectomy in distal intracranial occlusions

Objective

Mechanical thrombectomy (MTB) is a treatment of reference for acute ischemic stroke due to large brain vessel occlusion but some concerns remain about its use in small distal branches. In the present study, we assessed the efficacy and the safety of distal MTB using the Catch Mini (CM) stent retriever.

Associating liver partition and portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy for extensive alveolar echinococcosis:First case report in the literature

Alveolar echinococcosis(AE) is a zoonotic disease that is caused by Echinococcus multilocularis that affects liver and a variety of organs and tissues. It differs from other echinococcal disease because it shows tumor like behavior in the affected organ and tissues. The treatment of choice is concomitant medical therapy and resection with negative margins. Nevertheless, resection with the intent of negative margins(R0) may lead to serious complications such as liver failure. In the present case report, we used Associating Liver Partition and Portal Vein Ligation for Staged Hepatectomy(ALPPS) procedure, which was defined in 2012 by Schnitzbauer et al, in a 28-year-old male patient to avoid complications of major liver resection in order to treat alveolar echinococcosis. Until now, we have not encountered any study using ALPPS procedure for the treatment of alveolar echinococcosis. In the present case report we aimed to show that ALPPS procedure can be safely performed for marginnegative resection of primary or recurrent AE that shows a tumor like behavior. It is our opinion that this procedure should be performed in centers that have expertise and sufficient technical capacity to perform liver transplantation and advanced liver surgery.     

Genetic study of neuregulin 1 and receptor tyrosine-protein kinase erbB-4 in tardive dyskinesia

Objectives: Tardive dyskinesia (TD) is a movement disorder that may develop as a side effect of antipsychotic medication. The aetiology underlying TD is unclear, but a number of mechanisms have been proposed.

Methods: We investigated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the genes coding for neuregulin-1 and erbB-4 receptor in our sample of 153 European schizophrenia patients for possible association with TD.

Results: We found the ERBB4 rs839523?CC genotype to be associated with risk for TD occurrence and increased severity as measured by the Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale (AIMS) (P?=?.003).

Conclusions: This study supports a role for the neuregulin signalling pathway in TD, although independent replications are warranted.     

Lower risk of multiple sclerosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C: a nationwide population-based registry study

Journal of Neurology - Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated neurological disease that causes demyelination. The etiology is unknown, but patients with a previous viral infection, such as...     

High genetic diversity in the Dirofilaria repens species complex revealed by mitochondrial genomes of feline microfilaria samples from Narathiwat,Thailand

Dirofilaria repens is a zoonotic, mosquito‐borne filaria infecting carnivores, particularly dogs. It is expanding its range in Europe but epidemiological information is sparse for other Eurasian regions. In Hong Kong and India, the closely related species Candidatus Dirofilaria hongkongensis was proposed. Previous analysis of 2.5 kb partial mitochondrial genome sequences containing the particularly variable non‐coding control region revealed low diversity in European D. repens while Asian nematodes showed high diversity. Sequences derived from feline blood samples from Narathiwat (Thailand) led to the proposal of a third potential species, Dirofilaria sp. “Thailand II”. To avoid bias from rapidly evolving non‐coding regions, this study aimed to compare Dirofilaria sp. “Thailand II” with D. repens and C. D. hongkongensis based on complete mitochondrial genomes. Using PCRs and Sanger sequencing, three complete mitochondrial genomes (13,651 bp) were assembled from DNA obtained from different feline blood samples. Mitochondrial genome organization was identical to other onchocercids with eleven protein‐coding, two rRNA and 22 tRNA genes and no atp‐8 gene. All genes were on the same strand showing an extremely high thymidine content (56.7%). Maximum‐likelihood phylogenetic analysis using protein and rRNA sequences confirmed closer relationship of Dirofilaria sp. “Thailand II” to C. D. hongkongensis than to D. repens. All distances between these three putative species were considerably larger than the distance between the valid sibling species Onchocerca volvulus and Onchocerca ochengi. Sequencing of a 2.5 kb fragment containing the control region from microfilarial DNA from additional feline blood samples from Narathiwat 3–4 years later revealed that these also fell into the C. D. hongkongensis clade but were remarkably different from C. D. hongkongensis and Dirofilaria sp. “Thailand II”. Since D. repens‐like filaria are absent from dogs in Narathiwat, further field studies are required to confirm if these genotypes represent locally circulating cat‐specific Dirofilaria genotypes or species.