Spontaneous cerebellar hematoma associated with chronic cerebellar stimulation. Case report

A 24-year-old man developed a spontaneous cerebellar hematoma 5 years after the implantation of cerebellar electrodes. No vascular malformations were found either intraoperatively or radiographically. The histopathological findings of the cerebellar tissue obtained at biopsy from the region surrounding the electrodes support the hypothesis of a causal relationship between the spontaneous cerebellar hemorrhage and chronic cerebellar stimulation.     

Treatment of children with diffuse polyposis of the colon]

In 1971-1990 the authors treated 41 children 3 to 15 years of age with diffuse familial polyposis of the colon (juvenile form). Forty-four operations were carried out (3 patients underwent the second operation. The authors conducted several variants of colon resection with due account for the sites of greatest accumulation of the polyps--resection of the sigmoid colon, hemicolectomy, combined resection. Progressive growth of polyps was encountered in the remaining areas in the late-term periods. In view of this, the authors recommend total colectomy with the creation of an ileorectal or ileoanal anastomosis as the method of choice. The article describes an original operative method suggested by the authors. Twenty-eight similar operations were performed with good results.     

Circulating immune complexes correlate with remission duration in acute myeloid leukemia

It has been suggested that circulating immune complexes (CIC) favor tumor progression by suppressing the host's immune response to malignant cells via blocking factors to cell-mediated cytotoxicity. We prospectively measured CIC by the C1q binding assay in 100 untreated patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) de novo. The median CIC level was 135, the range 0-1000, and the mean +/- standard error (SE) 175 +/- 18 micrograms/ml. Sixty-eight patients, termed abnormal, had C1q binding levels greater than 2SE above the mean of the normal population (61 +/- 15 micrograms/ml). There were no significant differences between the 32 patients with normal CIC and the 68 with abnormally elevated CIC in any pretreatment characteristic: gender, age, white blood cell count (WBC), platelets, leukemia cell mass, LDH, immunoglobulins, or fibrinogen. Abnormal CIC levels did not correlate with FAB morphology, the presence of a clonal chromosomal abnormality (76% of all patients), or with specific cytogenetic subgroups, although nine of 11 patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia and t(15;17) had abnormal CIC. There were no significant differences in complete remission (CR) rates after the first chemotherapy course (45 vs 40% for normal vs abnormal CIC) or after all courses of treatment (55 vs 65%). Survival from diagnosis was not significantly different for the normal and abnormal groups (9.3 vs 5.8 months, p = 0.24), but survival after achieving a CR was markedly longer for those with normal pretreatment CIC (33.8 vs 11.7 months, p = 0.0068). Pretreatment CIC strongly correlated with remission duration for the 59 patients who achieved CR (16.5 months for 17 normal patients vs 6.9 months for 42 abnormal patients, p = 0.0002). This was independent of age, WBC, leukemia cell mass, or FAB morphology. Within the lowest C1q quartile (less than 60 micrograms/ml), 43% of the patients have not relapsed with a minimum follow-up of 18 months compared to only 6-14% for the three higher quartiles. We conclude that host immunity as assessed by CIC levels has little effect on the initial response to therapy but may play a role in maintaining remission in AML.     

A Novel Public MR Image Dataset of Multiple Sclerosis Patients With Lesion Segmentations Based on Multi-rater Consensus

Quantified volume and count of white-matter lesions based on magnetic resonance (MR) images are important biomarkers in several neurodegenerative diseases. For a routine extraction of these biomarkers an accurate and reliable automated lesion segmentation is required. To objectively and reliably determine a standard automated method, however, creation of standard validation datasets is of extremely high importance. Ideally, these datasets should be publicly available in conjunction with standardized evaluation methodology to enable objective validation of novel and existing methods. For validation purposes, we present a novel MR dataset of 30 multiple sclerosis patients and a novel protocol for creating reference white-matter lesion segmentations based on multi-rater consensus. On these datasets three expert raters individually segmented white-matter lesions, using in-house developed semi-automated lesion contouring tools. Later, the raters revised the segmentations in several joint sessions to reach a consensus on segmentation of lesions. To evaluate the variability, and as quality assurance, the protocol was executed twice on the same MR images, with a six months break. The obtained intra-consensus variability was substantially lower compared to the intra- and inter-rater variabilities, showing improved reliability of lesion segmentation by the proposed protocol. Hence, the obtained reference segmentations may represent a more precise target to evaluate, compare against and also train, the automatic segmentations. To encourage further use and research we will publicly disseminate on our website http://lit.fe.uni-lj.si/tools the tools used to create lesion segmentations, the original and preprocessed MR image datasets and the consensus lesion segmentations.     

Artificial iris-lens diaphragm in reconstructive surgery for aniridia and aphakia

PURPOSE: To determine the efficacy and safety of surgical implantation of artificial iris-lens diaphragm in patients with anatomic or functional iris deficiencies, aphakia or cataract. SETTING: Svyatoslav Fyodorov MNTK Eye Microsurgery, Cheboksary, Russia. METHODS: Twenty eyes of 19 consecutive patients with combined iris and lens pathology of traumatic or congenital etiology were identified for an interventional noncomparative case series. The newly proposed model of an elastic iris-lens diaphragm with a colored haptic and additional support elements was implanted using various fixation approaches. RESULTS: Fifteen eyes (75%) experienced improvement in corrected visual acuities. The best spectacle-corrected visual acuity (BSCVA) in 2 eyes did not change, while the uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) in these eyes increased. There were 3 eyes in which BSCVA deteriorated with no change or even slight improvement in UCVA. All patients were satisfied with the cosmetic results of the surgery and reported a decrease in glare and photophobia. There was 1 intraoperative complication of vitreous hemorrhage. Postoperatively, 2 cases of hyphema, 1 case of ciliochoroidal detachment, 4 eyes with exaggerated immediate postoperative reaction, and 1 eye with persistent low-grade cyclitis were observed. In 1 eye, there was persistent intraocular pressure rise. One eye showed signs of cystoid macular edema. No iris-lens diaphragm decentrations and no new or extensions of old retinal detachments were seen during the follow-up period. CONCLUSIONS: Artificial iris-lens diaphragm implantation effectively improved postoperative outcomes by correcting aphakia, reducing glare disability, and addressing cosmetic issues faced by iris-deficient, and aphakic or cataract patients. Although the iris-lens diaphragm appears to be safe, long-term results must be clarified in studies with longer follow-up and a larger patient population.