Haemangioma of the nasal bone

A 16 year-old female presented for her cosmetic deformity with a slowly progressing swelling of insidious onset on the upper part of the bridge of the nose slightly towards the left side for 3 year duration. Clinical & radiological examination revealed an intra-osseous tumor of nasal bone. Histopathologically the tumor was a cavernous haemangioma of nasal bone. A follow up study upto 13-year showed no recurrence. A detailed search of world literature is carried out with clinical history & history of trauma. It could that nasal bone haemangioma is separate disease entity. The patients usually seek advise for their cosmetic deformity & sometime for nasal bleeding.     

Mesenchymal stem cells overexpressing Akt dramatically repair infarcted myocardium and improve cardiac function despite infrequent cellular fusion or differentiation.

We previously reported that intramyocardial injection of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells overexpressing Akt (MSC-Akt) efficiently repaired infarcted rat myocardium and improved cardiac function. Controversy still exists over the mechanisms by which MSC contribute to tissue repair. Herein, we tested if cellular fusion of MSC plays a determinant role in cardiac repair. We injected MSC expressing Cre recombinase, with or without Akt, into Cre reporter mice. In these mice, LacZ is expressed only after Cre-mediated excision of a loxP-flanked stop signal and is indicative of fusion. MSC engraftment within infarcted myocardium was transient but significantly enhanced by Akt. MSC fusion with cardiomyocytes was observed as early as 3 days, but was infrequent, and we found a low rate of differentiation of MSC into cardiomyocytes. MSC-Akt decreased infarct size at 3 days and restored early cardiac function. In conclusion, MSC-Akt improved early repair despite transient engraftment, low levels of cellular fusion, and differentiation. These new observations further confirm our recently reported data that early paracrine mechanisms mediated by MSC are responsible for enhancing the survival of existing myocytes and that Akt could alter the secretion of various cytokines and growth factors.     

Reducing VAP with 6 Sigma

An Illinois medical center integrates a new solution to reducing ventilator-associated pneumonia.     

Systematic review documents limited empirical support for the practical application of the Theory of Mind model of ASD

This review provides a summary and appraisal commentary on the treatment review by Fletcher-Watson, S., McConnell, F., Manola, E., & McConachie, H. (2014). Interventions based on the Theory of Mind cognitive model for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2014, Issue 3, Art. No. Cd008785. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD008785.pub2

Source of funding and declaration of interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest.