Lymphocyte subpopulations and HLA-DR determinations in diseases of the inner ear and Bell's palsy

Thymus lymphocytes-subpopulations (T-helper T4 and T-suppressorcells T8) were determined in inner ear diseases (e.g. sudden hearing loss, neuronitis vestibularis, Morbus Menière, Bell's Palsy) by specific monoclonal antibodies. T-cell subset ratio (T4/T8) was elevated (less than 3) in about 50% of all patients. DR-typifying was performed because of the well-known control of the immunoregulation through the class II HLA-DR antigens. There was a relative risk of 5.2 in peripheral vestibular lesion (neuronitis vestibularis). The relative risk of autoimmune diseases is found at this level.     

An automated robotic approach with redundant navigation for minimal invasive extended transsphenoidal skull base surgery.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this work was to determine the feasibility of a robotic-assisted and fully automated approach to the sphenoid sinus. An image-guided robotic system was designed to address potential human errors in performing transsphenoidal sinus surgery by combining the reproducible accuracy of a robotic system with standard computer navigation. METHODS: A six-degrees of freedom robotic assistance system and an opto-electrical navigation system were combined for image-guided assistance with redundantly controlled robotics. Newly designed endoscopic instruments for robotic surgery have been developed and are described. Telemanipulatory, as well as fully automated procedures, were tested on cadaveric heads as part of a preclinical trial. RESULTS: A fully automated sphenoidotomy as well as a telemanipulatory sphenoidectomy were performed successfully on cadaveric heads. Intraoperative performance, accuracy assessment studies, as well as possible sources of stereotactic offsets are described. The mean measured robotic reproducibility accuracy was 0.056 mm (range: 0.02 - 0.14 mm) and the mean overall navigated robotic accuracy, including all transformation and registration errors was 1.53 mm (range: 1.13 - 1.89 mm) respectively. CONCLUSION: A system for robot-guided surgery in combination with redundant navigational control was developed. It allows highly accurate maneuvers, performed either in a telemanipulation mode as master-slave system or in a fully automated fashion. A sphenoidectomy on cadaveric heads was performed in both telemanipulation and fully automated modes. The overall intraoperative accuracy was in the range of the resolution of the CT images and stereotactic offsets were caused mainly due to deflections of the endoscopic operating instrument.     

提高人类精液中圆形细胞数量测定的精确度

本研究的目的是提高用过氧化物酶试验检测精液中的白细胞时所得的圆形细胞数量的精确度。精液样本的圆形细胞浓度在(0.6~6)×106/mL之间,降低精液的稀释度,增加被测悬浮液的体积。1+5(1∶6)的稀释度适合于测量过氧化物酶活性,并能为细胞检测提供足够清晰的背景。在该稀释度下,测定Neubauer-改良精子计数板两边所有18个网格中的细胞数量,额定细胞浓度为(1.9~3.3)×106/mL的10个样本中只有3个样本的圆形细胞数≥400个。由于更低浓度的精子稀释液不适合测定圆形细胞或其过氧化物酶反应产物,所以无法精确测量(抽样误差5%)参考下限值(1×106/mL)。结果表明,正是由于测定精液中的10个样本中圆形细胞很难精确到1×106/mL,所以白细胞精液症临界值的确定一直存在诸多分歧。因此需要建立一些统计学上合理的参考限。