Oropalatal band (maxillo-mandibular band). off.

A rare case of a maxillo-mandibular band in a 21 year female patient is reported. Possibility of its being a remnant of buccaphary geal membrane is discussed in the light of clinical and histological findings.     

Diagnostic significance of estimation of serum apolipoprotein A along with alpha-fetoprotein in alcoholic cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma patients

The serum apolipoprotein A (Apo A) and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) were evaluated in histologically verified 30 cases of alcoholic cirrhosis and 18 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The latter were also divided into subgroups depending on the presence or absence of associated cirrhosis. Serum Apo A levels were found to be significantly decreased in cirrhotics (p less than 0.001) compared to controls and non-cirrhotic HCC patients. In 22 cases of alcoholic cirrhosis (AFP less than 10 ng/ml) and 12 cases of HCC (AFP greater than 600 ng/ml), the AFP levels itself were diagnostic, but in the remaining cases, AFP levels (100-600 ng/ml) were not able to differentiate between cirrhosis and malignancy. In this later group of patients with low pathological range of AFP, serum Apo A levels found to be significantly decreased in alcoholic cirrhotic patients (p less than 0.001) compared to HCC patients. Thus, estimation of Apo A levels may be helpful to interpret the AFP values at lower pathological range due to suspected liver pathology.     

Lobster-claw syndrome.

Lobster-Claw syndrome is a rare autosomal dominant, hand-foot malformation with Oro-dental features. This is a rare condition and from the available reports so far, cases being reported are less than 1%. Most reports have focused on the hand-foot deformity of this syndrome. This paper highlights the typical Oro-dental features associated with this syndrome such as retained deciduous teeth, hypodontia and variation in crown size, arch length and arch width.     

Antipyrine and doxycycline pharmacokinetics in patients with thyroid disorders

Pathological conditions are known to affect pharmacokinetics of many drugs. Antipyrine half-life is used as a marker of liver microsomal enzyme function. Antipyrine pharmacokinetics, therefore, was investigated in 23 thyrotoxic and 11 euthyroid goitre patients. Of these, 11 thyrotoxic and 9 euthyroid goitre patients also participated in doxycycline bioavailability studies. In thyrotoxic patients, antipyrine half-life and AUCo infinity and doxycycline Cpmax and AUCo infinity were found to be reduced as compared to those of healthy euthyroid normal subjects. Following treatment of thyrotoxicosis, the antipyrine half-life and AUCo infinity returned to normal. Doxycycline AUCo infinity returned to near normal range but Cpmax did not.     

An Automated Self‐Similarity Analysis of the Pulmonary Tree of the Sprague–Dawley Rat

We present the results of an automated analysis of the morphometry of the pulmonary airway trees of the Sprague–Dawley rat. Our work is motivated by a need to inform lower‐dimensional mathematical models to prescribe realistic boundary conditions for multiscale hybrid models of rat lung mechanics. Silicone casts were made from three age‐matched, male Sprague–Dawley rats, immersed in a gel containing a contrast agent and subsequently imaged with magnetic resonance (MR). From a segmentation of this data, we extracted a connected graph, representing the airway centerline. Segment statistics (lengths and diameters) were derived from this graph. To validate this MR imaging/digital analysis method, airway segment measurements were compared with nearly 1,000 measurements collected by hand using an optical microscope from one of the rat lung casts. To evaluate the reproducibility of the MR imaging/digital analysis method, two lung casts were each imaged three times with randomized orientations in the MR bore. Diameters and lengths of randomly selected airways were compared among each of the repeated imaging datasets to estimate the variability. Finally, we analyzed the morphometry of the airway tree by assembling individual airway segments into structures that span multiple generations, which we call branches. We show that branches not segments are the fundamental repeating unit in the rat lung and develop simple mathematical relationships describing these structures for the entire lung. Our analysis shows that airway diameters and lengths have both a deterministic and stochastic character. Anat Rec, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.