A surgical case of combined valvular disease complicated by absent right superior vena cava and persistent left superior vena cava.

A 74-year-old man with combined valvular disease with a recent cerebral infarction was admitted. While undergoing thorough examination for valvular disease, absent right superior vena cava (RSVC) and persistent left superior vena cava (PLSVC) were recognized. Chest X-ray film suggested a right arch protrusion, and CT and venogram confirmed the diagnosis. During surgery, replacement of the mitral and aortic valves and annuloplasty of the tricuspid valve were performed. A blood draining cannula was inserted in retrograde fashion from the coronary sinus into the PLSVC, without any difficulties in the tricuspid valve repair. Due to bradycardic atrial fibrillation, we believed that it would be difficult to insert an endocardial electrode postoperatively, hence myocardial electrode was placed in the right ventricular wall. Absent RSVC combined with PLSVC is very rare, and a patient who underwent combined valve surgery with this rare anatomical abnormality is herein presented.     

Anterior interosseous nerve palsy after reduction and percutaneous pinning of open fractures of the radius and ulna.

We report a case of an anterior interosseous nerve palsy after closed reduction and percutaneous pinning of open fractures of the radius and ulna in an adult. Operative findings showed that the anterior interosseous nerve was trapped between the distal and proximal part of the fractured radius. Treatment by neurorrhaphy gave a satisfactory result.     

Intratumorous distribution of catecholaminergic clone cells of human neuroblastoma

Summary The intratumorous distribution of catecholaminergic clone cells in 23 human neuroblastomas was studied using Falck-Hillarp's method, and the findings compared with the catecholamine (CA) content within the tumour. All the specimens contained elements with CA fluorescence, and the pattern of fluorescence was classified from the distribution of CA-positive cells and neurofibrils, as diffuse cellular (DC); diffuse fibrillary (DF), sporadic (S), clustered (C), island-shaped (I), and bundled (B). The strength of CA fluorescence of both cellular and fibrillary elements correlated well with the CA content within the tumour. In addition, all tumours of urinary VMA-negative cases also contained significantly larger amounts of CA than other, non-functioning, tumours in the paediatric age group. The results of this study suggest that firstly, the ratio of CA-positive cells to CA-positive neuronal processes is proportionately higher in the poorly-differentiated neuroblastomas and that secondly, even tumours negative for urinary VMA or HVA might be polyclonal and contain catecholaminergic elements.This study was supported in part by a Research Grant from the Ministry of Education, Japan (No. 59570549)     

Construction and characterization of centric circular and acentric linear chromosomes in fission yeast

Summary Gene disruption and gap repair of chromosomal DNA have been frequently employed techniques in yeast genetics. To extend the possibility of using these gene manipulations for larger genomic regions, we have examined the maximal sizes of chromosomal DNA disrupted or repaired in vivo. Here we report a simple, potentially general, method for selectively deleting a 150 kb region, or gap-filling a 100 kb region, in the fission yeast genome. This enables the generation of acentric linear chromosomes by deletion, or the cloning of large functional centromeric DNAs into circular minichromosomes by gap-filling. The fidelity of the resulting gap-filling is high, judging from partial-digestion mapping of gap-repaired DNAs. By analysing a series of such circular minichromosomes, we conclude that only a part of the repetitive centromeric region, including the central domain, is essential for mitotic and meiotic chromosome segregation. Acentric linear chromosomes, although unstable, could be maintained, indicating that it may be possible to construct an acentric vector for large DNA fragments in this organism.     

Left ventricular retraining and anatomic correction in teenage patient with congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries.

Left ventricular (LV) retraining followed by anatomical repair would be a superior alternative in patients with congenitally corrected transposition (ccTGA) having a deconditioned morphologically left ventricle (MLV); however, LV retraining in older children is a challenging task. A retraining process of the MLV in a teenage patient with ccTGA is reported here. Cardiac catheterization at 7 years of age revealed low pressure of the MLV (33/4 mm Hg) and a LV to right ventricular pressure ratio (LVp/RVp ratio) of 0.32. The first pulmonary artery banding (PAB) was performed at 10 years of age. Although the LVp/RVp ratio reached 0.68, there was no evidence of adequate LV hypertrophy. The second PAB was performed 2 years after the initial PAB, resulting in an increase in the LVp/RVp ratio to 0.93 and an adequate LV hypertrophy. The double switch procedure was successfully performed at 13 years of age. Although the ejection fraction of the MLV mildly decreased, the patient has been doing well during a follow-up period of 4 years. The MLV in the teenage patient with ccTGA was successfully trained using a retraining strategy and has sustained systemic circulation after anatomical repair.     

Reverse Monte Carlo modeling for local structures of noble metal nanoparticles using high-energy XRD and EXAFS

Reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) modeling based on the total structure factor S(Q) obtained from high-energy X-ray diffraction (HEXRD) and the k³χ(k) obtained from extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurements was employed to determine the 3-dimensional (3D) atomic-scale structure of Pt, Pd, and Rh nanoparticles, with sizes less than 5 nm, synthesized by photoreduction. The total structure factor and Fourier-transformed PDF showed that the first nearest neighbor peak is in accordance with that obtained from conventional EXAFS analysis. RMC constructed 3D models were analyzed in terms of prime structural characteristics such as metal-to-metal bond lengths, first-shell coordination numbers and bond angle distributions. The first-shell coordination numbers and bond angle distributions for the RMC-simulated metal nanoparticles indicated a face-centered cubic (fcc) structure with appropriate number density. Modeling disorder effects in these RMC-simulated metal nanoparticles also revealed substantial differences in bond-length distributions for respective nanoparticles.

3-Dimensional atomic-scale structure of metal nanoparticles obtained by RMC-based simulations using HEXRD and EXAFS data.     

In vivo bioluminescence imaging of magnetically targeted bone marrow‐derived mesenchymal stem cells in skeletal muscle injury model

The purpose of this study is to clarify the kinetics of transplanted mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in rat skeletal muscle injury model and the contribution of the magnetic cell delivery system to muscle injury repair. A magnetic field generator was used to apply an external magnetic force to the injury site of the tibia anterior muscle, and 1 × 10⁶ MSCs labeled with ferucarbotran–protamine complexes, which were isolated from luciferase transgenic rats, were injected into the injury site. MSCs were injected with and without an external magnetic force (MSC M+ and MSC M? groups, respectively), and phosphate‐buffered saline was injected into injury sites as a control. In vivo bioluminescence imaging was performed immediately after the transplantation and, at 12, 24, and 72 h, and 1 and 4 weeks post‐transplantation. Also, muscle regeneration and function were histologically and electromechanically evaluated. In vivo bioluminescence imaging showed that the photon of the MSC M+ group was significantly higher than that of the MSC M? group throughout the observation period. In addition, muscle regeneration and function in the MSC M+ group was histologically and functionally better than that of the MSC M? group. The results of our study indicated that magnetic cell delivery system may be of use in directing the transplanted MSCs to the injury site to promote skeletal muscle regeneration. © 2012 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 31: 754–759, 2013