WNT10A variants: following the pattern of inheritance in tooth agenesis and self-reported family history of cancer

Clinical Oral Investigations - The aim of this study was the analysis of WNT10A variants in seven families of probands with various forms of tooth agenesis and self-reported family history of...     

Radiotherapy in the management of pancreatic islet cell tumors

Malignant islet cell tumors are commonly treated with surgical resection. Chemotherapy is reserved for residual, unresectable, or metastatic disease. The role for radiotherapy has not been clearly defined. This article describes three cases of advanced islet cell tumors treated effectively with radiotherapy. This experience, in addition to that from other published reports, suggests that radiotherapy is a useful mode for treating advanced islet cell carcinoma.     

Minimally Invasive Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting: A New Method Using an Anterior Mediastinotomy

The benefit of internal mammary artery (IMA) grafting as a long-lasting intervention for coronary artery disease is well recognized. However, largely because they are less invasive, catheter based alternatives are frequently chosen, particularly to treat single or double vessel disease. To retain the advantages of the IMA graft, and to offset the invasiveness of conventional coronary artery bypass grafting, we developed a new minimally invasive method using an anterior mediastinotomy for treating left anterior descending (LAD) or right coronary artery disease, or both. Feasibility studies using 16 pigs and a human cadaver led to approval by the Institutional Review Board for use of this procedure to treat six patients (four men, two women; mean age, 63.8 ± 13.6 [SD] yrs) who granted informed consent. Pedicle dissection of the IMA, using video assisted thoracoscopy if necessary, was made through a 2-to 3-inch horizontal anterior mediastinotomy. The underlying LAD artery was grafted during femoral vessel cardiopulmonary bypass, with cooling to 30°C, induced ventricular fibrillation, and left ventricular venting if required. Transesophageal echocardiography performed after bypass showed that two patients maintained normal wall motion and four had improvement from the original impairment. One patient suffered a recurrence of angina 4 weeks after the procedure; recatheterization showed an acutely angled IMA, subsequently corrected by balloon angioplasty. The results of follow-up dobutamine echocardiographic stress tests were negative in all patients. With this minimally invasive approach, the procedure should provide the benefits of IMA grafting with shorter hospital stay, more rapid recovery, and less overall cost.     

Independent component analysis and clustering improve signal-to-noise ratio for statistical analysis of event-related potentials

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of a new method of using Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and k-means clustering to increase the signal-to-noise ratio of Event-Related Potential (ERP) measurements while permitting standard statistical comparisons to be made despite the inter-subject variations characteristic of ICA. METHODS: Per-subject ICA results were used to create a channel pool, with unequal weights, that could be applied consistently across subjects. Signals derived from this and other pooling schemes, and from unpooled electrodes, were subjected to identical statistical analysis of the N170 own-face effect in a Joe/No Joe face recognition paradigm wherein participants monitored for a target face (Joe) presented amongst other unfamiliar faces and their own face. Results between the Joe, unfamiliar face and own face conditions were compared using Cohen's d statistic (square root of signal-to-noise ratio) to measure effect size. RESULTS: When the own-face condition was compared to the Joe and unfamiliar-face conditions, the channel map method increased effect size by a factor ranging from 1.2 to 2.2. These results stand in contrast to previous findings, where conventional pooling schemes failed to reveal an N170 effect to the own-face stimulus (Tanaka JW, Curran T, Porterfield A, Collins D. The activation of pre-existing and acquired face representations: the N250 ERP as an index of face familiarity. J Cogn Neurosci 2006;18:1488-97). Consistent with conventional pooling schemes, the channel map approach showed no reliable differences between the Joe and Unfamiliar face conditions, yielding a decrease in effect size ranging from 0.13 to 0.75. CONCLUSIONS: By increasing the signal-to-noise ratio in the measured waveforms, the channel pool method demonstrated an enhanced sensitivity to the neurophysiological response to own-face relative to other faces. SIGNIFICANCE: By overcoming the characteristic inter-subject variations of ICA, this work allows classic ERP analysis methods to exploit the improved signal-to-noise ratio obtainable with ICA.     

Pharmacological characterization of non-NMDA subtypes of glutamate receptor in the neonatal rat hemisected spinal cord in vitro.

1. A grease-gap technique was used to record depolarizing responses to alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-isoxazole-4-propionate (AMPA), kainate and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) in the hemisected spinal cord of the neonatal rat. The pharmacology of non-NMDA subtypes of glutamate receptor was investigated with the novel quinoxalinedione, 2,3-dihydroxy-6-nitro-7-sulphamoyl-benzo (F)-quinoxaline (NBQX) and with a series of barbiturates. 2. NBQX antagonized AMPA- and kainate-, but not NMDA- induced depolarizations. The near parallel shifts of the major part of the dose-response curves for AMPA and kainate by NBQX gave pA2 values (+/- s.e.) of 6.7 +/- 0.2 and 6.8 +/- 0.2 respectively, consistent with a common site of action for these two agonists. 3. Below the 50% level at which these pA2 values were calculated, however, an NBQX-resistant plateau was seen within the kainate, but not the AMPA, dose-response curve. 4. In decreasing order of potency, methohexitone, secobarbitone, thiopentone, pentobarbitone and phenobarbitone preferentially reduced kainate-, rather than AMPA- and NMDA-, induced depolarizations. Methohexitone was also the most selective with IC50S against kainate, AMPA and NMDA of 31 +/- 7, 172 +/- 47 and greater than 200 microM respectively. 5. The NBQX-resistant plateau seen within the kainate dose-response curve was reduced by methohexitone. Kainate antagonism by methohexitone was not reduced by 50 microM picrotoxin. 6. We conclude that, while mixed agonist actions may hamper demonstration of antagonist selectivity, depolarizations induced by the non-NMDA ionotropic agonists, AMPA and kainate, are mediated in part via distinct receptors.