Role of insulin like growth factor-I in repair response in immature cartilage

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of exogenous local Insulin like growth factor-I (IGF-I) on the repair of full-thickness articular cartilage defects in immature rabbits. DESIGN: Thirty-six skeletally immature New Zealand rabbits between 6 and 8 weeks old were used. A single defect, 3.5-mm-wide by 4-mm-deep full-thickness articular cartilage defect in the medial femoral condyle, was created. The defect was either filled with a collagen sponge or with a collagen sponge impregnated with 5 mug of recombinant IGF-I. The animals were sacrificed at 4, 8 or 12 weeks, and the repair tissue was examined macroscopically and histologically. Repair tissue was also examined immunohistochemically for the presence of type-I collagen, type-II collagen and PCNA at all weeks. RESULTS: Newly formed tissue in all of the defects in the IGF-I group had the gross, histological and histochemical appearance of a smooth, intact hyaline articular cartilage. The average total scores on the histological grading scale were significantly better (p<0.05) for the defects treated with recombinant IGF-I at all time points. Immunostaining with an antibody against type-II collagen showed the diffuse presence of the repair cartilage in the IGF-I treated defects. The control groups demonstrated minimum staining with type-II collagen antibody. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that repair of full-thickness immature cartilage defects can be enhanced by recombinant IGF-I.     

Preoperative embolization in surgical treatment of a primary hemangiopericytoma of the rib: a case report

Primary hemangiopericytoma of the rib is extremely rare and only a few cases have been reported. A 62-yr-old man presented with an aching chest pain and dyspnea. Thoracic computed tomography revealed a homogenous mass expanding the right seventh rib. A diagnosis of hemangiopericytoma was established by percutaneous needle biopsy. Preoperative embolization of the feeding vessels of the tumor was performed in order to prevent perioperative bleeding. There was no significant bleeding during the surgery, where complete resection of the tumor with 7th to 9th ribs with a surgical margin of 5 cm was performed. Postoperative course was uneventful and there has been no recurrence for thirteen months. To our knowledge, there has been no report to apply a preoperative embolization of a primary hemangiopericytoma of the rib.     

Persistent extramural vascular invasion positivity on magnetic resonance imaging after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy predicts poor outcome in rectal cancer

BackgroundIn rectal cancer, extramural vascular invasion (EMVI) is the presence of tumour cells in blood vessels outside the muscular layer, which is associated with poor prognosis. Regression of EMVI on MRI following neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy or its persistence may have prognostic implications.MethodsThis retrospective study included 52 patients with rectal cancer who underwent total mesorectal excision following long-course neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT). EMVI assessments were done on previous pelvic MRIs obtained before neoadjuvant CRT and eight weeks after the completion of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in initially EMVI positive cases.ResultsPersistently EMVI positive patients had worse overall survival and disease-free survival compared to initially EMVI negative patients and patients who returned to negative (p < 0.001 for both). Multivariate analysis identified persistent EMVI positivity after neoadjuvant treatment (HR, 102.9; p = 0.003) as significant independent predictor of worse overall survival; and persistent EMVI positivity (HR, 17.0; p = 0.002), mesorectal fascia involvement after neoadjuvant treatment (HR, 8.0; p = 0.017), and poor differentiation (HR, 10.3, p = 0.012) as significant independent predictors of worse disease-free survival.ConclusionPersistent EMVI positivity after neoadjuvant therapy appears to be an independent factor for poor overall survival; and persistent EMVI positivity as well as mesorectal fascia involvement on post neoadjuvant therapy MRI and poor differentiation appears to be important predictors of poor disease-free survival in rectal cancer patients.     

The Turkish Version of the Auditory Consonant Trigram Test as a Measure of Working Memory: A Normative Study

The following study was conducted to adapt the Auditory Consonant Trigram Test (ACT) to Turkish, acquire a new and larger set of normative data, and finally investigate the reliability and validity of the adapted version. The data were collected from a sample of 236 healthy individuals. To test the validity of the Turkish version of ACT, the normative results of ACT were first compared with those obtained from the Digit Span Test (DST) backwards section. Secondly, the ACT performance of 53 schizophrenic patients was compared with that of a matched group selected from the normative sample. Age and education variables influenced performance, whereas gender did not in the normal sample. The ACT and DST backwards scores were positively correlated. As expected, the ACT performance was worse in schizophrenic patients compared to controls. The internal consistency of the adapted version of ACT was found to be at a reliable level (a=0.8535). The Turkish version of ACT can be considered to be a reliable and valid measure of working memory.