Tailgut cyst: report of three cases and review of the literature.

Introduction: Tailgut cysts or retrorectal cystic hamartomas are congenital developmental lesions which are often misdiagnosed due to their rare incidence, anatomical position and variable clinical presentation.

Case Report: We report three clinical cases: one of a 67-year old woman with high fever and anal bulging; the second case was a 50-year old woman with diffuse abdominal pain and the third case was a 52-year old woman with high fever and no abdominal or rectal pain. The rectal examination and MRI indicated the presence of a tailgut cyst.

Pulmonary vascular effects of pulsed inhaled nitric oxide in COPD patients with pulmonary hypertension.

Introduction: Severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is often associated with secondary pulmonary hypertension (PH), which worsens prognosis. PH can be lowered by oxygen, but also by inhaled nitric oxide (NO), which has the potential to improve the health status of these patients. NO is an important mediator in vascular reactions in the pulmonary circulation.

Functional respiratory imaging to assess the interaction between systemic roflumilast and inhaled ICS/LABA/LAMA.

Background: Patients with COPD show a significant reduction of the lobar hyperinflation at the functional residual capacity level in the patients who improved >120 mL in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) after 6 months of treatment with roflumilast in addition to inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs)/long-acting beta-2 agonists (LABAs)/long-acting muscarinic antagonists (LAMAs).

Methods: Functional respiratory imaging was used to quantify lobar hyperinflation, blood vessel density, ventilation, aerosol deposition, and bronchodilation. To investigate the exact mode of action of roflumilast, correlations between lobar and global measures have been tested using a mixed-model approach with nested random factors and Pearson correlation, respectively.

Uremia-related vascular calcification: more than apatite deposition.

In the present study, we characterized and compared the mineral phase deposited in the aortic wall of two different frequently used chronic renal failure rat models of vascular calcification. Vascular calcification was induced in rats by either a 4-week adenine treatment followed by a 10-week high-phosphate diet or 5/6 nephrectomy followed by 6 weeks of 0.25 microg/kg/day calcitriol treatment and a high-phosphate diet.