A pragmatic clinicopathobiological grouping/staging system for gliomas: proposal of the Indian TNM subcommittee on brain tumors.

Background: There is no universally accepted staging system for primary brain tumors wherein prognostication is mainly based on complex composite indices.

Aim: To develop a simple, pragmatic, and widely applicable grouping/staging system for gliomas, the most common primary brain tumor.

Materials And Methods: An expert neurooncology panel with representation from radiation oncology, neurosurgery, pathology, radiology, and medical oncology had several rounds of discussion on issues pertinent to brain tumor staging.

Basilar invagination, Chiari malformation, syringomyelia: a review.

Institute and personal experience (over 25 years) of basilar invagination was reviewed. The database of the department included 3300 patients with craniovertebral junction pathology from the year 1951 till date. Patients with basilar invagination were categorized into two groups based on the presence (Group A) or absence (Group B) of clinical and radiological evidence of instability of the craniovertebral junction.

Vertical mobile and reducible atlantoaxial dislocation. Clinical article.

Object: The authors' experience with treatment of 8 patients with "vertical mobile and reducible" atlantoaxial dislocation is reviewed. The probable pathogenesis, radiological and clinical features, and management issues in such cases are discussed.

Methods: Between January 2006 and March 2008, 8 patients who presented with vertical mobile and reducible atlantoaxial dislocations were treated at the Department of Neurosurgery at King Edward Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, India.

Trigeminal neuralgia in the presence of ectatic basilar artery and basilar invagination: treatment by foramen magnum decompression.

This 65-year-old woman presented with a 7-year history of classic trigeminal neuralgia. After a conservative therapeutic approach and because the pain had become unbearable, she was subjected to surgical treatment. Examinations revealed an ectatic basilar artery that indented deeply into the region of the root entry zone of cranial nerve V.

Brain herniation through the anterior cranial floor in a long-standing frontal falcine meningioma.

Brain herniation through the incisural cisterns in raised intracranial tension is well known, but brain herniation through the cribriform plate is rare. We report a patient with an anterior falcine meningioma who suffered brain tissue herniation through the cribriform plate with extension into the paranasal air sinuses.

Reversal of longstanding musculoskeletal changes in basilar invagination after surgical decompression and stabilization.

Object: The authors investigated the changes in the bone architecture and the characteristics of the neck and craniovertebral region in selected cases of basilar invagination. The reversal in these changes that occurred after decompression and fixation are analyzed. The implications of such an analysis in understanding the pathogenesis of a number of features that are characteristically associated with basilar invagination are evaluated.

5,6-Diarylanthranilo-1,3-dinitriles as a new class of antihyperglycemic agents.

Various functionalized mono- and diarylanthranilo-1,3-dinitriles were synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro antihyperglycemic activity against the PTP-1B, glucose-6-phosphatase, glycogen phosphorylase and alpha-glucosidase enzymes. Among various screened compounds, 5,6-diaryl substituted anthranilo-1,3-dinitriles 3a, 3b, and 3d showed good inhibitory activity against PTP-1B with IC(50) values of 58-72 microM. Three of the test compounds showed significant (25-37%) lowering of plasma glucose level at 24h in sucrose-challenged streptozotocin-induced diabetic Sprague-Dawley rat model.

Tonsillar herniation and cervical syringomyelia due to postoperative meningitis in case of pineal region epidermoid.

The occurrence of tonsillar herniation and syringomyelia in association with tumor-induced obstructive hydrocephalus has been described in literature. In midline tumors, the symptomatology is predominantly due to hydrocephalus and resultant tonsillar herniation, but the treatment is primarily directed towards the tumor. A case of a pineal region epidermoid in a 17-year-old boy - in whom postoperative meningitis resulted in hydrocephalus, symptomatic tonsillar herniation and cervical syringomyelia - is presented here.

Donor-acceptor 9-uncapped fluorenes and fluorenones as stable blue light emitters.

The "green emission defect" (GED) produced by fluorenones has significantly retarded the commercial scope of fluorene-based B-OLEDs. In this paper, for the first time, it is demonstrated that the "green light" emitting fluorenones 7 can be converted to "blue light" emitting fluorenones 10 by appropriate positioning of donor-acceptor and chromophoric groups onto the fluorene/fluorenone backbone. Additionally, we report an elegant highly rapid synthetic route for donor-acceptor fluorenes and fluorenones at room temperature with excellent yields.

Two patients with intracavernous haemangiopericytoma.

Haemangiopericytomas are relatively uncommon intracranial lesions making up less than 2.5% of all intracranial meningiomas. Their location in the cavernous sinus is extremely rare.

Unilateral atlantal mass hypertrophy in acromegaly. Case report.

The authors report an extremely rare case of a patient with acromegaly who had unilateral enlargement of an atlas facet resulting in cord compression and progressive quadriparesis. Although unilateral atlas facet enlargement has been identified in the literature in cases of spondylosis and as a component of congenital malformation, its association with acromegaly has not previously been reported. Resection of the offending facetal bone and atlantoaxial fixation resulted in rapid neurological recovery.

Immediate postoperative regression of retroodontoid pannus after lateral mass reconstruction in a patient with rheumatoid disease of the craniovertebral junction. Case report.

The authors report the case of a 35-year-old man who had polyarthritic affliction with rheumatoid disease. He presented with complaints of quadriparesis that had progressed over the course of 2 years. Investigations revealed telltale evidence of rheumatoid disease of the craniovertebral junction with retroodontoid pannus, basilar invagination, and "fixed" atlantoaxial dislocation.

Giant interdural teratoma of the cavernous sinus.

A 27-year-old man presented with a 2-month history of retro-orbital pain and a 2-week history of progressive ptosis and diplopia. Neurological examination revealed left partial third, fourth and sixth cranial nerve paresis. Imaging revealed a large middle fossa lesion with heterogeneous signal intensity.

Atlantoaxial joint distraction as a treatment for basilar invagination: a report of an experience with 11 cases.

Objective: A novel method of treatment of basilar invagination that involves distraction of the atlantoaxial joint using specially designed spiked spacers is described. Bone graft that is additionally placed within the appropriately prepared atlantoaxial joint and posterior to the arch of atlas and lamina of C2 provides bony fusion.

Materials And Methods: Between December 2002 and April 2007, 11 patients underwent the discussed method of fixation at the Department of Neurosurgery, King Edward Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, India.

Brain abscess: a cogent clarifier of the confused concept of immunity.

The brain tends to be immune to inflammation and abscess formation, despite chronically and recurrently infected neighboring structures, and not uncommon pyemias and septicemias. Experimental inoculation of the brain tissue with microbes confirms this clinical experience. When brain-microbial interaction overcomes immunity, reactivity sets in, resulting in inflammation and abscess formation.

Vapor-phase processable novel nonplanar donor-acceptor quateraryls for blue OLEDs(#).

A novel series of thermally stable blue light emitting quateraryls with a piperidine donor and a nitrile acceptor was prepared from a ketene- S, S-acetal under mild conditions without using an organometal catalyst. The performance of a blue quateraryl 6e was investigated by fabricating a multilayer OLED with a configuration of ITO/PEDOT:PSS (40 nm)/quateraryl (60 nm)/BCP (6 nm)/Alq(3) (20 nm)/LiF (0.5 nm)/Al (200 nm), which exhibited blue emission with a low turn on voltage of 4 V at a brightness of 0.