Publications by authors named "Birgit Haack"

Background: Rupture of the hepatic artery caused by clostridial infection has not been reported before.

Methods: Case report and literature review.

Results: A 75 year-old man was admitted to the hospital for resection of a cystic tumor of the head of the pancreas.

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Purpose: Pheochromocytoma (PCC) is a usually benign tumor originated in the majority of patients from the adrenal medulla. Regarding sporadic forms of PCC, mechanisms of pathogenesis are largely unknown. Recently, microsatellite-instability (MSI) was discussed as genetic factor contributing to PCC development.

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Mutations in the GJB2 gene are the most common cause of hereditary prelingual sensorineural hearing impairment in Europe. Several studies indicate that different members of the connexin protein family interact to form gap junctions in the inner ear. Mutations in different connexin genes may accumulate and, consequently lead to hearing impairment.

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Patients with the long QT syndrome (LQTS) suffer from cardiac arrhythmias that can lead to abrupt loss of consciousness and sudden death, already in young individuals. Thus, an early diagnosis of LQTS is essential for patients and their family members. So far, six genes (KCNQ1, HERG, SCN5A, ANK2, KCNE1, KCNE2) have been demonstrated to be involved in the development of LQTS.

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Mutations in the GJB2 gene encoding the gap-junction protein connexin 26 have been identified in many patients with childhood hearing impairment (HI). One single mutation, c.35delG, accounts for the majority of mutations in Caucasian patients with HI.

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Background: Hereditary hearing impairment (HHI) is a heterogeneous class of disorders that shows various patterns of inheritance and involves a multitude of different genes. Mutations in the EYA4 gene are responsible for postlingual, progressive, autosomal dominant hearing loss at the DFNA10 locus. EYA4 is orthologous to the Drosophila gene eya ("eyes absent"), a key regulator of eye formation.

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Mutations in the GJB2 gene encoding the gap-junction protein connexin 26 have been identified in many patients with childhood hearing impairment (HI). One single mutation, 35delG (30delG), accounts for up to 70% of all analyzed European patients with autosomal recessive inherited HI and 10% of patients with HI of unknown origin, respectively. We screened 188 control individuals and 342 German patients with non-syndromic sporadic HI for the 35delG, compound heterozygosity and other GJB2 mutations by PCR, restriction enzyme based screening, SSCP and sequencing.

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