Total pancreatic lipomatosis with malabsorption syndrome.

Total fat replacement of the pancreas is rare. Focal fatty replacement is the most common degenerative lesion of pancreas. Focal fatty deposits have no major clinical significance; however, extreme fat replacement is of pathologic significance, as it is associated with marked reduction in exocrine function of pancreas, resulting in malabsorption due to pancreatic enzyme insufficiency.

Re-operation of idiopathic full-thickness macular holes after initial surgery with internal limiting membrane peel.

Background/aims: A retrospective consecutive case series to evaluate the efficacy of re-operation in patients with persistent or recurrent idiopathic full-thickness macular hole after initial surgery with internal limiting membrane peel (ILM).

Methods: 491 patients underwent surgery for full-thickness macular hole from January 2004 to November 2007. Fifty-five patients either did not close or reopened during the follow-up period.

Awareness, perception and myths towards swine flu in school children of Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh.

The deadly disease swine flu is, without a speck of doubt, causing a massive havoc among the common people of India and has created fear across the various strata of the society. The objective was to find out the awareness, perception, and myths of school going children of class 9 th to 12 th toward swine flu. The present cross-sectional study was carried out in two randomly selected (using random number table) senior secondary schools of Bareilly among 400 students of class 9 th to 12 th .

A proposed regression analysis-based method for assessment of higher order aberration interrelationships in ocular wavefront sets from apparently similar origins.

Purpose: To analyze the interrelations and difference in higher order aberration patterns in ocular wavefront sets with similar measures of central tendency and apparently similar origins.

Methods: This theoretical simulation and assessment study was performed at the cornea and refractive surgery services of a tertiary care, teaching hospital. A sample data set of myopic candidates was used to create distribution patterns of signed and absolute values.

Automatic segmentation of the spinal cord and the dural sac in lumbar MR images using gradient vector flow field.

A Computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system aims to facilitate characterization and quantification of abnormalities as well as minimize interpretation errors caused by tedious tasks of image screening and radiologic diagnosis. The system usually consists of segmentation, feature extraction and diagnosis, and segmentation significantly affects the diagnostic performance. In this paper, we propose an automatic segmentation method that extracts the spinal cord and the dural sac from T2-weighted sagittal magnetic resonance (MR) images of lumbar spine without the need of any human intervention.

Elephantiasis neuromatosa of the lower limb in a patient with neurofibromatosis type-1: A case report with imaging findings.

Elephantiasis neuromatosa is the most impressive manifestation of neurofibromatosis type-1 (NF-1). We report a case of NF-1 who presented with elephantiasis neuromatosa of his right leg. Cross-sectional imaging not only assists in the correct diagnosis but also aids in imaging the vasculature of a plexiform neurofibroma, which is essential for proper surgical planning.

Comparative study of the analgesic efficacy of rectal tramadol versus intravenous tramadol for adult tonsillectomy.

Background: The optimal method for intra- and post-operative analgesia for adult tonsillectomy is uncertain. Tramadol hydrochloride is an analgesic with mixed mu and nonopioid activities, having less/no respiratory depression.

Aim: The aim of our study was to compare the analgesic efficacy and nausea/vomiting produced by tramadol via intravenous and rectal administration during the first 24 h after anesthesia for adult tonsillectomy.

Applying graphics processor units to Monte Carlo dose calculation in radiation therapy.

We investigate the potential in using of using a graphics processor unit (GPU) for Monte-Carlo (MC)-based radiation dose calculations. The percent depth dose (PDD) of photons in a medium with known absorption and scattering coefficients is computed using a MC simulation running on both a standard CPU and a GPU. We demonstrate that the GPU's capability for massive parallel processing provides a significant acceleration in the MC calculation, and offers a significant advantage for distributed stochastic simulations on a single computer.

Wnt/Frizzled signaling requires dPRR, the Drosophila homolog of the prorenin receptor.

Wnt/Wg signaling pathways are of key importance during development and disease. Canonical and noncanonical Wnt/Frizzled (Fz) pathways share a limited number of signaling components that are part of the membrane proximal signaling complex. In Drosophila, Fz and Dishevelled (Dsh) are the only two components known to be involved in both Wnt/beta-catenin and planar cell polarity (PCP) signaling.

Toward a clinical lumbar CAD: herniation diagnosis.

Purpose: A CAD system for lumbar disc degeneration and herniation based on clinical MR images can aid diagnostic decision-making provided the method is robust, efficient, and accurate.

Material And Methods: A Bayesian-based classifier with a Gibbs distribution was designed and implemented for diagnosing lumbar disc herniation. Each disc is segmented with a gradient vector flow active contour model (GVF-snake) to extract shape features that feed a classifier.

Rediscovering cyanobacteria as valuable sources of bioactive compounds.

Cyanobacteria are a simple, but primitive and diverse group of microorganisms, with characteristics in common to both bacteria and algae. Their success as a group in a wide range of habitats has been attributed to their unique physiological characters and high adaptive ability under a wide range of environmental conditions. The potential of cyanobacteria as a source of a variety of compounds such as polysaccharides, lipids, proteins, vitamins, sterols, enzymes, pharmaceuticals and other fine chemicals is well recognized, and their demand is now on an increasing trend.

Labeling of lumbar discs using both pixel- and object-level features with a two-level probabilistic model.

Backbone anatomical structure detection and labeling is a necessary step for various analysis tasks of the vertebral column. Appearance, shape and geometry measurements are necessary for abnormality detection locally at each disc and vertebrae (such as herniation) as well as globally for the whole spine (such as spinal scoliosis). We propose a two-level probabilistic model for the localization of discs from clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data that captures both pixel- and object-level features.

Color doppler evaluation of cerebral-umbilical pulsatility ratio and its usefulness in the diagnosis of intrauterine growth retardation and prediction of adverse perinatal outcome.

Objective: The aim of our study was to evaluate the usefulness of the pulsatility index (PI) of the umbilical artery (UA) and that of the fetal middle cerebral artery (MCA), as well as the ratio of the MCA PI to the UA PI (C/U ratio), in the diagnosis of small-for-gestational-age (SGA) fetuses and in the prediction of adverse perinatal outcome.

Materials And Methods: The study population comprised 90 pregnancies of 30-41 weeks gestation that had been diagnosed clinically as intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) over a period of 1 year. The UA PI and the MCA PI as well as the C/U ratio were calculated.

Pictorial essay: Orbital tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis of the orbit is rare, even in places where tuberculosis is endemic. The disease may involve soft tissue, the lacrimal gland, or the periosteum or bones of the orbital wall. Intracranial extension, in the form of extradural abscess, and infratemporal fossa extension has been described.

A meta-analysis of context-dependency in plant response to inoculation with mycorrhizal fungi.

Ecology Letters (2010) 13: 394-407 Abstract Mycorrhizal fungi influence plant growth, local biodiversity and ecosystem function. Effects of the symbiosis on plants span the continuum from mutualism to parasitism. We sought to understand this variation in symbiotic function using meta-analysis with information theory-based model selection to assess the relative importance of factors in five categories: (1) identity of the host plant and its functional characteristics, (2) identity and type of mycorrhizal fungi (arbuscular mycorrhizal vs.

Directed evolution of an anti-human red blood cell antibody.

We have earlier described a haemagglutination-based assay for on-site detection of antibodies to HIV using whole blood. The reagent in this assay comprises of monovalent Fab fragment of an anti-human RBC antibody fused to immunodominant antigens of HIV-1 and HIV-2. In the present work, we describe a rational and systematic method for directed evolution of scFv and Fab antihuman RBC antibody fragments.

Design and evaluation of a metronidazole central core matrix tablet.

In this paper, a study of different concentration of HPMC K 15 M exerts influence on the drug release process from a new controlled drug delivery system has been realized in order to obtain a constant release rate during a prolonged period of time, for a programmed drug release. The drug release profiles obtained for the different batches have shown an interesting relationship between the particle size of the channeling agent used and the length of different operational periods.

Computer-aided diagnosis of lumbar disc pathology from clinical lower spine MRI.

Purpose: Detection of abnormal discs from clinical T2-weighted MR Images. This aids the radiologist as well as subsequent CAD methods in focusing only on abnormal discs for further diagnosis. Furthermore, it gives a degree of confidence about the abnormality of the intervertebral discs that helps the radiologist in making his decision.

Content based sub-image retrieval system for high resolution pathology images using salient interest points.

Content-based image retrieval systems for digital pathology require sub-image retrieval rather than the whole image retrieval for the system to be of clinical use. Digital pathology images are huge in size and thus the pathologist is interested in retrieving specific structures from the whole images in the database along with the previous diagnosis of the retrieved sub-image. We propose a content-based sub-image retrieval system (sCBIR) framework for high resolution digital pathology images.

Marchiafava-Bignami disease: Role of neuroimaging in the diagnosis and management of acute disease.

Marchiafava-Bignami disease (MBD), a rare disorder most commonly seen in patients with a history of alcohol consumption, involves progressive demyelination and subsequent necrosis of the corpus callosum. Because clinical signs are nonspecific, the role of computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging is essential to confirm the diagnosis. Early diagnosis with imaging and prompt treatment may improve the prognosis of MBD.

Case Report: CT diagnosis of thymic remnant cyst/thymopharyngeal duct cyst.

A 4-year-old boy presented with history of left anterolateral neck swelling since birth. He was clinically diagnosed to have a branchial cleft cyst. A CT scan revealed findings suggestive of a thymic remnant cyst.