Arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with quadriceps tendon autograft: clinical outcome in 4-7 years.

Surgical reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is indicated in the ACL-deficient knee with symptomatic instability and multiple ligaments injuries. In the present study, we describe the clinical results of quadriceps tendon-patellar bone autograft for ACL reconstruction. From 1996 to 1998, the graft has been used in 38 patients.

Closed reduction and internal fixation for acute midshaft clavicular fractures using cannulated screws.

Background: Although most acute midshaft clavicular fractures can be successfully treated nonsurgically, surgery is more appropriate for cases with severe displaced fractures, skin tenting, initial shortening of fracture ends, and associated with multiple injuries. However, methods of surgical treatment for such fractures remain controversial. This study discusses a closed reduction and internal fixation technique for midshaft clavicular fracture.

The effects of multiple features of alternatively spliced exons on the K(A)/K(S) ratio test.

Background: The evolution of alternatively spliced exons (ASEs) is of primary interest because these exons are suggested to be a major source of functional diversity of proteins. Many exon features have been suggested to affect the evolution of ASEs. However, previous studies have relied on the KA/KS ratio test without taking into consideration information sufficiency (i.

The association between malignant melanoma and noncutaneous malignancies.

Background: Both increases and decreases in the incidence of subsequent malignancies in melanoma patients have been reported. We examined the database of the Indiana University Cancer Center to determine whether there is an association between malignant melanoma and noncutaneous malignancies.

Objective: We searched for evidence of noncutaneous malignancies in a cohort of melanoma patients.

Phase I-II trial of weekly gemcitabine plus high-dose 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin in advanced pancreatic cancer.

Background: Pancreatic cancer is a dismal disease. Few drugs, including gemcitabine and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), have notable antitumor effects against advanced pancreatic cancer. The purpose of the present study was to determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of 5-FU and the efficacy and toxicity profile of weekly gemcitabine plus infusional 5-FU/leucovorin in advanced pancreatic cancer.

Preparation of pyrrolidine-based PDE4 inhibitors via enantioselective conjugate addition of alpha-substituted malonates to aromatic nitroalkenes.

[reaction: see text] The enantioselective conjugate addition of alpha-substituted malonates to aromatic nitroalkenes generates a stereocenter at the carbon bearing the aromatic group and an adjacent prochiral center from the alpha-substituted malonate. Nitro reduction followed by diastereoselective cyclization provides pyrrolidinones with two contiguous stereocenters, one of which is quaternary. This sequence was used for the preparation of the PDE4 inhibitor IC86518.

Experience in the use of the long Gamma nail for 16 femoral shaft fracture that have occurred following initial Asian Pacific Gamma nail fixation for pertrochanteric fractures.

From January 1993 to September 2002, 931 patients suffered from intertrochanteric fracture and subrochanteric fracture received open reduction and internal fixation with APGN in our institute. Among these patients, 16 patients (1.7%) developed a femoral shaft fracture after the initial fixation with APGN.

Identification and evolutionary analysis of novel exons and alternative splicing events using cross-species EST-to-genome comparisons in human, mouse and rat.

Background: Alternative splicing (AS) is important for evolution and major biological functions in complex organisms. However, the extent of AS in mammals other than human and mouse is largely unknown, making it difficult to study AS evolution in mammals and its biomedical implications.

Results: Here we describe a cross-species EST-to-genome comparison algorithm (ENACE) that can identify novel exons for EST-scanty species and distinguish conserved and lineage-specific exons.

Phase I and pharmacokinetic study of oral thalidomide in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

Purpose: To evaluate the dose-limiting toxicities (DLT), maximum tolerated dose (MTD), and pharmacokinetics of thalidomide in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Methods: Patients with advanced HCC who were not feasible for definitive local therapy were eligible. Patients were enrolled in a cohort of three to receive thalidomide twice daily for 1 week to determine the MTD.

One-stage posterior cruciate ligament inlay reconstruction combining anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction following knee dislocation.

Knee dislocation is a rare but severe injury that involves damage to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), posterior cruciate ligament (PCL), lateral or medial ligamentous structures, and other soft tissues or bony structures surrounding the knee joint. No consensus exists regarding the best treatment method. This work presents a method of 1-stage ACL and PCL reconstruction in which a contralateral quadriceps tendon-bone autograft with tibial inlay technique is used for the PCL and contralateral hamstring tendon autograft with suspension fixation is used for the ACL.

Expedient synthesis and structure-activity relationships of phenanthroindolizidine and phenanthroquinolizidine alkaloids.

The total synthesis of alkaloids phenanthroindolizidine 1a, tylophorine 1b, and phenanthroquinolizidine 1c, has been achieved in 46%, 49%, and 42% overall yield, respectively, starting from the corresponding phenanthrene-9-carboxaldehyde. Compound exhibited potent inhibition activity in three human cancer cell lines, with IC(50) values ranging from 104 to 130 nM. The structure-activity relations of these alkaloids and some of their synthetic intermediates against the three cell lines were also described.

Activation of anti-hepatitis C virus responses via Toll-like receptor 7.

IFN-alpha is used to suppress the replication of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in chronically infected patients with partial success. Here we present evidence showing that a ligand of Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) can induce anti-HCV immunity not only by IFN induction, but also through an IFN-independent mechanism. Human hepatocyte line Huh-7 carrying an HCV replicon expressed TLR7, and activation of the receptor induced several antiviral genes including IFN regulatory factor-7.

Flightless I homolog negatively modulates the TLR pathway.

To date, much of our knowledge about the signaling networks involved in the innate immune response has come from studies using nonphysiologic model systems rather than actual immune cells. In this study, we used a dual-tagging proteomic strategy to identify the components of the MyD88 signalosome in murine macrophages stimulated with lipid A. This systems approach revealed 16 potential MyD88-interacting partners, one of which, flightless I homolog (Fliih) was verified to interact with MyD88 and was further characterized as a negative regulator of the TLR4-MyD88 pathway.

Gene transfer mediated by sphingosine/ dioleoylphosphatidylethanolamine liposomes in the presence of poloxamer 188.

A cationic liposome system consisting of sphingosine (SP) and dioleoylphosphatidylethanolamine (DOPE) was developed for in vitro and in vivo gene transfer. A nonionic surface active agent of poloxamer 188 was incorporated in the formulations to stabilize the DNA/liposome complex. Comparison of the results obtained from systems with and without the effect of poloxamer 188 was made to investigate the efficiency of gene expression.

Alternatively and constitutively spliced exons are subject to different evolutionary forces.

There has been a controversy on whether alternatively spliced exons (ASEs) evolve faster than constitutively spliced exons (CSEs). Although it has been noted that ASEs are subject to weaker selective constraints than CSEs, so they evolve faster, there have also been studies that indicated slower evolution in ASEs than in CSEs. In this study, we retrieve more than 5,000 human-mouse orthologous exons and calculate the synonymous (KS) and nonsynonymous (KA) substitution rates in these exons.

Designing asymmetric Hopfield-type associative memory with higher order hamming stability.

The problem of optimal asymmetric Hopfield-type associative memory (HAM) design based on perceptron-type learning algorithms is considered. It is found that most of the existing methods considered the design problem as either 1) finding optimal hyperplanes according to normal distance from the prototype vectors to the hyperplane surface or 2) obtaining weight matrix W = [w(ij)] by solving a constraint optimization problem. In this paper, we show that since the state space of the HAM consists of only bipolar patterns, i.

Using the Dermatology Index of Disease Severity (DIDS) to assess the responsiveness of dermatitis.

Background: The Dermatology Index of Disease Severity (DIDS) is designed as an instrument for staging severity of inflammatory dermatoses. It measures the therapeutic effectiveness and magnitude of clinical improvement in several types of dermatitis, eczema and psoriasis. When used in the Psoriasis Outcomes Study, it was simpler and easier than the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index.

Pulmonary embolism after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization.

Metastatic hepatic tumours can be treated with hepatic transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE). Common complications associated with TACE include hepatic insufficiency, fever, and pain. However, pulmonary embolism is rarely documented as a fatal adverse effect.

Cigarette smoking induces overexpression of hepatocyte growth factor in type II pneumocytes and lung cancer cells.

We examined gene expression of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and HGF receptor (HGFR), or product of proto-oncogene c-met (c-met), in smokers and nonsmokers with adenocarcinoma (ADC) by suppression subtractive hybridization and microarray techniques. Expression of HGF and c-met was confirmed by RT-PCR. HGF content in the respective tumor mass and nontumor lung tissue was measured by ELISA.

Application of a virtual reality-enhanced exercise protocol in patients after coronary bypass.

Objective: To determine whether, by using training enhanced by virtual reality (VR) displays, patients who had undergone coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery could more effectively attain long-term cardiopulmonary results than those not using VR technology.

Design: Randomized controlled trial.

Setting: Exercise testing laboratory in a medical center.

PROPELLER EPI: an MRI technique suitable for diffusion tensor imaging at high field strength with reduced geometric distortions.

A technique suitable for diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) at high field strengths is presented in this work. The method is based on a periodically rotated overlapping parallel lines with enhanced reconstruction (PROPELLER) k-space trajectory using EPI as the signal readout module, and hence is dubbed PROPELLER EPI. The implementation of PROPELLER EPI included a series of correction schemes to reduce possible errors associated with the intrinsically higher sensitivity of EPI to off-resonance effects.

Characterizing the three-dimensional organization of telomeres.

Background: Quantitative analysis can be used in combination with fluorescence microscopy. Although the human eye is able to obtain good qualitative results, when analyzing the spatial organization of telomeres in interphase nuclei, there is a need for quantitative results based on image analysis.

Methods: We developed a tool for analyzing three-dimensional images of telomeres stained by fluorescence in situ hybridization in interphase nuclei with DNA counterstained with 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole.

Functional recovery of chronic complete idiopathic transverse myelitis after administration of neurotrophic factors.

Study Design: Case report.

Objective: To evaluate the functional recovery of chronic complete idiopathic transverse myelitis (ITM) after administration of acidic fibroblast growth factor (aFGF).

Methods: A 28-year-old woman presented with a 4-year history of spastic paralysis, sensory level at T10, urinary retention and constipation due to ITM.

Spinal cord implantation with acidic fibroblast growth factor as a treatment for root avulsion in obstetric brachial plexus palsy.

Nerve root avulsion carries the worst prognosis among brachial plexus injuries and remains a great challenge for surgeons to repair. In this case, a boy with complete avulsion of the left-side C6 root presented with flaccid paralysis of the left arm after birth. As there was no significant spontaneous recovery, the patient underwent operation when he was 6 months old.

Decreased incidence of nonmelanoma skin cancer in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus using insulin: a pilot study.

Background: In order to prevent the propagation of genetic mutations, human keratinocytes irradiated with ultraviolet (UV) B light in vitro undergo premature stress-induced senescence or apoptosis. This response to UVB irradiation is dependent on the functional activation of the insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R). Based on this in vitro functional data, we hypothesized that the increased serum levels of insulin in patients with type 2 diabetes may activate the IGF-1R in skin and lead to a decreased frequency of skin cancer in these patients.