Anti-cancer activity of nitrones in the Apc(Min/+) model of colorectal cancer.

Abstract The nitrones of alpha-phenyl-tert-butyl nitrone (PBN) and 4-hydroxyl-PBN (4-OH-PBN) that have anti-cancer activity in models of liver cancer and glioblastomas were tested in the ApcMin/+ mouse model. Mice were administered PBN and 4-OH-PBN in drinking water and intestinal tumour size and number assessed after 3-4 months. Throughout the experiment, contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to monitor colon tumours.

Sepsis-associated encephalopathy: a magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy study.

Brain dysfunction is frequently observed in sepsis as a consequence of changes in cerebral structure and metabolism, resulting in worse outcome and reduced life-quality of surviving patients. However, the mechanisms of sepsis-associated encephalopathy development and a better characterization of this syndrome in vivo are lacking. Here, we used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to assess brain morphology and metabolism in a murine sepsis model (cecal ligation and puncture, CLP).

Diffusion tensor imaging and fiber tractography of C6 rat glioma.

Purpose: To apply diffusion tensor images using 30 noncollinear directions for diffusion-weighted gradient schemes to characterize diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) features associated with C6 glioma-bearing rat brains, and ideally visualize fiber tractography datasets.

Materials And Methods: Fiber tractographies of normal male Fischer 344 rat brains were constructed from DTI datasets acquired with a 30 noncollinear diffusion gradient scheme. Cultured C6 cell were intracranially injected into the cortex of male Fischer 344 rats.

Visualization of the protective ability of a free radical trapping compound against rat C6 and F98 gliomas with diffusion tensor fiber tractography.

Purpose: To apply fiber tractography to assess the effect of a possible antiglioma drug, phenyl N-tert-butyl nitrone (PBN), on glioma-affected neuronal fibers. The fiber tractography method was able to differentiate between different tumor types, such as the C6 and F98 rat glioma models.

Materials And Methods: C6 or F98 cells were intracranially injected into the cortex of male Fischer 344 rats.

In vivo detection of c-Met expression in a rat C6 glioma model.

The tyrosine kinase receptor, c-Met, and its substrate, the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), are implicated in the malignant progression of glioblastomas. In vivo detection of c-Met expression may be helpful in the diagnosis of malignant tumours. The C6 rat glioma model is a widely used intracranial brain tumour model used to study gliomas experimentally.

The costs of nonbeneficial treatment in the intensive care setting.

Ethics consultations have been shown to reduce the use of "nonbeneficial treatments," defined as life-sustaining treatments delivered to patients who ultimately did not survive to hospital discharge, when treatment conflicts occurred in the adult intensive care unit (ICU). In this paper we estimated the costs of nonbeneficial treatment using the results from a randomized trial of ethics consultations. We found that ethics consultations were associated with reductions in hospital days and treatment costs among patients who did not survive to hospital discharge.

Clinical diagnosis of prolonged states of impaired consciousness in adults.

A prolonged state of impaired consciousness is a devastating consequence of severe structural brain injury but fortunately is uncommon. Patients may be diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state, having akinetic mutism, or being in a minimally conscious state. These conditions can be distinguished from each other by a comprehensive clinical neurologic examination.

Diffusion-weighted imaging in the setting of diffuse cortical laminar necrosis and hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

Background And Purpose: As is the case for CT scans, MR images may occasionally appear deceptively normal unless proper windowing is used. We sought to illustrate the necessity for proper windowing and for assessing the gray-white matter differentiation on diffusion-weighted (DW) images in the setting of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

Methods: Six comatose patients (age range, 34-56 years) underwent MR imaging in the early phase (range, 1-5 days) after severe anoxic insult.

Effect of ethics consultations on nonbeneficial life-sustaining treatments in the intensive care setting: a randomized controlled trial.

Context: Ethics consultations increasingly are being used to resolve conflicts about life-sustaining interventions, but few studies have reported their outcomes.

Objective: To investigate whether ethics consultations in the intensive care setting reduce the use of life-sustaining treatments delivered to patients who ultimately did not survive to hospital discharge, as well as the reactions to the consultations of physicians, nurses, and patients/surrogates.

Design: Prospective, multicenter, randomized controlled trial from November 2000 to December 2002.

The minimally conscious state in children.

The minimally conscious state (MCS) is a condition of severely altered consciousness in which minimal but definite behavioral evidence of self- or environmental awareness is shown. Diagnostic criteria recently have been proposed for entry into and emergence from the MCS. We present clinical and neuroimaging data on 5 children diagnosed with MCS and discuss the limited information available concerning its epidemiology, etiology, pathology, and prognosis.

The minimally conscious state: definition and diagnostic criteria.

Objective: To establish consensus recommendations among health care specialties for defining and establishing diagnostic criteria for the minimally conscious state (MCS).

Background: There is a subgroup of patients with severe alteration in consciousness who do not meet diagnostic criteria for coma or the vegetative state (VS). These patients demonstrate inconsistent but discernible evidence of consciousness.

The vegetative and minimally conscious states: ethical implications.

Modern medical technology has created new syndromes of severe and permanent brain damage. In the first 25 years of the right-to-die debate, the permanent vegetative state has been the paradigmatic neurologic syndrome for decisions to discontinue treatment. In the near future, however, a far more problematic syndrome may be even more important in the right-to-die debate, the minimally conscious state.