Referral facility CT perfusion prior to inter-facility transfer in patients undergoing mechanical thrombectomy.

Background And Purpose: The use of CT perfusion (CTP) imaging at a referring hospital is feasible and may shorten the door to puncture time for patients with acute ischemic stroke.

Methods: We conducted a single center retrospective review of a prospectively maintained database of consecutive ischemic stroke patients transferred to our center for consideration of endovascular therapy. Patients were divided into two groups.

De Novo Gene Evolution of Antifreeze Glycoproteins in Codfishes Revealed by Whole Genome Sequence Data.

New genes can arise through duplication of a pre-existing gene or de novo from non-coding DNA, providing raw material for evolution of new functions in response to a changing environment. A prime example is the independent evolution of antifreeze glycoprotein genes (afgps) in the Arctic codfishes and Antarctic notothenioids to prevent freezing. However, the highly repetitive nature of these genes complicates studies of their organization.

Multi-gene phylogeny of jacks and pompanos (Carangidae), including placement of monotypic vadigo Campogramma glaycos.

In this study, the phylogenetic trees of jacks and pompanos (Carangidae), an ecologically and morphologically diverse, globally distributed fish family, are inferred from a complete, concatenated data set of two mitochondrial (cytochrome c oxidase I, cytochrome b) loci and one nuclear (myosin heavy chain 6) locus. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian inferences are largely congruent and show a clear separation of Carangidae into the four subfamilies: Scomberoidinae, Trachinotinae, Naucratinae and Caranginae. The inclusion of the carangid sister lineages Coryphaenidae (dolphinfishes) and Rachycentridae (cobia), however, render Carangidae paraphyletic.

Thrombectomy 6 to 24 Hours after Stroke with a Mismatch between Deficit and Infarct.

Background: The effect of endovascular thrombectomy that is performed more than 6 hours after the onset of ischemic stroke is uncertain. Patients with a clinical deficit that is disproportionately severe relative to the infarct volume may benefit from late thrombectomy.

Methods: We enrolled patients with occlusion of the intracranial internal carotid artery or proximal middle cerebral artery who had last been known to be well 6 to 24 hours earlier and who had a mismatch between the severity of the clinical deficit and the infarct volume, with mismatch criteria defined according to age (<80 years or ≥80 years).

The role of ICP monitoring in meningitis.

Intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring has been widely accepted in the management of traumatic brain injury. However, its use in other pathologies that affect ICP has not been advocated as strongly, especially in CNS infections. Despite the most aggressive and novel antimicrobial therapies for meningitis, the mortality rate associated with this disease is far from satisfactory.

Ruptured aneurysm of the artery of Adamkiewicz: is conservative management the standard of treatment in the current era?

Spinal aneurysms are rare lesions, and their natural history is not well known. In particular, aneurysms arising from the artery of Adamkiewicz (AA) are an extremely rare phenomenon, and given the lack of solid evidence its management remains unclear. We present the case of a 54-year-old woman with spinal subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Whether European eel leptocephali use the Earth's magnetic field to guide their migration remains an open question.

European eels (Anguilla anguilla) migrate between the southwestern Sargasso Sea and the European and Mediterranean coasts. In a recent paper in Current Biology, Naisbett-Jones et al.[1] claim to "provide the first evidence that they [eels] derive positional information from the Earth's magnetic field" and that this information guides their migration.

Morbidity and Mortality in Patients With Posterior Circulation Aneurysms Treated With the Pipeline Embolization Device: A Subgroup Analysis of the International Retrospective Study of the Pipeline Embolization Device.

Background: The safety of PipelineTM Embolization Device (PED; Medtronic Inc, Dublin, Ireland) in posterior circulation aneurysms is still controversial.

Objective: To study complications associated with the treatment of posterior circulation aneurysms by conducting a subgroup analysis from the International Retrospective Study of PED registry.

Methods: Data from 91 consecutive patients with 95 posterior circulation aneurysms at 17 centers between July 2008 to February 2013 were analyzed.

Evaluation of previously embolized intracranial aneurysms: inter-and intra-rater reliability among neurosurgeons and interventional neuroradiologists.

Background: The angiographic evaluation of previously coiled aneurysms can be difficult yet remains critical for determining re-treatment.

Objective: The main objective of this study was to determine the inter-rater reliability for both the Raymond Scale and per cent embolization among a group of neurointerventionalists evaluating previously embolized aneurysms.

Methods: A panel of 15 neurointerventionalists examined 92 distinct cases of immediate post-coil embolization and 1 year post-embolization angiographs.

Sample space reducing cascading processes produce the full spectrum of scaling exponents.

Sample Space Reducing (SSR) processes are simple stochastic processes that offer a new route to understand scaling in path-dependent processes. Here we define a cascading process that generalises the recently defined SSR processes and is able to produce power laws with arbitrary exponents. We demonstrate analytically that the frequency distributions of states are power laws with exponents that coincide with the multiplication parameter of the cascading process.

Analysis of Predictors and Probability of Aneurysm Occlusion in the Internal Carotid Artery After Treatment with Pipeline Embolization Device.

Background: Although the Pipeline Embolization Device (PED) has proved to be an excellent option for internal carotid artery (ICA) aneurysms, the rate of occlusion remains difficult to predict and factors associated with aneurysm occlusion are not well elucidated. This study aimed to investigate predictors and the rate of occlusion for aneurysms along the ICA.

Methods: A total of 117 saccular ICA aneurysms treated with the PED were studied.

Cell-Free DNA and DNase Activity in Dogs with Immune-Mediated Hemolytic Anemia.

Background: Immune-mediated hemolytic anemia (IMHA) in dogs has a high risk of thrombosis and is associated with marked neutrophilia and necrosis. Cell death and release of neutrophil extracellular traps contribute to increased serum concentrations of cell-free DNA, and in human autoimmune disease reduced DNase activity further increases cell-free DNA. Free DNA in blood has prothrombotic properties and could contribute to hypercoagulability in IMHA.

Angiographic and clinical outcomes of balloon remodeling versus unassisted coil embolization in the ruptured aneurysm cohort of the GEL THE NEC study.

Background And Purpose: GEL THE NEC (GTN) was a multicenter prospective registry developed to assess the safety and efficacy of HydroSoft coils in treating intracranial aneurysms. We compared the angiographic and clinical outcomes of aneurysms treated with balloon assisted coil embolization (BACE) versus unassisted coil embolization (CE) in the ruptured aneurysm cohort.

Materials And Methods: GTN was performed at 27 centers in five countries.

Evolution of Hemoglobin Genes in Codfishes Influenced by Ocean Depth.

Understanding the genetic basis of adaptation is one of the main enigmas of evolutionary biology. Among vertebrates, hemoglobin has been well documented as a key trait for adaptation to different environments. Here, we investigate the role of hemoglobins in adaptation to ocean depth in the diverse teleost order Gadiformes, with species distributed at a wide range of depths varying in temperature, hydrostatic pressure and oxygen levels.

Maternal transfer of dioxin-like compounds in artificially matured European eels.

Several eel species of the genus Anguilla are considered endangered due to a severe decline in recruitment. Up to now, the reasons for this threatening development are not fully understood. The eel's highly specialized biology can lead to explicitly high accumulation of globally distributed organic lipophilic contaminants during its continental life.

First US experience with Pipeline Flex with Shield Technology using aspirin as antiplatelet monotherapy.

Flow diversion has revolutionised the treatment of intracranial aneurysms, and the Pipeline Embolization Device (PED) remains the only flow diverter (FD) approved in the USA. However, thromboembolic events remain an issue for FDs. Attempting to minimise these incidents, a newer PED has been developed with the use of covalent bonding of phosphorylcholine onto the Pipeline device that has been known as Shield Technology (PED Shield), which in vitro has demonstrated a significant reduction in material thrombogenicity.

Results of the ANSWER Trial Using the PulseRider for the Treatment of Broad-Necked, Bifurcation Aneurysms.

Background: The safety and probable benefit of the PulseRider (Pulsar Vascular, Los Gatos, California) for the treatment of broad-necked, bifurcation aneurysms was studied in the context of the prospective, nonrandomized, single arm clinical trial-the Adjunctive Neurovascular Support of Wide-neck aneurysm Embolization and Reconstruction (ANSWER) Trial.

Objective: To present the results of the United States cases employing the PulseRider device as part of the ANSWER clinical trial.

Methods: Aneurysms treated with the PulseRider device among sites enrolling in the ANSWER trial were prospectively studied and the results are summarized.

Genomic Differentiation and Demographic Histories of Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Yellowfin Tuna (Thunnus albacares) Populations.

Recent developments in the field of genomics have provided new and powerful insights into population structure and dynamics that are essential for the conservation of biological diversity. As a commercially highly valuable species, the yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) is intensely exploited throughout its distribution in tropical oceans around the world, and is currently classified as near threatened. However, conservation efforts for this species have so far been hampered by limited knowledge of its population structure, due to incongruent results of previous investigations.

High-energy Trauma Precipitating Intramedullary Cavernous Malformation Hemorrhage - A Possible Underreported Mechanism.

Cavernous malformations are uncommon vascular lesions with an estimated prevalence of 0.5% in the general population. Intramedullary cavernous malformations (ICM) represent a rare subset of lesions, which account for approximately 5% of all cavernous malformations.

Fitting power-laws in empirical data with estimators that work for all exponents.

Most standard methods based on maximum likelihood (ML) estimates of power-law exponents can only be reliably used to identify exponents smaller than minus one. The argument that power laws are otherwise not normalizable, depends on the underlying sample space the data is drawn from, and is true only for sample spaces that are unbounded from above. Power-laws obtained from bounded sample spaces (as is the case for practically all data related problems) are always free of such limitations and maximum likelihood estimates can be obtained for arbitrary powers without restrictions.

Lack of Association between Statin Use and Angiographic and Clinical Outcomes after Pipeline Embolization for Intracranial Aneurysms.

Background And Purpose: Use of statin medications has been demonstrated to improve clinical and angiographic outcomes in patients receiving endovascular stent placement for coronary, peripheral, carotid, and intracranial stenoses. We studied the impact of statin use on long-term angiographic and clinical outcomes after flow-diverter treatment of intracranial aneurysms.

Materials And Methods: We performed a post hoc analysis from pooled patient-level datasets from 3 Pipeline Embolization Device studies: the International Retrospective Study of the Pipeline Embolization Device, the Pipeline for Uncoilable or Failed Aneurysms Study, and the Aneurysm Study of Pipeline in an Observational Registry.

GEL THE NEC: a prospective registry evaluating the safety, ease of use, and efficacy of the HydroSoft coil as a finishing device.

Background And Purpose: The HydroSoft coil was developed as a finishing coil, ideally to be placed along the aneurysm neck to enhance intracranial aneurysm healing. The GEL THE NEC (Gaining Efficacy Long Term: Hydrosoft, an Emerging, New, Embolic Coil) multicenter registry was developed to assess the safety and efficacy of HydroSoft coils in treating intracranial aneurysms. We report angiographic and clinical results of this prospective registry.

Evaluation of the Lactate Plus monitor for plasma lactate concentration measurement in dogs.

Objective: To compare the Lactate Plus handheld monitor to a reference blood gas analyzer for determining plasma lactate concentrations in canine whole blood.

Design: Prospective observational study.

Setting: University teaching hospital.