Two-step biocatalytic conversion of post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate into value-added products facilitated by genetic and bioprocess engineering.

Solving the plastic crisis requires high recycling quotas and technologies that allow open loop recycling. Here a biological plastic valorization approach consisting of tandem enzymatic hydrolysis and monomer conversion of post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate into value-added products is presented. Hydrolysates obtained from enzymatic degradation of pre-treated post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate bottles in a stirred-tank reactor served as the carbon source for a batch fermentation with an engineered Pseudomonas putida strain to produce 90mg/L of the biopolymer cyanophycin.

Stereotactic radiosurgery and fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy: comparison of efficacy and toxicity in 260 patients with brain metastases.

We retrospectively evaluated and compared the efficacy and the toxicity profile of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (FSRT) for the treatment of patients with brain metastases (BM). Between 2000 and 2009, 260 patients with 1-3 BM were treated using either SRS (median dose 20 Gy; n = 138) or two different FSRT dose concepts: 7 × 5 Gy (n = 61) or 10 × 4 Gy (n = 61). The median survival for SRS, 7 × 5 Gy and 10 × 4 Gy was 8, 7 and 10 months (p = 0.

Multidisciplinary treatment of brain metastases derived from colorectal cancer incorporating stereotactic radiosurgery: analysis of 78 patients.

Background: We investigated the role of radiotherapy, including whole brain radiotherapy and stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), and prognostic factors in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) who developed brain metastases.

Patients And Methods: The data of 78 patients who received multidisciplinary treatment from 1996 to 2007 were reviewed. Overall survival (OS), intracerebral control (ICC), and local control (LC) were retrospectively analyzed.

CXCL13 chemokine in pediatric and adult neuroborreliosis.

Objectives: Diagnosis of Lyme neuroborreliosis (NB) depends on the proof of intrathecal antibody production against Borrelia burgdorferi. CXCL13 has been seen to be elevated early in NB, before antibody production has started. In this study, we determined the diagnostic role of the CXCL13 chemokine in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum for the first time in pediatric NB patients as well as in adults, compared to controls and blood donors (BD).

Radiotherapy for brain metastases from renal cell cancer: should whole-brain radiotherapy be added to stereotactic radiosurgery?: analysis of 88 patients.

Purpose: To evaluate the role of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) for the treatment of brain metastases in patients with renal cell cancer (RCC).

Patients And Methods: 88 patients were treated with either SRS (n = 51) or SRS + WBRT (n = 17) for one to three lesions, or with WBRT (n = 20) for more than three brain metastases. Overall survival (OS), intracerebral control (IC) and local control (LC) were retrospectively analyzed.

Comparison of stereotactic radiosurgery and fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy of acoustic neurinomas according to 3-D tumor volume shrinkage and quality of life.

Background And Purpose: Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and also fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) offer high local control (LC) rates (> 90%). This study aimed to evaluate three-dimensional (3-D) tumor volume (TV) shrinkage and to assess quality of life (QoL) after SRS/SRT.

Patients And Methods: From 1999 to 2005, 35/74 patients were treated with SRS, and 39/74 with SRT.

Special aspects of diagnostic imaging for radiosurgery of arteriovenous malformations.

Objective: Radiosurgery can be considered a well-established option for the treatment of arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). The exact application of the therapeutic dose is based on the availability of imaging data sets with superior image quality that can be superimposed using an image fusion algorithm. For follow-up studies, the quantitative comparison of the respective image data sets also plays an important role.

Stereotactic radiotherapy for the treatment of nonacoustic schwannomas.

Objective: Nonacoustic schwannomas are rare tumors in contrast to the most common neuromas of Cranial Nerve VIII. The current treatment of choice in these cases is microsurgical resection, but the risk of postoperative complications is high, especially in cavernous sinus-invading tumors. In many of these cases, it is not possible to achieve complete tumor removal, resulting in the probability of recurrences.

Radiosurgery/stereotactic radiotherapy in the therapeutical concept for skull base meningiomas.

Objective: Microsurgical resection is still the treatment of choice for skull base meningiomas. But the risk of postoperative neurological deficits is high, and in many of these cases complete tumor removal cannot be achieved. Therefore recurrences are even more probable.

Hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy for brain metastases--results from three different dose concepts.

Purpose: To evaluate efficacy and toxicity of hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (hfSRT) with three different dose concepts for irresectable brain metastases not amenable to radiosurgery (SRS) using non-invasive fixation of the skull.

Patients And Methods: From 6/2000 to 6/2005, 150 patients with 228 brain metastases were treated at the dedicated stereotactic radiosurgery system Novalis (BrainLAB, Feldkirchen, Germany) in two German treatment centers. Three different dose concepts were applied: 5 x 6-7 Gy (A: 72 brain metastases), 10 x 4 Gy (B: 59 brain metastases) and 7 x 5 Gy (C: 97 brain metastases).

Fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy of glomus jugulare tumors. Local control, toxicity, symptomatology, and quality of life.

Background And Purpose: For glomus jugulare tumors, the goal of treatment is microsurgical excision. To minimize postoperative neurologic deficits, stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) was performed as an alternative treatment option. Stereotactic fractionated radiotherapy (SRT) could be a further alternative.

Significant tumor volume reduction of meningiomas after stereotactic radiotherapy: results of a prospective multicenter study.

Objective: Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is well established in the treatment of cranial base meningiomas. Fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) offers an additional treatment option. Data for radiological regression differ, ranging from 13 to 61%.

Stereotactic radiotherapy of meningiomas: symptomatology, acute and late toxicity.

Background And Purpose: Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is well established in the treatment of skull base meningiomas, but this therapy approach is limited to small tumors only. The fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) offers an alternative treatment option. This study aims at local control, symptomatology, and toxicity.

Significance of different conformity indices for evaluation of radiosurgery treatment plans for vestibular schwannomas.

Object: There are various kinds of conformity parameters currently in use, although several of them are limited and reflect only target volume coverage or normal tissue overdosage. Indices are reviewed with the goal of determining those that are most significant for the evaluation of radiosurgery treatment plans for patients with vestibular schwannoma, based on the authors' experience at the Novalis Shaped Beam Surgery Center.

Methods: Fifty-five radiosurgery plans for patients with vestibular schwannomas (VSs) have been evaluated.

Stereotactic radiation treatment planning and follow-up studies involving fused multimodality imaging.

Object: Innovative new software solutions may enable image fusion to produce the desired data superposition for precise target definition and follow-up studies in radiosurgery/stereotactic radiotherapy in patients with intracranial lesions. The aim is to integrate the anatomical and functional information completely into the radiation treatment planning and to achieve an exact comparison for follow-up examinations. Special conditions and advantages of BrainLAB's fully automatic image fusion system are evaluated and described for this purpose.

Is IgM of diagnostic value in case of delayed intrathecal production of IgG antibodies?

The neurological manifestations of Lyme borreliosis comprise a wide range of clinical signs. However, these symptoms might have other aetiologies. Therefore detection of intrathecal production of specific antibodies is necessary to confirm the clinical assumption of neuroborreliosis (NB).

[Indications of cerebral micro-hemorrhage in MRI. Comparative histological findings and possible clinical significance].

Increased use of gradient echo T2*-weighted gradient echo sequences in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of patients suffering from primary ICH called attention to foci of signal loss which were suggested to represent remnants of cerebral microbleeds. In a post mortem correlative MR and histopathological study we provide support for this notion. We found areas of signal loss on gradient echo T2*-weighted sequences in 7 out of 11 brains of patients who had died of intracerebral hematoma.

Histopathologic analysis of foci of signal loss on gradient-echo T2*-weighted MR images in patients with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage: evidence of microangiopathy-related microbleeds.

Background And Purpose: Patients with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) frequently have small areas of signal loss on gradient-echo T2*-weighted MR images, which have been suggested to represent remnants of previous microbleeds. Our aim was to provide histopathologic support for this assumption and to clarify whether the presence and location of microbleeds were associated with microangiopathy.

Methods: We performed MR imaging and correlative histopathologic examination in 11 formalin-fixed brains of patients who had died of an ICH (age range, 45-90 years).

[Prevalence and risk factors in the population of Graz (Austrian Stroke Prevention Study)].

The Austrian Stroke Prevention Study recruited 1960 randomly selected subjects aged 50 to 75 years during a 3-year period of enrollment. The response rate of the study was 32.4%.

[Magnetic resonance tomography of the brain in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis].

We compared the magnetic resonance imaging results of 15 patients suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) with those of 30 age-matched controls to search for disease specific cerebral abnormalities. Symmetric hyperintensity along the corticospinal tract on the proton density spin-echo sequence was exclusively found in 4 ALS patients. It was associated with younger age, rapid disease progression and evolution of symptoms starting in the lower extremities.

[Hemorrheology and quality of life in fibrinogen- and lipid-lowering therapy].

Previous studies have demonstrated that heparin-induced extracorporeal LDL precipitation is able to reduce total cholesterol, LDL, triglycerides and plasma fibrinogen at the same time and thus improve the hemorheologic pattern. A combination of H.E.

[Heparin-induced extracorporeal LDL precipitation (HELP). A new therapeutic possibility in cerebral multi-infarct dementia].

High fibrinogen levels have been assessed in cerebrovascular disease with a direct relationship to blood rheology. Heparin-induced extracorporeal LDL precipitation (HELP) is a method that effectively reduces fibrinogen and lipoproteins at the same time, thus improving the hemorheologic pattern. We studied 45 patients with cerebral multiinfarct dementia.

Pathologic correlates of incidental MRI white matter signal hyperintensities.

We related the histopathologic changes associated with incidental white matter signal hyperintensities on MRIs from 11 elderly patients (age range, 52 to 82 years) to a descriptive classification for such abnormalities. Punctate, early confluent, and confluent white matter hyperintensities corresponded to increasing severity of ischemic tissue damage, ranging from mild perivascular alterations to large areas with variable loss of fibers, multiple small cavitations, and marked arteriolosclerosis. Microcystic infarcts and patchy rarefaction of myelin were also characteristic for irregular periventricular high signal intensity.