Purpose: Co-prevalence of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and cancer poses a unique challenge in medical care since both diseases and their respective therapies might interact. Recently, reduced AAA growth rates were observed in cancer patients that received radiation therapy (RT). The purpose of this study was to perform a fine-grained analysis of the effects of RT on AAA growth with respect to direct (infield) and out-of-field (outfield) radiation exposure, and radiation dose-dependency.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper focuses on a wear evaluation conducted for prototype spur and herringbone gears made from PET-G filament using additive manufacturing. The main objective of this study is to verify if 3D-printed gears can be considered a reliable choice for long-term exploitation in selected mechanical systems, specifically automated retail kiosks. For this reason, two methods were applied, utilizing: (1) vision-based inspection of the gears' cross-sectional geometry and (2) the statistical characterization of the selected kinematic parameters and torques generated by drives.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The purpose of this study was to assess the associations between malignancy, therapeutic regimens, and aorto-iliac aneurysm (i.e., abdominal aortic aneurysm [AAA]) growth rates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn expectation of perfect and close to ideal outcomes is attributed not only to aesthetic, but also to reconstructive surgery. Contrary to quite common belief and despite great potential, the real chances for achieving attractive appearance are limited to relatively simple cases with moderately abnormal morphology, sufficient homogenous material, and hardly conspicuous scars potential. Therefore, the expectations for fully satisfactory outcomes should be limited to jaw surgery, cosmetic rhinoplasty, otoplasty, and some rejuvenation procedures, provided the best and uneventful surgery is secured.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSome degree of congenital or acquired asymmetry is normal and universal. Significant facial asymmetry, however, causes both aesthetic, as well as functional problems. The comprehensive management of facial symmetry is scarcely addressed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of the work is to present regenerative medicine achievement as an alternative SUI treatment and the variety of injected cells type as well as injection techniques itself with the analysis of their quality and possible the mechanism in which they reduce urinary incontinence symptoms. For over a decade numerous authors declare use of different type of autologous mesenchymal-derived stem cells (AMDC) in male and female SUI. The leakage improvement reached 80%, despite the number of injected cells as well as the injection technique.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Sultanate of Oman is a rapidly developing Muslim country with well-organized government-funded health care services, and expanding medical genetic facilities. The preservation of tribal structures within the Omani population coupled with geographical isolation has produced unique patterns of rare mutations. In order to provide diagnosticians and researchers with access to an up-to-date resource that will assist them in their daily practice we collated and analyzed all of the Mendelian disease-associated mutations identified in the Omani population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Mesomelic dysplasias are a group of skeletal disorders characterised by shortness of the middle limb segments (mesomelia). They are divided into 11 different categories. Among those without known molecular basis is mesomelic dysplasia Savarirayan type, characterised by severe shortness of the middle segment of the lower limb.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Neurofibromatosis type I (NF1, MIM#162200) is a relatively frequent genetic condition, which predisposes to tumor formation. Apart from tumors, individuals with NF1 often exhibit endocrine abnormalities such as precocious puberty (2,5-5% of NF1 patients) and some cases of hypertension (16% of NF1 patients). Several cases of adrenal cortex adenomas have been described in NF1 individuals supporting the notion that neurofibromin might play a role in adrenal cortex homeostasis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) (MIM#162200) is a relatively frequent genetic condition that predisposes to tumor formation. The main types of tumors occurring in NF1 patients are cutaneous and subcutaneous neurofibromas, plexiform neurofibromas, optic pathway gliomas, and malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors. To search for somatic mutations in cutaneous (dermal) neurofibromas, whole-exome sequencing (WES) was performed on seven spatially separated tumors and two reference tissues (blood and unaffected skin) from a single NF1 patient.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: The purpose of this study was to present and evaluate orthodontic rules and methods in the treatment of children and adolescents with complete cleft lip and palate.
Materials And Methods: The material consists of about 5500 primary clefts treated at the Hospital and Clinic of Plastic Surgery in Polanica-Zdrój in the years 1976-2008. The most common surgical procedure (>99%) consisted of two-stage repair of cleft lip and palate.
The opinions presented below concerning the choice of the timing of the cleft lip and palate repair have been presented on the basis of the literature and own experience. The comments and attempts to make an assessment reflect both direct contacts with representatives of numerous centres conducting interdisciplinary treatment of patients with clefts, as well as 35 years of the first author's experience gained in the course of treating 5,500 cases of primary clefts, besides own patients and numerous post- cleft deformities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurofibromin has been identified as a critical regulator of osteoblast differentiation. Osteoblast specific inactivation of neurofibromin in mice results in a high bone mass phenotype and hyperosteoidosis. Here, we show that inactivation of the Nf1 gene also impairs osteocyte development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRitscher-Schinzel syndrome (RSS)/3C (cranio-cerebro-cardiac) syndrome (OMIM#220210) is a rare and clinically heterogeneous developmental disorder characterized by intellectual disability, cerebellar brain malformations, congenital heart defects, and craniofacial abnormalities. A recent study of a Canadian cohort identified homozygous sequence variants in the KIAA0196 gene, which encodes the WASH complex subunit strumpellin, as a cause for a form of RSS/3C syndrome. We have searched for genetic causes of a phenotype similar to RSS/3C syndrome in an Austrian family with two affected sons.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBone fragility due to osteopenia, osteoporosis or debilitating focal skeletal dysplasias is a frequent observation in the Mendelian disease Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). To determine the mechanisms underlying bone fragility in NF1 we analyzed two conditional mouse models, Nf1Prx1 (limb knock-out) and Nf1Col1 (osteoblast specific knock-out), as well as cortical bone samples from individuals with NF1. We examined mouse bone tissue with micro-computed tomography, qualitative and quantitative histology, mechanical tensile analysis, small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and scanning acoustic microscopy (SAM).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Offender Ther Comp Criminol
May 2015
The drug court model, which integrates drug treatment with community supervision and uses the authority of the court to facilitate compliance and behavioral change, provides an innovative alternative to processing as usual. While drug courts have enjoyed considerable empirical support, research suggests that they could increase their effectiveness through further refining their target population. In particular, it is hypothesized that drug courts are particularly well suited to treat drug offenders who have a high risk for recidivism.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Neural tube defects (NTD) involve disruptions in the axial mesenchyme, and are related to an imbalance between folic acid (FA) and homocysteine (Hcy). This study evaluated the effects of FA/Hcy imbalance on cell proliferation and expression of the Pax 1/9 and Sox 9 gene products in the axial mesenchyme of chickens.
Methods: Embryos were incubated (38°C) and pretreated at 24 h and treated at 46 h of incubation.
Caspase 12(Csp-12) is a cysteine protease that plays a role in regulation of cytokine maturation. It is present either in a functional full-length variant (Csp-12L) that predisposes to a lower immune response or in an inactive, common version (Csp-12S) that contains a stop codon that results in a truncated form. Genomic DNA from unrelated North Africans, residents of 4th Nile Cataract Region in Sudan, was analyzed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The mechanism involved in neovascularization in splanchnic circulation and the main trigger that induces angiogenesis in patients with cirrhosis are not fully recognized.
Aims: To explore the involvement of flow sensitive lung Kruppel-like factor (KLF2), microRNA-126 (miR-126), angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) in modulation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signalling that have a critical effect on growth of new blood vessels.
Methods: Duodenal biopsies from 22 patients with cirrhosis and 10 controls were obtained during routine endoscopy.