TNFR2 blockade promotes antitumoral immune response in PDAC by targeting activated Treg and reducing T cell exhaustion.

Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most aggressive cancers, highly resistant to standard chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) expressing tumor necrosis factor α receptor 2 (TNFR2) contribute to immunosuppression in PDAC. Treg infiltration correlates with poor survival and tumor progression in patients with PDAC.

Lower Four Cranial Nerves in the Management of Glomus Jugulare: Anatomical Study.

 The surgical management that achieves minimal morbidity and mortality for patients with glomus and non-glomus tumors involving the jugular foramen (JF) region requires a comprehensive understanding of the complex anatomy, anatomic variability, and pathological anatomy of this region.  The aim of this study is to propose a rational guideline to expose and preserve the lower cranial nerves (CNs) in the lateral approach of the JF.  The technique utilized is the gross and microdissection of 4 fixed cadaveric heads to revise the JF's surgical anatomy and high part of the carotid sheath compared with surgical cases to understand and preserve the integrity of lower CNs.

Social status-dependent regulation and function of the somatotropic axis in juvenile rainbow trout.

Juvenile rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) develop social hierarchies when competing for resources in a constrained environment. Among the physiological consequences of social status are changes in organismal energy metabolism, which generally favour anabolic pathways in dominant fish and catabolic pathways in subordinate fish. The somatotropic axis is an important regulator of metabolism and growth that could be involved in mediating metabolic changes in response to social status in juvenile rainbow trout.

An atypical stapedial artery.

The persistence of the stapedial artery is a rare vascular anomaly. It is mostly asymptomatic but sometimes cause conductive hearing loss, pulsatile tinnitus, or vertigo. The estimated prevalence of this rare postembryonic persistence ranged from 0.

European Position Statement on Diagnosis, and Treatment of Meniere's Disease.

Meniere Disease keeps challenges in its diagnosis and treatment since was defined by Prosper Meniere at the beginning of 19th Century. Several classifications and definition were made until now and speculations still exist on its etiology. As the etiology remains speculative the treatment models remain in discussion also.

Endoscope-assisted retrosigmoid approach in hemifacial spasm: our experience.

Introduction: The use of surgical decompression of facial hemispasm due to the loop in the internal auditory canal is not always accepted due to the risk related to the surgical procedure. Currently a new surgical technique allows surgeons to work in safer conditions.

Objective: To report the results with endoscope-assisted retrosigmoid approach for facial nerve microvascular decompression in hemifacial spasm due to neurovascular conflict.

Endoscope-assisted decompression of facial nerve for treatment of hemifacial spasm.

Microvascular decompression has become the sole method for a curative treatment of primary hemifacial spasm. Finding the responsible conflicting artery is not always easy as its location can be deeply situated within the cerebellopontine/medullary fissure at the facial root exit zone. Sole or additional offending vessel(s) may be at the meatus of the internal auditory canal (5% of the cases).

How minimally invasive vestibular neurotomy for incapacitating Meniere's disease improves dizziness and anxiety.

Conclusion: Patients with incapacitating Meniere Disease (MD) suffer in their daily lives and activities because of the dizziness and anxiety induced by MD. Minimally Invasive Vestibular Neurotomy (MIVN) is a safe and effective surgical treatment for these individuals, and improved their dizziness and anxiety.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the state of dizziness and anxiety of patients with incapacitating MD and its improvement through MIVN.

Lung nodule malignancy classification using only radiologist-quantified image features as inputs to statistical learning algorithms: probing the Lung Image Database Consortium dataset with two statistical learning methods.

In the assessment of nodules in CT scans of the lungs, a number of image-derived features are diagnostically relevant. Currently, many of these features are defined only qualitatively, so they are difficult to quantify from first principles. Nevertheless, these features (through their qualitative definitions and interpretations thereof) are often quantified via a variety of mathematical methods for the purpose of computer-aided diagnosis (CAD).

Vestibular compensation following vestibular neurotomy.

Objectives: Four studies assessing vestibular compensation in Menière's disease patients undergoing unilateral vestibular neurotomy, using different analysis methods, are reviewed, with a focus on the different strategies used by patients according to their preoperative sensory preference.

Material And Methods: Four prospective studies performed in a university tertiary referral center were reviewed, measuring the pattern of vestibular compensation in Menière's disease patients before and after unilateral vestibular neurotomy on various assessment protocols: postural syndrome assessed on static posturography and gait analysis; perceptual syndrome assessed on subjective visual vertical perception; and oculomotor syndrome assessed on ocular cyclotorsion.

Results: Vestibular compensation occurred at variable intervals depending on the parameter investigated.

Chemically assisted dissection by means of mesna in cholesteatoma surgery.

Objective: To investigate whether the use of mesna (sodium 2-mercaptoethanesulfonate), a mucolytic agent capable of breaking disulfur bonds, reduces the frequency of residual cholesteatoma in canal wall up tympanomastoidectomy.

Study Design: Retrospective study.

Setting: Tertiary care otology and skull base centers.

Cochlear effects of intraoperative use of Mesna in cholesteatoma surgery.

Background And Aim Of The Work: Mesna is thiol compound proposed as chemical dissector in otolaryngologic surgery. The aim of this study was to address the issue of possible ototoxicity from topical administration of MESNA into the middle ear during otologic surgery.

Methods: Audiological findings of patients (n=55) who underwent canal wall up tympanomastoidectomy with the ancillary use of Mesna in 1-year period were retrospectively reviewed.

Intraoperatively diagnosed cerebellopontine angle facial nerve schwannoma: how to deal with it.

Objective: This study aimed to report our experience in the management of patients with intraoperatively diagnosed intracranial facial nerve schwannomas (FNSs) and propose a decision-making strategy.

Methods: Twenty-three patients with FNS of the internal auditory canal and/or cerebellopontine angle operated on between 1992 and 2012 were identified.

Results: Preoperatively, all cases have been radiographically diagnosed as vestibular schwannomas.

Unilateral vestibular loss impairs external space representation.

The vestibular system is responsible for a wide range of postural and oculomotor functions and maintains an internal, updated representation of the position and movement of the head in space. In this study, we assessed whether unilateral vestibular loss affects external space representation. Patients with Menière's disease and healthy participants were instructed to point to memorized targets in near (peripersonal) and far (extrapersonal) spaces in the absence or presence of a visual background.

Static and dynamic posture control in postlingual cochlear implanted patients: effects of dual-tasking, visual and auditory inputs suppression.

Posture control is based on central integration of multisensory inputs, and on internal representation of body orientation in space. This multisensory feedback regulates posture control and continuously updates the internal model of body's position which in turn forwards motor commands adapted to the environmental context and constraints. The peripheral localization of the vestibular system, close to the cochlea, makes vestibular damage possible following cochlear implant (CI) surgery.

Cochlear implantation through the middle fossa: an anatomic study for a novel technique.

Conclusion: The technique proposed is simple, reliable, and provides sufficient exposure of the basal portion of the cochlea while avoiding disabling complications. It enables visualization of the cochlear basal turn and the osseous spiral lamina, facilitating the insertion of the cochlear implant array through the scala tympani.

Objectives: To describe a novel approach for exposing the cochlear basal turn for cochlear implantation through the middle cranial fossa.

Postural performance of vestibular loss patients under increased postural threat.

The effects of increasing postural task difficulty on balance control was investigated in 9 compensated vestibular loss patients whose results were compared to 11 healthy adults. Subjects were tested in static (stable support) and dynamic (sinusoidal translation of the support) conditions, both at floor level and at height (62 cm above the floor), and with and without vision, to create an additional postural threat. Wavelet analysis of the center of foot pressure displacement and motion analysis of the body segments were used to evaluate the postural performance.

Where is straight ahead to a patient with unilateral vestibular loss?

The vestibular system is classically associated with postural control, oculomotor reflexes and self-motion perception. The patients with vestibular loss are primarily concerned with balance and gait problems including head and trunk tilt and walking trajectory deviation to the lesioned side. These long-lasting postural and locomotor biases are thought to originate from changes in spatial perception of self.

Cochlear implantation and contralateral auditory brainstem implantation.

Objective: Report outcomes of 2 first known cases using a cochlear implant (CI) and a contralateral auditory brainstem implant (ABI).

Patients: Two adult patients with postlingual sensorineural deafness.

Intervention: Both patients had unilateral CI insertion followed by contralateral ABI insertion.

Transoral surgical treatment of Eagle's syndrome: case report and review of literature.

Eagle's syndrome is a symptomatic abnormal length of the styloid process and/or a calcification of the stylohyoid ligament. Diagnosis is based on common pharyngeal symptoms and is confirmed by radiologic examination, more particularly CT-scan. Medical and surgical treatments are described.