Extraspinal findings at lumbar spine CT examinations: prevalence and clinical importance.

Purpose: To prospectively determine the prevalence and clinical importance of extraspinal abnormalities in adult outpatients undergoing computed tomography (CT) of the lumbar spine.

Materials And Methods: Institutional review board approval was obtained for this prospective study. Informed consent was obtained from 400 consecutive adult outpatients (mean age, 49 years; 212 male and 188 female patients) undergoing lumbar spine CT for low back pain and/or radiculopathy.

Percutaneous management of chronic mesenteric ischemia: outcomes after intervention.

Purpose: To assess the efficacy and durability of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA)/stent placement for treatment of chronic mesenteric ischemia (CMI).

Materials And Methods: A retrospective review of patients treated from January 1986 to August 2003 was conducted. Twenty-nine patients (mean age, 62 years) were treated for clinical symptoms consistent with CMI.

Oxysterol activators of liver X receptor and 9-cis-retinoic acid promote sequential steps in the synthesis and secretion of tumor necrosis factor-alpha from human monocytes.

Liver X receptor alpha (LXRalpha), is a nuclear hormone receptor that is activated by oxysterols and plays a crucial role in regulating cholesterol and lipid metabolism in liver and cholesterol efflux from lipid-loaded macrophages. Here we show that treatment of human peripheral blood monocytes or monocytic THP-1 cells with the LXR ligand 22(R)-hydroxycholesterol (22(R)-HC), in combination with 9-cis-retinoic acid (9cRA), a ligand for the LXR heterodimerization partner retinoid X receptor (RXR), results in the specific induction of the potent pro-apoptotic and pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). Promoter analysis, inhibitor studies, and order-of-addition experiments demonstrated that TNF-alpha induction by 22(R)-HC and 9cRA occurs by a novel two-step process.