Aberrant metabolism is a hallmark of malignancies including gliomas. Intracranial microdialysis enables the longitudinal collection of extracellular metabolites within CNS tissues including gliomas and can be leveraged to evaluate changes in the CNS microenvironment over a period of days. However, delayed metabolic impacts of CNS injury from catheter placement could represent an important covariate for interpreting the pharmacodynamic impacts of candidate therapies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFluids Barriers CNS
December 2023
Background: Microdialysis is a technique that can be utilized to sample the interstitial fluid of the central nervous system (CNS), including in primary malignant brain tumors known as gliomas. Gliomas are mainly accessible at the time of surgery, but have rarely been analyzed via interstitial fluid collected via microdialysis. To that end, we obtained an investigational device exemption for high molecular weight catheters (HMW, 100 kDa) and a variable flow rate pump to perform microdialysis at flow rates amenable to an intra-operative setting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHigh-grade gliomas are primary brain tumors that are incredibly refractory long-term to surgery and chemoradiation, with no proven durable salvage therapies for patients that have failed conventional treatments. Post-treatment, the latent glioma and its microenvironment are characterized by a senescent-like state of mitotic arrest and a senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) induced by prior chemoradiation. Although senescence was once thought to be irreversible, recent evidence has demonstrated that cells may escape this state and re-enter the cell cycle, contributing to tumor recurrence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Bevacizumab is commonly used to manage cerebral edema associated with brain tumors. However, its long half-life poses challenges for patients requiring urgent surgery due to wound complications. We present a case of utilizing therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) to remove bevacizumab in a patient with recurrent glioblastoma requiring urgent surgery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe extracellular microenvironment modulates glioma behaviour. It remains unknown if blood-brain barrier disruption merely reflects or functionally supports glioma aggressiveness. We utilised intra-operative microdialysis to sample the extracellular metabolome of radiographically diverse regions of gliomas and evaluated the global extracellular metabolome via ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHigh-grade gliomas are the most common and aggressive adult primary brain tumors with a median survival of only 12-15 months. Current standard therapy consists of maximal safe surgical resection followed by DNA-damaging agents, such as irradiation and chemotherapy that can delay but not prevent inevitable recurrence. Some have interpreted glioma recurrence as evidence of glioma stem cells which persist in a relatively quiescent state after irradiation and chemotherapy, before the ultimate cell cycle re-entry and glioma recurrence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) is an emerging treatment modality for both primary brain tumors and metastases. We report initial outcomes after LITT for metastatic brain tumors across 3 sites at our institution and discuss potential strategies for optimal patient selection and outcomes.
Methods: International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision and Tenth Revision codes were used to identify patients with malignant brain tumors treated via LITT across all 3 Mayo Clinic sites with at least 6 months follow-up.
Tumors of the pineal region are a rare clinical entity, comprising approximately 3%-8% of pediatric tumors. Based on their histopathological features, they are typically classified as pineal parenchymal tumors and germ cell tumors, with the latter being more prevalent. Clinical presentation is heterogeneous, with symptoms arising either due to tumor invasion or compression of adjacent neurovascular structures and increased intracranial pressure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Traumatic brain injury is a significant public health concern often complicated by hospital-acquired infections (HAIs); however, previous evaluations of factors predictive of risk for HAI have generally been single-center analyses or limited to surgical site infections. Frailty assessment has been shown to provide effective risk stratification in neurosurgery. We evaluated whether frailty status or age is more predictive of HAIs and length of stay among neurotrauma patients requiring craniectomy/craniotomy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this study, we demonstrate that Raman microscopy combined with computational analysis is a useful approach to discriminating accurately between brain tumor bio-specimens and to identifying structural changes in glioblastoma (GBM) bio-signatures after nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA) administration. NDGA phenolic lignan was selected as a potential therapeutic agent because of its reported beneficial effects in alleviating and inhibiting the formation of multi-organ malignant tumors. The current analysis of NDGA's impact on GBM human cells demonstrates a reduction in the quantity of altered protein content and of reactive oxygen species (ROS)-damaged phenylalanine; results that correlate with the ROS scavenger and anti-oxidant properties of NDGA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLumbar radiculopathy is a clinical condition defined by symptoms of pain, weakness, numbness, or tingling due to lumbar nerve root compression in levels L1-L4. Typically, it is characterized by a narrowing near the nerve root possibly caused by stenosis, bone osteophytes, disc herniation, and similar conditions. Reports of lumbar radiculopathy brought about by the presence of a radicular schwannoma are exceedingly rare.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Glioblastoma (GBM) is a rapidly fatal malignancy typically treated with radiation and temozolomide (TMZ), an alkylating chemotherapeutic. These cytotoxic therapies cause oxidative stress and DNA damage, yielding a senescent-like state of replicative arrest in surviving tumor cells. Unfortunately, recurrence is inevitable and may be driven by surviving tumor cells eventually escaping senescence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCholesterol granulomas are chronic inflammatory lesions located primarily in the apex of the petrous part of the temporal bone. They are benign, tumor-like lesions, consisting of a cystic cavity filled with a chocolate-brown fluid and present as hyperintense masses on T1 and T2 sequences on MRI. The most common causes of cholesterol granulomas are chronic middle ear infections and traumas, explaining their prevalence in young to middle aged patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.radcr.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPercutaneous cryoablation (PCA) is a minimally invasive technique that has been recently used to treat spinal metastases with a paucity of data currently available in the literature. A systematic review was performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Prospective or retrospective studies concerning metastatic spinal neoplasms treated with current generation PCA systems and with available data on safety and clinical outcomes were included.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTakayasu arteritis is a rare type of chronic, granulomatous vasculitis, characterized by inflammation of blood vessels of large caliber, such as the aorta, and its branches. Clinical presentation varies, depending on the severity of symptoms. Onset may be gradual, however at times, presentation may be acute, and life threatening.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnophthalmia is a rare genetic disorder. It is defined as the absence of one or both eyes in a patient. It can be unilateral or bilateral.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParsonage-Turner Syndrome (PTS), also known as brachial neuritis or neuralgic amyotrophy, is a rare disorder affecting 2 to 3 individuals per 100,000 each year. Abrupt onset shoulder pain, followed by motor weakness, paresthesia and hypoesthesia, is usually reported, lasting several months with variable recovery. The etiology of the disease may be idiopathic or triggered by an underlying autoimmune disease in genetically susceptible individuals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTrigeminal neuralgia is a pain condition that affects the face along the distribution of the trigeminal nerve and can be recurrent and chronic. Dandy-Walker syndrome is a complex congenital brain anomaly that occurs during embryonic development of the cerebellum and the fourth ventricle. It is characterized by inferior cerebellar vermis hypoplasia and incomplete formation of the fourth ventricle.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF