Identifying metabolic shifts in Crohn's disease using' omics-driven contextualized computational metabolic network models.

Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract. A clear gap in our existing CD diagnostics and current disease management approaches is the lack of highly specific biomarkers that can be used to streamline or personalize disease management. Comprehensive profiling of metabolites holds promise; however, these high-dimensional profiles need to be reduced to have relevance in the context of CD.

Hannover Classification of Vestibular Schwannomas: A Reliability Study.

Background: The Hannover classification of vestibular schwannomas is designed to stratify tumors based on extrameatal extension and compression of the brainstem. We have previously reported the reliability of the Koos system, but to date, no study has assessed the reliability of the similar Hannover classification.

Objective: We present an assessment of the intrarater and interrater reliability of the Hannover classification system.

Characterization of kindled VGAT-Cre mice as a new animal model of temporal lobe epilepsy.

Objective: Development of novel therapies for temporal lobe epilepsy is hindered by a lack of models suitable for drug screening. While testing the hypothesis that "inhibiting inhibitory neurons" was sufficient to induce seizures, it was discovered that a mild electrical kindling protocol of VGAT-Cre mice led to spontaneous motor and electrographic seizures. This study characterizes these seizures and investigates the mechanism.

Angiosarcoma of the Temporal Bone: Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Background: Angiosarcomas are rare malignant tumors of endothelial origin. Nearly one half of all angiosarcomas occur in the head and neck. Temporal bone angiosarcomas are extremely uncommon.

Chondroblastoma-like mass of the temporal bone, secondary aneurysmal bone cyst, and intracerebral hemorrhage in a patient with cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome: case report.

Cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome (CFCS) is a rare developmental disorder that is phenotypically similar to Noonan syndrome and is associated with mutations in BRAF, MEK1, MEK2, and KRAS. The relationship between malignancy risk and CFCS is unclear with few cases published in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to describe the case of a patient with CFCS presenting in extremis as a result of a large intracerebral hemorrhage arising from a temporal bone mass with histopathology most consistent with chondroblastoma and secondary aneurysmal bone cyst.

Fluorescence Imaging of Nerves During Surgery.

Objective: This review details the agents for fluorescence-guided nerve imaging in both preclinical and clinical use to identify factors important in selecting nerve-specific fluorescent agents for surgical procedures.

Background: Iatrogenic nerve injury remains a significant cause of morbidity in patients undergoing surgical procedures. Current real-time identification of nerves during surgery involves neurophysiologic nerve stimulation, which has practical limitations.

The Cleating Stitch: An Adjunctive Technique for Percutaneous and Revision Osseointegration Screws.

Objective: The bone anchored hearing aid (BAHA) has become a widely used and successful option in treatment of conductive and mixed hearing loss, and single sided deafness. Despite improvements in technique and cosmesis, complications remain that can result in implant revision or removal. Herein we describe a unique adjunctive technique, the cleating stitch, in placement of osseointegration screws and examine its impact on complication rates.

Koos Classification of Vestibular Schwannomas: A Reliability Study.

Background: The Koos classification of vestibular schwannomas is designed to stratify tumors based on extrameatal extension and compression of the brainstem. While this classification system is widely reported in the literature, to date no study has assessed its reliability.

Objective: To assess the intra- and inter-rater reliability of the Koos classification system.

Surgical Approaches to the Jugular Foramen: A Comprehensive Review.

Introduction Multiple surgical approaches and combinations thereof have been described to gain access to the jugular foramen. In an area laden with important neurovascular structures, care must be taken in choosing the best surgical approach for treatment of rare pathologies involving this region. Methods This manuscript provides a comprehensive review of the relevant anatomy along with an overview of the various approaches to the jugular foramen.

Current practices in vestibular schwannoma management: a survey of American and Canadian neurosurgeons.

Objectives: Comprehensive therapy for vestibular schwannomas has changed dramatically over the past fifty years. Previously, neurosurgeons were most likely to treat these tumors via an independent surgical approach. Currently, many neurosurgeons treat vestibular schwannomas employing an interdisciplinary team approach with neuro-otologists and radiation oncologists.

Outcomes following temporal bone resection.

Objectives/hypothesis: To evaluate survival outcomes in patients undergoing temporal bone resection.

Study Design: Retrospective review.

Methods: From 2002 to 2009 a total of 65 patients underwent temporal bone resection for epithelial (n = 47) and salivary (n = 18) skull base malignancies.

Evolution of a paradigm for free tissue transfer reconstruction of lateral temporal bone defects.

Background: Tumors of the lateral skull base are best treated with surgery plus or minus radiation therapy. Surgical ablation may involve cutaneous structures, the auricle, the parotid, and the lateral temporal bone. These composite soft tissue defects are best reconstructed with composite tissue.

Pretreatment, preoperative swallowing exercises may improve dysphagia quality of life.

Objectives: Dysphagia is commonly associated with head and neck cancer treatment. Traditional dysphagia management strategies focus on post-treatment therapy. This study evaluated the utility of pretreatment swallowing exercises in improving post-treatment swallowing quality of life (QOL).

Use of negative pressure dressings in head and neck reconstruction.

Background: Head and neck microvascular surgery commonly requires management of complex wounds of the upper aerodigestive tract and donor sites. Negative pressure dressings have been reported to promote healing in compromised wounds.

Methods: Between February 2001 and June 2004, data were collected in a retrospective manner on 23 patients who underwent treatment with negative pressure dressings at two tertiary care institutions.

Lateral skull base malignancies.

Object: Historically poor outcomes have been characteristic in patients with lateral skull base malignancies. As advances in skull base surgical techniques have been made, complete resection has increasingly been achieved. This has resulted in improved survival rates and local tumor control.

Impact of mastoidectomy on simple tympanic membrane perforation repair.

Objectives/hypothesis: Mastoidectomy has long been identified as an effective method of treatment for chronic ear infection. The effect of mastoidectomy on patients without evidence of active infectious disease remains highly debated and unproven. The objective in the study was to examine the impact of mastoidectomy on the repair of uncomplicated tympanic membrane perforations.

Reconstruction of the entire ossicular conduction mechanism.

Objectives/hypothesis: Stapes fixation combined with fixation, absence, or malformation of the malleus-incus complex requires an uncommon surgical reconstruction and offers a unique combination of challenges and hazards. This situation may occur in the presence of severe tympanosclerosis, otosclerosis, congenital ossicular malformations, and revision surgery for either stapedectomy or chronic ear disease. In previous reports, this procedure has been grouped with total ossicular reconstruction without much distinction.

Lateral skull base surgery for glomus tumors: long-term control.

Objective: The age of modern microsurgery has made resection of glomus tumors with extensive skull base involvement possible. Resection of extensive lesions is not without risk of major complication or new cranial nerve deficit. Because glomus tumors are rare and slow growing, data reflecting recurrence risk after resection using modern skull base techniques are lacking.

Long-term control of surgically treated glomus tympanicum tumors.

Objective: The glomus tumor is an enigmatic middle ear neoplasm commonly delayed in diagnosis. Frequently grouped with its skull base counterpart, surgery and radiation are often recommended as therapy. The objective of this report is to highlight the diagnosis and surgical treatment of this neoplasm in a large series.

Comparison of postoperative headache after retrosigmoid approach: vestibular nerve section versus vestibular schwannoma resection.

Objective: To evaluate intradural drilling as a mechanism for the development of postoperative headache after retrosigmoid craniectomy.

Study Design: A retrospective review of charts was performed on 565 retrosigmoid approaches to the cerebellopontine angle performed between January 1980 and January 1998. Patients treated with retrosigmoid vestibular nerve section without intradural drilling were compared with patients who underwent retrosigmoid removal of vestibular schwannomas in which intradural drilling was performed for exposure of the internal auditory canal.

Immunologic and histologic observations in reovirus-induced otitis media in the mouse.

The goals of this study were to develop a mouse model for virally induced otitis media, and to study the immune response to infection. Intranasal inoculation of mice by reovirus was used to induce otitis media. Immunohistochemical evidence for the presence of reovirus in the nasopharynx, eustachian tubes, and middle ears and the amount of infiltrating B-cells and T-cells in those sites were serially evaluated by painlessly sacrificing animals over a 21 -day period.

Phosphorylation occurs in the amino terminus of the Raf-1 protein.

The ability of the Raf-1 protein to morphologically transform murine fibroblasts can be activated by amino-terminal deletions or substitutions. We have compared the phosphorylation states of full-length and representative transforming and non-transforming amino-terminal deletion mutants of the Raf-1 protein using phosphoamino acid analysis and tryptic phosphopeptide mapping. Several [32P]orthophosphate-labeled tryptic phosphopeptides that were present in the full-length Raf-1 protein were absent from the highly transforming 22W Raf-1 mutant (lacking 305 amino-terminal residues).

In vivo phosphorylation and membrane association of the fyn proto-oncogene product in IM-9 human lymphoblasts.

The protein product of the src-related proto-oncogene, fyn, was isolated from IM-9 cells with antibodies specific for the amino-terminal 22 residues of the fyn protein. Peptide mapping demonstrated that the fyn protein was distinct from the closely related c-src and c-fgr proteins. The fyn protein from IM-9 cells incorporated [3H]myristate in vivo and was found to be membrane associated.

Enhanced removal of detergent and recovery of enzymatic activity following sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis: use of casein in gel wash buffer.

The inclusion of 1% casein or bovine serum albumin in buffer used to reactivate enzymes subjected to sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyacrylamide electrophoresis resulted in accelerated removal of SDS and restoration of nuclease and beta-galactosidase enzyme activities. Nuclease and beta-galactosidase activities which are absent from gels after longer wash procedures are detectable with this technique. Enzyme activity in gels prepared with SDS which contained inhibitory contaminants was partially restored by the casein wash procedure.

Interlaboratory comparison of the toluidine red unheated serum test antigen preparation.

The toluidine red unheated serum test (TRUST) antigen, a macroscopic flocculation test antigen developed by Pettit et al. (J. Clin.