Neoplasm of endolymphatic sac origin: clinical, radiological and pathological features.

This paper reports on a 55-year-old female who had undergone middle ear surgery 12 years previously and was admitted with a 6-months history of unilateral hearing loss and facial weakness. MRI and CT demonstrated a space-occupying lesion arising from the temporal bone and extending into the posterior fossa. Treatment consisted in complete tumour removal.

Spongy encephalopathy in ketotic hyperglycinemia.

Three cases of ketotic hyperglycinemia are described. Spongy encephalopathy was present in white as well as gray matter. The cell type that predominantly exhibited swelling was the astrocyte.

Bombesin receptor gene expression in rat pancreatic acinar AR42J cells: transcriptional regulation by glucocorticoids.

Background/aims: This study investigated the correlation between glucocorticoid-regulated gene expression of the bombesin receptor (BR) and cellular sensitivity to bombesin stimulation in the rat pancreatic acinar cell line AR42J.

Methods: BR gene expression was assessed using a cloned complementary DNA probe and radioligand binding assays. Intracellular Ca2+ mobilization was assessed by dual wavelength spectrophotometry using fura-2 in single cells.

Ultrastructural morphology of the aged pineal.

Thirty-four pineals of 18-month-old rats were studied, of which 12 belonged to animals exposed to 7% and 13 to a group exposed to 10% oxygen in breathing gas. Nine pineals were from controls kept under normoxic conditions. For comparison 2 pineals of 6-week-old rats were also examined.

[Intraspinal neurinoma in the thoracolumbar junction presenting unusual symptoms. The differential diagnosis of lumbago].

After more than a year of persistent lumbosacral pain a 53-year-old woman suddenly developed unilateral monoradicular pain over the S1 dermatome. Neurological, general medical and biochemical examinations were unremarkable, but myelography and magnetic resonance imaging revealed a cystic intraspinal space-occupying lesion at the level of L1, which was completely excised surgically. It proved to be a neurinoma, 5 x 3 x 3 cm, completely filling the spinal canal at the junction between the conus medullaris and the cauda equinus.