Optic Perineuritis Presenting as the Initial Manifestation of Central Nervous System Involvement in Rai Stage 0 Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia.

Background: To describe the first case of optic perineuritis because of meningeal involvement of early stage chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Methods: A case report and review of the literature.

Results: A case of unilateral optic neuropathy associated with enhancement of the optic nerve sheath is described in a patient with a prior 2-year history of Rai Stage 0 CLL.

[Intraoperative fluorescence angiography in colorectal surgery].

Background: Fluorescence angiography with indocyanine green (ICG-FA) is frequently used in colorectal surgery to assess the blood perfusion in the region of an anastomosis. Previous studies with ICG-FA in both open and laparoscopic surgery could show a low rate of anastomotic leakage, e.g.

Impact of weight loss-associated changes in detailed body composition as assessed by whole-body MRI on plasma insulin levels and homeostatis model assessment index.

Background/objectives: We assessed the effect of weight loss-associated changes in detailed body composition on plasma insulin levels and homeostatic model assessment (HOMA) index to calculate the magnitude of reduction in different adipose tissue depots required to improve insulin sensitivity.

Subjects/methods: A total of 50 subjects aged 20-69 years were studied. The participants were compiled from low-calorie diet interventions and bariatric surgery and differed in their baseline body mass index (BMI; range 21.

Evidence of thromboembolism prophylaxis in bariatric surgery-results of a quality assurance trial in bariatric surgery in Germany from 2005 to 2007 and review of the literature.

Background: Since January 1st, 2005, the current situation for bariatric surgery has been examined by means of a voluntary quality assurance study in Germany with a multicenter design in which 38 hospitals and surgical departments participated. The data are registered in cooperation with the Institute of Quality Assurance in Surgery at the Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg (Germany).

Methods: Data describing peri-interventional characteristics were prospectively documented in an internet online data registry.

Results of sleeve gastrectomy-data from a nationwide survey on bariatric surgery in Germany.

Background: Beginning January 1, 2005, the status and outcomes of bariatric surgery were examined in Germany. Data are registered in cooperation with the An-Institute of quality assurance in surgery at the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg. The objective of this study was to examine the morbidity and mortality rates secondary to sleeve gastrectomy (SG) in Germany since 2006.

Status of bariatric surgery in Germany--results of the nationwide survey on bariatric surgery 2005-2007.

Background: Most studies on bariatric surgery outcomes are performed as clinical trials or reflect the clinical experience in single centers. The status of bariatric surgery in Germany has been examined with the cooperation of clinics and hospitals at the Institute of Quality Assurance in Surgery at the Ottovon-Guericke University of Magdeburg (Germany) since January 1, 2005.

Methods: In this prospective multicenter observational study, the data obtained for all primary bariatric procedures, including all repeated operations, performed on consecutive patients with morbid obesity at participating hospitals from 2005 to 2007 were prospectively collected using an internet online data registry.

A nationwide survey on bariatric surgery in Germany--results 2005-2007.

Background: Most studies on bariatric surgery outcomes are performed as clinical trials or reflect the clinical experience in single centers. The status of bariatric surgery in Germany has been examined since January 1st, 2005 with the cooperation of clinics and hospitals at the Institute of Quality Assurance in Surgery at the Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg (Germany).

Methods: In this prospective multicenter observational study, the data obtained for all primary bariatric procedures, including all repeated operations, performed on consecutive patients with morbid obesity at participating hospitals from 2005 to 2007 were prospectively collected using an Internet online data registry.

[Quality assurance in bariatric surgery in Germany--results of the German multicentre trial 2005 and 2006].

Background: Since January 1st 2005, the situation of bariatric surgery in Germany has been examined. The data are registered in cooperation with the Institute of Quality Assurance in Surgery at the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg.

Methods: The data registration took place prospectively in an internet online data base.

Experiences of two centers of bariatric surgery in the treatment of intragastrale band migration after gastric banding-the importance of the German multicenter observational study for quality assurance in obesity surgery 2005 and 2006.

Background: Adjustable silicone gastric banding (ASGB) is an effective treatment in morbid obesity. Band migration is a long-term complication. Causes, clinical symptoms, timing and incidence are investigated in single centres only.

[Perspectives in long-term care insurance].

Twelve years after its introduction, long-term care insurance is back on the agenda and up for political reform. This paper shows why long-term care insurance needs to be reformed. The two central aspects on which reform projects focus are addressed: firstly, the structural improvement of nursing care and long-term care insurance and, secondly, the creation of a sustained financing.

[The nursing care insurance law].

By establishing an independent statutory nursing care insurance, the security of patients in need of nursing care and the organisation of nursing care will be placed on a new basis. For instance, the bill provides for substantially extended benefits for home care and also includes benefits for long-term care in nursing homes into the general risk pool. The nursing care funds yet to be founded will receive the service guarantee for the organisation of nursing care, negotiate contracts with the respective nursing institutions and monitor their quality.

[Health care structure legislation--reform of health insurance].

On January 1st, 1993, the German Health Care Structure Reform Act has come into effect. It will fundamentally change the system of health insurance as well as the health care system. By the reform act, new structural and controlling elements have been installed in all central branches of health care, and, at the same time, a new order for the competition between the sickness funds has been established.

[Treatment of chronic proliferative glomerulonephritis using acetylsalicylic acid and dipyridamole].

Fourteen patients with chronic proliferative glomerulonephritis were given for the period of one year 400 mg acetylsalicylic acid and 225 mg dipyridamole per day. During this treatment the thrombocyte aggregation became normal, however, the mean reduction of antiheparin plasma activity was not statistically significant. Normal synthesis of renal prostacyclin declined significantly as a result of treatment, while the renal thromboxane A2 synthesis remained normal even during treatment.

[Prostaglandins and chronic proliferative glomerulonephritis].

In 14 patients with chronic proliferative glomerulonephritis, corrected arterial hypertension and normal or marginal glomerular filtration the authors assessed plasmatic and urinary metabolites of PGI2 and TXA2. They found that the production of both PGI2 and TXA2 was raised in the organism and they assume that in the stimulated synthesis hypertension and its treatment participated. The production of both prostaglandins in the kidneys was, however, normal.

Quest for a reliable, valid, and sensitive in situ hybridization procedure to detect viral nucleic acids in the central nervous system.

In situ hybridization (ISH) to detect and to quantitate viral nucleic acid sequences in cryopreserved central nervous system (CNS) tissue is a reliable, valid and sensitive molecular technique. On the other hand, utilization of formaldehyde fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue to improve cytomorphology requires fundamental changes in the procedure since it is necessary to cleave the elaborate protein network cross-linked by formaldehyde using elevated concentrations of proteinases in order to permit diffusion of complementary DNA probes to the targets (genomic viral nucleic acid sequences and/or viral mRNA). Adversely, this procedure hydrolyzed the proteinaceous glues generally used to fix tissue to glass slides resulting in loss of tissue sections during the ISH protocol.

Is Ca2+ effect on passive K+ transport mediated by spectrin--dependent ATPase?

The aim of this report was to find which part of the membrane is responsible for the Ca2+ dependence of membrane permeability to K+. We found that the enzyme activity of large contractile complex of membrane proteins, the so called spectrin-dependent ATPase (sp-ATPase) increases at certain Ca2+ concentrations when K+ permeability decreases and vice versa. Ca2+ apparent dissociation constant for sp-ATPase is 6 X 10(-7) M which is the value corresponding to findings of Porzig and Stoffel (1978) for Ca2+ binding to membrane with low K+ permeability.

Occurrence of breast carcinoma within a fibroadenoma. A review.

Sixty-two cases of carcinoma within a breast fibroadenoma are adequately documented in the literature, including the present case. All are found in women. The mean age of occurrence is 42.

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome and multiple tract degeneration in a homosexual man.

A 35-year-old homosexual man with acquired immune deficiency syndrome developed progressive dementia and spastic quadriparesis over a two-month period. Severe symmetrical, bilateral degeneration of the corticospinal and frontopontine fibers and cerebellar white matter were found postmortem. Several glial nodules in the brainstem and cerebellum suggested "smoldering" brainstem encephalitis.

Case report: acute hemorrhagic multifocal angioencephalopathy.

A 53-year-old chronic alcoholic male developed an acute febrile, fulminant fatal encephalopathy which lasted 2.5 weeks. Necropsy showed focal, acute hemorrhagic necrotizing lesions of the diencephalon, cingulate gyrus, and amygdala, apparently due to a vasculopathy involving mainly small veins.