Techniques to Ensure Accurate Targeting for Delivery of Awake Laser Interstitial Thermotherapy.

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) guided laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) is an emerging neurosurgical treatment modality that is typically performed under general anesthesia. We describe a novel workflow developed at the University of Florida to deliver LITT in conscious patients without the use of general anesthesia.

Objective: To describe a novel workflow for LITT implementation in the awake patient with equivalent treatment results when compared to procedures performed under general anesthesia.

Safety and efficacy of dual-lead thalamic deep brain stimulation for patients with treatment-refractory multiple sclerosis tremor: a single-centre, randomised, single-blind, pilot trial.

Background: Efficacy in previous studies of surgical treatments of refractory multiple sclerosis tremor using lesioning or deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been variable. The aim of this study was to investigate the safety and efficacy of dual-lead thalamic DBS (one targeting the ventralis intermedius-ventralis oralis posterior nucleus border [the VIM lead] and one targeting the ventralis oralis anterior-ventralis oralis posterior border [the VO lead]) for the treatment of multiple sclerosis tremor.

Methods: We did a single centre, single-blind, prospective, randomised pilot trial at the University of Florida Center for Movement Disorders and Neurorestoration clinic (Gainesville, FL, USA).

Bilateral internal auditory canal gangliogliomas mimicking neurofibromatosis Type II.

Background: Gangliogliomas are rare low grade, typically well-differentiated, tumors that are composed of mature ganglion cells and neoplastic glial cells. These tumors can appear at virtually any location along the neuroaxis but classically occur in the temporal lobe of young patients. In a small number of cases, gangliogliomas have presented as masses in the brainstem or involving cranial nerves.

Ogilvie's syndrome after pediatric spinal deformity surgery: successful treatment with neostigmine.

Ogilvie's syndrome is a rare and potentially fatal disease that can easily be mistaken for postoperative ileus. Also known as acute colonic pseudo-obstruction, early recognition and diagnosis of the syndrome allows for treatment prior to bowel perforation and requisite abdominal surgery. The authors report a case of Ogilvie's syndrome following spinal deformity correction and tethered cord release in an adolescent who presented with acute abdominal distension, nausea, and vomiting on postoperative Day 0.

Localized calcineurin confers Ca2+-dependent inactivation on neuronal L-type Ca2+ channels.

Excitation-driven entry of Ca(2+) through L-type voltage-gated Ca(2+) channels controls gene expression in neurons and a variety of fundamental activities in other kinds of excitable cells. The probability of opening of Ca(V)1.2 L-type channels is subject to pronounced enhancement by cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA), which is scaffolded to Ca(V)1.

Lumbar lipomyelomeningocele and sacrococcygeal teratoma in siblings: support for an alternative theory of spinal teratoma formation.

Sacrococcygeal teratomas may arise in association with regional developmental errors affecting the caudal embryonic segments and may originate within lumbosacral lipomas. It is therefore possible that sacrococcygeal teratomas and lumbosacral lipomas represent related disorders of embryogenesis. Accordingly, the authors report the cases of 2 siblings.

AKAP79/150 anchoring of calcineurin controls neuronal L-type Ca2+ channel activity and nuclear signaling.

Neuronal L-type calcium channels contribute to dendritic excitability and activity-dependent changes in gene expression that influence synaptic strength. Phosphorylation-mediated enhancement of L-type channels containing the CaV1.2 pore-forming subunit is promoted by A-kinase anchoring proteins (AKAPs) that target cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) to the channel.

Imaging kinase--AKAP79--phosphatase scaffold complexes at the plasma membrane in living cells using FRET microscopy.

Scaffold, anchoring, and adaptor proteins coordinate the assembly and localization of signaling complexes providing efficiency and specificity in signal transduction. The PKA, PKC, and protein phosphatase-2B/calcineurin (CaN) scaffold protein A-kinase anchoring protein (AKAP) 79 is localized to excitatory neuronal synapses where it is recruited to glutamate receptors by interactions with membrane-associated guanylate kinase (MAGUK) scaffold proteins. Anchored PKA and CaN in these complexes could have important functions in regulating glutamate receptors in synaptic plasticity.