Noninvasive lipoma size reduction using high-intensity focused ultrasound.

Background: Lipomas are common benign mesenchymal tumors commonly removed using excision, but in certain cases, surgery is undesirable or ineffective. High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) offers a noninvasive tumor ablation tool increasingly used in the clinic.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of a noninvasive lipoma size reduction technology using HIFU.

Safety and tolerability of a focused ultrasound device for treatment of adipose tissue in subjects undergoing abdominoplasty: a placebo-control pilot study.

Background: High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) lipolysis is a noninvasive alternative to existing surgical body-sculpting methods.

Objective: To evaluate the safety, tolerability, and histologic outcome of HIFU lipolysis using a novel device in human subjects.

Methods And Materials: In a single-blind pilot study, six healthy subjects scheduled to undergo abdominoplasty within 4 weeks received HIFU lipolysis on one side of the umbilicus.

Antisense treatment for myasthenia gravis: experience with monarsen.

Acetylcholinesterase pre-mRNA is susceptible to alternative splicing. Myasthenia gravis has been shown to be associated with the expression of the readthrough transcript (AChE-R), which, unlike the normal "synaptic" transcript (AChE-S) is not tethered to the post-synaptic membrane, but is a soluble monomer in the synaptic cleft. In rats with experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis (EAMG), inhibition of production of AChE-R using antisense is associated with a significant reduction in synaptic expression of AChE-R mRNA and protein, with improved muscle strength and stamina and increased survival.