Videolaryngoscopy during Urgent Cesarean Delivery: Association with Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Admission.

Objectives: Parturients are at increased risk for difficult airway management with subsequent fetal complications. Videolaryngoscopy was opined to be the new standard of airway care to facilitate orotracheal intubation under urgent care conditions. We examined in parturients requiring general anesthesia for urgent cesarean delivery the association of the type of laryngoscopy technique and time required to facilitate orotracheal intubation with the incidence of subsequent neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission.

Changes in aldehyde dehydrogenase-1 expression during neoadjuvant chemotherapy predict outcome in locally advanced breast cancer.

Introduction: Although neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for locally advanced breast cancer can improve operability and local disease control, there is a lack of reliable biomarkers that predict response to chemotherapy or long-term survival. Since expression of aldehyde dehydrogenase-1 (ALDH1) is associated with the stem-like properties of self-renewal and innate chemoresistance in breast cancer, we asked whether expression in serial tumor samples treated with NAC could identify women more likely to benefit from this therapy.

Methods: Women with locally advanced breast cancer were randomly assigned to receive four cycles of anthracycline-based chemotherapy, followed by four cycles of taxane therapy (Arm A), or the same regimen in reverse order (Arm B).

Catalytic oxidative cleavage of olefins promoted by osmium tetroxide and hydrogen peroxide.

Hydrogen peroxide was employed as the terminal oxidant in the osmium tetroxide mediated oxidative cleavage of olefins, producing the corresponding aldehyde and ketone products. Aryl olefins are cleaved in good to excellent yield regardless of arene electronics. Alkyl olefins cleave in moderate to good yield for di- and tri-substituted alkenes.

The role of chemotherapeutic drugs in the evaluation of breast tumour response to chemotherapy using serial FDG-PET.

Introduction: The aims of this study were to investigate whether drug sequence (docetaxel followed by anthracyclines or the drugs in reverse order) affects changes in the maximal standard uptake volume (SUVmax) on [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) during neoadjuvant chemotherapy in women with locally advanced breast cancer.

Methods: Women were randomly assigned to receive either drug sequence, and FDG-PET scans were taken at baseline, after four cycles and after eight cycles of chemotherapy. Tumour response to chemotherapy was evaluated based on histology from a surgical specimen collected upon completion of chemotherapy.

Mapping structural changes in breast tissue disease using x-ray scattering.

Spread of invasive carcinoma throughout breast tissue is believed to occur at supramolecular levels, beyond the range of standard histopathology identification. Small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) is capable of characterizing the structural properties of collagen and tissue found in the breast at the scale of tens to hundreds of nanometers. Fifty-six patients who were treated with wide-local excision or mastectomy had tissue biopsy samples analyzed at 2 cm intervals along two perpendicular axes over their excised mass, up to 6 cm away from the primary site of the tumor.

Benign papilloma on core biopsy requires surgical excision.

Background: When a papillary lesion is identified on core biopsy of an impalpable breast lesion, standard practice involves excisional biopsy. Recent literature has questioned the need for surgical excision in patients with benign core biopsy and radiological concordance. Our aim was to assess whether surgical excision is required by targeting this concordant group in a large screen-detected population.

The neurotoxicity induced by ethanol withdrawal in mature organotypic hippocampal slices might involve cross-talk between metabotropic glutamate type 5 receptors and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors.

Background: We recently reported that the sodium salt of acamprosate (Na-acamprosate) demonstrates the characteristics of an antagonist at metabotropic glutamate type 5 receptors (mGluR5s) rather than at N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs). Because mGluR5s are able to enhance the function of NMDARs, this interplay may be involved in the dysregulation of glutamatergic transmission during ethanol withdrawal. The following studies use organotypic hippocampal slice cultures at a mature age to investigate the potential for this interplay in the neurotoxicity associated with withdrawal from long-term ethanol exposure.

Polyamines contribute to ethanol withdrawal-induced neurotoxicity in rat hippocampal slice cultures through interactions with the NMDA receptor.

Background: Several reports demonstrate that withdrawal from long-term ethanol exposure is associated with significant central nervous system neurotoxicity, produced at least in part by increased activity of N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs). Recent evidence suggests that elevations in the synthesis and release of the polyamines spermidine and spermine, which are known modulators of NMDARs, contribute to the increased activity of the receptor during ethanol withdrawal. Therefore, the goal of this investigation was to examine what role, if any, spermidine and spermine have in the generation of ethanol withdrawal-induced neurotoxicity.

Impact of core biopsy on the management of screen-detected ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast.

Background: Screen-detected ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) usually presents as clinically impalpable microcalcification. Although core biopsy is well established as a diagnostic modality for invasive breast cancers, few reports address its impact on the management of screen-detected DCIS. We examined the sensitivity of core biopsy in diagnosing screen-detected DCIS, as well as its role in facilitating one-step surgery in the community, especially a breast-conserving approach.

Acamprosate inhibits the binding and neurotoxic effects of trans-ACPD, suggesting a novel site of action at metabotropic glutamate receptors.

Background: Several reported effects of acamprosate within the glutamatergic system could result from interactions with metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs). The following experiments were performed to determine whether acamprosate could compete with trnas-ACPD (+/--1-aminocyclopentane-trans-1,3-dicarboxylic acid, an equimolecular mixture of 1S, 3R and 1R, 3S-ACPD and an agonist at both group I and group II mGluRs) sensitive binding sites and protect against trans-ACPD-induced neurotoxicity in organotypic hippocampal slice cultures.

Methods: A P2 membrane preparation of cortices, cerebellums, and hippocampi of adult, male Sprague Dawley rats was used to determine the abilities of N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) and trans-ACPD to displace [3H]glutamate in both the absence and the presence of the sodium salt of acamprosate (sodium mono N-acetyl homotaurine or Na-acamprosate).