Publications by authors named "TOMA A"

Background: Hepatic resection is the only effective treatment for combined hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma.

Case Presentation: A 52-year-old man was preoperatively diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma in segment 2 with tumor thrombus in the segment 2 portal branch. Anatomical liver segmentectomy 2, including separation of the hepatic arteries, portal veins, and bile duct, enabled us to remove the tumor and portal thrombus completely.

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Here we report the experimental observation of circular dichroism in the second-harmonic field (800-400 nm conversion) generated by self-organized gold nanowire arrays with subwavelength periodicity (160 nm). Such circular dichroism, raised by a nonlinear optical extrinsic chirality, is the evident signature of the sample morphology. It arises from the curvature of the self-assembled wires, producing a lack of symmetry at oblique incidence.

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Background: There is wide variation in UK prescribing practice regarding prophylactic antibiotics for nasal packing in spontaneous epistaxis. There are few published cases of infective complications in such patients.

Method: This prospective study examined 149 consecutive patients admitted to a tertiary otorhinolaryngology centre with spontaneous epistaxis, who underwent nasal packing, over a six-month period.

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Objective: To evaluate the radiographic, computed tomographic (CT), and cadaveric anatomy of the head of boa constrictors.

Animals: 4 Boa constrictor imperator cadavers.

Procedures: Cadavers weighed 3.

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There is no level I evidence to indicate whether placement of a shunt is effective in the management of idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (INPH), because no trial has as yet compared the placement of a shunt versus no shunt in a randomized controlled manner. We started recruiting patients into a prospective double-blind randomized controlled study aiming to provide class I evidence supporting or refuting the role of surgical management in INPH. Inclusion criterion was the diagnosis of probable INPH plus objective improvement of walking speed following 72 h of extended lumbar drainage.

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Even the best conventional manual cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is highly inefficient, producing only a fraction of normal cardiac output. Over the past several decades, many therapeutic devices have been designed to improve on conventional CPR during cardiac arrest and increase the probability of survival. This article reviews several adjuncts and mechanical alternatives to conventional CPR for use during cardiac arrest.

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Current theories of the pathophysiology of normal pressure hydrocephalus suggest the classical symptoms are a consequence of disruption of normal frontal function. We present the case of a 70-year-old patient with an isolated, frontal dilatation of his lateral ventricles in the presence of a complete triad as supportive of these theories.

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Silent sinus syndrome is defined as a spontaneous and progressive enophthalmos and hypoglobus with hypoplasia of the maxillary sinus and resorption of the orbital floor. It is caused by atelectasis of the maxillary sinus in the presence of ipsilateral chronic hypoventilation of the sinus. The problem may be idiopathic, but the term is now also used to describe cases that follow operation or trauma.

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Simple and complex forms of dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumors (DNTs) are readily recognizable but forms with diffuse growth pattern, and hybrid tumors, that is, mixed DNT and ganglioglioma (DNT/GG), are more contentious entities. Rare DNTs have shown aggressive behavior. We reviewed cortical growth patterns, immunophenotype (including CD34, nestin and calbindin), genetic profile, and outcome in 101 DNT in adults.

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The aim of this study is to identify key components contributing to facial variation in a large population-based sample of 15.5-year-old children (2514 females and 2233 males). The subjects were recruited from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.

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Background: Women have a worse outcome than men after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). However, in the drug-eluting stent (DES) era, limited data are available about the impact of gender-related differences on clinical outcome. Furthermore, many series have also included patients previously treated by coronary-artery bypass grafts or PCI, which may bias the evaluation of DES-related clinical events at follow up.

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Hydroxyurea is the standard therapy of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) presenting with advanced myeloproliferative and/or myelodysplastic features. Response to hypomethylating agents has been reported in heterogeneous series of CMML. We conducted a phase 2 trial of decitabine (DAC) in 39 patients with advanced CMML defined according to a previous trial.

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Previous research has demonstrated that higher-order cognitive processes associated with the allocation of selective attention are engaged when highly familiar self-relevant items are encountered, such as one's name, face, personal possessions and the like. The goal of our study was to determine whether these effects on attentional processing are triggered on-line at the moment self-relevance is established. In a pair of experiments, we recorded ERPs as participants viewed common objects (e.

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Laser scanning is a non-invasive method for three-dimensional assessment of facial morphology and symmetry. The aim of this study was to quantify facial symmetry in healthy adolescents and explore if there is any gender difference. Facial scans of 270 subjects, 123 males and 147 females (aged 15.

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Introduction: It has still not been clearly established whether the cognitive deficits of idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH) are caused by a disturbance in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) dynamics or an underlying metabolic disturbance.

Objective: To identify the possible associations between biochemical markers, the neuroimaging characteristics, and cognitive deficits of patients undergoing investigations for possible iNPH.

Methods: A CSF sample obtained during a lumbar puncture from 10 patients with iNPH was analyzed for several biochemical markers (lactate, 8-isoprostane, vascular endothelial growth factor [VEGF], neurofilament heavy protein, glial fibrillary acidic protein, amyloid beta 1-42, and total tau).

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Clinical Question: What is the role of steroids in septic shock in the emergency department?

Article Chosen: Sprung CL, Annane D, Keh D, et al; CORTICUS Study Group. Hydrocortisone therapy for patients with septic shock. N Engl J Med 2008;358:111-24.

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We explore the effect of re-radiation in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) through polarization-sensitive experiments on self-organized gold nanowires on which randomly oriented Methylene Blue molecules are adsorbed. We provide the exact laws ruling the polarized, unpolarized, and parallel- and cross-polarized SERS intensity as a function of the field polarizations. We show that SERS is polarized along the wire-to-wire nanocavity axis, independently from the excitation polarization.

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Found in all eukaryotic cells, linker histones H1 are known to bind to and rearrange nucleosomal linker DNA. In vitro, the fundamental nature of H1∕DNA interactions has attracted wide interest among research communities-from biologists to physicists. Hence, H1∕DNA binding processes and structural and dynamical information about these self-assemblies are of broad importance.

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Natural history of idiopathic normal-pressure hydrocephalus (INPH) is not clear. We performed a literature search for studies that looked into the outcome of unshunted INPH patients trying to answer the following questions: Do all INPH patients deteriorate without shunt? If yes, at what rate? Do some NPH patients improve without shunt? If yes, to what extent? Six studies objectively described the outcome of 102 INPH patients. Result shows that without surgery, most INPH patients had measurable deterioration as early as 3 months following initial assessment.

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Object: The prognostic value of CSF biomarkers in patients with idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH) has not been adequately studied to date. The aim of this study was to identify CSF markers of favorable surgical outcome in patients with iNPH undergoing the insertion of a ventriculoperitoneal shunt.

Methods: Ventricular CSF was collected intraoperatively from 22 patients with iNPH and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to analyze the levels of amyloid-β 1-42 (Aβ(1-42)) and total tau protein.

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Unlabelled: The visual and headache outcomes in patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) undergoing cerebrospinal fluid diversion with a lumboperitoneal (LPS) or ventriculoperitoneal shunting (VPS) have not been well reported. The aims of this study were to: (a) to assess outcomes of CSF diversion in IIH, (b) to understand influence of the type of shunt in outcomes, and (c) to understand factors predisposing in shunt failure.

Methods: The medical records of 34 patients who underwent cerebrospinal fluid diversion (CSFD) between 1996 and 2007 were retrieved and epidemiological and clinical data was collected.

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Background: Overdrainage is a common complication associated with shunt insertion in normal-pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) patients. Using adjustable valves with antigravity devices has been shown to reduce its incidence. The optimal starting setting of an adjustable shunt valve in NPH is debatable.

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Recent advances in laser scanning technology provide the opportunity to examine faces in three dimensions. The aim of this prospective clinical study was to explore facial symmetry in healthy growing individuals and determine whether asymmetric changes occur during adolescent growth. Non-invasive laser surface scanning was performed to capture facial images of 60 Caucasian Finnish adolescents (30 males and 30 females, mean 11.

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