Interplay between CD28 and PD-1 in T cell immunotherapy.

Immune checkpoint therapy targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis has revolutionized the treatment of solid tumors. However, T cell exhaustion underpins resistance to current anti-PD-1 therapies, resulting in lower response rates in cancer patients. CD28 is a T cell costimulatory receptor that can influence the PD-1 signalling pathway (and vice versa).

Good Long-Term Outcome Following Liver Transplant in a Patient With Common Variable Immunodeficiency Syndrome Despite Multiple Infections and Recurrent Nodular Regenerative Hyperplasia.

Common variable immunodeficiency can be associated with various hepatic conditions, the most common being nodular regenerative hyperplasia. Multiple cases of liver transplant in adults with common variable immunodeficiency have been reported. Here, we report a 51-year-old man with common variable immunodeficiency and noncirrhotic portal hypertension due to nodular regenerative hyperplasia who underwent liver transplant.

Leuconostoc pseudomesenteroides blood stream infection following liver transplantation.

Background: Leuconostoc spp. are vancomycin resistant Gram positive lactobacilli. Little is known about their significance in transplant recipients.

Anti-thymocyte globulin for the treatment of acute cellular rejection following liver transplantation.

Introduction: Acute cellular rejection (ACR) post-liver transplantation (LT) can usually be reversed with pulse dose steroids. Anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) is used to treat steroid-resistant rejection (SRR).

Patients And Methods: We report 15 male and five female LT recipients with a median age of 48.

Epigastric cystic echinococcus involving stomach, liver, diaphragm, and spleen in an immigrant from Afghanistan.

Background: Although cystic echinococcus (CE) is a common disorder worldwide, few cases are treated in the United States and other industrialized countries. Migration and tourism have caused an increase in the incidence of this parasitic infection in industrialized countries, and physicians must be familiar with its management.

Methods: We report successful therapy of CE in an immigrant from Afghanistan.

Infectious complications in three double hand recipients: experience from a single center.

Background: Composite tissue allograft (CTA) recipients require high level of immunosuppression and, therefore, are at significant risk to acquire opportunistic infections.

Patients And Methods: A review of all serious infectious complications in the 3 CTA recipients from the Innsbruck Medical University was performed.

Results: The most common infection was cytomegalovirus (CMV)-associated disease, which developed in all 3 individuals.

Diarrhea, negative t-waves, fever and skin rash, rare manifestation of carbamazepine hypersensitivity: a case report.

Introduction: Antiepileptic drug induced hypersensitivity syndrome is a rare side effect of some of the first line anticonvulsive drugs such as carbamazepine and other aromatic agents. We are the first to mention a rare case of gastrointestinal, skin and cardiac findings related to carbamazepine administration, which is very uncommon and needs to be reported.

Case Presentation: We report on a 62-year-old Caucasian woman with carbamazepine associated hypersensitivity syndrome, who developed diarrhea, fever, skin lesions, pericardial effusion and pathology on electrocardiogram with terminal negative T waves in I, II, aVL, V5 and V6,.

Benign transient hyperphosphatasemia associated with Epstein-Barr virus enteritis in a pediatric liver transplant patient: a case report.

Transient hyperphosphatasemia was found in a 3-year-old male liver transplant recipient. The condition was associated with diarrheal disease due to the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). Immunosuppression was tapered and valganciclovir prescribed for 3 months, after which the diarrhea resolved and the EBV polymerase chain reaction assays became negative.

Soft tissue calcifications in the lower extremities of severely diabetic patients simulating venous stasis or collagen vascular disease.

The purpose of this work is to report soft tissue calcifications in severely diabetic patients that simulate venous stasis or scleroderma, without other stigmata of these diseases. Findings from lower extremity radiographs were reviewed on two patients with severe diabetes mellitus and abnormal soft tissue calcifications. Findings were correlated with clinical history, physical exam findings, and laboratory values.

Dynamic interactions between Pit-1 and C/EBPalpha in the pituitary cell nucleus.

The homeodomain (HD) transcription factors are a structurally conserved family of proteins that, through networks of interactions with other nuclear proteins, control patterns of gene expression during development. For example, the network interactions of the pituitary-specific HD protein Pit-1 control the development of anterior pituitary cells and regulate the expression of the hormone products in the adult cells. Inactivating mutations in Pit-1 disrupt these processes, giving rise to the syndrome of combined pituitary hormone deficiency.

Galantamine in the treatment of vascular dementia.

Vascular dementia (VaD) is a disorder with no cure and limited treatment options. Similarities between VaD and Alzheimer's disease (AD) arise on a number of levels. Both involve progressive decline in cognition, functional ability, and behavior, and there is evidence for a central role of reduced cholinergic neurotransmission in the two illnesses.

Inhaled alternatives to nitric oxide.

Objective: Inhaled nitric oxide has gained an established place in the management of pulmonary hypertension. However, cost, potential toxicity, and the lack of positive outcome data with inhaled nitric oxide therapy has generated interest in alternative inhaled, selective pulmonary vasodilators. This article describes those alternatives that have been studied to date.

A phase II trial of weekly paclitaxel and gemctiabine infused at a constant rate in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: Gemcitabine and paclitaxel both have significant single agent activity in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Because both are cell cycle and phase specific in their mechanism of action, frequent exposure should optimize activity. Phase I data support that gemcitabine is maximally converted to the active metabolite when it is infused at a rate of 10 mg/(m2 min).

The C terminus of c-Src inhibits breast tumor cell growth by a kinase-independent mechanism.

Overexpression or increased activity of cellular Src (c-Src) is frequently detected in human breast cancer, implicating involvement of c-Src in the etiology of breast carcinomas. Curiously, overexpression of c-Src in tissue culture cells results in a weakly or non-transforming phenotype, indicating that it alone is not sufficient for oncogenesis. However, the protein has been demonstrated to potentiate mitogenic signals from transmembrane receptors.

Transradial cerebral angiography: technique and outcomes.

Background And Purpose: The transradial approach is routinely used for coronary angiography, but only limited data exist regarding transradial cerebral angiography. The purpose of this report was to offer detailed procedural methods for transradial cerebral angiography to facilitate adoption of the technique.

Methods: We reviewed 60 consecutive cases of transradial access used for neuroangiography and catalogued the indications for angiography, the sheath size, the catheter type, the length of the procedure, the number of cases in which radial artery access was unsuccessful, and the complications.

Lack of preoperative spinous process tenderness does not affect clinical success of percutaneous vertebroplasty.

Purpose: Some operators use the lack of point tenderness over compression fractures to exclude patients from undergoing percutaneous vertebroplasty procedures. The purpose of this study was to determine whether this lack of tenderness portends a poorer clinical outcome after vertebroplasty than is achieved in patients with such tenderness.

Materials And Methods: The authors conducted a retrospective review of consecutive percutaneous vertebroplasty procedures performed at their institution to define two populations.

The therapeutic benefit of repeat percutaneous vertebroplasty at previously treated vertebral levels.

Background And Purpose: Recurrent pain after vertebroplasty is relatively common, usually representing a new fracture at a different vertebral level. In a small cohort described herein, clinical and imaging findings indicated that recurrent pain arose from abnormality of the previously treated level. Our purpose was to demonstrate that repeat percutaneous vertebroplasty performed within the same fractured vertebra can offer therapeutic benefit for patients with recurrent pain after initial treatment.

New expandable hydrogel-platinum coil hybrid device for aneurysm embolization.

This study introduces a new, hybrid embolic device that in addition to offering all the important attributes of existing detachable platinum coils also shows an enhanced ability to fill aneurysm cavities. The device consists of a carrier platinum coil coupled to an expandable hydrogel material, which undergoes a ninefold increase in volume when placed into a physiological environment. Distinct from previous devices aimed at speeding the organization of thrombus, the new device has been designed to entirely fill the aneurysm cavity, with complete or near-complete exclusion of thrombus.

Healing response in elastase-induced rabbit aneurysms after embolization with a new platinum coil system.

Background And Purpose: Elastase-induced rabbit aneurysms offer promise in preclinical testing, but their radiographic and histologic features after dense packing with platinum coils are unknown. We evaluated these features by using a new platinum coil system.

Methods: Right common carotid arterial (CCA) aneurysms were created in 17 rabbits by distal ligation and intraluminal elastase incubation.

Vertebroplasty in the mid- and upper thoracic spine.

Background And Purpose: Vertebroplasty performed in the mid- and upper thoracic spine presents technical challenges that differ from those in the lower thoracic and lumbar region. We herein report results of percutaneous vertebroplasty for treatment of painful, osteoporotic compression fractures in the mid- and upper thoracic spine.

Methods: Retrospective chart review identified vertebroplasty treatments performed for painful osteoporotic compression fractures at T4-T8.

Surgical salvage of microcatheter-induced aneurysm perforation during coil embolization.

We report a case of iatrogenic aneurysm rupture during coil embolization in a 55-year-old woman. Surgical intervention resulted in a good clinical outcome. To our knowledge, this technique for the salvage of catheter-induced aneurysm perforation has not been previously reported.

Relevance of antecedent venography in percutaneous vertebroplasty for the treatment of osteoporotic compression fractures.

Background And Purpose: Controversy exists regarding the utility of antecedent venography in percutaneous vertebroplasty. Our purpose was to determine whether antecedent venography improves clinical outcomes and/or decreases extravertebral cement extravasation in these procedures.

Methods: We retrospective reviewed outcomes of consecutive percutaneous vertebroplasty procedures performed at our institution to define two populations, each consisting of 24 patients treated at 42 vertebral levels.

Unilateral transpedicular percutaneous vertebroplasty: initial experience.

Purpose: To compare the radiographic and clinical outcomes of a unipediculate approach with those of standard bipediculate vertebroplasty.

Materials And Methods: Retrospective review of percutaneous vertebroplasties yielded 18 vertebrae in 17 patients that were treated with a standard bipediculate approach and 57 vertebrae in 32 patients that were treated with a modified unipediculate approach. Anteroposterior radiographs obtained after the procedure were viewed to calculate the percentage of cement opacification in both vertebral halves, and mean values were compared between uni- and bipediculate approaches by using a two-tailed Student t test.

Elastase-induced saccular aneurysms in rabbits: a dose-escalation study.

Background And Purpose: Reproducible animal models facilitate preclinical assessment of aneurysm therapies. Our purpose was to determine if increased elastase doses enlarge aneurysms and parent arteries.

Methods: Rabbit right common carotid artery (CCA) aneurysms were created with distal ligation and intraluminal elastase incubation.

Age of fracture and clinical outcomes of percutaneous vertebroplasty.

Background And Purpose: The patient populations that are most likely to benefit from percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) are uncertain. Our purpose was to evaluate the effect of the age of vertebral compression fracture (VCF) on clinical improvement after PVP.

Methods: We performed a retrospective review of charts of patients who had undergone PVP for painful osteoporotic VCFs at our institution.