Major arterial aneurysms and pseudoaneurysms in Behçet's disease: results from a single centre

OBJECTIVE

Behçet's disease (BD) with arterial involvement is closely correlated with mortality and morbidity due to life-threatening complications such as arterial occlusion and aneurysm rupture. We aimed to determine the clinical characteristics of BD patients with aneurysms and pseudoaneurysms in the major arterial systems.

METHODS

Medical records of 30 BD patients diagnosed with aneurysms or pseudoaneurysms in the major arterial systems were reviewed to determine the clinical characteristics of BD, the sites and types of arterial aneurysms or pseudoaneurysms, laboratory test results, and response to treatment.

RESULTS

A total of 47 aneurysms and pseudoaneurysms (32 saccular aneurysms, eight fusiform aneurysms, and seven pseudoaneurysms) were detected in 30 patients. Most aneurysms and pseudoaneurysms (27 patients, 90%) had not ruptured. Symptomatic lesions presented in 21 patients (70%), and asymptomatic lesions were incidentally detected in nine (30%). Ten of the 30 patients (33.3%) presented two or more aneurysmal lesions. Recurrence was observed in five patients (16.7%) after treatment with stent graft (n = 3), graft interposition (n = 1), or graft embolization (n = 1).

CONCLUSION

We suggest that BD patients diagnosed with major arterial aneurysms should be further evaluated to detect possible associated venous or arterial thrombosis formations or aneurysmal lesions at other sites.

Unusual pathology of canary poxvirus infection associated with high mortality in young and adult breeder canaries (Serinus canaria)

Mortality in excess of 65% occurred in a flock of 450 canaries (Serinus canaria). Clinical signs in the canaries included severe respiratory distress, loss of feathers and/or scaly skin on the head, neck and back, anorexia, loss of weight and fluffed-up appearance of several days duration before death. Gross pathology in most of the canaries included thickened eye lids and small scab-like nodules on the skin of the head and neck, enlarged thymus, mild to severe consolidation of lungs and exudate in the sinuses and trachea. A few birds also had thickened air sacs and enlarged and pale spleens. Microscopically unusual lesions included severe epithelial proliferation and hypertrophy and mononuclear inflammatory cells containing eosinophilic intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies of poxvirus in the thymus, bursa of Fabricius, spleen, bone marrow, air sac, peritoneum, external and middle ears, and lachrymal gland. Similar inclusion bodies associated with inflammation were also seen in the epidermis, dermis, feather follicles, conjunctivae, sinuses, turbinates, choana, oral mucosa including tongue, oesophagus, larynx, trachea, syrinx and bronchi and parabronchi of lungs. Some of the birds also had concurrent bacterial, mycotic and polyomavirus infections. Poxvirus was isolated from lungs and skin in chicken embryo liver cells and confirmed as avian poxvirus by polymerase chain reaction.

Self-assembled growth and luminescence of crystalline Si/SiOx core-shell nanowires

Crystalline Si/SiOx core/shell nanowires (NWs) are self-assembled by annealing Ni-coated hydrogenated Si-rich SiOx (SRO:H) films at 1100 degrees C in the presence of Si powder. Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition is used to grow 100 nm SRO:H thin films with varying silicon concentration (n(Si)). The NWs vary from SiOx nanowires to Si/SiOx core/shell structures depending on the composition of the SRO:H substrate, with the fraction of core/shell structures increasing with increasing Si concentration. As n(Si) increases from 37 to 43 at.%, the average diameter of the NWs also increases from 48 to 157 nm. A growth model based on the diffusion-assisted vapor-liquid-solid mechanism is proposed to explain how the core/shell structures are self-assembled. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the individual NWs have two major emission bands in the near UV (381 nm) and blue (423 nm) ranges at n(Si) = 43 at.%, named as UV and BL PL bands, respectively. In contrast, only the BL PL band is observed at n(Si) < or = 39 at.%. These results suggest that the BL and UV PL bands can be attributed to the defect states in the SiOx shell and at the Si core/SiOx shell interface, respectively, and that the BL band is closely related to the growth process of the NWs.