Umbilical cord coiling: clinical outcomes in an unselected population and systematic review

This study was conducted to determine the frequency of pre-defined clinical outcomes in relation to umbilical cord coiling indices >90th percentile and <10th percentile in an unselected population of >1,000 women with a singleton pregnancy resulting in livebirth delivering at or near term and to report these findings in the context of a systematic review. Placentas of consecutive deliveries from an unselected low-risk population with >15 cm attached umbilical cords were included in the study. Clinical outcomes included interventional delivery, birthweight <10th percentile, Apgar score <7 at 1 min, neonatal acidosis (pH<7.2) and admission to neonatal special care. Standard MOOSE (Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology) guidelines were observed for the systematic review. Umbilical coiling index was determined for 1,082 placentas. Mean maternal age was 30.7 years (standard deviation [SD] =5.7) and 519 women (48 %) were primiparous. Mean cord length was 43 cm (SD=13) and mean cord coiling index 0.20 (SD=0.09). A total of 866 cords were normally coiled, and 108 cases were hypercoiled (>90th centile) and 108 cases were undercoiled (<10th percentile). There were no differences between cases of overcoiled, normally coiled or undercoiled cords for any clinical outcome studied. The systematic review yielded a small number of clinical studies which were too statistically and clinically heterogenous to permit meta-analysis. There is insufficient evidence either from this unselected cohort study or from a systematic review to support the previous suggestion that cord coiling index >90th centile or <10th centile is associated with adverse clinical outcome in an unselected population. Previous studies that draw a link between abnormal cord coiling and clinical outcome are generally too small and/or selective to allow meaningful conclusions or applicability to low-risk populations.

III-V-on-silicon multi-frequency lasers

Compact multi-frequency lasers are realized by combining III-V based optical amplifiers with silicon waveguide optical demultiplexers using a heterogeneous integration process based on adhesive wafer bonding. Both devices using arrayed waveguide grating routers as well as devices using ring resonators as the demultiplexer showed lasing with threshold currents between 30 and 40 mA and output powers in the order of a few mW. Laser operation up to 60°C is demonstrated. The small bending radius allowable for the silicon waveguides results in a short cavity length, ensuring stable lasing in a single longitudinal mode, even with relaxed values for the intra-cavity filter bandwidths.

Synthetic or biological mesh use in laparoscopic ventral mesh rectopexy--a systematic review

AIM

Laparoscopic ventral mesh rectopexy (VMR) is a surgical option for internal and external rectal prolapse with low perioperative morbidity and low recurrence rates. Use of synthetic mesh in the pelvis may be associated with complications such as fistulation, erosion and dyspareunia. Biological meshes may avoid these complications, but the long-term outcome is uncertain. Debate continues as to which type of mesh is optimal for laparoscopic VMR.

METHOD

A literature search was performed of electronic databases including MEDLINE, Embase and Scopus (2000-12). Studies describing outcomes relating to the mesh were included for review. Only English language studies were included.

RESULTS

Thirteen observational studies reported the outcome of 866 patients following laparoscopic VMR. Eleven reported the outcome using synthetic mesh with a median follow-up ranging from 7 to 74 months. Two studies reported the outcome with biological mesh with a median follow-up of 12 months. Pooled analysis of the studies demonstrated that 767 patients had a repair with synthetic mesh and 99 with a biological implant. There was no difference in recurrence (3.7 vs 4.0%, P = 0.78) or mesh complications (0.7 vs 0%, P = 1.0%) between synthetic and biological mesh repair.

CONCLUSION

Biological meshes appear to be as effective as synthetic meshes in the short term for laparoscopic VMR. Mesh complication rates are low in both groups. Long-term follow-up is required to ascertain if these findings persist.

Demonstration of Silicon-on-insulator mid-infrared spectrometers operating at 3.8 μm

The design and characterization of silicon-on-insulator mid-infrared spectrometers operating at 3.8 μm is reported. The devices are fabricated on 200 mm SOI wafers in a CMOS pilot line. Both arrayed waveguide grating structures and planar concave grating structures were designed and tested. Low insertion loss (1.5-2.5 dB) and good crosstalk characteristics (15-20 dB) are demonstrated, together with waveguide propagation losses in the range of 3 to 6 dB/cm.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis: approach to development of improved strategies for disease control through vaccination and immunodiagnosis

Tuberculosis is a major health problem throughout the world causing large number of deaths, more than that from any other single infectious disease. Estimates till date ascertain the fact that Tuberculosis (TB) is continuing to be the leading cause of death worldwide. The infection from single infectious agent Mycobacterium tuberculosis is killing about 3 million individuals every year and accounts for around 18.5% of all deaths in adults between the age group of 15 and 65. An average of 1.79 billion people, which constitutes roughly one-third of the world's population, is infected with the causative agent M. tuberculosis and is at risk of developing the disease. This situation highlights the relative shortcomings of the current treatment and diagnosis strategies for TB and the limited effectiveness of public health systems, particularly in resource-poor countries where the main TB burden lies. The timely identification of persons infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and rapid laboratory confirmation of tuberculosis are two key factors for the treatment and prevention of the disease. Novel molecular assays for diagnosis and drug susceptibility testing offer several potential advantages over the above methods including faster turnaround times, very sensitive and specific detection of nucleic acids, and minimal, or possibly no, prior culture. The need for new technologies for rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis is clear. Most studies of mycobacterial immunity attributes focus on proliferation of T cells, production of cytokines and cytolytic activity. A proper vaccine for tuberculosis can be developed by using a combination of antigens and adjuvants capable of inducing appropriate and long-lasting T cell immunity. Development of new vaccines against TB should include some important aspects learned from BCG use such as mucosal routes of immunization; revaccination of BCG immunized subjects, booster immunization and prime-boost strategy with wild-type BCG, and other vaccine candidates. Here, we review current and future strategies toward the rational design of novel vaccines against TB, as well as the progress made thus far, and the hurdles that need to be overcome in the near and distant future.

Silicon-on-insulator spectrometers with integrated GaInAsSb photodiodes for wide-band spectroscopy from 1510 to 2300 nm

We present a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) based spectrometer platform for a wide operational wavelength range. Both planar concave grating (PCG, also known as echelle grating) and arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) spectrometer designs are explored for operation in the short-wave infrared. In addition, a total of four planar concave gratings are designed to cover parts of the wavelength range from 1510 to 2300 nm. These passive wavelength demultiplexers are combined with GaInAsSb photodiodes. These photodiodes are heterogeneously integrated on SOI with benzocyclobutene (DVS-BCB) as an adhesive bonding layer. The uniformity of the photodiode characteristics and high processing yield, indicate a robust fabrication process. We demonstrate good performance of the miniature spectrometers over all operational wavelengths which paves the way to on-chip absorption spectroscopy in this wavelength range.

An overview of the surgical management of hepatic neuroendocrine metastases

Neuroendocrine tumours (NET) frequently metastasise to the liver (NLM) and are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Numerous treatment options have been implemented both for cure, and to implement disease control. Surgical treatment includes curative resection, palliative cytoreductive resection and transplantation. Complete surgical resection is only possible in a subset of people with NLMs due to excessive metastatic burden and anatomical location. Ablative therapies may be used either as an adjunct to surgery or as a primary treatment. The purpose of the following article is to summarise surgical treatment strategies in the management of patients with hepatic neuroendocrine metastases, based on the available literature.

Regression forests for efficient anatomy detection and localization in computed tomography scans

This paper proposes a new algorithm for the efficient, automatic detection and localization of multiple anatomical structures within three-dimensional computed tomography (CT) scans. Applications include selective retrieval of patients images from PACS systems, semantic visual navigation and tracking radiation dose over time. The main contribution of this work is a new, continuous parametrization of the anatomy localization problem, which allows it to be addressed effectively by multi-class random regression forests. Regression forests are similar to the more popular classification forests, but trained to predict continuous, multi-variate outputs, where the training focuses on maximizing the confidence of output predictions. A single pass of our probabilistic algorithm enables the direct mapping from voxels to organ location and size. Quantitative validation is performed on a database of 400 highly variable CT scans. We show that the proposed method is more accurate and robust than techniques based on efficient multi-atlas registration and template-based nearest-neighbor detection. Due to the simplicity of the regressor's context-rich visual features and the algorithm's parallelism, these results are achieved in typical run-times of only ∼4 s on a conventional single-core machine.

The surgical management of neuroendocrine tumour hepatic metastases

Although rare in incidence, patients with neuroendocrine tumours (NET) live for many years and so have a high prevalence, and NETs frequently metastasise to the liver (NLM). Numerous treatment options have been implemented both for cure, and to implement disease control. Surgical treatment consists of curative resection, palliative cytoreductive resection and transplantation. Complete surgical resection is possible only in a subset of people with NLMs due to various factors. Ablative therapies may also be used, either as an adjunct to surgery or as a primary treatment. The purpose of the article is to summarise surgical treatment strategies in the management of patients with hepatic neuroendocrine metastases.

Characterization of variants of a human breast-cancer cell-line isolated from metastases in different organs of nude-mice

The MDA-MB-435 human breast cancer cell line metastasizes from tumors growing in the mammary fatpad of nude mice; metastases are found in the lymph nodes and lungs of 75 to 100% of tumor-bearing mice, and at a lower incidence in other organs such as the heart, skeletal muscle, adrenal gland and brain. Variants of this breast cancer cell line were established from metastases in different organs, including the lungs and brain of nude mice; these lines were designated 435-Lung2 and 435-Br1, respectively. Karyotypic analysis of the new variants suggested a clonal origin for the different organ metastases. The lung-derived cells were as metastatic as the original cell line when re-injected in nude mice, yet the cells from the brain metastasis produced few metastases. Analyses of the invasive potential of the cell lines showed that they did not differ in expression of mRNA for 72-kDa type IV-collagenase, or in gelatinase activity (by zymography), or in ability to invade through a Matrigel-coated filter. The poorly metastatic 435-Br1 cells showed reduced binding to cultured monolayers of mouse lung-endothelial cells, compared with the metastatic 435-Lung2 and MDA-MB-435 cells. When the breast cancer cells were artificially arrested in the lungs of nude mice, by injecting Cytodex beads coated with cells, all three cell lines grew equally well, suggesting that the deficiency found in the metastatic potential of the 435-Br1 cells may be associated with interactions with endothelial cells, rather than growth potential in the lungs. Further comparisons of these two metastasis-derived variants of a heterogeneous cell line will lead to greater understanding of the metastatic phenotype of human breast cancer.

Compact SOI-based polarization diversity wavelength de-multiplexer circuit using two symmetric AWGs

We demonstrate a compact 16-channel 200 GHz polarization diversity wavelength de-multiplexer circuit using two silicon AWGs and 2D grating couplers. Estimated fiber to fiber loss is better than -15.0 dB. Insertion loss and crosstalk induced by the AWGs are -2.6 dB and 21.5 dB, respectively. The maximum polarization dependent wavelength shift is 0.12 nm. The polarization dependent loss varies between 0.06 dB and 2.32 dB over the 16 channels. The total circuit footprint is 1400 × 850 μm(2).

Massive ascites in severe pre-eclampsia: a rare complication

We report a rare case of massive maternal ascites complicating severe pre- eclampsia toxaemia (PET) seen in April 2013. This complication developed in association with the rise of blood pressure of 160/110 mmHg or more, worsening of proteinuria and hyperuricaemia. The onset of massive ascites caused respiratory compromise to the patient, thus necessitating immediate termination of pregnancy.

Genetic predisposition and specific chromosomal defects associated with Sinclair swine malignant melanomas

Cytogenetic abnormalities are the hallmarks of most cancers and cutaneous melanomas are no exception. The purpose of this study was to determine whether nonrandom chromosomal abnormalities are associated with development and spontaneous regression of congenital cutaneous melanoma in Sinclair miniature swine. Careful analyses of the peripheral blood lymphocytes, skin fibroblasts, and melanoma cell lines of Sinclair swine indicated telomeric association, genetic instability, and clonal marker formations involving swine chromosomes 2, 3, 6, 7, 12, and 17.

Establishment of an in vitro cell model system to study human prostate carcinogenesis

A positive family history of prostate cancer is a risk factor for this disease, suggesting that alterations of certain genes may play an important role in the development and progression of prostate cancer. However, genetic alterations responsible for initiation and acquisition of metastatic phenotypes by prostate cancer are not well defined. We have observed a consistent change in chromosome 5 in an in vitro cell model of human prostate carcinogenesis in which the near-diploid cells from the surrounding tissue of an adenocarcinoma of the prostate obtained from a 42-year-old patient were subjected to in vitro cell culture and passages. We have examined three different passages of this cell strain by conventional and molecular cytogenetic methods and have seen an increased number of alterations in chromosome 5 in higher passage cells, with accompanying changes in cell morphology. In late passages of this cell line, no cell showed two normal copies of chromosome 5 as analyzed by G-banding and fluorecent in situ hybridization (FISH). The long arm (q) of chromosome 5 was either missing or involved in structural rearrangements. This observation suggests that the q arm of chromosome 5 may carry a tumor suppressor gene(s) that is well-expressed in normal prostate tissue, but when one of these tumor suppressor gene(s) is mutated or deleted and its encoded mRNA and protein are differentially expressed or not expressed at all in the prostate cells, then it may lead to initiation of tumor growth and development. Cytogenetic analyses of early passage cells in this cell strain revealed that approximately 78.8% of metaphases were normal, with a 46,XY chromosome constitution, and 21.2% of cells had clonal alterations mostly of chromosomes 5, 7, 8, 15, 16 and Y. In the middle passages, abnormal cells increased in number (78.26%) and also showed a large number of chromosomal changes. In the late passages, all cells showed structural and numerical abnormalities of the same chromosomes, in addition to some new markers; no cells were found to have a normal karyotype. These chromosomal aberrations could be considered early markers of prostate carcinogenesis. Some of the markers present in late passage cells were similar to those reported in a well-characterized prostate cancer cell line, LNCaP.

Identification of primary chromosome-abnormalities in a patient with endometrial carcinoma - analyses of tumor-biopsy and lymphocyte-cultures

The development of human cancer is generally considered to be the result of genetic mutations that cause a progressively more malignant phenotype. We propose that such genetic changes can be observed in a small number of lymphocytic metaphase plates. We have identified a specific chromosome marker formation in a primary endometrial adenocarcinoma obtained from a 74-year-old woman. After observing an isochromosome for 1q in the tumor cells, we predicted that in her lymphocytes this particular chromosome must show susceptibility to breakage. After 6 months, when lymphocytes were available from this patient, 4.0% of her metaphases exhibited chromatid breaks in the pericentromeric region of one homolog of chromosome 1, thus confirming our prediction. Since then, the primary endometrial tumor cell line has been passaged through nude mice and has become highly metastatic. Examination of tumors obtained from different organ sites of these mice has revealed that the same altered homolog 1 underwent various types of chromosome and chromatid aberrations, thereby confirming the presence of instability in this particular chromosome in this particular cancer. A detailed karyotypic evolution from normal lymphocyte cultures --> primary endometrial tumor --> highly metastatic endometrial tumor was therefore possible to construct. Our results further support the idea that peripheral blood lymphocytes can be used as the tissue for studying genetics of cancer predisposition.

Bcl-2 oncogene blocks differentiation and extends viability but does not immortalize normal human keratinocytes

To ascertain whether the bcl-2 oncogene plays a role in the initial stages of skin carcinogenesis by preventing differentiation of epidermal keratinocytes, we transfected primary human keratinocytes with the human bcl-2 gene and then determined whether these transfectants escape high calcium- and serum-induced differentiation. We found that the bcl-2 oncogene blocked differentiation and extended the life span of human keratinocytes in culture by over 24 weeks compared with cells transfected with pZip-neo DNA, which only grew for 5 weeks in culture. Keratinocytes transfected with the bcl-2 oncogene exhibited apoptotic bodies and telomere-telomere association between chromosomes toward the end of their life-span. These results suggest that die bcl-2 oncogene may be necessary but not sufficient for the immortalization of human keratinocytes.

The importance of orthotopic implantation to the isolation and biological characterization of a metastatic human clear cell renal-carcinoma in nude-mice

We established a new human renal cell carcinoma system to study some properties of metastatic renal cancer cells and the influence of the organ environment on their metastatic potential. Renal cell carcinoma obtained from a surgical specimen was dissociated enzymatically. Cells were injected into the subcutis, kidney, cecal wall, and spleen of nude mice. Tumors grew in the subcutis and kidney. Only kidney tumors produced distant metastasis. Subcutaneous tumors were avascular and encapsulated, whereas kidney tumors were highly vascularized and invaded the kidney parenchyma. Cell lines were also established from several spontaneous lung metastases. The most metastatic cell line (LM-6) expressed higher levels of basic fibroblast growth factor, gelatinase, and urokinase activity. These results show that human neoplasms are heterogeneous for biologic properties, that orthotopic implantation is essential for the selection, growth, and metastasis of human renal cell carcinoma cells, and that metastatic cells must possess multiple properties to enable them to complete the process.

Shared cytogenetic abnormalities in lung-tumors and corresponding peripheral-blood lymphocytes

We analyzed chromosomal alterations in primary lung tumours and peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) from 10 lung cancer patients (nine with non-small cell lung carcinoma and one with small cell lung carcinoma) to determine whether there were shared chromosomal changes in the normal and diseased tissue of these cases. This study revealed that each paired sample had at least three chromosomes and two chromosomal regions in common for structural rearrangements. The chromosomes most frequently found structurally altered in paired analysis were 1 and 3 (60% each), 5 (50%), 6, 7, and 9 (40% each), and 14 (30%). Chromosome region 3p13-3p21 was structurally rearranged in both the normal and tumour tissues of three patients. Chromosome 3 was structurally rearranged in all ten tumours. The chromosome arms most commonly affected in the tumours were 3p (nine times), 9p and 5q (eight times each), Ip and 7q (six times each), 10q and 11q (five times each), 14q and 6q (four times each). The most frequently affected chromosomal regions in these tumours were (in decreasing order) 9p23-p24, 3p21-3p13, 5q11, 1p34, 7q22, and 11q13. Frequent polysomy of 7 and 12 and loss of D-group chromosomes were also observed in the tumours analyzed. Comparing the changes found only in tumours with those found in both PBLs and tumours was helpful in shedding some light on the probable sequence of genetic events leading to lung cancer. This investigation also offered compelling evidence that genomic instability at the chromosomal level in PBLs corresponds with the genetic changes observed in tumours indicating that PBL analysis can help identify the early chromosomal changes in lung cancer. PBL chromosomal analysis thus has a promising future in the genetic analysis of lung cancers.

Nonrandom distribution of mutagen-induced chromosome breaks in lymphocytes of patients with different malignancies

Data regarding specific chromosomal alterations in most solid neoplasms are scarce because the complex changes observed in tumor biopsies are often a challenge to interpret. The present investigation using chromosomal banding, was designed to analyze exact regions of spontaneous and mutagen-induced lymphocytic chromosomal breaks and investigate if they are unique for different cancers. Tissue from three groups of individuals were included in the study, viz., normal individuals, untreated head and neck cancer patients, and untreated melanoma patients. For every individual three samples were analyzed for spontaneous, bleomycin (radiomimetic)-induced and 4-nitroquinoline-N-oxide(4NQO) (ultraviolet rays mimetic)-induced chromosome damage. The results revealed that in melanoma patients, chromosomes 1, 6, and 9 showed a significantly higher number of breaks than other chromosomes. A clustering of breaks was observed at loci 1p32, 1q32, 6p21, 6q21 and 9q11. Among the head and neck cancer patients, a significantly larger number of breaks was found in chromosomes 3 and 7 with clustering of breaks mainly in regions 3p21, 3q21, 7q22 and 7q32. Thus, it was found that regardless of the mutagen used, specific chromosomes are more susceptible to breakage than others. Our results indicate that chromosomal fragility is specific for particular cancers and that challenging the cells with mutagens reveals it at a more pronounced rate. Mutagen-induced chromosome breaks appear to be nonrandom affecting different chromosomes in different cancers. Clustering of breaks that occur in specific regions of these chromosomes might provide definite clues for molecular analysis and further in-depth studies of cancer predisposed individuals.

Reconstruction of the perineum following extralevator abdominoperineal excision for carcinoma of the lower rectum: a systematic review

AIM

An improvement in oncological outcome has been reported following an extralevator approach to abdominoperineal excision (ELAPE) for low rectal carcinoma. A larger perineal defect following ELAPE and the impact of neoadjuvant radiotherapy are sources of considerable morbidity for patients. We report an evidence-based systematic review of published data on the outcome of perineal reconstruction following ELAPE for low rectal carcinoma, comparing the use of tissue flap and biological mesh techniques.

METHOD

A literature search was performed of electronic databases including the Medline, Embase and Scopus databases (1995-2011). Studies describing outcomes relating to the perineum following ELAPE were included for review.

RESULTS

Eleven small cohort studies reported the outcome relating to the perineum following ELAPE. Pooled-analysis of 255 combined patients undergoing flap repair and 85 undergoing biological mesh repair showed no significant difference in the rates of perineal wound complications or perineal hernia formation.

CONCLUSION

There is little information on the optimal technique of perineal wound closure following ELAPE. With the limited data available, there was no significant difference in complication rates between biological mesh and flap repair. There is a need for high-quality prospective trials to compare methods of reconstruction to determine the long-term results, quality of life and function.