Popliteal Fossa Sarcomas

Background and Aim: Soft tissue sarcomas of the popliteal fossa are extremely rare tumors of mesenchymal origin accounting for 3%–5% of all extremity sarcomas. However, data regarding the tumor type, neurovascular involvement, and administration of radiation therapy before or after resection are limited. This study aimed to report on popliteal fossa sarcomas analyzing data from two institutions based on a relatively large patient sample.Materials and Method: Twenty-four patients (80%; 9 men and 15 women) with a popliteal fossa soft tissue sarcoma were included in this study. The reviewed patient data included sex, age, duration of complaints, interval to diagnosis, radiology, pre- and postoperative biopsy, tumor histology, surgery type, complications, and pre- and postoperative oncologic and functional outcomes.Results: The mean age of the patients was 48 ± 21.23 (range 3–72) years at the time of diagnosis. The most common histological diagnoses were synovial sarcoma (6 patients), hemangiopericytoma (2 patients), soft tissue osteosarcoma (2 patients), fusiform cell sarcoma (2 patients), and myxofibrosarcoma (2 patients). Local recurrence after limb salvage was observed in six patients (25%). At the latest follow-up, 2 patients died of the disease, 2 patients were still alive with progressive lung disease and soft tissue metastasis, and the remaining 20 patients were free from the disease.Conclusions: Microscopically positive margins may not be an absolute indication for amputation. Also, negative margins do not provide a guarantee that local recurrence will not occur. Lymph node or distant metastasis may be predictive factors for local recurrence rather than positive margins.

Oregnancy-associated breast cancer: Analysis of cases in the mastology service of hospital santa marcelina de itaquera, são paulo, from 2014 to 2019

Thirty-one year old, median gestational age of 28 weeks. Four of our patients were primiparous with less than 20 years of age, and two between the ages of 30 and 34, with median of secundiparous patients (50%). By analyzing the obesity and BMI (body mass index) factors, we concluded that 3 patients were mildly obese, and one presented with morbid obesity at the time of diagnosis. Our BMI mean was 29. Considering histology and immunohistochemical, eight patients were diagnosed with ductal invasive carcinoma, without other specifications; one was diagnosed with fusiform cell carcinoma, and one with mucinous carcinoma. The histological subtypes found were luminal B (4 cases) and triple negative (6 cases). These results were compatible with a French retrospective study from 2017. The pregnant woman, or in the puerperium, with breast cancer may present the same symptoms as the other patients with the disease, but diagnosis can be delayed due to the physiological changes in breast tissue in the pregnancy-puerperal period. In our study, all patients were diagnosed at advanced clinical staging (IIIA, IIIB and IV). The treatment follows the same protocols as for non-pregnant patients, considering not only the type of tumor and disease staging, but also gestational age. The most used therapy for our group was neoadjuvant chemotherapy, followed by radical modified mastectomy. This was owed to the advanced stage of the disease. The sentinel lymph node biopsy was performed in two patients. One was diagnosed in the post-partum period, and the other was diagnosed while pregnant of 34 weeks. The latter received surgical treatment after the pregnancy. Chemotherapics are relatively safe when applied after the second trimester. During the patients’ follow-up, one of them presented with progression of the disease to the brain (this patient was in stage IV, with lung metastasis); one presented with bone and hepatic metastasis; and the other one had plastron recurrence. Until the conclusion of this study, four patients died. Conclusions: Pregnancy-associated breast cancer is a condition that should be observed by health teams, since its early diagnosis enables an approach that minimizes damages for the maternal-fetal binomial. Besides, detecting this disease in its early stages is the main factor that impacts the disease-free survival.

Multimodal Inputs to the Cochlear Nucleus and their Role in the Generation of Tinnitus

As the first brain station in the auditory neuraxis, the cochlear nucleus integrates information from the cochlea with multimodal information from somatosensory ganglia and brainstem nuclei, as well as motor systems. Fusiform cells in the dorsal division of the cochlear nucleus receive auditory nerve fiber synapses on their basal dendrites and multimodal synapses on their apical dendrites via granule-cell axons. Multimodal integration in fusiform cells is modified by inhibitory interneurons in a cerebellar-like arrangement. Like other cerebellar-like brain circuits, fusiform cells exhibit spike-timing-dependent plasticity, or STDP, which is reflected in vivo as stimulus-timing-dependent plasticity or StDP. This chapter describes how fusiform-cell circuitry uses STDP to process multisensory information. StDP disruption results in tinnitus, or phantom sound perception, which can be alleviated through circuit modulation to restore normal plasticity.

Isochrysis affinis galbana ve Phaeodactylum tricornutum Kültürlerinde Kuru Madde Tahminlerinin Karşılaştırılması

Isochrysis affinis galbana is a single-cell marine species. Isochrysis affinis galbana is used as a live feed source in aquaculture because it contains high amount of long chain unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), especially in the feeding of larvae of bivalves, Phaeodactylum tricornutum is a diatom species of pennate with oval and fusiform cell forms. Phaeodactylum tricornutum contains 30-45% long chain unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) of which 20-40% is eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). And the diatom which is thought to be sources of essential fatty acids and carotenoids (fucoxanthin) is used in the feeding of animal in aquaculture and human. The aim of this study was to estimate the dry matter content of cultured Isochrysis affinis galbana and Phaeodactylum tricornutum by using multiple regression analysis method. Species were cultured in the laboratory conditions with a control group with 20% inoculation rate in F/2 medium and 50% nitrogen deficient medium. During the experiment, optical density, dry matter and chlorophyll a were measured daily. A mathematical model was developed using optic density and chlorophyll a data of the control group and in the group where 50% of the nitrogen was eliminated. Significance test of these models, R2 and MSE were found.

Muscarinic acetylcholine receptors control baseline activity and Hebbian stimulus timing-dependent plasticity in fusiform cells of the dorsal cochlear nucleus

Cholinergic modulation contributes to adaptive sensory processing by controlling spontaneous and stimulus-evoked neural activity and long-term synaptic plasticity. In the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN), in vitro activation of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs) alters the spontaneous activity of DCN neurons and interacts with N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) and endocannabinoid receptors to modulate the plasticity of parallel fiber synapses onto fusiform cells by converting Hebbian long-term potentiation to anti-Hebbian long-term depression. Because noise exposure and tinnitus are known to increase spontaneous activity in fusiform cells as well as alter stimulus timing-dependent plasticity (StTDP), it is important to understand the contribution of mAChRs to in vivo spontaneous activity and plasticity in fusiform cells. In the present study, we blocked mAChRs actions by infusing atropine, a mAChR antagonist, into the DCN fusiform cell layer in normal hearing guinea pigs. Atropine delivery leads to decreased spontaneous firing rates and increased synchronization of fusiform cell spiking activity. Consistent with StTDP alterations observed in tinnitus animals, atropine infusion induced a dominant pattern of inversion of StTDP mean population learning rule from a Hebbian to an anti-Hebbian profile. Units preserving their initial Hebbian learning rules shifted toward more excitatory changes in StTDP, whereas units with initial suppressive learning rules transitioned toward a Hebbian profile. Together, these results implicate muscarinic cholinergic modulation as a factor in controlling in vivo fusiform cell baseline activity and plasticity, suggesting a central role in the maladaptive plasticity associated with tinnitus pathology. NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study is the first to use a novel method of atropine infusion directly into the fusiform cell layer of the dorsal cochlear nucleus coupled with simultaneous recordings of neural activity to clarify the contribution of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs) to in vivo fusiform cell baseline activity and auditory-somatosensory plasticity. We have determined that blocking the mAChRs increases the synchronization of spiking activity across the fusiform cell population and induces a dominant pattern of inversion in their stimulus timing-dependent plasticity. These modifications are consistent with similar changes established in previous tinnitus studies, suggesting that mAChRs might have a critical contribution in mediating the maladaptive alterations associated with tinnitus pathology. Blocking mAChRs also resulted in decreased fusiform cell spontaneous firing rates, which is in contrast with their tinnitus hyperactivity, suggesting that changes in the interactions between the cholinergic and GABAergic systems might also be an underlying factor in tinnitus pathology.

Mechanism of changes in grain inclination in wood produced by storeyed cambium

The changes in cell orientation in the cambium of <i>Entandrophragma</i> producing wood with interlocked type of grain, and in the cambium of <i>Tilia</i> in a spirally girdled stem are traced through serial tangential sections of wood. In <i>Entandrophragma</i> the changes result from the intrusive growth of a fusiform cell whih repeatedly produces a new pointed tip from one side of the existing tip which disappears. This causes a sort of creeping of cell ends of one storey past those of the adjoining storey. The oppositely directed ends of the cells belonging to one storey creep in opposite directions so that the position of the cell centres remains constant and only the angle between the cells and the stem axis changes. The stratification of short rays in <i>Entandrophragma</i> represents an adaptation to the changes in celi orientation involved in the formation of interlocked grain. The mechanism of changes in grain inclination in <i>Tilia</i> is intermediate between that based on the creeping of cell ends and that based on pseudotransverse division and intrusive elongation which is known in non-storeyed cambia.