The Level of Cerebral Blood Flow, p53 and p21 Expression at the Penumbric Area of Cerebral Infarction in Rats

OBJECTIVE: We report an investigation of cerebral blood flow(CBF) and the expression of p53 and p21 at peri-infarct area of focal cerebral infarction in rats. METHODS: Adult Sprague-Dawley male rats were used for the experiment. In Group 1(n=7), the right middle cerebral artery(MCA) was coagulated. In Group 2(n=11), the right MCA and common carotid artery(CCA) were coagulated, and the left CCA was occluded for 30 minutes. Cerebral blood flow was measured at two areas, 2mm and 8mm distal to the MCA coagulation site. The rats were killed after 24 hours. After immunohistochemical staining, the width of the p53 or p21 positive area was measured. The p53 and p21 positive glial cells were counted at the peri-infarct area adjacent to the infarction core in Group 2. RESULTS: A focal infarction was found invariably in Group 2. CBF's at 2 mm and 8 mm areas were 8.3+/-2.1, 36.4+/-4.2 in Group 1 and 0.0+/-0.0, 6.7+/-1.5ml/100g/min in Group 2, respectively. All of the measured CBF's except that of the 8mm site in Group 1 were significantly lower than preoperative level(p<0.001), which were between 20.8+/-4.5% and 16.3+/-3.3% of preoperative CBF. The ratio of p21 and p53 positive cells was 1.0+/-0.1. CONCLUSION: We could note that the expression of p53 and p21 was the highest at an adjacent peri-infarct area. The degree of CBF reduction is more responsible for infarction than CBF itself.

Paraspinal Muscles Wasting in the Patients wih Chronic Low Back Pain

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether paraspinal muscle wasting occurs in association with chronic low back pain(LBP) and to know whether low back muscle exercise is effective for abating chronic low back pain. Cross sectional areas(CSA) of lumbar vertebral bodies and paraspinal muscles were measured using CT at the level of the fouth lumbar vertebral body in 37 patients(23 males 14 females) with acute low back pain and in 44 patients(20 males, 24 females) with chronic low back pin. The results were as follows; 1) The mean age of the patients with chronic LBP were higher than those with acute LBP. 2) The CSAs of L4 vertebral bodies were correlated significantly with body weight and the CSAs of L4 vertebral bodies, erector spinae and psoas muscles were larger in males than in females. 3) The volumes of the paraspinal muscles were significantly reduced in patients with chronic LBP compared to a cute LBP. These changes can cause erector spinae and psoas muscle weakness and disuse atrophy and thereby predispose to spinal instability and progressive dysfuction.

A Case of Infantile Myofibromatosis

Infantile myofibromatosis is a rare neoplasm which occurs primarily in early infancy and arise in the various sites. A 4-year-old boy, who presented with painless soft scalp mass in the left temporoparietal region was diagnosed to have myofibromatosis and this case is presented with some literature reviews.