Establishment of a mechanical injury model of rat hippocampal neurons in vitro / 中华创伤杂志(英文版)

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To establish a simple, reproducible, and practical mechanical injury model of hippocampal neurons of Sprague-Dawley rats in vitro.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Hippocampal neurons isolated from 1-2-day old rats were cultured in vitro. Mild, moderate and severe mechanical injuries were delivered to the neurons by syringe needle tearing, respectively. The control neurons were treated identically with the exception of trauma. Cell damage was assessed by measuring the Propidium Iodide (PI) uptaking at different time points (0.5, 1, 6, 12 and 24 hours) after injury. The concentration of neuron specific enolase was also measured at some time points.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Pathological examination showed that degeneration, degradation and necrosis occurred in the injured cultured neurons. Compared with the control group, the ratio of PI-positive cells in the injured groups increased significantly after 30 minutes of injury (P<0.05). More severe the damage was, more PI-positive neurons were detected. Compared with the control group, the concentration of neuron specific enolase in the injured culture increased significantly after 1 hour of injury (P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The established model of hippocampal neuron injury in vitro can be repeated easily and can simulate the damage mechanism of traumatic brain injury, which can be used in the future research of traumatic brain injury.</p>

Is decompressive craniectomy for malignant middle cerebral artery infarction of any worth? / 浙江大学学报（英文版）（B辑：生物医学和生物技术）

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Malignant middle cerebral artery (MCA) infarction is characterized by mortality rate of up to 80%. The aim of this study was to determine the value of decompressive craniectomy in patients presenting malignant MCA infarction compared with those receiving medical treatment alone.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Patients with malignant MCA infarction treated in our hospital between January 1996 and March 2004 were included in this retrospective analysis. The National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) was used to assess neurological status on admission and at one week after surgery. All patients were followed up for assessment of functional outcome by the Barthel index (BI) and modified Rankin Scale (RS) at 3 months after infarction.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Ten out of 24 patients underwent decompressive craniectomy. The mean interval between stroke onset and surgery was 62.10 h. The mortality was 10.0% compared with 64.2% in patients who received medical treatment alone (P<0.001). The mean NIHSS score before surgery was 26.0 and 15.4 after surgery (P<0.001). At follow up, patients who underwent surgery had significantly better outcome with mean BI of 53.3, RS of 3.3 as compared to only 16.0 and 4.60 in medically treated patients. Speech function also improved in patients with dominant hemispherical infarction.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Decompressive craniectomy in patients with malignant MCA infarction improves both survival rates and functional outcomes compared with medical treatment alone. A randomized controlled trial is required to substantiate those findings.</p>