Study of the possible effect of sacubitril/valsartan combination versus valsartan on the cognitive function in Alzheimer's disease model in rats.

Objectives: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an irreversible, progressive neurodegenerative disorder. The proportion of elderly individuals at risk for AD and cardiovascular problems increases by raising life expectancy. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of the sacubitril/valsartan combination compared to that of valsartan alone in a rat model of AD. Methods: 72 male adult Wistar rats were divided into seven groups; control untreated rats received saline, control valsartan-treated rats received valsartan orally, control sacubitril/valsartan treated rats received sacubitril/valsartan orally, model rats received aluminum chloride i.p., model valsartan treated rats received aluminum chloride i.p. and valsartan orally and model sacubitril/valsartan treated rats received aluminum chloride i.p. and sacubitril/valsartan combination orally. All previous treatments continued on a daily basis for 6 weeks. At the second, fourth, and sixth weeks of the experiment, behavioral changes were evaluated using the Morris water maze and novel object recognition tests, and systolic blood pressure was measured. In the end, rat brain malondialdehyde and amyloid-beta 1-42 levels were measured, and the isolated hippocampus was evaluated histopathologically. Results: Valsartan improved AD symptoms in the aluminum-induced rat model, while the sacubitril/valsartan combination significantly worsened all tested parameters in both control and model rats compared with untreated and valsartan-treated animals. Conclusion: Based on the current study's findings, valsartan did not increase the risk for AD development in control rats and improved AD symptoms in a rat model, while sacubitril/valsartan combination increased the risk of AD in control rats and worsened the condition in a rat model.

Emerging technology for intraoperative margin assessment and post-operative tissue diagnosis for breast-conserving surgery.

INTRODUCTION: Tissue-preserving surgery is utilized progressively in cancer therapy, where a clear surgical margin is critical to avoid cancer recurrence, specifically in breast cancer (BC) surgery. The Intraoperative pathologic approaches that rely on tissue segmenting and staining have been recognized as the ground truth for BC diagnosis. Nevertheless, these methods are constrained by its complication and timewasting for tissue preparation. OBJECTIVE: We present a non-invasive optical imaging system incorporating a hyperspectral (HS) camera to discriminate between cancerous and non-cancerous tissues in ex-vivo breast specimens, which could be an intraoperative diagnostic technique to aid surgeons during surgery and later a valuable tool to assist pathologists. METHODS: We have established a hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) system comprising a push-broom HS camera at wavelength 380∼1050 nm with source light 390∼980 nm. We have measured the investigated samples' diffuse reflectance (Rd), fixed on slides from 30 distinct patients incorporating mutually normal and ductal carcinoma tissue. The samples were divided into two groups, stained tissues during the surgery (control group) and unstained samples (test group), both captured with the HSI system in the visible and near-infrared (VIS-NIR) range. Then, to address the problem of the spectral nonuniformity of the illumination device and the influence of the dark current, the radiance data were normalized to yield the radiance of the specimen and neutralize the intensity effect to focus on the spectral reflectance shift for each tissue. The selection of the threshold window from the measured Rd is carried out by exploiting the statistical analysis by calculating each region's mean and standard deviation. Afterward, we selected the optimum spectral images from the HS data cube to apply a custom K-means algorithm and contour delineation to identify the regular districts from the BC regions. RESULTS: We noticed that the measured spectral Rd for the malignant tissues of the investigated case studies versus the reference source light varies regarding the cancer stage, as sometimes the Rd is higher for the tumor or vice versa for the normal tissue. Later, from the analysis of the whole samples, we found that the most appropriate wavelength for the BC tissues was 447 nm, which was highly reflected versus the normal tissue. However, the most convenient one for the normal tissue was at 545 nm with high reflection versus the BC tissue. Finally, we implement a moving average filter for noise reduction and a custom K-means clustering algorithm on the selected two spectral images (447, 551 nm) to identify the various regions and effectively-identified spectral tissue variations with a sensitivity of 98.95%, and specificity of 98.44%. A pathologist later confirmed these outcomes as the ground truth for the tissue sample investigations. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed system could help the surgeon and the pathologist identify the cancerous tissue margins from the non-cancerous tissue with a non-invasive, rapid, and minimum time method achieving high sensitivity up to 98.95%.

Ewing sarcoma in calcenous presented as chronic osteomyelitis: a case report and literature review.

Ewing's sarcoma (ES) is an uncommon primary malignant tumor of the bone, mostly affecting 5-20 years of age with male predominance. It commonly affects the diaphysial region of long bones, while the small bones of hands and feet are extremely rare (3-5%) to be affected. The authors report a case of calcaneal ES which was misdiagnosed as bacterial chronic osteomyelitis and treated inappropriately. A high index of suspicion is required in diagnosing tumors at rare sites to avoid undue delay in initiating appropriate therapy. As the overall prognosis of ES of the calcaneum is lower compared to other sites, these tumors should have an extensive radiological evaluation and histological confirmation, as misdiagnosis and treatment delays will have detrimental outcomes.

Congenital pouch colon: Case report and literature review.

Background: congenital pouch colon (CPC) is an extremely rare Congenital gastrointestinal pathology, in which the normal colon is either partially or completely replaced by a pouch-like dilatation communicating with the urogenital tract through a fistula. That's divided into 2 types: Complete CPC and Incomplete CPC. Worldwide and middle east Arabian ethnicity except for Indians, show high scarcity regarding the incidence. Herein, we report a case of incomplete congenital pouch colon syndrome with glandular hypospadias and cardiac anomalies that are considered to be the 2nd documented case in the middle east and the first in Westbank. Case presentation: A 1-day-old newborn boy with prenatal history of abdominal cyst in 2nd trimester US, presented hours after birth with abdominal distention (Fig- 1), in addition to the imperforate anus. The abdominal x-ray showed many dilated bowel loops and gasless soft tissue density with calcifications on the right side (Fig- 2). Exploratory laparotomy was done and showed a pouch-like colon that later on was treated via 2 stages of operation. Clinical discussion: early identification of CPC and differentiation from colon dilatation due to anorectal malformation is essential for the patient's welfare. CPC is more common in males, usually noticed in the neonatal period with abdominal distention, absence of anus, and intestinal obstruction. CPC is managed surgically depending on its type. Conclusion: congenital pouch colon is a rare but important differential diagnosis of abdominal distention, which should always be at the back of the surgeon's mind especially when anorectal malformation is present.