Intraoperative esophagoscopy provides accuracy and safety in video-assisted thoracoscopic enucleation of benign esophageal submucosal tumors.

Benign esophageal tumors are rare; complete surgical resection is essential for the management of the submucosal tumors. Larger, symptomatic, or non-diagnostic lesions should be resected for both diagnostic and therapeutic indications. Video-assisted thoracic surgery has become a popular treatment in the field of thoracic surgery; however, thoracoscopic esophageal surgery may lead to an increase in operative complications. The effect and safety of thoracoscopic surgery for esophageal submucosal lesions were evaluated. A retrospective study evaluated patients undergoing thoracoscopic treatment of benign submucosal tumors. Between March 2011 and December 2013, 17 patients underwent thoracoscopic resection of benign submucocal tumors. Intraoperative esophagoscopy was performed for tumor localization by transillumination and confirmation of mucosal integrity after enucleation in every patient. Median patient age was 47 years (range 30-65). The median surgery time was 170 minutes (range 80-429). The median tumor size was 3.8 cm (range 1.3-9). The median hospital stay was 4 days (range 2-12). There were 16 leiomyoma and 1 neurogenic tumor. There was one case of conversion to thoracotomy because of residual tumor after enucleation. Mucosal injuries occurred in three patients, two accidentally and one intentionally; each patient was treated with primary repair and confirmed integrity with flexible esophagoscopy at operating room. The small sized tumor with intraoperative esophagoscopy could be localized. Esophagoscopic assistance was necessary in eight patients to have better idea where to make myotomy. There were no major morbidities such as postoperative leakage or mortality. Esophageal submucosal tumors can be treated safely with thoracoscopic surgery. However, intraoperative esophagoscopy allows accurate tumor localization, direction of esophageal access incision, and decreases complications during VATS enucleation of esophageal submucosal tumors.

The MYB46/MYB83-mediated transcriptional regulatory programme is a gatekeeper of secondary wall biosynthesis.

BACKGROUND: The secondary cell wall is a defining feature of xylem cells and allows them to resist both gravitational forces and the tension forces associated with the transpirational pull on their internal columns of water. Secondary walls also constitute the majority of plant biomass. Formation of secondary walls requires co-ordinated transcriptional regulation of the genes involved in the biosynthesis of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. This co-ordinated control appears to involve a multifaceted and multilayered transcriptional regulatory programme. SCOPE: Transcription factor MYB46 (At5g12870) has been shown to function as a master regulator in secondary wall formation in Arabidopsis thaliana. Recent studies show that MYB46 not only regulates the transcription factors but also the biosynthesis genes for all of the three major components (i.e. cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin) of secondary walls. This review considers our current understanding of the MYB46-mediated transcriptional regulatory network, including upstream regulators, downstream targets and negative regulators of MYB46. CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK: MYB46 is a unique transcription factor in that it directly regulates the biosynthesis genes for all of the three major components of the secondary wall as well as the transcription factors in the biosynthesis pathway. As such, MYB46 may offer a useful means for pathway-specific manipulation of secondary wall biosynthesis. However, realization of this potential requires additional information on the 'MYB46-mediated transcriptional regulatory programme', such as downstream direct targets, upstream regulators and interacting partners of MYB46.

ADP-induced platelet aggregation in acute ischemic stroke patients on aspirin therapy.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Aspirin is an important therapeutic regimen to prevent the recurrent ischemic events or death after acute ischemic stroke. In this study, we evaluated the relationship between the extent of adenosine diphosphate (ADP)-induced platelet aggregation and outcome in acute ischemic stroke patients on aspirin therapy. METHODS: We selected 107 acute ischemic stroke patients who had been prescribed aspirin and evaluated platelet function test by using optic platelet aggregometer test after 5 days of taking it and investigated the prognosis 90 days after ischemic events. Kaplan-Meyer curve was used for survival analysis. RESULTS: After stratification of the subjected patients by tertiles of ADP-induced platelet aggregation, the events rates were 7.4%, 9.3% and 30.8% (P = 0.023). In multiple logistic regression analysis, old age over 70 years (OR, 13.7; 95% CI, 2.14-88.07; P = 0.001) and the increased ADP-induced platelet aggregation had independent significance to the risk of primary end-points after acute ischemic stroke (OR, 1.1; 95% CI 1.01 to 1.20; P = 0.026). CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that the increased ADP-induced platelet aggregation under using aspirin is associated with poor outcome after acute ischemic stroke.

Achromatized transmission-type holographic screen for a multiview stereoscopic image system.

The main drawback of the use of transmission-type holographic screens is poor color reproduction caused by their high spectral dispersion. For overcoming this drawback, a long, narrow diffusing slit is used as an object when recording the screen. The necessary size and position of the slit relative to the photoplate and to the recording and reconstruction beams are determined by the phase relations of the beams. By use of the slit, holographic screens of 30 cm x 40 cm are recorded with a diverging reference beam and are used to display a multiview full-color stereoscopic image. The images displayed on the screen show no sign of color separation except near the edges of the screen. The image brightness on the screen is high enough that it can be watched in a normally illuminated room.

Direct image transmission through a multimode optical fiber.

One-way transmission of a multipixel image through the multimode optical fiber based on the phase-conjugation principle is realized. Adistortion-compensating hologram for each pixel of an image to be transmitted is superposed on a photoplate. Each hologram is recorded with a reference beam of different beam incidence angle to provide proper wave-front correction for each pixel without any interference from other pixels. The reference beams are holographically generated from a photoplate in which small holographic lenslets are aligned in a matrix pattern. Images of up to 25 pixels are transmitted through the fiber experimentally.

Optimization of a three-dimensional object composite Fourier hologram.

It was found that the optimum subhologram dimension of the composite Fourier-transform hologram for minimizing image blur depends on object depth and information reduction ratio. Optimization of the subhologram dimension permits us to calculate the parameters of the composite Fourier-transform hologram for its applications to hologram transmission systems and to electroholographic three-dimensional displays.