Resurfacing Capitate Pyrocarbon Implant for the treatment of advanced wrist arthritis in the elderly: a retrospective study.

OBJECTIVE: Advanced forms of wrist osteoarthritis in the elderly are quite common and often under-treated, preferring a conservative management of the condition due to the age of the patient. However, in elderly people who are still active, sporty and physically demanding, surgical management of wrist osteoarthritis should be considered. Proximal Row Carpectomy associated with a Resurfacing Capitate Pyrocarbon Implant (RCPI), allows the management of a wide range of wrist arthrosis, involving both the radio-carpal and the mid-carpal joints. This treatment has been already reported as a solution in younger people affected by degenerative pathologies of the wrist, giving overall good results. Authors aimed at verifying how this technique could be useful in elderly patients, resolving the severe pain often related to this pathology and letting them recover strength and motion. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective analysis involving 7 cases of elderly men (mean age = 68 y.o.), suffering from severe wrist arthritis and treated with RCPI between 2016 and 2021. RESULTS: All patients reported a return to manual activities between 6 and 12 months after surgery, significantly improving pain. Two patients complained moderate pain under strain at follow-up, with residual difficulty in performing manual tasks. In all cases, an increase of strength and improvement in terms of stiffness was registered. No cases of infections or implant mobilization were reported. CONCLUSIONS: RCPI combined with proximal row carpectomy shows satisfying results in all published studies and it has been confirmed in our series as well. Indications for this procedure should be widened to elderly people, as useful alternatives to more aggressive salvage procedures, such as total prosthesis or arthrodesis.

Perfect secrecy cryptography via mixing of chaotic waves in irreversible time-varying silicon chips.

Protecting confidential data is a major worldwide challenge. Classical cryptography is fast and scalable, but is broken by quantum algorithms. Quantum cryptography is unclonable, but requires quantum installations that are more expensive, slower, and less scalable than classical optical networks. Here we show a perfect secrecy cryptography in classical optical channels. The system exploits correlated chaotic wavepackets, which are mixed in inexpensive and CMOS compatible silicon chips. The chips can generate 0.1 Tbit of different keys for every mm of length of the input channel, and require the transmission of an amount of data that can be as small as 1/1000 of the message's length. We discuss the security of this protocol for an attacker with unlimited technological power, and who can access the system copying any of its part, including the chips. The second law of thermodynamics and the exponential sensitivity of chaos unconditionally protect this scheme against any possible attack.

Histochemistry as a unique approach for investigating normal and osteoarthritic cartilage.

In this review article, we describe benefits and disadvantages of the established histochemical methods for studying articular cartilage tissue under normal, pathological and experimental conditions. We illustrate the current knowledge on cartilage tissue based on histological and immunohistochemical aspects, and in conclusion we provide a short overview on the degeneration of cartilage, such as osteoarthritis. Adult articular cartilage has low capacity to repair itself, and thus even minor injuries may lead to progressive damage and osteoarthritic joint degeneration, resulting in significant pain and disability. Numerous efforts have been made to implement the knowledge in the study of cartilage in the last years, and histochemistry proved to be an especially powerful tool to this aim.

Changes in the carpal tunnel while wearing the Manu® soft hand brace: a sonographic study.

We studied the effect of the Manu(®) soft hand brace, which has been designed to relieve median nerve entrapment in carpal tunnel syndrome. An observational, controlled study was conducted in 10 participants, five with bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome and five controls, using sonography to study changes in the dimensions of the carpal tunnel before and while wearing the brace. An increase in transverse diameter, thinning of the flexor retinaculum, and displacement of the proximal insertion of the lumbrical muscle to the middle finger from the edge of the carpal tunnel were observed in patients while wearing the brace. The changes in the morphology of the carpal tunnel while wearing the Manu(®) support its use as an alternative to a night wrist splint.

Immunolocalization of HB-EGF in human skin by streptavidin-peroxidase (HRP) conjugate method / Inmunolocalización de HB-EGF en piel humana por el método de conjugado estreptavidina-peroxidasa (HRP)

EGF family growth factors consists of growth factors, such as transforming growth factor (TGF)-a, heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor (HB-EGF), amphiregulin (AR) and epiregulin, autocrine growth factors in normal human keratinocytes. HB-EGF is mitogen for epithelial cells and like other members of the EGF family, HB-EGF exerts its biological effects via interaction with the EGF receptor (EGFR). HB-EGF is an autocrine growth factor for human keratinocytes, and has a possible role as a paracrine growth factor for fibroblast. Our report concerning immunohistochemical localization of HB-EGF in normal skin by using the streptavidin-peroxidase (HRP) conjugate method, confirms previous data, revealing specific patterns of HB-EGF localization. Identification of HB-EGF in cells of epithelial origin suggests its autocrine and/or paracrine roles in epithelial cell maintenance. Our report especially wants to give a technical contribution, easy to manage and with evident results. A simple technique that does not require use of sophisticated equipment.

La familia factores de crecimiento EGF se compone de representantes como el factor de crecimiento transformante (TGF)-a, factor epidérmico vinculante a la heparina (HB-EGF), anfiregulina (AR) y epirregulina, factores autocrinos de crecimiento en queratinocitos humanos normales. HB-EGF es mitógeno para células epiteliales y al igual que otros miembros de la familia EGF, HB-EGF ejerce sus efectos biológicos a través de la interacción con el receptor de EGF (EGFR). HB-EGF es un factor de crecimiento autocrino de queratinocitos humanos, y tiene un posible papel como factor de crecimiento paracrino de los fibroblastos. Nuestro reporte sobre la localización inmunohistoquímica de HB-EGF en la piel normal mediante el método de conjugado estreptavidina-peroxidasa (HRP), confirma datos anteriores, revelando patrones de localización específicos para HB-EGF. La identificación de HB-EGF en las células de origen epitelial sugiere su papel autocrino y/o paracrinos en el mantenimiento de las células epiteliales. Nuestro informe quiere dar una contribución técnica, fácil de manejar y con resultados evidentes. Una técnica simple que no requiera el uso de equipo sofisticado.

Histological examination of bone fragments of unknown origin.

OBJECTIVES: Recognition and identification of bone fragments are of primary importance to confirm or exclude the human origin of skeletal remains. When badly degraded fragments of bone are found, this may be impossible by gross morphology alone, and histological methods have to be used. Aim of this study is to correlate the compact bone tissue microstructure in various classes of mammals, including humans, and birds in order to find an adequate identification key. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used long bone diaphysis samples. Bone fragments had been fixed in 4% formalin and then decalcified in EDTA (ethylene-diamin-tetra-acetate). After decalcification, samples had been processed for routine paraffin inclusion. Transverse sections had been cut and stained with hematoxylin-eosin staining, and examined by light microscopy (Nikon Eclipse E400®). RESULTS: The results of our study show that in bone tissue samples from various classes of mammals, including humans, and birds the osteonic structure shows peculiar features, often depending on the rate of bone remodeling, different in different animal species. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that a careful microscopic analysis of bone tissue and the characterization of distinctive osteonic features could give a major contribution to forensic medicine to obtain a more reliable recognition of bone fragments of unknown origin.

Is tryptophan 'more' essential than other essential aminoacids in development? A morphologic study.

An ontogenetic study was designed on developing rats in uterus of mothers tryptophan deprived at day 1 (exp. 1) and day 14.5 (exp. 2) of conception to verify the supposed determining role of the serotoninergic system (SS) in sexual differentiation in mammals. Tryptophan-free feeding was pursued uninterruptedly in the litter after birth, during lactation and post-natal development. Tryptophan-free pregnant rats were obtained by exclusion of tryptophan sources from chow. In both exp. 1 and exp. 2, the litter showed at birth a significant physical under evolution that worsened, during post-natal development, to a much more marked dwarfism in exp. 1 pups. Growth hormone concentrations in both sexes of dwarf rats were lower than that in the control rats. At 30 days post-natal age, whereas exp. 1 female rats showed a right-timed onset of puberty, no descensus of testes could be observed in male rats of same experiment. Dwarf male rats showed an evident hypotrophy of the whole reproductive apparatus. In histological examination of testes, neither spermatogenesis nor Leydig cells have been observed. Moreover, dwarf female rats showed a pronounced hypotrophy of reproductive organs, but a normal puberal status pattern was evident. In exp. 2, litters showed a less pronounced dwarfism, but a normal right-timed onset of puberty in both male and female rats. Data indicate that role of tryptophan in physical and sexual maturation in both male and female rats is essential.

[Immunolocalization of HB-EGF in human atherosclerotic plaques]. / Immunolocalizzazione di HB-EGF in placche aterosclerotiche umane.

AIMS: Heparin-binding epidermal growth factor is a member of the EGF family, it is a potent mitogen for smooth muscle cells and has been implicated in atherosclerosis, angiogenesis. In athererogenesis, HB-EGF has been detected in medial smooth cells and foamy macrofages. In this work, we have investigate about immunohistocemical localization of HB-EGF in atherosclerotic plaques. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three cases of man affected by atherosclerosis have been examined. We have collected and examined atherosclerotic plaques by immunohistochemical procedure in optical microscopy. Samples have been incubated with primary Ac (anti-human HB-EGF- goat IgG). RESULTS: In the three examined cases, results are partly overlap-ping, but with some difference in relation to location of positivity to HB-EGF. Only in one case, HB-EGF staining is rather weak and located just below endothelium where is a thickened area of tissue rich in fibres and few cells, In another case, positivity to HB-EGF is present in an area of connective tissue of the intima. In the last case, positivity to HB-EGF is evident in the context of a presumed elastic tissue with fusiform cells following fibres orientation, and that could be fibroblasts or smooth muscle cells. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that HB-EGF is involved in the development of atherosclerotic plaques and that HB-EGF is a possible target for atherosclerosis therapy.

Chromogranin A expression in human colonic adenocarcinoma.

The presence of CgA positive cells occuring in scattered elements or in clusters within human colonic adenocarcinomas has been documented in recent data. The number of these cases has ranged from 10% to 40% depending on the method of demonstration. The aim of this study is to assess the presence of CgA positive cells on a set of 60 tumours that, by standard histological procedures, were classified as well differentiated (n.5), moderately differentiated (n.48) and poorly differentiated (n.7) adenocarcinoma. 4-5 microm thick sections were processed by means of immunoperoxidase method using the primary CgA monoclonal antibody. Our results showed CgA positive cells in two cases of poorly differentiated and three cases of moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma. These specimens (8% of cases) showed diffuse, irregular areas of CgA immunoreactive cells as components of the neoplasm. These cases could be considerer as "mixed exocrine and neuroendocrine carcinoma" that develops from the same stem cell which differentiates into two atypical cell lines. Therefore, we suggest that to carry out a proper adenocarcinoma histological examination, and to establish a consequent therapy, not only common staining techniques but also immunohistochemical methods should be used.