ABSTRACT
We report about a patient with a solitary tibial metastasis of a prostatic carcinoma. Metastases to the peripheral skeleton are relatively rare with a frequency of only 1-2% and are mainly found in cases of general spread of the disease. Complaints due to peripheral solitary metastases often cause misinterpretations. Bone scintigraphy is the primary method in the diagnosis of skeletal metastases, and is sometimes supported by specific radiographs. MRI yields excellent images of the extension of the tumor. It is therefore of high diagnostic value in the preoperative definition of the metastatic spread in bone and neighbouring soft tissue structures.
Subject(s)
Bone Neoplasms/secondary , Diagnostic Imaging , Prostatic Neoplasms/diagnosis , Tibia , Aged , Biomarkers, Tumor/blood , Bone Neoplasms/diagnosis , Humans , Male , Prostate-Specific Antigen/bloodABSTRACT
Central venous catheter infection presents an important problem in modern medicine, leading sometimes to a life-threatening situation for the patient as well as contributing to prolonged hospital stay and to an increase in costs. We have evaluated the in vitro biocompatibility and antimicrobial activity of a silver-coated polyurethane catheter designed for use as a colonization-resistant, antiinfective catheter. Due to a comparatively low silver release, the catheter performed well in cell toxicity and blood compatibility tests as well as in acute toxicity tests done with mice. The antimicrobial activity was tested in stationary and dynamic bacterial adherence experiments using S. epidermidis, E. coli and P. aeruginosa as test strains. The silver-coated polyurethane catheter showed good ability to prevent microbial colonization of the catheter surface. Currently a clinical trial of the silver-coated catheter is under investigation.
