Anatomical Morphology and Related Angles of Foramen Ovale: A Three-dimensional Computed Tomography Reconstruction.

This study aimed to report the three-dimensional reconstruction of the foramen ovale (FO) based on computed tomography angiography and describe its shape and related angles. A retrospective analysis of 199 adult patients who were hospitalised at the Department of Neurosurgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical College, Bengbu, China, from January to December 2020 was conducted. The original DICOM files of patients' computed tomography scans were processed by 3D Slicer software to reconstruct the three-dimensional skull. The morphological characteristics of the FO on both sides were analysed. Their size, related angles and volumes, and the differences between the two sides and gender were compared. A total of 398 FO from 199 patients were studied. The most frequent shape of the FO was oval, accounting for 54.27%. The mean lengths of the right and the left sides were 5.40±1.51 and 5.10±1.18mm, respectively. The mean width on the right and left sides was 3.23±1.16 and 3.33±1.19 mm, respectively. The FO is most commonly oval in shape. Clinicians may use the anatomical characteristics regarding the size and shape of the FO for diagnosis and treatment. Key Words: Foramen ovale, Computed tomographic angiography, 3-Dimensional anatomy.

Robot-Aided Minimally Invasive Lumbopelvic Fixation in Treatment of Traumatic Spinopelvic Dissociation.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the surgical strategy, safety, and efficacy of close reduction and robot-aided minimally invasive lumbopelvic fixation in treatment of traumatic spinopelvic dissociation. METHODS: Data of 32 patients (21 males and 11 females) with traumatic spinopelvic dissociation treated by lumbopelvic fixation with robot-aided minimally invasive technique or conventional open procedure in our institution from March 2010 to April 2019 were retrospectively analyzed, and divided into robot group and control group. Intraoperative blood loss, surgical time, fluoroscopy frequency, total drilling times, infection rate, hospitalization time, and sacral fracture healing time were reviewed. Radiographs and computed tomography (CT) scans were totally acquired to evaluate the reduction quality, residual fracture displacement, and Gras classification on screws insertion after surgery. According to the Majeed scoring system, functional outcome was assessed for each patient at the final follow-up. RESULTS: There were 12 patients in the robot group and 20 patients in the control group with no significant difference about the demographic data. The average surgical time was 148.3 ± 40.5 min with intraoperative blood loss of 142.5±36.7 mL in the robot group and 185.0 ± 47.8 min with 612.5 ± 182.7 mL in the control group (P = 0.034, P = 0.000). The robot group had a shorter mean hospitalization time at 19.9 ± 7.0 days compared to the control group with 28.6 ± 5.4 days (P = 0.010). The fluoroscopy frequency was 35.4 ± 3.0 in the robot group and 45.5 ± 3.6 in the control group (P = 0.000) and total drilling times were 7.1 ± 1.1 and 9.6 ± 1.3 (P = 0.000), respectively. The infection rate was 0% (0/12) in the robot group and 15% (3/20) in the control group (P = 0.159). According to the Gras classification on screw positioning, there were 11 cases in Grade I and 1 case in Grade II in the robot group, and 14 cases in Grade I and 6 cases in Grade II in the control group. All the patients were followed up consecutively for at least 12 months, with an average follow-up period of 17.1 ± 3.6 months. All sacral fractures healed with an average time of 3.8 ± 0.6 months in the robot group and 4.7 ± 0.7 months in the control group (P = 0.000). According to Majeed functional assessment investigation, the mean score of the patients was 87.2 ± 4.0 in the robot group and 83.1 ± 4.5 in the control group (P = 0.015). CONCLUSIONS: Robot-aided minimally invasive lumbopelvic fixation for traumatic spinopelvic dissociation is a safe and feasible option with advantages of less intraoperative blood loss, less radiation damage, less hospitalization time, and better functional outcome.

Vibrational spectroscopic study of o-, m- and p-hydroxybenzylideneaminoantipyrines.

Three structurally similar antipyrine derivatives of o-hydroxybenzylideneaminoantipyrine (o-HBAP), m-hydroxybenzylideneaminoantipyrine (m-HBAP) and p-hydroxybenzylideneaminoantipyrine (p-HBAP) were characterized by FT-IR, FT-Raman experimental techniques and density functional theoretical (DFT) calculations. The comparisons between the calculated and experimental results covering molecular structures, assignments of fundamental vibrational modes and thermodynamic properties were investigated. The optimized molecular geometries agree well with the corresponding experimental values by comparing with the XRD data. The comparisons and assignments of the vibrational frequencies indicate that the experimental spectra also coincide satisfactorily with those of theoretically simulated spectrograms except the hydrogen-bond coupling infrared vibrations, and compounds can be distinguished by the IR and Raman spectra due to the differences of the hydroxyl-substituted positions and molecular packing, and the strong Raman scattering activities of the compounds are tightly relative to the molecular conjugative moieties linked through the Schiff base imines. The thermodynamic functions and their correlations with temperatures were also obtained from the theoretical harmonic frequencies.

MMPT: a thiazolidin compound inhibits the growth of lung cancer H1792 cells via Fas-mediated and caspase-dependent apoptosis pathway.

MMPT, a thiazolidin compound, was identified in our laboratory as a novel antineoplastic agent with a broad spectrum of antitumor activity against many human cancer cells. However, the related mechanism has yet not been revealed. In this study, we investigated the cellular and molecular events underlying the antitumor function of this compound in human lung adenocarcinoma H1792 cells, focusing on the early cytotoxic effect. Treatment of H1792 cancer cells with MMPT (0.1-100 microM for 24-72 h) resulted in a growth inhibition in a dose and time-dependent manner, determined by MTT assay. This effect was accompanied by apoptosis, evidenced by Nucleosome ELISA, H33258 stained assay, and Sub-G1 analysis. Our data showed that MMPT caused activation of caspase-3, caspase-6 and caspase-8, but not caspase-9. The finding that MMPT induced apoptosis through a membrane-mediated mechanism was supported by the up-regulated expression of Fas (CD95/APO-1), and Fas ligand. Overall, our results demonstrated that MMPT induced growth inhibition of H1792 cells through a Fas-mediated and caspase-dependent apoptosis pathway, which suggested that MMPT might be used as a Fas/FasL and caspases promoter to initiate lung cancer cell apoptosis.

Experimental and theoretical studies on 4-(2,4-dichlorobenzylideneamino)antipyrine and 4-(2,6-dichlorobenzylideneamino)antipyrine.

Two antipyrine derivates, with the same formula C(18)H(15)Cl(2)N(3)O, are structurally similar Schiff bases derived from the condensation of 2,4-dichlorobenzaldehyde or 2,6-dichlorobenzaldehyde and 4-aminoantipyrine in methanol solutions. The compounds were characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR, FT-Raman and UV-vis techniques. Density functional calculations were performed to further optimize and characterize them. The calculated results indicate that the theoretical values show good agreements with experimental ones. They are similar in their IR spectra and different in their Raman spectra. The detailed vibrational and UV-vis absorption spectra of the compounds have been ascribed to their corresponding molecular structures and electrons orbital transitions. The statistical thermodynamic functions and their correlations with temperatures of the title compounds have been obtained from their theoretical vibrations of the optimized structures. The nonlinear optical and UV-vis properties indicate that the compounds are the promising photoelectronic materials.

Experimental and theoretical studies on vibrational spectra of 4-(2-furanylmethyleneamino)antipyrine, 4-benzylideneaminoantipyrine and 4-cinnamilideneaminoantipyrine.

This work deals with the IR and Raman spectroscopy of 4-(2-furanylmethyleneamino) antipyrine (FAP), 4-benzylideneaminoantipyrine (BAP) and 4-cinnamilideneaminoantipyrine (CAP) by means of experimental and quantum chemical calculations. The equilibrium geometries, harmonic frequencies, infrared intensities and Raman scattering activities were calculated by density functional B3LYP method with the 6-31G(d) basis set. The comparisons between the calculated and experimental results covering molecular structures, assignments of fundamental vibrational modes and thermodynamic properties were investigated. The optimized molecular geometries have been compared with the experimental data obtained from XRD data, which indicates that the theoretical results agree well with the corresponding experimental values. For the three compounds, comparisons and assignments of the vibrational frequencies indicate that the calculated frequencies are close to the experimental data, and the IR spectra are comparable with some slight differences, whereas the Raman spectra are different clearly and the strongest Raman scattering actives are relative tightly to the molecular conjugative moieties linked through their Schiff base imines. The thermodynamic properties (heat capacities, entropies and enthalpy changes) and their correlations with temperatures were also obtained from the harmonic frequencies of the optimized structures.

Two different structures controlled by small secondary ligands: {4-chloro-2-[2-(dimethylamino)ethyliminomethyl]phenolato}thiocyanatonickel(II) and catena-poly[[{4-chloro-2-[2-(dimethylamino)ethyliminomethyl]phenolato}nickel(II)]-mu-azido].

The title complexes, [Ni(C11H14ClN2O)(NCS)], (I), and [Ni(C11H14ClN2O)(N3)]n, (II), are two different structures constructed from the same Schiff base ligand, viz. 4-chloro-2-[2-(dimethylamino)ethyliminomethyl]phenol, and different linear triatomic secondary ligands, viz. thiocyanate for (I) and azide for (II). In mononuclear (I), the Ni(II) atom is four-coordinated in a square-planar geometry by the N,N',O-donor set of the Schiff base and by the N atom of the terminal thiocyanate ligand, while in polynuclear (II), the Ni(II) atom is five-coordinated in a square-pyramidal geometry by the N,N',O-donor set of the Schiff base and by two N atoms from two bridging azide groups.