ABSTRACT
Paragangliomas are neuroendocrine tumours of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems originating from neural crest cells. Less than 1% of paragangliomas in the heart originate from intrinsic cardiac ganglia cells in the posterior wall of the atria, atrioventricular groove, and along the root of the great vessels. We describe the tumour characteristics, patient demographics, presentation, means of diagnosis, pathology correlation, management, and outcome in 11 patients with intrapericardial paragangliomas. To the authors' knowledge, this is the largest case series reported, with emphasis on multimodality imaging findings.
Subject(s)
Neuroendocrine Tumors , Paraganglioma , Humans , Paraganglioma/diagnostic imaging , Heart AtriaABSTRACT
The sensitivity and specificity of novel UL37 exon 3 (UL37x3) and US3 immediate-early (IE) gene PCR primers to detect human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) DNA in clinical specimens are comparable to those of HCMV DNA polymerase (UL54) primers. The use of these IE primers increases the diagnostic performance of HCMV PCR.
Subject(s)
Cytomegalovirus Infections/virology , Cytomegalovirus/isolation & purification , DNA, Viral/analysis , Polymerase Chain Reaction/methods , Cytomegalovirus/genetics , DNA Primers/genetics , DNA, Viral/genetics , DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase/genetics , HumansABSTRACT
Protein phosphorylation was investigated in primary rat astrocyte cultures treated with and without dibutyryl cyclic AMP. Astrocytes maintained in dibutyryl cyclic AMP for several weeks displayed increased phosphate incorporation in 5 protein bands (55, 52, 45, 43 and 28 kDa) while incorporation in one band (42 kDa) was decreased. Phosphate incorporation in several other protein bands was unchanged. Calcium-dependent phosphate incorporation was also altered by prior exposure of the cells to dibutyryl cyclic AMP: addition of calcium to broken cell preparations resulted in increased incorporation in 75, 53 and 52 kDa while decreased incorporation occurred in 100 kDa. These differences in protein phosphorylation may be related to the previously reported biochemical and morphological changes brought about by dibutyryl cyclic AMP and may provide insights into the mechanisms of reactive gliosis.
