Incompletely excised lentigo maligna melanoma is associated with unpredictable residual disease: clinical features and the emerging role of reflectance confocal microscopy.

BACKGROUND: Lentigo maligna/lentigo maligna melanoma (LM/LMM) poses a treatment and surgical challenge given unpredictable subclinical extension resulting in incomplete excision. OBJECTIVES: To describe the demographic, clinical and pathologic characteristics of incompletely excised LM/LMM. To evaluate the potential role of reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM). PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective review of a melanoma database at a tertiary cancer centre for patients referred with 'incompletely excised LM/LMM' or 'incompletely excised melanoma' between October 2006 and July 2017. We recorded clinical and pathological data and surgical margins needed to clear the residual LM/LMM. The second part consisted of a prospective cohort of patients in which RCM was performed when presenting with incompletely excised LM/LMM. RESULTS: We included a total of 67 patients (retrospective + prospective cohort); mean age was 64.9 (standard deviation: 11.3) years and 52.2% were males. For the retrospective cohort (n = 53), the mean scar size was 3.4 cm. The average initial margins excised prior to presentation were 4.8 mm (range 3-7 mm). The average additional margin needed to clear the residual, incompletely excised LM/LMM was 7.8 mm. For the prospective cohort (n = 14), there were no differences in age, gender or size when compared to the retrospective cohort. RCM had a diagnostic accuracy of 78.6%, a sensitivity of 90.9%, a specificity of 33.3% and a positive predictive value of 83.3% for the detection of incompletely excised LM/LMM. CONCLUSIONS: Incompletely excised LM/LMM is a poorly characterized clinical-pathological scenario that may require considerable extra margins for microscopic clearance. RCM may emerge as a valuable tool for the evaluation of patients with incompletely excised LM/LMM.

A forced running wheel system with a microcontroller that provides high-intensity exercise training in an animal ischemic stroke model

We developed a forced non-electric-shock running wheel (FNESRW) system that provides rats with high-intensity exercise training using automatic exercise training patterns that are controlled by a microcontroller. The proposed system successfully makes a breakthrough in the traditional motorized running wheel to allow rats to perform high-intensity training and to enable comparisons with the treadmill at the same exercise intensity without any electric shock. A polyvinyl chloride runway with a rough rubber surface was coated on the periphery of the wheel so as to permit automatic acceleration training, and which allowed the rats to run consistently at high speeds (30 m/min for 1 h). An animal ischemic stroke model was used to validate the proposed system. FNESRW, treadmill, control, and sham groups were studied. The FNESRW and treadmill groups underwent 3 weeks of endurance running training. After 3 weeks, the experiments of middle cerebral artery occlusion, the modified neurological severity score (mNSS), an inclined plane test, and triphenyltetrazolium chloride were performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed platform. The proposed platform showed that enhancement of motor function, mNSS, and infarct volumes was significantly stronger in the FNESRW group than the control group (P<0.05) and similar to the treadmill group. The experimental data demonstrated that the proposed platform can be applied to test the benefit of exercise-preconditioning-induced neuroprotection using the animal stroke model. Additional advantages of the FNESRW system include stand-alone capability, independence of subjective human adjustment, and ease of use.

A forced running wheel system with a microcontroller that provides high-intensity exercise training in an animal ischemic stroke model.

We developed a forced non-electric-shock running wheel (FNESRW) system that provides rats with high-intensity exercise training using automatic exercise training patterns that are controlled by a microcontroller. The proposed system successfully makes a breakthrough in the traditional motorized running wheel to allow rats to perform high-intensity training and to enable comparisons with the treadmill at the same exercise intensity without any electric shock. A polyvinyl chloride runway with a rough rubber surface was coated on the periphery of the wheel so as to permit automatic acceleration training, and which allowed the rats to run consistently at high speeds (30 m/min for 1 h). An animal ischemic stroke model was used to validate the proposed system. FNESRW, treadmill, control, and sham groups were studied. The FNESRW and treadmill groups underwent 3 weeks of endurance running training. After 3 weeks, the experiments of middle cerebral artery occlusion, the modified neurological severity score (mNSS), an inclined plane test, and triphenyltetrazolium chloride were performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed platform. The proposed platform showed that enhancement of motor function, mNSS, and infarct volumes was significantly stronger in the FNESRW group than the control group (P<0.05) and similar to the treadmill group. The experimental data demonstrated that the proposed platform can be applied to test the benefit of exercise-preconditioning-induced neuroprotection using the animal stroke model. Additional advantages of the FNESRW system include stand-alone capability, independence of subjective human adjustment, and ease of use.

Los probioticos tienen eficacia clinica, microbiologica e inmunolólica en la diarrea infecciosa aguda / Probiotics have clinical efficacy, microbiological and immunological acute infectious diarrhea

La diarrea infecciosa aguda es una causa importante de morbilidad en la infancia y responsable de unacarga económica para las familias. Es este estudio se evaluó las características clínicas, microbiológicas,inmunológicas y efectos de los probióticos en diarrea infecciosa aguda.