Prognostic factors in resectable pancreatic cancer.

The pancreatic cancer is a disease with exponentially increased incidence, especially over the last decades, being the sixth or even fifth cause of death by cancer in most of the modern societies. Moreover, it is estimated that almost 95% of the patients with this disease are presenting to the doctor in the advanced and unresectable stages. Also, over the past few decades the development and advance of the surgical methods and techniques have improved only morbidity and hospital postoperative mortality, without significant impact on survival. In this way, in the present mini-review we want it to make a short description for some modern aspects regarding the factors implicated in pancreatic cancer survival.

Interactions between the oxidative and nitrosative stress in nociceptive processing in rat.

During the last years, special emphasis was directed towards the relation between the molecular and cellular alterations produced by free oxygen radicals and the normal and pathologic implications of nitric oxide. Moreover, lately it is believed that a true radical cascade might exist between the reactive species of oxygen and nitrogen during stress of various causes. In this way, their succession would produce a temporal prolongation of the complex cellular alterations produced by stressing aggressions. In the present paper, we were interested in presented some selective aspects regarding the interactions between oxidative and nitrosative stress in the modulation of the nociceptive behavior in rats. We report here a significant correlation between the results of the hot-plate latency time and the values of some oxidative and nitrosative stress markers.

[Study of several factors influencing antioxidant enzyme defense in obese patients]. / Studiul unor factori ce pot influenta defensiva enzimatica antioxidanta la pacientii obezi.

UNLABELLED: The notion of "oxidative stress" was introduced by Sies, in 1985, and designates all the oxidative damages caused by the free radicals of oxygen. Oxidative stress represents the imbalance of pro-oxidant and antioxidant ratio, in favor of the former, following the excessive action of the "aggressor" and/or the decrease of the "defender's" capacity to oppose. MATERIAL AND METHOD: In the current study we had 82 overweight patients (42 patients less than 65 years old and 40 patients over 65). The criteria for inclusion was weight over 80 Kg and BMI > 30. Patients were monitored and assessed every three, six, nine months and each year. RESULTS: Obesity together with dyslipidemia, smoking, diabetes and high blood pressure intensifies oxidative stress. The improvement of these factors determines the growth of antioxidant enzyme level (SOD and GPX) and the reduction of malondialdehyde level.

Effects of serotonin depletion on behavior and neuronal oxidative stress status in rat: relevance for anxiety and affective disorders.

PURPOSE: We lesioned the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of male Wistar rats using two different doses (8µg/3µl and 16µg/3µl) of 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine (5,7-DHT) and then animals were subjected to a battery of behavioral tests designed to assess anxiety and memory formation. Further, we were interested to know whether this lesion would result in neuronal oxidative stress and also if there is a correlation between the behavioral response to this lesion and brain oxidative stress. MATERIAL/METHODS: Behavioral tests included elevated plus maze, used to assess exploration/anxiety status and radial armmaze, used for determining spatial short-term and reference memory errors. Regarding the oxidative stress, we measured the extent of some lipid peroxidation products like malondialdehyde and defense enzymes such as superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase. RESULTS: 5,7-DHT lesioned rats spent more time in the open arms of the elevated maze compared to sham-operated rats, suggesting that the lesion significantly diminished anxiety-like behavior. Also, short-term memory was significantly impaired, as shown by the working memory errors in radial arm-maze task. Further analyses revealed that the 5,7-DHT lesion did not result in a significant change of reference memory errors. Regarding the oxidative stress, no significant modification of both superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase specific activities from the temporal lobe were observed. However, the malondiadehyde level was significantly increased, suggesting pro-oxidant effects. Also, the linear regression between the working memory errors vs. malondiadehyde resulted in significant correlations. CONCLUSION: 5,7 DHT lesion of the PVN affects behavioral performance via interactions with systems governing novel and/or fear-evoking situations and also by increasing neuronal oxidative stress.

[Cardiovascular risk of haloperidol vs. atypical anti-psychotic drugs in schizophrenia treatment]. / Riscul cardiovascular al haloperidolului versus antipsihotice atipice in terapia schizofreniei.

The present study examined the safety of the atypical antipsychotic drugs sertindol, olanzapine and quetiapine used in the treatment of schizophrenia. Haloperidol, a typical antipsychotic drug, was used for comparison. These data may account for the different therapeutic effects and side-effect profiles (cardiovascular risk) of typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs in schizophrenia.

[Aspects regarding the incidence and prevalence of vascular dementia forms]. / Aspecte privind incidenta si prevalenta formelor de dementa vasculara.

Vascular dementia is the form of dementia associated with cerebrovascular disease. It involves complex interrelationships between vascular etiologies, pathological changes in the brain, and clinical symptoms. Vascular dementia is associated with vascular and other risk factors, including cognitive ability, age, and education. Vascular dementia is the second most common cause of dementia, having a high rate of causes by itself, or in combination with Alzheimer's disease. Further complicating the diagnosis and treatment of vascular dementia is that it often coexists with Alzheimer's disease in elderly patients. It can be difficult to determine whether vascular abnormality has caused dementia, has contributed to its development, or is simply coincidental. When both vascular and degenerative changes may be contributing to the cognitive decline, term "Mixed" dementia is used. There are many questions still to be answered as to the incidence and prevalence of vascular dementia. Once there is a consensus on what diagnostic criteria should be used and how they should be implemented, or witch are the prevalence and incidence rates for vascular dementia by age, sex, region etc.

The topological relationship between the large-scale attributes and local interaction patterns of complex networks.

Recent evidence indicates that the abundance of recurring elementary interaction patterns in complex networks, often called subgraphs or motifs, carry significant information about their function and overall organization. Yet, the underlying reasons for the variable quantity of different subgraph types, their propensity to form clusters, and their relationship with the networks' global organization remain poorly understood. Here we show that a network's large-scale topological organization and its local subgraph structure mutually define and predict each other, as confirmed by direct measurements in five well studied cellular networks. We also demonstrate the inherent existence of two distinct classes of subgraphs, and show that, in contrast to the low-density type II subgraphs, the highly abundant type I subgraphs cannot exist in isolation but must naturally aggregate into subgraph clusters. The identified topological framework may have important implications for our understanding of the origin and function of subgraphs in all complex networks.

Minimum spanning trees on random networks.

We show that the geometry of minimum spanning trees (MST) on random graphs is universal. Because of this geometric universality, we are able to characterize the energy of MST using a scaling distribution [P(epsilon)] found using uniform disorder. We show that the MST energy for other disorder distributions is simply related to P(epsilon). We discuss the relationship to invasion percolation, to the directed polymer in a random media, to uniform spanning trees, and also the implications for the broader issue of universality in disordered systems.

Coactivation to reduce variability in the elderly.

The aim of this experiment was to determine whether elderly persons exhibit reciprocal phasing of muscle activity and scale EMG burst amplitude in the same manner as young people. Seven young and 7 elderly adults performed 30( elbow flexion movements at 800 ms duration to a visual target against varying inertial loads. The elderly were not able to achieve the required movement duration as frequently and spent a greater portion of the movement accelerating than the young. The young and the elderly subjects scaled EMG burst amplitude to the increasing loads in the same fashion, although the elderly subjects coactivated the agonist/antagonist muscles more than did the young subjects and thus did not accelerate the limb as rapidly. We hypothesized that the elderly used coactivation to reduce movement variability, and we developed a single-joint model with two muscles to examine this hypothesis. The model simulation correctly predicted the variability reduction due to coactivation. It appears, however, that this reduces the capability to accelerate rapidly.

Persistence in visual feedback control by the elderly.

Young and elderly subjects performed aiming movements to a visual target with a manipulandum to determine whether the elderly reduce their reliance on visual feedback after extended practice. Reliance on visual feedback was assessed by performance on trials in which the cursor displaying arm movement was unpredictably extinguished. Movements were divided into two subcomponents: a primary, ballistic submovement and a secondary, corrective submovement. For both age groups, removal of visual feedback prior to practice resulted in a decrease in the distance covered in the primary submovement, an increase in the distance of the secondary submovement, and a decrease in endpoint accuracy. After extensive practice with the cursor present, the proportion of distance traveled with the primary submovement was again assessed under trial conditions in which the cursor randomly disappeared. Following practice, the young demonstrated that they were capable of extending the primary submovement distance closer to the target. In addition, primary submovement distance was unaffected by the removal of vision following practice. After practice the elderly did not show evidence of lengthening the primary submovement, and submovement distance and endpoint accuracy continued to be altered by the removal of vision. This suggests that, unlike the young, the elderly do not benefit from practice so that they can place a greater proportion of the movement under program control. Thus, on a relative basis, a greater proportion of their overall movement requires corrective adjustments.

The development of a pediatric emergency transport system.

This article discusses the role of the pediatric emergency transport system as an outreach modality of the pediatric intensive care unit. Most of the discussion focuses on the Denver model.

The association of familial liver disease, subepidermal immunoproteins, and membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis.

Herein we report a new familial form of hepatic disease. Each of the four patients had splenomegaly, hypersplenism, a small liver, biochemical evidence of hepatic excretory dysfunction and hepatocellular damage, kidneys without demonstrable cysts, and normal blood pressue. An evaluation of serum immunoproteins, autoantibodies, histocompatibility antigens, and mixed lymphocyte reactivity further defined the immunologic features of this syndrome. Extrahepatic manifestations included a papulosquamous dermatitis with deposition of immunoglobulins and complement in both normal and abnormal skin, a membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis with subendothelial deposits, arthritis, and pericardial, pleural, and synovial effusions.

The role of complement, immunoglobulin and bacterial antigen in coagulase-negative staphylococcal shunt nephritis.

We describe three patients with arrested hydrocephalus in whom glomerulonephritis developed secondary to Staphylococcus epidermidis bacteremia from an infected ventriculoatrial shunt. Investigation of the immune-mediated renal disease associated with this chronic infection showed that (1) complement depletion during the acute phase of bacteremia and nephritis was predominantly via the classic pathway; (2) rheumatoid factor was associated with bacteremia, fever, proteinuria and low complement levels; (3) early complement components (C1q, C4, C3), immunoglobulin (predominantly immunoglobulin M [IgM], Staph. epidermidis antigen(s) and electron denxe subendothelial deposits were localized within the renal glomerulus; (4) C1q, and IgM derived from patient serums, were the most prominent in vitro immunoreactants to Staph. epidermidis cell walls; and (5) the causative organisms, Staph. epidermidis, shared common antigens with Staph. aureus, and antibody from patient serums cross reacted with extracts from both of these organisms.

Acute eosinophilic interstitial nephritis and renal failure with bone marrow-lymph node granulomas and anterior uveitis. A new syndrome.

We describe two patients with a unique granulomatous syndrome who presented with renal failure secondary to diffuse eosinophilic interstitial nephritis. Both had bilateral anterior uveitis, bone marrow granulomas, hypergammaglobulinemia and an increased sedimentation rate. One patient had lymph node granulomas and an immunoglobulin G (IgG) rheumatoid factor. An extensive investigation for an etiologic agent was unrewarding, and neither patient could be placed into any existing diagnostic category. Over a period of 2 years both patients have experienced improved renal function and dissolution of their bone marrow granulomas.

The secretory immune system and renal disease.

An immunopathological analysis of renal tissue from 105 patients was undertaken: (1) to clarify the relationship of the secretory immune system to renal diseases in which glomerular deposits of immunoglobulin A, (alpha chain), occurred; (2) to determine the lower nephron localization of secretory component and alpha chain in renal disease. This study, which included twenty-four patients with glomerular deposits of alpha chain, failed to reveal glomerular localization of secretory IgA. Secretory component was not found in renal tubular cells in kidneys with normal or minimally abnormal renal histology. In contradistinction to these findings, significant amounts of secretory component were found in tubular epithelial cells and casts in tissue from fifty-one patients with morphological evidence of significant renal damage; this localization had no correlation with glomerular deposits of IgA, IgM or other immunoreactants. Alpha Chain was rarely found in the tubular epithelium or in interstitial round cells; fifteen patients had alpha chain in casts. We conclude that the glomerular localization of immunoglobulin in glomerulonephritis is not derived from the secretory immune system, and the IgA present in glomeruli is not secretory IgA. The finding of secretory component in tubular cells in diseased kidneys without alpha chain may support an hypothesis for an independent role for secretory component in renal disease, apart from its function in the transport and stabilization of secretory IgA.