RESUMO
Moyamoya disease is a very rare chronic cerebrovascular disease of unknown etiology characterized by recurrent ischemic or hemorrhagic strokes. Initially diagnosed in Japan and named after finding puff of smoke like collateral blood vessels around the occluded blood vessels of circle of Willis. With increase awareness this disease is now diagnosed more often. Medical and surgical treatment have been used to treat the disease, with surgical treatment been mostly experimental. Special attention should be given to the surgical treatment which has shown to have an edge over the medical treatment in some clinical trials especially in young patients with recurrent strokes to prevent progressive cognitive decline and to improve their quality of life. In our patient, who is a young man, the diagnosis was picked up late and when surgical evaluation was performed, it was considered to be fruitless with findings of nonviable brain tissue on MRI imaging.
RESUMO
Many military personnel are at risk of lung damage or systemic toxicity as a result of exposure to the jet fuel JP-8. We have now used microarray analysis to characterize changes in the gene expression profile of lung tissue induced by exposure of rats to JP-8 at a concentration of 171 or 352 mg/m(3) for 1 h/d for 7 d, with the higher dose estimated to mimic the level of occupational exposure in humans. The expression of 56 genes was significantly affected by a factor of /= 1.5 by JP-8 at the low dose. Eighty-six percent of these genes were downregulated by JP-8. The expression of 66 genes was similarly affected by JP-8 at the higher dose, with the expression of 42% of these genes being upregulated. Prominent among the latter genes was that for the centrosome-associated protein gamma-synuclein, whose expression was consistently increased. The expression of various genes related to antioxidant responses and detoxification, including those for glutathione S-transferases and cytochrome P450 proteins, were also upregulated. The microarray data were confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR analysis. Our extensive data set may thus provide important insight into the pulmonary response to occupational exposure to JP-8 in humans.
