Plexiform Schwannoma of Brachial Plexus in Axilla: A Rare Case Report.

The most common tumours in the brachial plexus are benign schwannomas, followed by neurofibromas and malignancies, originating from the peripheral nerve sheath. The clinical manifestations of brachial plexus tumours are variable according to their location, extension, neurological elements involved and pathology. Brachial plexus tumours are rare in the upper extremity, and axillary schwannoma is uncommon. This case reports a 59-year-old woman with a tumour in her left axilla for two years, gradually enlarging with numbness in her left little finger. Microsurgical interfascicular dissection operation was performed to remove the tumour. Νumbness disappeared after the procedure, and no tumour recurrence was observed during the 30-month follow-up. To the best of our knowledge, plexiform schwannoma of the brachial plexus in the axilla has not been reported so far. In this article, such a case is reported, where this tumour was diagnosed by the histopathological examination and confirmed with immunohistochemistry.

VEGF Antagonism Attenuates Cerebral Ischemia/Reperfusion-Induced Injury via Inhibiting Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress-Mediated Apoptosis.

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-mediated apoptosis pathway is considered to play a vital role in mediating stroke and other cerebrovascular diseases. Previous studies have showed that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) antagonism reduced cerebral ischemic-reperfusion (CI/R) damage, but whether attenuation of ER stress-induced apoptosis is contributing to its mechanisms remains elusive. Our study aimed to investigate the protective effect of VEGF antagonism on CI/R-induced injury. First, oxygen-glucose deprivation and re-oxygenation (OGD/R) BEND3 cell model was constructed to estimate small interfering RNA (siRNA)-VEGF on damage of endothelial cells. Next, in animal model, CI/R mice were induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) for 2 h followed by 24 h reperfusion to investigate cerebral tissue damage. For treatment group, mice received 100 µg/kg anti-VEGF antibodies at 30 min before MCAO, followed by 24 h reperfusion. Our findings demonstrated that pre-administration of siRNA-VEGF before OGD/R changed the biological characteristics of BEND3 cells, reversed the levels of X-box binding protein-1 (XBP-1) and glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78), showing siRNA-VEGF attenuated, at least in part, the oxidative damage in OGD/R cell by down-regulating ER stress. In mice experiment, pre-administration of anti-VEGF antibody reduced the brain infarct volume and edema extent and improved neurological scores outcome of CI/R injury mice. Pathological and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate nick-end labeling (TUNEL) staining results also confirmed this protective effect. The expressions of VEGF, CATT/EBP homologous protein (CHOP), inositol requiring enzyme 1α (IRE-1α), and cleaved-caspase12 and c-jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) phosphorylation were also prominently decreased. These results suggested that inhibition of endogenous VEGF attenuates CI/R-induced injury via inhibiting ER stress-mediated apoptosis.

[FBG Self-Chirped Based on an Sine-Structure].

Considerting that the uniform grating can be induced chirp effect under non-uniform strain, a method of making chirp grating by uniform grating with the use of sine structure is proposed. The sine structure was designed as basal material while the fiber Bragg and grating was pasted in the strain non-uniform area of basal material. the strain it produced was introducied into FBG gate area by applying tensile load to achieve FBG produce chirp effect. FBG was made with multiple peaks and wide bandwidth of the chirp grating. The finite element software was used to simulate the strain of sine-structure under tensile loading to get strain contours of the sinusoidal structure in different positions; The experimental results showd that the bandwidth has been increased five times when the displacement load was up to 8 mm and the chirp grating reflection spectrum with multiple peaks; The transfer matrix method to reflection spectrum of chirp grating was combined for spectrum simulation reconstruction and the simulation spectrum spectrum trend was consistent with the experimental results. The chirp grating made in this method has an important application in complex strain field multiple parameters and achieving sense of temperature without compensation by the use of the bandwidth of the chirp grating at the same time.

Microsurgical interfascicular dissection operation is a viable treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome caused by Lipofibromatous hamartoma: A case report.

Lipofibromatous Hamartoma (LFH) is a rare and slow growing benign tumor affecting the peripheral nerves, which usually involves the median nerve. Median nerve involvement commonly causes pain, numbness, paresthesia and carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). This article describes a case of lipofibromatous hamartoma in a 6-years-old girl, complained of the mass and numbness in her left distal forearm. Microsurgical interfascicular dissection operation was performed to remove the epineural proliferation tissue, numbness disappeared after the operation. At the 12-months follow-up appointment she remained asymptomatic and there was no change in mass size.