Hemispheric brain injury and behavioral deficits induced by severe neonatal hypoxia-ischemia in rats are not attenuated by intravenous administration of human umbilical cord blood cells.

Neonatal hypoxia-ischemia (HI) is an important cause of mortality and morbidity in infants. Human umbilical cord blood (HUCB) is a potential source of cellular therapy in perinatology. We investigated the effects of HUCB cells on spatial memory, motor performance, and brain morphologic changes in neonate rats submitted to HI. Seven-day-old rats underwent right carotid artery occlusion followed by exposure to 8% O(2) inhalation for 2 h. Twenty-four hours after HI, rats received either saline solution or HUCB cells i.v. After 3 wk, rats were assessed using a Morris Water Maze and four motor tests. Subsequently, rats were killed for histologic, immunohistochemical, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analyses. HI rats showed significant spatial memory deficits and a volumetric decrease in the hemisphere ipsilateral to arterial occlusion. These deficits and decreases were not significantly attenuated by the injection of HUCB cells. Moreover, immunofluorescence and PCR analysis revealed few HUCB cells located in rat brain. Intravenous administration of HUCB cells requires optimization to achieve improved therapeutic outcomes in neonatal hypoxic-ischemic injury.

O papel do neurocirurgião no incremento da qualidade de vida em pacientes idosos: hidrocefalia de pressão normal e estreito lobar / The paper of the neurosurgeon in the increment of the quality of life in aged patients: hydrocephalus of normal pressure and lumbar narrow canal

The purpose of the authors is to attempt to two fifferent diseases that usually are misdiagnosed in the generalist medical practice: the lumbar spinal stenosis and the normal pressure lydrocephalus in the elderly. In this article, there is a review of clinical presentation, diagnosis and treatment of these pathologies, with special attention to differential diagnosis, particular care and appropriate management of this group of patients by the neurosurgeo, intending t offer definitive resolution.