Pontine warning syndrome and restless legs syndrome secondary to paramedian pontine infarction: a case report.

Pontine warning syndrome (PWS) occurs rarely and is characterized by recurrent, stereotyped episodes of motor or sensory dysfunction, dysarthria, or ophthalmoplegia leading to pontine infarction. Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a distinct neurological sensorimotor disorder. Pontine infarction is a rare but possible cause of RLS. Here, we report the case of a 58-year-old woman who experienced unilateral RLS in concomitance with stereotyped episodes of left-sided weakness and dysarthria, and developed an acute paramedian pontine infarction eventually. To the best of our knowledge, no other cases of PWS coinciding with RLS in the progression of pontine infarction have been reported in the literature. Furthermore, we discussed the potential mechanisms of PWS and RLS secondary to pontine infarction, which may be helpful for managing such patients.

Apoptosis resistance can be used in screening the markers of cancer stem cells.

Cancer stem cells are a small population of tumor cells that possess the stem cell property of self-renewal and spawning proliferation. The small population of cells is the seeds of tumors. Therefore, these cells are also called "Tumorigenic cells". Other cells which were present in majority in the entire tumor cells have only limited proliferation property and they cannot self-renew. So, isolation and identification of the small population of cells is helpful in further studying the difference between the cancer stem cells and non-tumorigenic cells in certain aspects. However, the isolation and identification of the cancer stem cell is still very difficult. It is reported that cancer stem cells can resist apoptosis when they expose to apoptosis inducement factors. Applying this characteristic of cancer stem cells, we put forward a hypothesis that apoptosis resistance of cancer stem cells can be used in screening the markers of the cancer stem cells. In apoptosis inducement model, the proportion of cancer stem cells may increase in surviving cells. The proportion of the cancer stem cell markers may increase accordingly. Through comparing the change of the expression of cell surface molecules on cancer cells, we may primarily screen the cancer stem cell markers.

Short-term results of 89 cases of rectal carcinoma treated with high-intensity focused ultrasound and low-dose radiotherapy.

The purpose of this study was to assess the therapeutic effects and safety of combined high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) and low-dose radiotherapy for the treatment of rectal carcinoma. A total of 89 cases of rectal carcinoma, including 20 cases of primary rectal carcinoma and 69 cases of recurrent rectal carcinoma after radical rectectomy, were treated with HIFU from July 1998 to December 2000. Of these, 23 patients had follow-up for more than 1 year. There was complete response (CR) in 22.5%, partial response (PR) in 64.0% and no change (NC) in 13.5%. There were no complications, such as skin burn, visceral perforation or hemorrhage, etc. In the 23 cases with follow-up, the 1-year survival rate was 87.0% (20 of 23) and the 2-year survival rate was 80.0% (12 of 15). It was concluded that HIFU is a new method to treat rectal carcinoma that has remarkable therapeutic effect and is safe, with no significant side effects.