Brain imaging and morphological plasticity in glioblastoma: a literature review.

This article provides a comprehensive review of the role of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in characterizing neural plasticity in glioblastoma patients. Glioblastoma, the most common primary brain tumor, has a rapid growth rate and infiltrative nature that leads to the disorganization of the normal brain network. Neuroplasticity, still not fully understood, is the foundation for the development of brain functions during the growth and recovery of certain brain functions after a brain lesion such as a tumor, trauma, or vascular event. Functional MRI has the capacity to identify the regions that activate at rest or when performing a task. It can determine the extent to which these regions, responsible for a specific function, are impacted by a tumor and eventually after surgical excision. Likewise, it can help evaluate to which extent activation changes when recovery of function occurs. In this article, we aimed to understand the significance of fMRI in the management of glioblastoma by analyzing representative articles from the literature.

Astroblastoma - reviewing literature and one case report.

BACKGROUND: Astroblastoma is a poorly defined central nervous system (CNS) tumor, included along with polar spongioblastoma and gliomatosis cerebri in the group of neuroepithelial tumors of uncertain origin in the June 2016 World Health Organization (WHO) Classification of tumors of the CNS. They are rare neoplasms that affect primarily patients of young ages. The purpose of this research is to highlight the uniqueness and rareness of this pathology and to emphasize on the particularities of one case managed in our Clinic. CASE DESCRIPTION: We present the case of a 54-year-old patient with a history of seizures since the age of six years old, who presented on admission with progressive worsening and unresponsiveness to treatment, starting six months prior to presentation. Brain imaging shows a right frontal mass compressing neighboring structures. Gross total resection of the tumor was performed, and histopathological examination of the surgical sample together with immunohistochemistry highlighted the presence of a low-grade astroblastoma. CONCLUSIONS: We summarized data from the literature in order to highlight aspects of this affliction: clinical presentation, imagery, surgical treatment and pathology, hoping that this will aid physicians in finding useful information on this subject, which can guide them to a good outcome. We also discussed differential diagnosis, as this type of tumor shares common features with ependymoma, meningioma, astrocytoma, etc.

Genetic diversity of porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) in the Romanian wild boar population.

In this study, we have analyzed 23 PCV2 ORF2 sequences recovered from wild boar population in Romania. The PCV2 sequences were originated from different geographical regions in Romania, and collected between 2008 and 2009 during the classical swine fever virus (CSFV) surveillance campaign. Complete open reading frame 2 (ORF2) nucleotide sequences were obtained and compared with sequences mainly from European and Asian isolates. The Romanian sequences were identified as belonging to previously described clusters 2a and 2b, with high degree of heterogeneity (PCV2 ORF2 nucleotide homology ranged between 90.1% and 100%). Interestingly, for cluster 2a, the majority of the sequences (8 from a total number of 9) clustered mainly with the Asian isolates (especially China, but also India and South Korea), with three exceptions from Europe previously reported in Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands.