Ovarian torsion caused by teratoma masquerading as renal colic.

Ovarian torsion is a well known but poorly recognised disease and prompt treatment is necessary to avoid adverse outcomes. We report a patient with severe right flank pain initially diagnosed as renal colic. She was brought to our emergency department because of persistent pain. After further investigation, ovarian torsion caused by teratoma was diagnosed. Because of the timely management, the patient made a good recovery. This is an uncommon but important case that emergency physicians should be aware of.

Effects of fibrinolytic inhibitors on chondrogenesis of bone-marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells in fibrin gels.

The objective of this study was to examine the effect of two fibrinolytic inhibitors, aprotinin and aminohexanoic acid, on chondrogenesis of rabbit bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs). Rabbit BM-MSCs were obtained from the tibias and femurs of New Zealand White rabbits. Cell-fibrin constructs were made by mixing a cell-fibrinogen (10(7) cells/ml; 40 mg/ml fibrinogen) solution with a thrombin (5 IU/ml) solution and then divided into four groups: aprotinin control, aprotinin + transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta), aminohexanoic acid control, and aminohexanoic acid + TGF-beta. Each of these groups was further treated with three different concentrations of inhibitors and the TGF-beta groups were treated with 10 ng/ml of TGF-beta1. The chondrogenic gene expressions, DNA content, and glycosaminoglycan content of samples were analyzed after 14 days of culture. The aprotinin groups exhibited significantly higher levels of aggrecan gene expression and glycosaminoglycan content than the aminohexanoic acid groups. However, inhibitor neither influenced gene expression of type II collagen nor proliferation (i.e., DNA content) of BM-MSCs. These findings suggest that fibrinolytic inhibitors used to control degradation of fibrin clot may influence TGF-beta-induced chondrogenesis of BM-MSCs.

Optical ATP biosensor for extracellular ATP measurement.

Extracellular Adenosine-5'-triphosphate (ATP) is an important multi-functional molecule which can mediate numerous physiological activities by activating purinergic P2 receptors. The objective of this study was to develop a novel optical ATP sensor for in-situ extracellular ATP measurement in biological tissues. The optical ATP sensor was made by applying two layers of sol-gel coating to the end of an optical fiber probe end. The first layer contained ruthenium complex for sensing changes in oxygen concentration which resulted from oxidation of ATP by glycerol kinase and glycerol 3-phosphate oxidase entrapped in the second layer. It was demonstrated that the optical ATP sensor was capable of detecting ATP concentration at a broad range of 10(-3)mM to 1.5mM.A compensation method was established to enable the optical sensor to determine ATP concentration at different oxygen levels. This study also demonstrated the capability of ATP sensor to measure extracellular ATP content in biological tissues (i.e., porcine intervertebral disc). In addition, it was shown that the optical ATP sensor was not affected by pH and derivatives of extracellular ATP. Therefore, the newly developed optical ATP sensor is a good option for in-situ extracellular ATP measurement.

Novel bone adhesives: a comparison of bond strengths in vitro.

Fracture fixation using adhesive is a promising alternative in craniofacial surgeries, replacing the plates and screws system. The advantages include the ease of application and avoidance of drilling holes that may weaken the bone and cause fractures. In this study the bond strengths of selected adhesives were evaluated and compared with resorbable plates and screws. Four adhesives, octyl-cyanoacrylate, N-butyl-cyanoacrylate, a novel methyl-methacrylate, and a novel cyanoacrylate derivative, were tested for their microtensile and shear bond strengths. The bone samples were cut into rectangular bars and bonded with selected adhesives for microtensile testing. For the shear bond test, paired bars were bonded at the overlap, while two other sets of bars were attached by a Lactosorb plate using either adhesive or screws. Data were analysed by analysis of variance (ANOVA). The microtensile bond strengths of N-butyl-cyanoacrylate, novel cyanoacrylate derivative, and novel methyl-methacrylate derivative were significantly greater than octyl-cyanoacrylate. When bone sections were fixed with resorbable plates and adhesives, shear bond strength was significantly greater for N-butyl-cyanoacrylate than plate and screws, while the bond strengths of other adhesives were comparable with the plate and screws. N-Butyl cyanoacrylate was shown to have the greatest potential for fixation of fractured bone in craniofacial surgical applications.