Clinical utility of gastric fluid cytokine levels in preterm infants for predicting histological chorioamnionitis.

BACKGROUND: The risk of various complications, such as neonatal death, early onset sepsis, and chronic lung disease, is increased in infants born to mothers with chorioamnionitis (CAM). However, predicting the diagnosis of histological CAM (hCAM) in the early postnatal period is challenging for clinicians due to pathological considerations. Therefore, an early diagnostic tool for hCAM is needed. Gastric fluid at birth is considered a suitable biomarker for predicting the intrauterine environment because most of its components are from amniotic fluid, and the sampling technique is less invasive. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical utility of cytokines in the gastric fluid of preterm infants at birth as predictors of hCAM. METHODS: We retrieved gastric fluid and serum from 21 preterm infants with a gestational age of ≤ 32 weeks within 1 h after birth and used cytometric bead array to measure the concentrations of interleukin (IL)-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and interferon-gamma. We compared the cytokine concentrations in the gastric fluid and serum of the preterm infants born to mothers with or without hCAM. RESULTS: The gastric fluid, serum IL-6, and serum IL-10 concentrations were significantly higher in the hCAM group than that in the non-hCAM group. The best cutoff values for predicting hCAM was > 2,855 pg/mL and > 315 pg/mL for IL-6 in the gastric fluid and serum, respectively. Receiver operating characteristic curves showed that gastric fluid IL-6 concentrations correlated more strongly with the presence of hCAM than serum IL-6 concentrations. CONCLUSION: IL-6 in the gastric fluid at birth may be a more promising biomarker for predicting the presence of hCAM than that in serum. IL-6 concentration analysis in the gastric fluid at birth might help to diagnose hCAM immediately after birth and improve the prognosis of preterm infants.

Successful Treatment of Saddle Pulmonary Thromboembolism in 23-Week Preterm Infant.

Saddle pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) is defined as a thromboembolism straddling the bifurcation of the main pulmonary artery trunk and it is rarely seen in extremely low birth weight infants (ELBWI). Saddle PTE is a critical disease that requires urgent treatment. However, the treatment guidelines for ELBWI are not established. We present the case of a 1-day-old preterm infant (gestational age 23 weeks) who showed sudden desaturation and pulmonary hypertension due to saddle PTE. A thrombus was observed in the bifurcation of the pulmonary artery. The blood flow to the pulmonary artery on the left side was interrupted, and the right side showed severe stenosis. Since the patient was an ELBWI in the acute phase, we decided to use recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) and administered a maintenance dose (0.08 mg/kg/hour), instead of the loading dose. After using rt-PA, the thrombus dissolved in 8 hours without adverse events. This case suggests that starting with a maintenance dose of rt-PA may be an effective treatment option for saddle PTE in ELBWI in the acute phase under the high risk of bleeding.

Pulmonary inflammation and cytokine dynamics of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from a mouse model of bronchial asthma during A(H1N1)pdm09 influenza infection.

Asthmatic patients present more rapid progression of respiratory distress after A(H1N1)pdm09 influenza infection than after seasonal infection. Here, we sought to clarify the pathophysiology of early deterioration in asthmatic patients after A(H1N1)pdm09 infection. Cytokine levels and virus titres in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from mice with and without asthma after A(H1N1)pdm09 or seasonal H1N1 infection were examined. In asthma/A(H1N1)pdm09 mice, IL-6 and TNF-α levels peaked at 3 days post-infection and were higher than those in all other groups. IFN-γ levels in asthma/A(H1N1)pdm09 mice at 3 days post-infection were higher than in all other mice at any time point, whereas at 7 days post-infection, the levels were lowest in asthma/A(H1N1)pdm09 mice. Virus titres in asthma/A(H1N1)pdm09 mice were highest at 3 days post-infection, and decreased by 7 days post-infection, although the levels at this time point were still higher than that in any other group. Histopathological examination showed more inflammatory cell infiltration and lung tissue destruction in the asthma/A(H1N1)pdm09 group than in any other group. The distinct cytokine profiles in A(H1N1)pdm09-infected asthmatic mice indicated excessive inflammation and virus replication within a few days after infection. Thus, bronchial asthma could be a more exacerbating factor for pandemic influenza infection than for seasonal influenza infection.

Non-androgen secreting adrenocortical carcinoma in preadolescence: a case report and literature review.

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare malignancy in childhood. Affected children with ACC mostly present with virilization, but not the pure form of Cushing's syndrome. A 9-year-old Japanese girl was hospitalized, because of the unstable emotions and excessive weight gain. She was diagnosed as having Cushing's syndrome and a left adrenal tumor. The adrenalectomy led to the pathological diagnosis of ACC without metastasis. There was no mutation of PRKACA in the tumor-derived DNA, or p53 in peripheral blood-derived DNA. Testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S) levels were normal throughout the clinical course. On the other hand, these levels were elevated in all five reported cases of preadolescent ACC children with isolated Cushing's syndrome. The exceptional secretory behavior of ACC gave a diagnostic precaution of the rare pediatric cancer.

Minimum Transpetrosal Retrolabyrinthine Approach for Revascularization of Posterior Cerebral Artery: Operative Nuance.

BACKGROUND: Revascularization of the posterior cerebral artery (PCA) can be essential for treating complex cerebral aneurysms in the posterior circulation, and it is considered technically challenging. To help decrease the difficulty of this technique, we developed the minimum transpetrosal approach (MTPA). OBJECTIVE: The technical nuances of the MTPA were innovated by cadaver head dissections and an actual clinical case. METHODS: Four sides of the formalin-fixed cadaver heads were used to investigate if the posterior cerebral artery could be exposed with this minimum retraction of the temporal lobe in the subtemporal approach and the MTPA. By using the MTPA, 1 patient harboring a ruptured PCA aneurysm underwent superficial temporal artery-PCA anastomosis followed by isolation of the aneurysm. RESULTS: In the cadaver head dissections, we noticed that the PCAs were difficult to expose with gentle retraction of the temporal lobe in the subtemporal approach. By performing an additional retrolabyrinthine mastoidectomy, performed as the MTPA, all 4 PCAs were easily exposed in the 4 wide surgical fields. The maximum widths of the surgical fields above and below the PCA could be successfully measured in 2 cases, which were 13.3 mm and 11.2 mm, respectively (mean, 12.3 mm). Additionally, in the actual live surgery using MTPA, the PCAs were relative easy to expose with a surgical field wide enough to perform PCA bypass, which was performed without complication. CONCLUSION: The MTPA may be the most favorable approach for PCA bypass that can be performed easily with minimal temporal lobe retraction.

Cilostazol administration with combination enteral and parenteral nutrition therapy remarkably improves outcome after subarachnoid hemorrhage.

OBJECTIVE: In order to prevent cerebral vasospasm (VS) following aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), we introduced combined enteral nutrition (EN) and parenteral nutrition (PN) with oral cilostazol administration to the postoperative patient after SAH and investigated the effect on VS. METHODS: After aneurysmal SAH, 130 postoperative patients were enrolled in this study between April 2008 and March 2012. The patients enrolled before April 2010 were treated by conventional therapy (control group). The patients enrolled after April 2010 were administrated cilostazol 200 mg/day and received EN and PN simultaneously (combined group). RESULTS: The combined group consisted of 62 patients and the control group of 68 patients. Angiographic VS occurred in 33.9 % (n = 21) of the combined group and in 51.5 % (n = 35) of the control group (p = 0.051, Fisher exact test). The incidence of symptomatic VS was significantly lower in the combined group (p = 0.001). The incidence of new cerebral infarctions was also significantly lower in the combined group (p = 0.0006). Clinical outcome at discharge was also significantly better in the combined group than in control group (p = 0.031). CONCLUSIONS: Cilostazol administration with combination EN and PN is remarkably effective in preventing cerebral VS after aneurysmal SAH.

Development of near-infrared 35 fs laser microscope and its application to the detection of three- and four-photon fluorescence of organic microcrystals.

Femtosecond near-infrared laser microscope was developed with a home-built cavity-dumped chromium:forsterite laser as a light source centered at 1.26 microm. Optimization of the pulse duration achieved 35 fs fwhm at the sample position of the microscope after passing through a 100x objective. This system was applied to the detection of multiphoton fluorescence of some organic microcrystals. Excitation intensity dependence and the interferometric autocorrelation detection of the fluorescence clearly demonstrated that simultaneous three- and four-photon absorption processes are responsible for the production of the excited state for perylene and anthracene microcrystals, respectively. The spatial resolution along the optical axis and its dependence on the order of the multiphoton process were also discussed.