Evaluation of normal tibial tubercle to trochlear groove distance in adult Turkish population.

PURPOSE: Many studies have confirmed the significance of tibial tuberosity-trochlear groove (TTTG) distance measurement for the preoperative assessment of tibial tubercle osteotomy and refixation of the patients that need surgery. TTTG distance is being used as threshold value for surgery decision. The purpose is to determine the TTTG values for the adult Turkish population and compare this with the values of other studies and establish a possible index. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted on 200 patients (97 female, 103 male) aged between 18 and 65 years, retrospectively, who had magnetic resonance imaging at Istanbul Medipol Mega University Hospital Radiology Department. Individuals with no knee surgical history and deformation included to research group, any deformities related with knee were excluded. The scans were analyzed in Picture Archiving Communication System program and compared with other populations. Significance was evaluated with independent Student's t-test. RESULTS: The mean TTTG distance was found 10.07 ± 1.60 mm in males, 9.96 ± 1.41 mm in females, and 10.02 ± 1.51 mm for total cases. There was no statistically significant difference between sex (P > 0.05). However, overall TTTG distance of right and left knees found significantly different (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Obtained results are similar with the results of Caucasian population but different than Asian. It is believed that these results will be significant in evaluation of patellofemoral disorders and helpful in treatment.

Association of SSR markers with contents of fatty acids in olive oil and genetic diversity analysis of an olive core collection.

The purpose of this research was to characterize an olive core collection using some agronomic characters and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers and to determine SSR markers associated with the content of fatty acids in olive oil. SSR marker analysis demonstrated the presence of a high amount of genetic variation between the olive cultivars analyzed. A UPGMA dendrogram demonstrated that olive cultivars did not cluster on the basis of their geographic origin. Fatty acid components of olive oil in these cultivars were determined. The results also showed that there was a great amount of variation between the olive cultivars in terms of fatty acid composition. For example, oleic acid content ranged from 57.76 to 76.9% with standard deviation of 5.10%. Significant correlations between fatty acids of olive oil were observed. For instance, a very high negative correlation (-0.812) between oleic and linoleic acids was detected. A structured association analysis between the content of fatty acids in olive oil and SSR markers was performed. STRUCTURE analysis assigned olive cultivars to two gene pools (K = 2). Assignment of olive cultivars to these gene pools was not based on geographical origin. Association between fatty acid traits and SSR markers was evaluated using the general linear model of TASSEL. Significant associations were determined between five SSR markers and stearic, oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acids of olive oil. Very high associations (P < 0.001) between ssrOeUA-DCA14 and stearic acid and between GAPU71B and oleic acid indicated that these markers could be used for marker-assisted selection in olive.

Identification of molecular markers associated with fruit traits in olive and assessment of olive core collection with AFLP markers and fruit traits.

The purpose of this study was to characterize olive core collection with amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers and fruit traits and to determine AFLP markers significantly associated with these fruit characters in olive. A total of 168 polymorphic AFLP markers generated by five primer combinations and nine fruit traits were used to characterize relationships between 18 olive cultivars. Although all olive cultivars were discriminated from each other by either AFLP markers (<0.75 similarity level) or fruit traits, clustering based on the AFLP markers and fruit traits was not significantly correlated (r = 0.13). Partial clustering of olive cultivars by AFLP markers according to their geographical origin was observed. Associations of AFLP markers with fruits were determined using a multiple-regression analysis with stepwise addition of AFLP markers. Significant associations between eight AFLP markers and fruit traits were identified. While five AFLP markers demonstrated significant negative correlation with fruit and stone weight, width and length and total polyphenols (P < 0.05), three AFLP markers displayed significant positive correlation with α-tocopherol and γ-tocopherol (P < 0.01). This is the first report on the association of molecular markers with fruit traits in olive. Molecular markers associated with morphological and agronomic traits could be utilized for the breeding of olive cultivars. However, the association power of these markers needs to be confirmed in larger populations, and highly correlated markers should then be converted to PCR-based DNA markers such as sequence-characterized amplified region markers for better utilization.

Prognostic value of serum Tie-2 and vascular endothelial growth factor levels in cancer patients.

BACKGROUND: Angiogenesis is a very essential process in tumor biology. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), angiopoietin and its receptor (TIE-2) are very important mediators for angiogenesis. In this trial, we aimed to analyze the role of these mediators on chemotherapy response and survival. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Forty four cancer patients and 22 healthy controls were included in the study. Baseline serum samples were obtained from all participants and post-chemotherapy serum samples were obtained from the cancer patients. Serum vascular endothelial growth factor and TIE-2 levels were measured with quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay techniques. RESULTS: The baseline serum vascular endothelial growth factor level was 187.5 and 120.2 pg/ml in cancer patients and the control group (p = 0.006). The baseline serum TIE-2 level was 615.9 and 242.5 pg/ml in the patients and control group (p < 0.001). There was a significant difference between patients' baseline and post-chemotherapy VEGF levels (111.9 pg/ml; p < 0.001) and patients' baseline and post-chemotherapy TIE-2 levels (344.5 pg/ml; p < 0.001). The overall survival rate was better in patients who had lower baseline VEGF and TIE-2 levels and whose TIE-2 level had decreased with chemotherapy. CONCLUSIONS: Higher baseline TIE-2 and VEGF levels are related and worsen survival. Decreasing levels of TIE-2, but not VEGF, which, with chemotherapy, may be predictive for survival.

The prevalence and significance of autoantibodies in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: are they correlated with clinicopathological features?

PURPOSE: It is well known that an association exists between the pathogenesis of lymphomas and autoimmune diseases. Autoantibodies are detected at higher frequency in lymphoproliferative diseases, but neither the precise role of the immune system nor the cause of this is comprehensively understood. In this study we evaluated the presence and significance of some autoantibodies for patients with non- Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). METHODS: 150 patients with NHL who had either newly diagnosed disease, or active disease being under chemotherapy or were disease-free during follow-up, were analyzed. The frequency of autoantibodies and the relationship between autoantibodies and several clinicopathological factors were evaluated. RESULTS: The majority of the patients (50%) had diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Thirty-two patients (21.4%) were newly diagnosed, 81 (54%) had active disease and were receiving chemotherapy and 37 (24.6%) were disease-free and followed-up. Fifty-one patients (34%) had stage IV disease. Antinuclear antibodies (ANA) were found in 7 (4.7%) patients, perinuclear anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (p-ANCA) in 10 (6.7%), anti dsDNA in 1 (0.7%), anti ssDNA in 16 (10.7%), anti Jo-1 in 3 (2%), anti-scleroderma antibody (anti Scl-70) in 4 (2.7%), and rheumatoid factor (RF) in 85 (56.7%) patients. No c7horbar;ANCA positivity was found. The mean levels of anti Jo-1 (p=0.028), anti ssDNA (p=0.014), c-ANCA (p=0.015), ANA (p=0.026) and RF (p=0.046) were significantly higher in cases with DLBCL compared to patients with non-DLBCL. In addition, in patients with newly diagnosed NHL the mean levels of anti Scl- 70 (p=0.023), anti Jo-1 (p7equals;0.017), and RF (p=0.046) were significantly higher than the other patient groups. No significant correlation was detected between the presence of autoantibodies and other clinicopathological factors. CONCLUSION: Our results show that the frequency of autoantibodies is high in NHL patients, especially in DLBCL and newly diagnosed cases. Autoantibodies may be helpful for the diagnosis of autoimmune diseases, but regular and long follow-up is needed in NHL patients with high levels of autoantibodies.

[Mid- to long-term functional results after Bowers' hemiresection interposition arthroplasty of the distal radio-ulnar joint]. / Mittel- bis langfristige, funktionelle Ergebnisse nach Hemiresektion-Interpositions-Arthroplastik (nach Bowers) des distalen Radioulnargelenks.

BACKGROUND: Bowers' hemiresection interposition arthroplasty of the distal radio-ulnar joint has been performed for decades, mainly for the treatment of osteoarthritis of the distal radio-ulnar joint. However, long-term test results are sparse. OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of a homogeneous patient population following a mid- to long-term postoperative follow-up interval after hemiresection interposition arthroplasty. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Twenty-five patients were evaluated 77.2 (±34.6) months after surgical therapy with regard to range of motion, grip strength and pain level. The subjective and objective scores DASH (Disabilities of Arm, Shoulder, and Hand) and MMWS (modified Mayo Wrist Score) were collected. RESULTS: Wrist mobility is not worse than 10.4° in relation to all directions of wrist movement compared with the healthy opposite side. Coarse grip strength is reduced by an average of 5.8 kg compared with the opposite side. The pain level decreased on average from 8.2 preoperatively to 1.8 postoperatively. Postoperatively, 22 patients (88 %) had a stable distal radio-ulnar joint. At the time of follow-up DASH averaged 26.7 (±21.4) and the MMWS averaged 78 (±15.7). DISCUSSION: Hemiresection interposition arthroplasty is a reliable and safe surgical technique with good subjective and functional outcomes in the mid- to long-term.

Imitation and mirror systems in robots through Deep Modality Blending Networks.

Learning to interact with the environment not only empowers the agent with manipulation capability but also generates information to facilitate building of action understanding and imitation capabilities. This seems to be a strategy adopted by biological systems, in particular primates, as evidenced by the existence of mirror neurons that seem to be involved in multi-modal action understanding. How to benefit from the interaction experience of the robots to enable understanding actions and goals of other agents is still a challenging question. In this study, we propose a novel method, deep modality blending networks (DMBN), that creates a common latent space from multi-modal experience of a robot by blending multi-modal signals with a stochastic weighting mechanism. We show for the first time that deep learning, when combined with a novel modality blending scheme, can facilitate action recognition and produce structures to sustain anatomical and effect-based imitation capabilities. Our proposed system, which is based on conditional neural processes, can be conditioned on any desired sensory/motor value at any time step, and can generate a complete multi-modal trajectory consistent with the desired conditioning in one-shot by querying the network for all the sampled time points in parallel avoiding the accumulation of prediction errors. Based on simulation experiments with an arm-gripper robot and an RGB camera, we showed that DMBN could make accurate predictions about any missing modality (camera or joint angles) given the available ones outperforming recent multimodal variational autoencoder models in terms of long-horizon high-dimensional trajectory predictions. We further showed that given desired images from different perspectives, i.e. images generated by the observation of other robots placed on different sides of the table, our system could generate image and joint angle sequences that correspond to either anatomical or effect-based imitation behavior. To achieve this mirror-like behavior, our system does not perform a pixel-based template matching but rather benefits from and relies on the common latent space constructed by using both joint and image modalities, as shown by additional experiments. Moreover, we showed that mirror learning (in our system) does not only depend on visual experience and cannot be achieved without proprioceptive experience. Our experiments showed that out of ten training scenarios with different initial configurations, the proposed DMBN model could achieve mirror learning in all of the cases where the model that only uses visual information failed in half of them. Overall, the proposed DMBN architecture not only serves as a computational model for sustaining mirror neuron-like capabilities, but also stands as a powerful machine learning architecture for high-dimensional multi-modal temporal data with robust retrieval capabilities operating with partial information in one or multiple modalities.

Gastric adenocarcinoma under the age of 40; more metastatic, less differentiated.

PURPOSE: Gastric carcinoma is relatively rare under the age of 40 years, and the mean age at presentation is 65 years. Histologically, adenocarcinoma prevails. Previous studies state that gastric adenocarcinoma under 40 is more aggressive. The present retrospective study was undertaken to clarify the clinicopathological characteristics of gastric adenocarcinoma in patients under 40 and to compare their clinical features with the patients over 40 years of age. METHODS: All of the patients with histologically diagnosed gastric adenocarcinoma who had applied to our department from March 2001 to September 2009 were retrospectively evaluated. Patients were stratified according to their age at diagnosis (≤ 40 years; group 1, and > 40 years; group 2). Their clinical, laboratory, and pathological characteristics were analyzed. RESULTS: 251 patients were studied. Sixty-eight percent of those under 40 and 46% over 40 had poorly differentiated histology (p= 0.036). Fifteen (60%) patients under 40 and 73 (32.3%) over 40 had metastatic diseases (p=0.007). CONCLUSION: Younger patients with gastric adenocarcinoma have less differentiated, more advanced and metastatic disease. Patients' complaints, tumor localization, metastatic sites and smoking did not differ significantly between the groups. Controversy for survival parameters still exists.

First-line therapy for metastatic colorectal carcinoma: modified FOLFOX4 or FOLFIRI-bevacizumab.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy and toxicity of modified (m) FOLFOX4 (folinic acid, 5-fluorouracil [5-FU], and oxaliplatin) vs. FOLFIRI-B (folinic acid, 5-FU, irinotecan, and bevacizumab) as first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal carcinoma (MCRC). METHODS: The medical records of 89 MCRC patients treated with either mFOLFOX4 (group 1) or FOLFIRI-B (group 2) as first-line chemotherapy were evaluated retrospectively. RESULTS: Complete (CR) plus partial response (PR) were seen in 18 (36.7%) vs. 13 (32.5%) patients in the mFOLFOX4 vs. FOLFIRI-B, respectively (p=0.67). Median progression-free survival (PFS) was 9 months (95% CI 7.2- 9.5) vs. 10 months (95% CI 7.6-12.3) in group 1 vs. group 2, respectively (p=0.30). Median overall survival (OS) was 22 months (95% CI 17.6-26.3) and 19 months (95% CI 13-24.9) in group 1 and 2, respectively (p=0.32). There was no statistically significant difference in grade 3-4 hematological toxicity between the groups, but grade 3-4 grade weakness, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting was observed more frequently in the FOLFIRI-B patients (p=0.03, p=0.01, p=0.05, respectively). CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that mFOLFOX4 and FOLFIRI-B are equally effective as first-line chemotherapy in MCRC patients. This may partially be explained by the fact that almost 50% of those receiving FOLFOX in the first-line received FOLFIRI-B in the second-gline, an observation suggesting that bevacizumab in the second line may be as effective as in the first line.

A retrospective analysis of women's chances to become pregnant after completion of chemotherapy: a single center experience.

PURPOSE: With the improvement in anticancer therapies, the survival of women with malignancies has increased and infertility may affect the quality of life of premenopausal women, who experience temporary or permanent amenorrhea due to chemotherapy. The aim of this study was to review the rate of pregnancies among women with malignancy previously treated with chemotherapy. METHODS: We retrospectively recorded 317 women younger than 40 years of age who were treated with chemotherapy (and a number of them with additional radiotherapy/RT) due to several malignancies between 2007-2010. The patients who got pregnant after stopping chemotherapy and during followup were analyzed. RESULTS: Among women with breast cancer (n=116), malignant lymphoma (n=85), ovarian cancer (n=26) and colon cancer (n=90), 20 got pregnant after a median 22.9 months (range 10.7-96.5) from the end of chemotherapy. Childbearing was uneventful and newborns were healthy. CONCLUSION: Women who had previously received chemotherapy for malignancy can get pregnant and deliver healthy newborns.

Is there any correlation among adiponectin levels in serum, tumor tissue and normal tissue of the same patients wih breast cancer?

PURPOSE: Adiponectin is secreted from adipose tissue and is characterized by hyperinsulinemia which is related with obesity. Although serum adiponectin levels in patients with breast cancer have been studied previously, adiponectin levels in the serum, tumor and normal tissue of the same patients have not been simultaneously investigated. The aim of this study was thus to evaluate the relationship among serum, tumor and normal tissue adiponectin levels in patients with breast cancer. METHODS: Fifty-three patients with breast cancer who were operated at the Dr. Lutfi Kirdar Kartal Education and Research Hospital, Department of Surgery, between February 2008 and June 2008, were analyzed. Their serum adiponectin levels, tumor tissue and normal breast tissue adiponectin levels were compared. The correlation between postoperative histopathological parameters, insulin resistance parameters and adiponectin levels was also examined. RESULTS: The mean adiponectin levels in tumor tissue, normal breast tissue and serum were 56 ± 9.6 ng/ml, 56 ± 10 ng/ml and 43.5 ± 3.1 ng/ml, respectively. The serum adiponectin levels were inversely correlated with tumor tissue adiponectin levels (p=0.001, r=-0.43). When tumor tissue adiponectin levels were increased, serum adiponectin levels were decreased. O n the other hand, there was a positive correlation between normal breast tissue adiponectin levels and tumor tissue adiponectin levels (p=0.0001, r= 0.850). The tumor tissue adiponectin level was inversely correlated with tumor stage (p=0.037 , r= -0.29). Moreover, in early-stage and low grade tumors, both tumor tissue and normal tissue adiponectin levels were high compared with those of advanced stage or high grade tumors (p=0.027, r= -0.32 and p=0.004, r= -0.408, respectively). In the subgroup analyses, no significant relationship was found between insulin resistance parameters and adiponectin levels (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that serum adiponectin levels were inversely correlated with tumor tissue adiponectin levels, but no relationship between normal breast tissue and tumor tissue adiponectin levels was demonstrated. Adiponectin levels in breast tumor tissue increase while serum adiponectin levels decrease. Adiponectin might play an important role in the prevention of tumor progression by decreasing tissue neovascularization.

Anxiety and depression in medical students related to desire for and expectations from a medical career.

OBJECTIVE: In this article, we aimed to analyse the anxiety and depression levels of medical student's related to their desire for a career in medicine and expectations from that career. METHODS: In a cross-sectional design, students from the first two years of medical school filled-out a questionnaire consisting of demographics, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scales (HADS) and questions about their medical career decision. RESULTS: The mean anxiety score was 7.66 +/- 3.21 and the mean depression score was 5.77 +/- 3.45. According to cut-off levels, 20.3% of medical students had anxiety, 29.3% had depressive symptoms. Males and second year students had significantly high levels of depression (p < 0.05). Students who were pressured to become doctors and who expected to gain much money were both more anxious and more depressed (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: External pressures, desire to become a medical doctor and expectations from a medical education have significant effects on anxiety and depression levels of medical students. Guidance for affected students is important and this is the responsibility of medical educators and faculties.

Is there a cut-off value for standardized uptake values in positron emission tomography for predicting response to treatment and survival in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer? Single center experience.

PURPOSE: Positron emission tomography (PET) is an important imaging technique for the diagnosis and staging of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In this study, we evaluated the standardized uptake values (SUV) of PET in NSCLC patients to determine whether there was a cut-off value for predicting response to treatment and survival. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 149 patients with locally advanced NSCLC. All the patients were staged by PET-computerized tomography (CT) after diagnosis. 18fluoro-2-deoxyribose (FDG) was used as the PET tracer. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to detect whether any prognostic factors were related to response to treatment. RESULTS: The median patient age was 60 years and the median follow-up time 10.3 months. One-year progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were 31% and 58.7%, respectively. The median OS was 15.4 months. Stage, sex and response to treatment were important factors for OS and PFS. We defined a cut-off value for SUVmax (the highest standardized uptake value for all cross sectional areas) as 10.8 by using ROC analysis. Multivariate analysis identified response to treatment as the most significant (p<0.05) prognostic factor for OS. Logistic regression analysis showed that SUVmax and weight loss were important for response to treatment. CONCLUSION: Multivariate analysis indicated that whilst response to treatment was an important factor for predicting survival, the SUVmax was also significant for determining response to therapy and a cut-off value for SUVmax was defined as 10.8.

Detection of human papillomavirus DNA by polymerase chain reaction and southern blot hybridization in colorectal cancer patients.

PURPOSE: The molecular mechanisms related to colorectal carcinogenesis are controversial. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the possible role of high-risk oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV) types in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Tumor, and corresponding normal mucosal tissue specimens were obtained soon after surgery from 56 patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma. We studied both neoplastic and normal colon tissues for the presence of HPV types 6, 11, 16, 18, and 33. After the isolation of DNA, the presence of specific types of HPV DNA was determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and southern blot hybridization. RESULTS: HPV DNA was detected in 46 (82.14 %) of 56 colorectal adenocarcinomas and in 18 (32 %) of 56 normal colonic mucosal tissue samples. Two or more HPV types were detected in 32 carcinoma samples. HPV type 18 (n= 40) and 33 (n= 32) were the most frequently detected types of HPVs in the tumor tissues. None of the normal mucosal specimens revealed HPV 18 DNA. The expression rate of HPV DNA in tumor tissue was significantly higher than that encountered in normal colonic mucosa (p <0.001). CONCLUSION: Detection of HPV DNA types 18 and 33 in most of the colorectal adenocarcinoma specimens suggests that HPVs may be related to carcinogenesis in glandular cells of the colorectal mucosa of our patient population.

Pertuzumab, trastuzumab and taxane-based treatment for visceral organ metastatic, trastuzumab-naïve breast cancer: real-life practice outcomes.

PURPOSE: In this study, we aimed to describe the real-life practice outcomes of pertuzumab-trastuzumab-taxane (PTT) combination in visceral organ metastatic, trastuzumab-naive breast cancer (BC) patients. METHODS: This study was conducted by Turkish Oncology Group and included 317 patients' data from 36 centers. RESULTS: Median age was 51 (22-82). Median PFS was 28.5 months, while median OS was 40.3 months. Patients with brain metastases (n: 13, 4.1%) had worse PFS (16.8 m vs. 28.5 m; p = 0.002) and OS (26.7 m vs. 40.3 m; p = 0.009). Patients older than 65 years of age (n: 42, 13.2%) had significantly lower OS results (19.8 m vs. 40.3 m; p = 0.01). Two hundred sixty-eight patients (86.7%) received docetaxel while 37 patients (11.7%) received paclitaxel. PFS and OS were similar between taxane groups. In eight patients (2.5%), 5-40% ejection fraction decrement from baseline was detected without any clinical sign of heart failure. CONCLUSIONS: Our RLP trial included only visceral metastatic, trastuzumab-naïve BC patients including cases with brain involvement who received PTT combination in the first-line treatment. Regardless of negative prognostic characteristics, our results are in parallel with pivotal trial. Further strategies for brain metastasis should be developed to improve outcomes despite encouraging results with PTT treatment. Taxane selection can be personalized and endocrine maintenance may further improve outcomes after taxanes were discontinued. To our knowledge, this is the largest scale real-life clinical practice study of pertuzumab-trastuzumab-taxane therapy to date.

Effect of pretreatment and membrane orientation on fluxes for concentration of whey with high foulants by using NH3/CO2 in forward osmosis.

Usage of forward osmosis membrane in FO mode, in which active and support layers of the membrane were in contact with the feed and the draw solutions respectively, provided higher initial water flux (12L/m2h) than the usage of membrane in PRO mode (6L/m2h) having opposite orientation but fluxes approached to each other after 4h during concentration of whey with NH3/CO2 as draw salt. High organic and inorganic foulants of whey was considered as reason for observed result in addition to lower solute resistivity. Initial water flux (8,5L/m2h) was lower when pre-treatment was applied before forward osmosis process but final flux (4L/m2h) was equal flux of non pre-treatment. Reduction of solute resistivity or absence of hydraulic pressure can be reasons for lower initial flux. Detection of organic carbon but absence of lactose in draw solution showed passage of molecules being different than lactose into draw solution.

Everolimus as an mTOR Inhibitor Suppresses Endometriotic Implants: an Experimental Rat Study.

Introduction Mammalian target of rapamycin is a pathway to block apoptosis. Recent studies showed that the activity of mammalian target of rapamycin pathway increases in endometriotic lesions. Aim of the present study was to study the effect of everolimus agent, a rapamycin analog, in an experimental endometriosis model. Materials and Methods Endometriosis established by the autotransplantation of uterine tissue in the peritoneal cavity was confirmed in 24 rats. The animals were then randomly divided into three groups to receive either everolimus (1.5 mg/kg/day, p. o.), anastrozole (0.004 mg/day, p. o.), or normal saline (0.1 mL, i. p.) for 14 days. Endometriotic foci were excised, stained with hematoxylin and eosin, and endometriosis was scored semiquantitatively. In addition, immunohistochemical examination were performed using primary antibodies of vascular endothelial growth factor, CD117, and Bax. Results Both anastrozole and everolimus lowered endometriosis scores. Significant decreases in ovarian follicles were observed following anastrozole treatment but not everolimus treatment. Conclusion Through its apoptosis-promoting effect, everolimus suppressed endometriotic foci without negatively affecting ovarian reserve. These findings support the hypothesis that everolimus merits further study on the way to developing a new endometriosis drug.

A morphometric study and variations on the lumbar arteries of human fetuses.

Lumbar arteries are in series with the posterior intercostal arteries. The aim of this study has been to investigate the morphometric data on the abdominal aorta of the human fetus and define different types of origin variations of the lumbar artery. Initially, the latex solution colored with red ink was injected into the thoracic aorta. The abdominal aorta and its branches were dissected and examined bilaterally in 120 fetuses (ranging between 16 and 32 post-menstrual weeks) and the anatomic variations recorded. Fourteen fetuses with variations were studied and photographed. The origins and morphologic variations of the lumbar arteries were defined and classified. The morphological relationship of the lumbar arteries to the abdominal aorta and the length and width (diameter) of the vessels were investigated by performing measurements using a digital calliper (mm). The frequency and the types of the different variations determined in the present study have been listed. Abdominal aortic branches and Lumbar artery aneurysms are rare lesions with potentially life-threatening consequences and they are difficult to access anatomically and formidable to manage operatively. During the performance of conventional or open surgical replacement of an abdominal aortic aneurysm with prosthetic grafts, the surgeon needs precise knowledge of the anatomy of the abdominal aortic branches and immediate retroperitoneal structures. The variations on the lumbar arteries may have clinical importance. When this region is under diagnostic and/or surgical investigation using computed tomography scan or diagnostic angiography, the possibility of these variations should be take into consideration to avoid complications.