Search

Summary: Gliosarcomas are bimorphic intra-axial tumors. They rarely involve both the skull base and ventricles simultaneously. A case of temporal lobe gliosarcoma with significant infratemporal fossa and lateral ventricle extension is reported. The patient, an 82-year-old man, had gradual general weakness and a poor response to speech for 3 weeks. Neurological examination was unremarkable except for poor awareness and myoclonic jerks. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a 72-cm3 right temporal mass with extension into the infratemporal fossa and the wall of the temporal horn of the lateral ventricle, and consisted of intra-axial and extracranial components with extension to the cavernous sinus, dura, temporal bone, and sphenoid ridge. The patient underwent a right-sided craniotomy through the orbitozygomatic approach. Gross total resection was achieved. The histopathological diagnosis was gliosarcoma. Fractional whole-brain radiation and chemotherapy with temozolomide were administered subsequently. However, the tumor recurred 1.5 months after his initial treatment, and the survival time was 9.2 months. In the case of a mass lesion with both intra-axial and extracranial involvement, the simultaneous involvement of both the skull base and ventricles is highly unexpected, and gliosarcoma should be included in the differential diagnoses of brain tumors. The overall treatment and outcome will be difficult to determine if the skull base and ventricles are both involved. An extensive multimodality treatment might be effective in patients with gliosarcomas according to a review of the literature. The recurrence-free time of gliosarcoma with skull base extension ranges from 2 months to 12 months, and for gliosarcoma with ventricular extension, it ranges from 1.5 months to 2 months. The survival time of gliosarcoma with skull base extension ranges from 7 months to 22 months, and with ventricular extension, it ranges from 0.33 months to 9.2 months. Gliosarcoma with ventricular involvement might be a poor prognostic factor, and may help in the prediction of recurrence-free and survival time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: A 42-year-old man had a severe progressive headache and visual field defects due to pituitary apoplexy. Transsphenoidal resection of a pituitary tumor (measuring approximately 8.7 cm3) resulted in the complete relief of his symptoms. Histological examination revealed the presence of a pituitary adenoma and an inverted papilloma of the sphenoid sinus.This communication emphasizes the following: (1) mucosal thickening and an inverted papilloma of the sphenoid sinus can be a precipitating factor in pituitary apoplexy; (2) an inverted papilloma of the sphenoid sinus may increase intrasellar pressure and therefore increase the risk of acute pituitary apoplexy; (3) if imaging shows thickening of the sphenoid sinus mucosa, then a partial resection of the sphenoid sinus mucosa for histological evaluation should be performed during the transsphenoidal resection of the pituitary tumor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An ultrasonic microscope is a useful tool for observing living tissue without chemical fixation or histochemical processing. Two-dimensional (2D) acoustic impedance microscopy developed in our previous study for living cell observation was employed to visualize intracellular changes. We proposed a brain tumor model by cocultivating rat glial cells and C6 gliomas to quantitatively analyze the effects of two types of anticancer drugs, cytochalasin B (CyB) and temozolomide (TMZ), when they were applied. We reported that CyB treatment (25 µg/ml, T = 90 min) significantly reduced the acoustic impedance of gliomas and has little effect on glial cells. Meanwhile, TMZ treatment (2 mg/ml, T = 90 min) impacted both cells equally, in which both cells’ acoustic impedances were decreased. As CyB targets the actin filament polymerization of the cells, we have concluded that the decrease in acoustic impedance was in fact due to actin filament depolymerization and the data can be quantitatively assessed for future studies in novel drug development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study the acoustic properties of a B-mode image, two ways of analysis methods were proposed in this report. The first method is the conversion of an acoustic impedance image into a B-mode image (Z to B). The time domain reflectometry theory and transmission line model were used as reference in the calculation. The second method is the direct a conversion of B-mode image into an acoustic impedance image (B to Z). The theoretical background of the second method is similar to that of the first method; however, the calculation is in the opposite direction. Significant scatter, refraction, and attenuation were assumed not to take place during the propagation of an ultrasonic wave. Hence, they were ignored in both calculations. In this study, rat cerebellar tissue and human cheek skin were used to determine the feasibility of the first and second methods respectively. Some good results are obtained and hence both methods showed their possible applications in the study of acoustic properties of B-mode images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]