Search

Cerebrospinal fluid leak and pneumocephalus are rare but potentially devastating complications associated with translabyrinthine resection of cerebellopontine angle masses. Persistent pneumocephalus despite proximal eustachian tube (ET) obliteration is rare. We describe, to our knowledge, the first report of successful management of tension pneumocephalus by endoscopic endonasal ET obliteration using a novel V-loc (Covidien; Medtronic, Minneapolis, MN) suture technique.A 63-year-old man presented with altered mental status 10 months after translabyrinthine excision of a left cerebellopontine angle vestibular schwannoma measuring 2.8 × 2.9 × 3.3 cm. Computed tomography demonstrated diffuse ventriculomegaly and new pneumocephalus along the right frontal lobe, lateral ventricles, and third ventricle, and air within the left translabyrinthine resection cavity.The patient underwent left-sided endoscopic endonasal ET obliteration using 2-0, 9-inch V-loc suture.Postoperatively, the patient's mental status improved with a decrease in size of the lateral and third ventricles on computed tomography.Endoscopic endonasal ET obliteration, a technique previously applied to recalcitrant cerebrospinal fluid leaks, is a safe and reasonable alternative to reentering the original surgical site for patients with pneumocephalus after lateral skull base surgery. Utilizing a V-loc suture for this technique instead of a traditional suture may improve procedural ease and speed.

InGaN epitaxial layers were grown on c-plane sapphire substrates using the metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE) system at 760 °C. By varying the total flow rate of group-III sources (TMI+TEG) with a fixed molar ratio of group-III sources [TMI/(TMI+TEG)], the influence of V/III ratio were investigated from 4500 to 20000. The grown N-polar InGaN layers were investigated by atomic force microscopy and it is found that the surface roughness decreases with increasing the V/III ratios. High resolution X-ray diffraction analyses show that the phase separation decreases with increasing the V/III ratios. Photoluminescence measurements reveal that the peak position of the band-edge emission shifted toward the shorter wavelength with increasing the V/III ratios. Reciprocal space mapping (RSM) analyses were carried out on InGaN films. At low V/III ratio, the phase separation can be detected in InGaN films.

Background The adoptive and engineered chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells have demonstrated remarkable success in treating hematologic cancers; however, this success has yet to be extrapolated to solid tumors such as glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the survival efficacy using advanced CAR-T cells in orthotopic GBM mouse model. Material and Methods Advanced CAR-T cell, which reprograms the patient’s T-cells with a transgene encoding part of interleukin-7 receptor-α (ΔIL7Rα) domain in addition to the CD3ζ signaling domain and 4-1BB costimulatory domain in the advanced CAR gene to exhibit excellent in vivo persistence and anti-tumor effect of advanced CAR-T cells. In addition to the advanced CAR gene, TGF-beta converter is introduced, which converts the inhibitory signal of TGF-beta, an immunosuppressive cytokine overexpressed in the hostile tumor microenvironment, into the activation signal of the cytokine IL-18 in advanced CAR-T cells.DAY9 NSG mice bearing orthotopically xenografted GBM cell lines (1 × 105 U251MG expressing IL13Rα2) were randomized to 8 experimental groups. Each experimental group was intravenously injected with only once with different subtype advanced CAR-T cells (Td ~ 47.3% of 5 × 106) and monitored for survival. Results Among treatment groups, mice treated with advanced CAR-T cells of TGF-β converter subtype demonstrated a statistically significant increase in survival (p=0.042, 95%CI, 0.375-0.981) compared with other subtypes. In DAY9 orthotopic GBM mouse model, we showed that a single I.V. injection of advanced CAR-T cells targeting IL13Rα2-specific tumor achieved survival benefit. Conclusion This study is the first report to show statistically significant survival benefit in DAY9 orthotopic GBM mouse model using a single I.V. injection of advanced CAR-T cells, yet merits further clinical trials in real world of clinical setting.

SEM analysis shows that trace amounts of La in Zn–Cu–Ti alloy can eliminate dendritic segregation and produce uniform organization. Analyses of Tafel polarization curves and EIS show that La can obviously improve the corrosion resistance of Zn–Cu–Ti alloy by two features: (i) La oxide film has strong barrier properties; (ii) with an increase in La content, the thick skeletal dendrite ϵprimary crystal phase disappears and the more refined and dispersed ϵII phase is generated, leading to a decrease in the active cathode area. Zn–Cu–Ti–0.5La alloy has the best corrosion resistance. The corrosion of the investigated alloys is mainly selective.