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Objective: To evaluate the effects of plasma total homocysteine (tHcyt) and the MTHFR 677C>T polymorphism on determining the intracranial- (IC) and extracranial (EC) locations of atherosclerosis., Methods: Brain MR angiography was performed on 463 patients with symptomatic ischaemic stroke to detect significant atherosclerosis (more than 50% stenosis of vessel diameter) in the IC- and EC arteries. Relationships between IC- or EC atherosclerosis and plasma tHcyt level and/or MTHFR 677C>T genotypes were analyzed after adjusting for vascular risk factors., Results: The odd ratios (ORs) of plasma tHcyt were not significantly higher in patients with either IC- or EC atherosclerosis than in patients with no atherosclerosis. When the study subjects were stratified into three subgroups according to their plasma tHcyt levels, neither the crude ORs nor adjusted ORs of each IC- and EC atherosclerosis in highest and middle plasma tHcyt tertile were significantly different from those in lowest plasma tHcyt tertile. The ORs of the MTHFR 677TT genotype in IC- and EC atherosclerosis were not significantly different from those in no atherosclerosis. There was no dose-dependent effect of MTHFR 677T allele on either IC- or EC atherosclerosis., Conclusion: Plasma tHcyt level and the MTHFR 677C>T polymorphism do not contribute to the distribution of cervico-cerebral atherosclerosis in ischaemic stroke patients., (© 2010 The Author(s). European Journal of Neurology © 2010 EFNS.)

Five matched pairs of fresh human femurs were used to quantitatively assess the structural integrity of the implanted Wright Medical Technology modular Infinity hip and the Osteonics single-piece Omnifit hip. The results showed that neither bone implant system was able to recreate the femoral anteversion of the intact femur (p < 0.05). Although the micromotion at the bone-implant interface was well within the limits of achieving bone ingrowth, the axial micromotion was greater for the Infinity hip than for the Omnifit hip (p < 0.05), but the rotational micromotion did not show a significant difference between the two bone implant systems (p > 0.5). The anterior proximal femur deformation patterns were similar for both the two bone implant systems and intact femurs. However, the medial proximal femur deformation patterns showed that the Infinity hip-implanted femur was more similar to the intact femur than the Osteonics Omnifit hip-implanted femur.

Locked-in syndrome due to midbrain infarct is very rare. This report describes a patient with locked-in syndrome whose magnetic resonance images showed bilateral infarcts in the cerebral peduncle. Cerebral angiography disclosed bilateral irregular thrombotic narrowing of the vertebral and proximal basilar arteries with rostral basilar artery occlusion, a previously unreported findings.