Journal of neurosurgery
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Journal of neurosurgery · May 2016
Treatment of traumatic brain injury in rats with N-acetyl-seryl-aspartyl-lysyl-proline.
OBJECTIVE The authors' previous studies have suggested that thymosin beta 4 (Tβ4), a major actin-sequestering protein, improves functional recovery after neural injury. N-acetyl-seryl-aspartyl-lysyl-proline (AcSDKP) is an active peptide fragment of Tβ4. Its effect as a treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI) has not been investigated. ⋯ AcSDKP treatment also significantly inhibited the transforming growth factor-β1/nuclear factor-κB signaling pathway. CONCLUSIONS AcSDKP treatment initiated 1 hour postinjury provides neuroprotection and neurorestoration after TBI, indicating that this small tetrapeptide has promising therapeutic potential for treatment of TBI. Further investigation of the optimal dose and therapeutic window of AcSDKP treatment for TBI and the associated underlying mechanisms is therefore warranted.
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Journal of neurosurgery · May 2016
Comparative StudyMonopolar high-frequency language mapping: can it help in the surgical management of gliomas? A comparative clinical study.
OBJECT Intraoperative language mapping is traditionally performed with low-frequency bipolar stimulation (LFBS). High-frequency train-of-five stimulation delivered by a monopolar probe (HFMS) is an alternative technique for motor mapping, with a lower reported seizure incidence. The application of HFMS in language mapping is still limited. ⋯ Low-frequency bipolar stimulation sensitivity (0.458) and precision (0.665) were slightly higher than the HFMS counterparts (0.367 and 0.582, respectively). The error rate across the 3 types of language errors (articulatory, anomia, paraphasia) did not differ between the 2 stimulation methods (p = 0.279). CONCLUSIONS With proper setting adjustments, HFMS is a safe and effective technique for language mapping.
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Journal of neurosurgery · May 2016
A prospective Phase II clinical trial of 5-aminolevulinic acid to assess the correlation of intraoperative fluorescence intensity and degree of histologic cellularity during resection of high-grade gliomas.
OBJECT There is evidence that 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) facilitates greater extent of resection and improves 6-month progression-free survival in patients with high-grade gliomas. But there remains a paucity of studies that have examined whether the intensity of ALA fluorescence correlates with tumor cellularity. Therefore, a Phase II clinical trial was undertaken to examine the correlation of intensity of ALA fluorescence with the degree of tumor cellularity. ⋯ However, the NPV of utilizing the absence of fluorescence as an indicator of no tumor is poor. ALA intensity is a strong predictor for degree of tumor cellularity for the most fluorescent areas but less so for lower ALA intensities. Even in the absence of tumor cells, reactive changes may lead to ALA fluorescence.
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Journal of neurosurgery · May 2016
Rosuvastatin for enhancement of aneurysm neck endothelialization after coil embolization: promotion of endothelial progenitor cells in a rodent model.
OBJECT Coil embolization is a safe, efficient, and minimally invasive technique for the treatment of intracranial aneurysms. However, coil embolization is associated with a higher risk of recurrence than clip ligation. In this study, the authors explore a new approach through the promotion of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) to optimize endothelialization of the aneurysm neck and reduce the risk of recurrence. ⋯ Immunostaining showed that the aneurysm neck endothelium was more integrated and the number of kinase insert domain receptor-positive cells was increased in the rosuvastatin-treated rats. Further study demonstrated that rosuvastatin promoted EPC proliferation, migration, and tube formation. CONCLUSIONS Rosuvastatin promoted endothelialization of the coiled aneurysm neck via induction of EPCs, suggesting that promoting endothelialization provides an additional therapeutic opportunity during vascular endothelium repair.
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Journal of neurosurgery · May 2016
Screening for intracranial aneurysms? Prevalence of unruptured intracranial aneurysms in Hong Kong Chinese.
OBJECT The objective of this study was to generate data on the local prevalence of unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs) in asymptomatic Hong Kong Chinese individuals. First-degree relatives of patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) were recruited as surrogates of the general population and to explore the potential role of screening in this locality. METHODS The authors identified first-degree relatives of consecutive patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage from a ruptured aneurysm who were admitted to a university hospital in Hong Kong from June 2008 to December 2010. ⋯ CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of UIAs in first-degree relatives of patients with aSAH in the Hong Kong Chinese population was lower than that in Caucasians. At the same time, most of the UIAs detected in this study were small (85.7% were < 5 mm, vs 66% in a meta-analysis). With a similar incidence of aSAH in Hong Kong (7.5 per 100,000 person-years) as compared with data cited in the literature, the hypothesis that UIA rupture risk size threshold is different in Chinese patients should be further investigated.