J Neurosurg Sci
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Intramedullary teratoma is extremely rare and to our knowledge has been reported in only nine cases in the literature. We report a case of mature cystic teratoma of the conus medullaris. The case was diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging and operated with microneurosurgical techniques.
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alphaII-Spectrin is the major structural component of the cortical membrane cytoskeleton. It is a major substrate for the calpain and caspase-3 cysteine proteases there are considerable evidence that alfaII-spectrin is processed by the calpains and caspase-3 to signature cleavage products in vivo after experimental traumatic brain injury (TBI). We sought to determine whether aII-spectrin proteolysis is a potentially reliable biomarker for TBI in humans measuring the levels of spectrin and spectrin breakdown products (SBDPs) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from adults with severe TBI, and studying the relationship between these levels and clinical outcome. ⋯ The present work provides the first evidence that protein degradation of alphaII-spectrin is a reliable marker of severe TBI in humans and that both necrotic and apoptotic cell death mechanisms are activated in humans following a severe TBI. Moreover, the temporal profile of degradation may be an important indicator of clinical outcome.