World Neurosurg
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Neuronal apoptosis plays a pivotal role in spinal cord injury (SCI)-induced secondary cellular events. Caspase-dependent and -independent pathways are involved in neuronal apoptosis. Caspase-3 is the final effector of caspase-dependent apoptosis, whereas poly-ADP-ribose polymerase-1 (PARP-1) and apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) are key executors of caspase-independent apoptosis. However, it remains unclear whether simultaneous inhibition of the 2 apoptosis pathways will be more beneficial for neuronal survival. Therefore, this study investigated the ability of coadministration of the PARP-1 inhibitor 3-aminobenzamide (3-AB) and caspase-3 inhibitor z-DEVD-fmk to attenuate apoptosis in a rat SCI model. ⋯ These results suggest that combination therapy is beneficial for neuronal function recovery in rats with SCI. The underlying mechanism may be associated with cosuppression of caspase-dependent and caspase-independent apoptosis pathways.
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We sought to determine whether systemic inflammatory markers (SIMs) can be used to predict the pathological grade of meningioma before surgery. ⋯ SIMs obtained from routine preoperative laboratory testing had a limited ability to differentiate low- and high-grade meningioma in our cohort of 672 patients. Further prospective, multicenter studies with larger sample sizes are warranted to confirm this finding.
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Diagnosis and management of congenital anomalies of the spine can be a challenge because of their complex presentations. We present an uncommon case of congenital deformity of the spine with L4-L5 vertebral fusion, mimicking a single vertebra, and L3 spondylolisthesis treated by oblique lumbar interbody fusion (OLIF). ⋯ OLIF is a promising technique that can be applied in the management of degenerative disk diseases and also for deformities that may be formidable to treat by adopting the traditional posterior approach.
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There are few reports on the relationship between carotid artery stenting (CAS) and frailty. In this study, medium-term outcome after CAS in patients with asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis was examined to see the effect of frailty itself. ⋯ In CAS conducted for asymptomatic lesions, perioperative complications had no relationship with frailty. However, frailty is likely to be associated with lower activity of daily life in the medium term after CAS, and consideration of underlying diseases is required in patients with frailty.
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We sought to differentiate glioblastomas from solitary brain metastasis using arterial spin labeling perfusion (ASL)- and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)-derived metrics. ⋯ A combination of ASL- and DTI-derived metrics of the peritumoral part can be used for differentiation of glioblastomas from solitary brain metastasis.