UW Neurological Surgery Recent PubMed Publications

CONCLUSIONS: The risk of rebleeding of a dural arteriovenous fistula with cortical venous drainage presenting with hemorrhage is increased in the first 2 weeks justifying early treatment. However, the magnitude of this increase may be considerably lower than previously thought. Treatment within 5 days was associated with a low rate of rebleeding and appears an appropriate timeframe.

CONCLUSIONS: Angiogenin and its receptor, plexin-B2, are a pair of novel regulators that mediate invasion, vascular association and proliferation of glioblastoma cells. Inhibitors of the angiogenin-plexin-B2 axis have therapeutic potential against glioblastoma.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: In pooled analyses of endarterectomy trials for symptomatic carotid stenosis, several subgroups experienced no net benefit from revascularization. The validated SCAIL score includes stenosis severity and inflammation measured by Positron-Emission Tomography (PET) and improves the identification of patients with recurrent stroke compared with lumen-stenosis alone. We investigated if the SCAIL score improves the identification of recurrent stroke in subgroups with...

Patients with fixed and dilated pupils (FDPs) due to rising intracranial pressure (ICP) typically experience a deterioration in consciousness. We describe an exceptional case of a patient with bifrontal contusions who developed worsening edema and a unilaterally FDP while maintaining consciousness and the ability to communicate. A 58-year-old man with history of hypertension and diabetes mellitus type II presented after being assaulted, with bifrontal contusions and right frontal...

CONCLUSIONS: Similar to kidneys, dd-cfDNA shows promise for rejection surveillance in SPK transplant recipients.

CONCLUSIONS: Upper parietal narrowing and occipital protuberance were the consistent deformities across age groups, with the most parietal constriction seen in older patients. Frontal bossing was not consistent and was more severe in the younger patients. The authors did not detect significant pterional constriction, and the appearance of constriction is relative to adjacent morphology and not absolute.

OBJECTIVES: Major depression is associated with increased morbidity and mortality in vascular surgery patients. The US Preventive Services Task Force and American Heart Association recommend routine depression screening for adults, especially those with cardiovascular disease. Since routine depression screening has not been implemented in most vascular surgery clinics across the nation, we sought to determine the feasibility of depression screening and understand the prevalence and predictors of...

Molecular diagnostic tests for Plasmodium falciparum parasites are increasingly used to enable ultrasensitive detection of infection in clinical trials and field surveillance studies. Ribonucleic acid (RNA)-based assays targeting 18S rRNA are particularly sensitive with limits of detection reported to comprise a single infected red blood cell (RBC) in a relatively large volume of blood. However, the validation testing at such limiting concentrations is hampered by the so-called Poisson...

This study was designed to determine how raw scores correspond between two alternative measures of functional recovery from traumatic brain injury (TBI), the Functional Status Examination (FSE) and the Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended (GOSE). Using data from 357 persons with moderate-severe TBI who participated in a large clinical trial, we performed item response theory analysis to characterize the relationship between functional ability measured by the FSE and GOSE at 6 months post-injury....

CONCLUSION: Re-challenge after pre-treatment with CCBs and nitrates guided by a cardio-oncology service was safe and allowed continued 5-FU therapy.

A key role of chromatin kinases is to phosphorylate histone tails during mitosis to spatiotemporally regulate cell division. Vaccinia-related kinase 1 (VRK1) is a serine-threonine kinase that phosphorylates histone H3 threonine 3 (H3T3) along with other chromatin-based targets. While structural studies have defined how several classes of histone-modifying enzymes bind to and function on nucleosomes, the mechanism of chromatin engagement by kinases is largely unclear. Here, we paired...

No abstract

Within the last decade, the science of molecular testing has evolved from single gene and single protein analysis to broad molecular profiling as a standard of care, quickly transitioning from research to practice. Terms such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, circulating omics, and artificial intelligence are now commonplace, and this rapid evolution has left us with a significant knowledge gap within the medical community. In this paper, we attempt to bridge that gap and prepare the...

Chondroblastoma is a rare bone tumor, most often found in epiphyseal plates of long bones. It has infrequently been reported in the skull, most often in the temporal bone. We present a case of chondroblastoma of the occipital bone in a pediatric patient presenting with a bony protuberance of the occiput and imaging consistent with obstructive hydrocephalus, which persisted even after removal of the obstructing tumor. Pathological examination demonstrated that this unusually placed tumor also...

BACKGROUND: Preventing new cases of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is key to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America initiative. In 2012, Truvada became the first medication approved in the United States to prevent HIV infection, yet it has not seen widespread use.

Innovations in spinal endoscopy technology and technique have broadened their applications during the past 10 years. Smaller outer-diameter working-channel endoscopes have permitted safe usage in the cervical spine for full endoscopic decompressions. Endoscopic fusions have now been widely reported, leveraging compatible instrumentation for disc preparation and expandable interbody grafts. This ultra-minimally invasive technique has also enabled the performance of fusion procedures in awake...

No abstract

The relation of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I (hs-cTnI) concentration and presence of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients without myocardial infarction (MI) is unclear. Study participants selected from patients free of MI who underwent coronary angiography with or without intervention were enrolled, and hs-cTnI measured. A gradient boosting model was implemented to build a model for detection of CAD. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to assess the association of...

Translation factors are essential for regulation of protein synthesis. The eukaryotic translation initiation factor 5A (eIF5A) family is made up of two paralogues - eIF5A1 and eIF5A2 - which display high sequence homology but distinct tissue tropism. While eIF5A1 directly binds to the ribosome and regulates translation initiation, elongation, and termination, the molecular function of eIF5A2 remains poorly understood. Here, we engineer an eIF5A2 knockout allele in the SW480 colon cancer cell...

Voltage-gated Ca2+ channels are critical for the development and mature function of the nervous system. Variants in the CACNA2D4 gene encoding the α2δ-4 auxiliary subunit of these channels are associated with neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. α2δ-4 is prominently expressed in the retina and is crucial for vision, but extra-retinal functions of α2δ-4 have not been investigated. Here, we sought to fill this gap by analyzing the behavioral phenotypes of α2δ-4 knockout (KO) mice....