Outcomes after reperfusion therapies in patients with ACA stroke: A multicenter cohort study from the EVATRISP collaboration

BACKGROUND

Patients with stroke secondary to occlusions of the anterior cerebral artery (ACA) often have poor outcomes. The optimal acute therapeutic intervention for these patients remains unknown.

METHODS

Patients with isolated ACA-stroke were identified from 10 centers participating in the EndoVascular treatment And ThRombolysis in Ischemic Stroke Patients (EVATRISP) prospective registry. Patients treated with endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) were compared to those treated with intravenous thrombolysis (IVT). Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals (OR; 95%CI) were calculated using multivariate regression analysis.

RESULTS

Included were 92 patients with ACA-stroke. Of the 92 ACA patients, 55 (60%) were treated with IVT only and 37 (40%) with EVT (±bridging IVT). ACA patients treated with EVT had more often wake-up stroke (24% vs. 6%, p = 0.044) and proximal ACA occlusions (43% vs. 24%, p = 0.047) and tended to have higher stroke severity on admission [NIHSS: 10.0 vs 7.0, p = 0.054). However, odds for favorable outcome, mortality or symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage did not differ significantly between both groups. Exploration of the effect of clot location inside the ACA showed that in patients with A1 or A2/A3 ACA occlusions the chances of favorable outcome were not influenced by treatment allocation to IVT or EVT.

DISCUSSION

Treatment with either IVT or EVT could be safe with similar effect in patients with ACA-strokes and these effects may be independent of clot location within the occluded ACA.

Rare tracheal tumor: Solitary plasmacytoma

Primary tracheal tumors are rare and trachea is an exceedingly rare site of extramedullary plasmacytoma (EMP). We report a case of solitary tracheal plasmacytoma causing symptoms of airway obstruction in a 59-year-old man. Flow/volume loop indicated the fixed central airway obstruction. Computerized tomography and bronchoscopy demonstrated a sessile tumor on posterior tracheal wall obstructing 80% of the lumen. Partial tracheal resection with T-T anastomosis was performed. Pathologic analysis of resected mass revealed EMP. Additional investigations excluded multiple myeloma. There are no signs of disease recurrence after 7-year follow-up.

Does preoperatively created right to left shunt adequately reflect hypoxemia during pneumonectomy for lung cancer?

BACKGROUND

No method is currently available for preoperative approximation of the patient's situation to the one existing during pneumonectomy in general anesthesia with alternations of single and double-lung ventilation in the lateral position. We hypothesized that a patient breathing the room air in the sitting position, with the main bronchus occluded by the inflatable catheter (aimed to predict a postpneumonectomy ventilatory function), could, at least in some aspects, simulate the intraoperative situation in certain clinical conditions discussed in the text. To evaluate the hypothesis, we used data of 15 candidates for pneumonectomy at increased risk, who underwent a spirometry with the left man bronchus occluded, as a part of the postoperative lung function prediction. Arterial blood samples (pO2, pCO2, saturation, and pH) were obtained before placement of the Fogarty catheter, than after at least 60s of normal breathing with the main bronchus occluded. Significant drop in pO2 (10.35±1.65 vs. 7.79±1.40 kPa) ensued within 1 min after occlusion of the main bronchus. All patients were able to perform spirometry in presence of induced hypoxemia without dyspnea that would require cessation of the procedure. These results, together with the absence of cardiac rhythm disorders, lead us to believe that they would behave in the same way during a pneumonectomy with alternations of single and double-lung ventilation. Such an assumption is based on the fact that breathing the room air is less favorable from the standpoint of oxygen delivery--the content of oxygen in the room air is smaller in the room air compared to that delivered through endotracheal tube. The practical implication of this hypothesis is that assessment of oxygenation during this procedure, additionally facilitates the preoperative risk assessment in patients undergoing pneumonectomy for lung cancer. Moreover, a slight postoperative oxygenation improvement and smaller loss in FEV1 in patients with moderate COPD, mean that COPD patients are likely to do a little bit better postoperatively than predicted.

Seizures in multiple sclerosis

PURPOSE

In patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), epileptic seizures occur more frequently than in the general population. The aim of this study was to analyze clinical characteristics of epilepsy in patients with MS, potential correlation between the semiology of seizures, EEG and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in these patients, as well as to examine the response to anticonvulsant therapy.

METHODS

In a series of 268 consecutive patients with definite MS hospitalized at the Institute of Neurology, Belgrade, we identified 20 (7.5%) patients with seizures or epilepsy. All patients with seizures or epilepsy were submitted to standard EEG and brain MRI with gadopentetate dimeglumine.

RESULTS

In four patients, epilepsy occurred 1-5 years before other clinical manifestations of MS. Eight patients had seizures only during MS relapses (provoked seizures). In two of them, seizures were the only manifestations of relapse. In 12 patients, seizures occurred regardless of the phase of MS (chronic epilepsy). In the majority of patients, seizures were partial with secondary generalization. Five patients experienced episodes of status epilepticus, and they all had dementia. Abnormal EEG pattern was found in 11 patients. Brain MRI disclosed cortical-subcortical lesions in nine patients and focal cortical atrophy in one, whereas in the remaining patients, findings were inconclusive. Probable EEG-MRI-seizure type correlation existed in 10 patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data suggest that epilepsy may represent an initial symptom of MS and a single clinical manifestation of a relapse, and further support the assumption of the existing correlation between the presence of cortical-subcortical lesions and epileptic seizures or epilepsy in patients with MS.

Correlations between mitotic and apoptotic indices, number of interphase NORs, and histological grading in squamous cell lung cancer

Proliferative activity of tumors is strongly associated with prognosis and response to therapy. The reason for faster and uncontrolled growth rate of tumors compared with normal tissue may be caused by the greater proliferation of cells, the smaller rate of cell death, or both. Cell production vs. cell loss rates, and their correlation with a grade of tumor cell differentiation (G) was estimated in 45 cases of squamous cell lung cancers (SCLC) by the use of mitotic indices (MI), number of interphase NORs, and apoptotic indices (AI) as parameters. The mitotic figures as well as apoptotic cells were observed on paraffin sections (4-microm thick) stained with haematoxylin and eosin, and with Feulgen reaction with Schiff-type reagent containing 0.5% Toluidine Blue. According to our results, all three parameters distinguish significantly (P < 0.05) between well and moderately or poorly differentiated groups, but not between the first two groups, and clearly discriminate between low- and high-grade malignancy. These results suggest classification of squamous cell lung cancers into two groups, a group of low and a group of high proliferative activity, despite their morphological appearance. Regression analysis revealed a significant (P < 0.0005) correlation between MI and AgNOR counts per cell nucleus as proliferative markers and AI as a marker of cell loss. The number of mitoses and apoptoses, especially when they are expressed as a percentage of the total number of tumor cells, are markers of tumor proliferation rate. They both can be used in biofunctional staging, based on cell kinetics, to provide more prognostic information about lung cancers than clinicopathological staging.

[Nontraumatic subcutaneous emphysema. Diagnostic and therapeutic problems]

Nontraumatic subcutaneous emphysema is less frequent than traumatic. Its occurrence, unless synchronous with the treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax, usually is the consequence of exacerbation of COPD or of the obstruction of major bronchi. However, in routine clinical practice, the occurrence of subcutaneous emphysema without evident underlying disease, in combination with normal chest x-ray, still is a diagnostic and therapeutic problem. In this study typical mechanisms of this phenomenon are presented; air-trapping at the level of the main bronchus caused by endobronchial tumour growth, progressive destruction of alveoles by diffuse lung disease irrespective of its nature, and mechanism of its occurrence during dealing with the urgent clinical problem in the intensive care unit. This study does not deal with subcutaneous emphysema during the attack of severe asthma assuming it as well known situation that usually does not cause a major therapeutic problem. The sequence of necessary diagnostic and therapeutic steps is discussed taking account of possible pitfalls that usually exist in all of three described pathophysiological situations.