Spirolactones are potent antagonists of the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), a ligand-induced transcription factor belonging to the nuclear receptor superfamily. Spirolactones are synthetic molecules characterized by the presence of a C17 gamma-lactone, which is responsible for their antagonist character. They harbor various substituents at several positions of the steroid skeleton that modulat...

The kidneys represent one of the main targets of ochratoxin A (OTA), a secondary fungal metabolite that is produced by certain species of Aspergillus and Penicillium. OTA has the ability to disturb Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cell pH homeostasis, leading to intracellular alkalinization and morphological alterations resembling those that occur when MDCK cells are exposed to transient alkali...

STUDY DESIGN Consecutive case series of patients with C6 and C7 radiculopathies. OBJECTIVES To explore the clinical utility and reliability of manual muscle testing of forearm pronation strength in C6 and C7 radiculopathies. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA EMG evidence of denervation of the pronator teres was the most common finding in C6 radiculopathies, and frequently present in C7 radiculopat...

BACKGROUND Radiographic parameters to evaluate the cervical spine in adult deformity using 36-inch films have been proposed. While 36-inch films are used to evaluate spinal deformity, dedicated cervical films are more commonly used to evaluate cervical spine pathology. The purpose of this study is to determine correlations between sagittal measures from a dedicated cervical spine radiographs an...

Study Design Systematic review. Objective In patients aged 18 years or older, with cervical spondylotic myelopathy or ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL), does sparing the C2 muscle attachments and/or C7-preserving cervical laminoplasty lead to reduced postoperative axial pain compared with conventional C3 to C7 laminoplasty? Do these results vary based on early active po...

Methods We evaluated 27 consecutive patients (26 females and 1 male) who visited our Institute for spine diseases (scoliosis or hyperkyphosis). With the patient in a standing position, we performed a set of tests with a 3-dimensional rastereography (DIERS Formetric 4D) with different SL (5mm, 10mm and 15mm) placed alternatively under each foot. We assessed the variations of two important elemen...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the change of latency of cervical dermatomal somatosensory evoked potential (DSEP) according to stimulation intensity (SI) and severity of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). METHODS Stimulation sites were the C6, C7, and C8 dermatomal areas. Two stimulation intensities 1.5×sensory threshold (ST) and 2.5×ST were used on both normal and CTS patients. RESULTS In moderate CT...

Normal graphs are defined in terms of cross-intersecting set families: a graph is normal if it admits a clique cover Q and a stable set cover S s.t. every clique in Q intersects every stable set in S. Normal graphs can be considered as closure of perfect graphs by means of co-normal products (K ̈orner [6]) and graph entropy (Czisz ́ar et al. [5]). Perfect graphs have been recently characterized a...

Correct screw placement is especially difficult in the upper thoracic vertebrae. At the cervicothoracic junction (C7-T2), problems can arise because of the narrowness of the pedicle and the difficulty of using a lateral image intensifier there. Other upper thoracic vertebrae (T3-6) pose a problem for screw insertion also because of the narrower pedicle. We inserted 154 pedicle screws into 78 ve...

BACKGROUND To evaluate the safety and efficacy of lateral mass screws at C7 in the treatment of cervical degenerative disease. METHODS Patients with cervical degenerative disease who underwent posterior cervical fusion and fixation from 2009 to 2015 were included in the study. All complications were captured. Postoperative X-ray and computed tomography (CT) confirmed fusion at 6 and 12 months...