Penetrating ulcer of the ascending aorta is a very rare pathological entity with known potential for progression towards intramural hematoma or dissection. Intraoperative diagnosis of an asymptomatic ulcer of the ascending aorta was carried in a 60-year-old male with rheumatic valve disease. The tubular portion of the aorta was slightly dilated (45 mm) and the aortic valve was tricuspid. A supr...

Biomineralization of the extracellular matrix occurs inappropriately in numerous pathological conditions such as cancer and vascular disease, but during normal mammalian development calcification is restricted to the formation of the skeleton and dentition. The comprehensive study of gene expression in mineralized skeletal tissues has been compromized by the traditional decalcification/fixation...

Fast, minimally invasive, high-resolution intravascular imaging is essential for identifying vascular pathological features and for developing novel diagnostic tools and treatments. Intravascular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with active internal probes offers high sensitivity to pathological features without ionizing radiation or the limited luminal views of conventional X-rays, but has bee...

Myeloid sarcoma initially occurring in the sacral canal is often misdiagnosed as other pathological tumors on MRI due to the lack of a definite history or clinical evidence of granulocytic leukemia. Here, we report a case of 24-year-old male patient with myeloid sarcoma misdiagnosed radiologically. On MRI, sacral myeloid sarcoma is characterized by homogeneous signal intensity, marked enhanceme...

We report a case of adenocarcinoma arising from a sacrococcygeal mature teratoma in an adult female. A 62-year-old female was diagnosed with a presacral tumor 10 years ago. Pelvic computed tomography (CT) demonstrated a presacral heterogeneous tumor, containing multiloculated cystic area and enhanced solid component with calcification. Percutaneous needle biopsy for the solid component of the t...

Cardiovascular disease continues to be the leading cause of death in industrialised societies. The idea that the arterial smooth muscle cell (ASMC) plays a key role in regulating many vascular pathologies has been gaining importance, as has the realisation that not enough is known about the pathological cellular mechanisms regulating ASMC function in vascular remodelling. In the past decade end...

Oxidative stress represents excessive intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which plays a major role in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. Besides having a critical impact on the development and progression of vascular pathologies including atherosclerosis and diabetic vasculopathy, oxidative stress also regulates physiological signaling processes. As a cell permeable ...

AIMS Aortic valve diseases are characterized by pathological remodelling of valvular tissue but the cellular and molecular effectors involved in these processes are not well known. The role of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, MMP-9, MMP-3, MMP-7, and tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1 and TIMP-2 are investigated here. METHODS AND RESULTS Histological analysis of pathologic...

background one of the most important causes of mortality in developed and developing countries is coronary artery disease. coronary artery disease (cad) may develop by deposition of lipid, fibrous or calcified debris on the surface of the coronary artery lumen. fibrous plaque and calcified plaque may cause substantial stenosis of coronary arteries leading to ischemia of heart muscle while lipid...