umbilical cord blood (ucb) has been used for transplantation in the treatment of hematologic disorders as a source of hematopoietic stem cells (hscs). because of insufficient number of cord blood cd34+ cells, the expansion of these cells seems to be important for clinical application. mesenchymal stromal cells (mscs), playing an important role in hscs maintenance, were used as feeder layer. apo...

introduction: umbilical cord blood (cb) has been identified as a rich source for hematopoietic stem cells (hscs), and has provided an alternative to bone marrow transplantation. the use of ex vivo expanded cells has been suggested as a possible means to accelerate the speed of engraftment in cord blood (cb) transplantation. the main aim of our study is to find the best culture media and conditi...

Thoracoabdominal aneurysm surgery is associated with a high incidence of morbidity and mortality. Spinal cord ischemia and the risks of paraparesis or paraplegia remain devastating complications. The mechanisms of spinal cord injury involve both acute ischemic injury and delayed reperfusion injury. Blood flow to the spinal cord frequently arises in the segment of the aorta requiring aortic cros...

Introduction: The aim of study was to compare umbilical cord blood selenium levels in respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) and non RDS preterm babies.    Methods: Umbilical cord blood selenium levels of all preterm newborn born during a 6-month period were enrolled in the study. They were divided into two groups: RDS and non RDS. Selenium level was assessed by using electro-thermal atomic ab...

background hypovitaminosis d has been associated with the development of gestational diabetes mellitus (gdm) in many observational studies. objectives we report the first study of the impact of prenatal vitamin d supplementation on postpartum dysglycemia in gdm patients in a randomized clinical trial. patients and methods women with gdm at 12 - 32 weeks of gestation were assigned randomly to ei...

the cytotoxic activity of natural killer cells is usually tested by radioactive assay csi cr release assay), which detects the release of cytoplasmic contents after plasma membrane disintegration of dying cells. in contrast to this indirect evaluation of cytotoxicity, the assessment of cell damage by flow cytometry aims to provide a more exact characterization of the death pathway via detection...

POSTOPERATIVE paraplegia resulting from spinal cord ischemia is a devastating complication of thoracic aneurysm (TA) or thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm (TAAA) surgery. Permanent neurologic deficits are a major cause of morbidity and may shorten long-term survival. Factors that are associated with the development of paraplegia are previous aortic surgery, preoperative renal function, age, aorti...

We present a case of a 49-year old man who suffered from immediate paraplegia upon awakening from anaesthesia after surgery for acute aortic dissection Type A. A catheter was promptly inserted into the spinal canal for cerebrospinal fluid drainage, and the cerebrospinal fluid pressure was maintained <10 cmH2O. Although magnetic resonance imaging showed extensive spinal cord ischaemia, the patie...

perimedullary venous drainage is known to cause slowly progressive ascending myelopathy involving first the lower limbs and then the upper limbs. Often sphincter disturbances are present (1, 2). Even though it cannot provide precise location of fistula, MRI appearance is virtually pathognomonic. A swollen cord with central myelopathy and engorged perimedullary veins are indicative of the diagno...