Behçet's disease (BD) was first described by Hulusi Behçet in 1937 as a triad of oral aphthae, genital ulcers and uveitis. It affects most of tissues and organs without exception and has a prevalence ...of neurologic involvement between 5 and 30%. Histopathological research of autopsy cases is limited, even though the cause of death is confirmed in this study.
A 30-years-old man without prior medical history of interest debuting with a BD with progressive neurological manifestations and fatal evolution. The autopsy showed, in gross examination, oral and scrotal ulcers. Moreover, the brain revealed a marked cerebral edema, opaque leptomeninges and hemorrhagic infarction of the left frontal lobule extended to the homolateral ventricular cavity. In the brain stem, multiples hemorrhagic infarctions and hemorrhage in the fourth ventricle. The microscopic examination showed a generalized perivascular lymphocytic and neutrophilic inflammation in small and medium vessels with intense diapedesis bleeding. This phenomenon was predominant in brain stem.
The necropsy studies of patients with neuro-Behcet's disease are scarce. We report the clinicopathological findings in a patient with BD and neurological involvement, in which stands out a cerebral vascular affectation predominant in brain stem.
In this work, we study a family of Cremona transformations of weighted projective planes which generalize the standard Cremona transformation of the projective plane. Starting from special plane ...projective curves we construct families of curves in weighted projective planes with special properties. We explain how to compute the fundamental groups of their complements, using the blow-up-down decompositions of the Cremona transformations, we find examples of Zariski pairs in weighted projective planes (distinguished by the Alexander polynomial). As another application of this machinery we study a family of singularities called weighted L\^{e}-Yomdin, which provide infinite examples of surface singularities with a rational homology sphere link. To end this paper we also study a family of surface singularities generalizing Brieskorn-Pham singularities in a different direction. This family contains infinitely many new examples of integral homology sphere links, answering a question by Némethi.
Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a myeloproliferative disorder characterized by clonal expansion of cells in the myeloid line, expressing the BCR-ABL fusion protein responsible for the oncogenic ...effect of CML. The current frontline therapy in CML is the BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitor, Imatinib. Although this drug has been shown to improve survival in CML patients, its role in the context of a transplant setting has not been widely described in the literature. We report on the long term molecular remission of CML in a 55 year old man with a second renal transplant who is hepatitis C virus positive, and has associated cardiovascular and immunological risk factors.
Esnault-Viehweg developed the theory of cyclic branched coverings \(\tilde X\to X\) of smooth surfaces providing a very explicit formula for the decomposition of \(H^1(\tilde X,\mathbb{C})\) in terms ...of a resolution of the ramification locus. Later, the first author applies this to the particular case of coverings of \(\mathbb{P}^2\) reducing the problem to a combination of global and local conditions on projective curves. In this paper we extend the above results in three directions: first, the theory is extended to surfaces with quotient singularities, second the ramification locus can be partially resolved and need not be reduced, and finally global and local conditions are given to describe the irregularity of cyclic branched coverings of the weighted projective plane. The techniques required for these results are conceptually different and provide simpler proofs for the classical results. For instance, the local contribution comes from certain modules that have the flavor of quasi-adjunction and multiplier ideals on singular surfaces. As an application, a Zariski pair of curves on a singular surface is described. In particular, we prove the existence of two cuspidal curves of degree 12 in the weighted projective plane \(\mathbb{P}^2_{(1,1,3)}\) with the same singularities but non-homeomorphic embeddings. This is shown by proving that the cyclic covers of \(\mathbb{P}^2_{(1,1,3)}\) of order 12 ramified along the curves have different irregularity. In the process, only a partial resolution of singularities is required.
A complete radiometer simulation framework with special emphasis on high frequencies and switched system performance is proposed. The simulation procedures have been tested on a system configuration ...used in a branch of the 30-GHz Planck Radiometer, which detects radiation from the cosmic microwave background in a window with 20% relative bandwidth centered at 30 GHz. The goal of the article is not to obtain detailed conclusions about this radiometer in particular but to test the viability of proposed techniques in a realistic context. Basic RF performance of an ideal and a more realistic version of the radiometer is compared. Furthermore, the whole system simulation is implemented in the frequency domain and the time domain, on the same platform that is used to design separate microwave components, introducing realistic parameters for the high-frequency components, such us measured S parameters of the amplifiers and measured current-voltage characteristics of the detectors.
Pretransplantation anti-major histocompatibility complex class I chain-related molecule A (MICA) sensitization is an uncommon event and its role on kidney graft evolution is not completely defined.
A ...retrospective study of patients transplanted between 2005 and 2011 in our center (n=727) was performed. Recipients were classified in four groups, according either to multiplexed flow cytometry-recorded anti-human leukocyte antigen (HLA) and anti-MICA antibodies or to percent panel-reactive antibody (PRA; by complement-dependent cytotoxicity) and anti-MICA antibodies.
In the total cohort, 52 (7.15%) patients had preformed anti-MICA antibodies, and these were not related with anti-HLA, previous transplantations, or recipient female sex (potential pregnancies). Kaplan-Meier curves showed global allograft survival differences (P=0.042) mostly due to pronounced decrease in PRA+MICA+ group early after transplantation. Biopsy-proven allograft rejection rate increased after month 12 in PRA+MICA- group and was higher early after transplantation in PRA+MICA+ group (P=0.033). In paired comparisons, rejection incidence was superior in PRA+MICA- versus PRA-MICA- patients (17% vs. 7%; P=0.007) at 24 months, confirming the widely reported deleterious effect of PRA+ status, but at 3 months rejection was higher in PRA+MICA+ versus PRA-MICA- patients (14% vs. 2%; P=0.009). Among patients categorized according anti-HLA and anti-MICA antibodies, the most striking difference in rejection was observed at 3 months (8% in HLA-MICA+ vs. 2% in HLA-MICA- patients; P=0.032). In the multivariate analysis, HLA-MICA+ status at 3 months independently conferred the highest risk for rejection (odds ratio, 5.07; P=0.049).
Pretransplantation sensitization against MICA and HLA are independent events. Preformed anti-MICA antibodies independently increase risk for kidney rejection and enhance the deleterious effect of PRA+ status early after transplantation.