Giant cell tumor (GCT) is a relatively rare neoplasm. In GCT, the bone affection of the axial skeleton is extremely rare. Most GCT arises in the meta-epiphyseal ends of the long bones. Its peak incidence is between 30 to 40 years of age. GCT is usually classified as benign, but shows locally aggressive behavior and may occasionally undergo a malignant transformation. The patients with GCT in the spine often complain of the lower back pains, as the tumors primarily involve the sacrum. We report a case of an adolescent female complaining of the upper back pain with a sudden weakness of the lower extremities, later diagnosed with the GCT of the T2 vertebra. The present patient showed American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale (AIS) D before the surgery, which changed to AIS E after the treatments including the surgery, radiation therapy and rehabilitation.

In a wireless sensor network (WSN), a large number of sensor nodes are deployed over a wide area and multi-hop communications are required between the nodes. Managing numerous sensor nodes is a very complicated task, especially when the energy issue is involved. Even though a number of ad-hoc management and network structuring approaches for WSNs have been proposed, a management framework covering the entire network management infrastructure from the messaging protocol to the network structuring algorithm has not yet been proposed. In this paper we introduce a management framework for WSNs called SNOWMAN (SeNsOr netWork MANagement) framework. It employs the policybased management approach for letting the sensor nodes autonomously organize and manage themselves. Moreover, a new lightweight policy distribution protocol called TinyCOPS-PR and policy information base (PIB) are also developed. To facilitate scalable and localized management of sensor networks, the proposed SNOWMAN constructs a 3-tier hierarchy of regions, clusters, and sensor nodes. The effectiveness of the proposed framework is validated through actual implementation and simulation using ns-2. The simulation results reveal that the proposed framework allows smaller energy consumption for network management and longer network lifetime than the existing schemes such as LEACH and LEACH-C for practical size networks.

Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) and syringomyelia are diseases of different entities. GBS is an acute post-infectious autoimmune disease which is mediated by autoantibodies against the myelin of peripheral nerves. Syringomyelia is a chronic disease characterized by a cavity extending longitudinally inside the spinal cord. A 67-year-old man is being hospitalized due to severe numbness and ascending weakness in all limbs. On neurological examination, the motor power of all limbs are decreased and show absence of deep tendon reflexes (DTRs). The patient is being diagnosed with GBS on the basis of the acute clinical course, nerve conduction studies of segmental demyelinating polyneuropathy, and a finding of albuminocytologic dissociation in the cerebrospinal fluid. The patient is presented with a new set of symptoms thereafter, which composes of sensory changes in the upper extremities, the urinary dysfunction including frequency and residual urine, spastic bilateral lower extremities, and increased reflexes of the knee and the biceps at follow-up examinations. The spinal magnetic resonance imaging in the sagittal section revealed a syrinx cavity between the fifth cervical and the first thoracic vertebral segment in the cord. The somatosensory evoked potential show sensory pathway defects between both the brachial plexus and the brain stem. Thus, this patient is being diagnosed with both GBS and syringomyelia. We report a case of symptomatic syringomyelia coexisting with GBS. Since the GBS is presented with a progressive muscle weakness and reduced DTRs, the muscle weakness and stiffness in the extremities suggests a concurrent syringomyelia might be easily overlooked.