Immunostaining for Topo IIalpha represents a useful alternative to MIB-1 as a proliferative index in human gliomas.

No abstract

A 57-year-old male presented with a traumatic dissecting aneurysm of the distal, extracranial internal carotid artery (ICA). Stent placement resulted in complete occlusion of the aneurysm and preservation of the carotid blood flow. He also had an atherosclerotic stenosis of the ipsilateral middle cerebral ar tery, which was uneventfully treated by angioplasty 3 months after stent placement. Endovascular reconstruction of the ICA with a stent may be the best way to occlude dissecting aneurysms, especially in patients who cannot tolerate ICA occlusion, are at risk from delayed ischemia, or have wide-necked or multiple aneurysms.

The authors report two cases of pseudoaneurysm of the cervical carotid artery treated with endovascular stenting. One patient presented with cerebral ischemia due to traumatic carotid dissection and underwent stent placement 3 weeks after injury when the wide-necked pseudoaneurysm was seen to enlarge at the dissecting portion. The aneurysm thrombosed while the carotid artery remained patent without ischemic complications for 2 years. The other patient developed repeated massive bleeding from an exposed pseudoaneurysm at the right carotid-subclavian junction resulting from radiotherapy for thyroid cancer with subsequent skin infection. Since skin grafting failed and two attempts at coil embolization resulted in compaction with recurrent enlargement of the aneurysm, endovascular stenting was performed with endosaccular coil packing between the stent struts. Hemostasis was achieved for 2 months. Both cases illustrate successes of the stent in highly difficult situations.

Introduction of the HSV-tk gene in a DNA-liposome complex followed by ganciclovir treatment induced both apoptosis and necrosis, which together resulted in a potent antitumor effect.