This critical advance is widely expected to facilitate analysis of cellular physiological pathways in the context of human neurons and the underlying genetic factors that lead to disease.
Thus this technology opens the opportunity, for the first time, to characterize the physiological, toxicological, pharmacological and molecular properties of living human neurons with identical genetic determinants as human patients. Furthermore, armed with a complete clinical history of the patients, human iPSC (hiPSC) studies can theoretically compare patients and at risk groups with distinct sensitivities to particular environmental agents, divergent clinical outcomes, differing co-morbidities, and so forth. Thus iPSCs and neuronal lineages derived from S3I-201 cell line them may reflect the unique genetic blueprint of the individuals from which they are generated. Indeed, iPSC technology has the potential to revolutionize scientific approaches
to human health. However, before this overarching goal can be reached a number of technical and theoretical see more challenges must be overcome. This review seeks to provide a realistic assessment of hiPSC technology and its application to risk assessment and mechanistic studies in the area of neurotoxicology. We seek to identify, prioritize, and detail the primary hurdles that need to be overcome if personalized toxicological risk assessment using patient-derived iPSCs is to succeed. (c) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.”
“Introduction:
Acute aortic dissection (AAD) is one of the most common aortic emergencies that vascular specialists are asked to manage. Traditional surgical interventions for cases complicated by malperfusion have resulted in significant morbidity and mortality. With increasing availability of thoracic endografts, endovascular interventions for complicated AAD have become more acceptable. We reviewed our experience with endovascular treatment of AAD since January 2005.
Methods: Medical records of patients admitted for AAD from January 1, 2005, to December 31, 2008, were entered into our vascular registry and analyzed for risk factors, extent of dissection, type of management, fate of the false this website lumen, complications, and survival. There were 249 admissions for aortic dissections during the study period. Our study group included 28 patients with complicated AAD who underwent endovascular intervention.
Results: During the study interval, 28 patients (16 male) underwent 44 procedures. The average age was 54 years. Risk factors differed from the typical atherosclerotic patient and were dominated by an 89.3% incidence of hypertension. Five patients (17.9%) presented with a history of recent cocaine use. The average length of stay was 25.1 days (range, 1-196 days). Stanford type B dissections were present in all but one patient.