background: radiosurgery is a focal brain irradiation technique that delivers, usually in a single session, high dose of ionizing radiation. the presence of lateral electronic disequilibrium and steep dose gradients in small fields demands special attention to the selection of a suitable detector with respect to its size, composition and response. materials and methods : small circular fields w...

Synaptic plasticity is considered essential for learning and storage of new memories. Whether all synapses on a given neuron have the same ability to express long-term plasticity is not well understood. Synaptic microanatomy could affect the function of local signaling cascades and thus differentially regulate the potential for plasticity at individual synapses. Here, we investigate how the pre...

The epithelial cells of the human parotid main excretory duct (Stensen) were studied by transmission (TEM) and scanning (SEM) electron microscopy through a variety of procedures that allowed the visualization of their three-dimensional microanatomy. Stensen's duct in humans is lined, in its distal portion, with a pseudostratified epithelium with tall principal cells and smaller basal cells, whi...

The microanatomy of healthy beaks and claws in passerine birds has not been well described in the literature, despite the importance of these structures in avian life. Histological processing of hard-cornified tissues is notoriously challenging and only a few reports on effective techniques have been published. An emerging epizootic of beak deformities among wild birds in Alaska and the Pacific...

Since the discovery in the 1970s that dendritic abnormalities in cortical pyramidal neurons are the most consistent pathologic correlate of mental retardation, research has focused on how dendritic alterations are related to reduced intellectual ability. Due in part to obvious ethical problems and in part to the lack of fruitful methods to study neuronal circuitry in the human cortex, there is ...

Stereotactic radiosurgery is being increasingly used for the treatment of both benign and malignant disorders such as brain metastasis, spinal cord tumors, intracranial blood vessel abnormalities and neurological/functional problems such as Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, obsessive-compulsive disorder and trigeminal neuralgia. The purpose of this report was to present our experience at the Depar...

OBJECTIVE To describe and synthesize the current stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) cost-effectiveness research to date across several common SRS and SBRT applications. METHODS This review was limited to comparative economic evaluations of SRS, SBRT, and alternative treatments (e.g., other radiotherapy techniques or surgery). Based on PubMed searche...

PURPOSE To report a method of electrode implantation in the ventralis intermedius nucleus of the thalamus for the treatment of tremor using a 3-D stereotactic MR imaging technique. METHODS Five patients (three men and two women; mean age, 59 years) with medically refractory tremor had intrathalamic implantation of a stimulating electrode. Stereotactic MR imaging was performed on a 1.5-T unit ...