Spinal dural arteriovenous (AV) fistulas are the most commonly encountered vascular malformation of the spinal cord and a treatable cause for progressive para- or tetraplegia. They most commonly affect elderly men and are classically found in the thoracolumbar region. The AV shunt is located inside the dura mater close to the spinal nerve root where the arterial blood from a radiculomeningeal a...

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) drainage is a routinely used adjunct in thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm (TAAA) surgery which may reduce the incidence of perioperative paraplegia by improving the spinal cord perfusion. However, a small but evident complication rate of lumbar drainage should be considered. We present two rare cases of intracerebellar hematoma possibly due to excessive CSF drainage aft...

BACKGROUND Spinal cord injury patients, who manage their bladder using a condom catheter, are at risk of developing urine retention when they consume large volumes of alcoholic drinks within a short period of time. CASE PRESENTATION A male tetraplegic patient had been managing satisfactorily penile sheath drainage for 8 years. He went out socializing during which he consumed large volumes of ...

The investigation was carried out on 16 human foetal cadavers at the age of 17-23 weeks from the time of conception. The foetal vascular system was injected with the synthetic resin MERCOX CL-2R and analysed in scanning electron microscope.The vascular system of the foetal spinal cord was studied. The foetal vascular system was characterised by high variability concerning the number, course and...

background: hemoglobin (hb) and hematocrit (hct) have been used routinely in the diagnosis of neonatal anemia and polycythemia.   objective: to measure the cord blood hb and hct and to determine their association with maternal hb and hct.   methods : 170 healthy neonates born through normal vaginal delivery with gestation age of 37-42 wks and birth weight of 2.5-4 kg, and their mothers were inc...

background: hla compatibility between transplant donor and recipient is one of the major determinants of transplant outcome. objective: to determine hla class i by pcr- sequence-specific oligonucleotide probe (pcr-ssop) in cord blood donors. methods: genomic dna of 142 cord blood samples registered at the cord blood bank of iran at hematology, oncology, and bone marrow transplantation research ...

background: human umbilical cord blood (hucb) is an acceptable and readily accessible source of stem cells. there is an ongoing interest in cord blood stem cell therapies; however, little is known about the possible unfavorable effects of laboratory modifications on the isolated hucb cells. the involvement of mirnas in several biological processes has been shown. the aim of this study was to ev...

background: in recent years we have successfully adopted an in vitro hepatogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (mscs). in this protocol the biologically active hepatocyte-like cells were differentiated from the stem cells isolated from either bone marrow or umbilical cord blood (ucb) samples. the aim of the present study was to compare the efficiency of the hepatogenic differentiati...

cord blood is a rich source of hematopoietic stem cells and could be potentially used for transplantation instead of conventional sources of stem cells (bone marrow or peripheral blood). cord blood cells are successfully used in pediatric and adult patients, but their major limitation is the low number of hematopoietic stem cells for patients of large body size. there are several possible solut...