Breast deformity, in post-burn patients, is a common problem leading to lower self-esteem and reclusive behavior that impairs quality of life. The authors present the course of treatment of an 18-year-old immigrant girl who suffered second- to third-degree burns over approximately 20% of her total body surface area in her early childhood. The second- to third-degree burns were located on her right trunk and abdomen, as well as her right shoulder, neck, and right groin area. Since it was not offered in her home country, reconstructive surgery, including microsurgical breast reconstruction, was sought abroad. Due to the lack of available skin and soft tissue, a bilateral breast reconstruction with free transverse myocutaneous gracilis flaps was offered. This case illustrates one method of using microsurgery to address post-burn breast deformities in order to alleviate psychological suffering and improve quality of life.
Abdomen ; Adolescent ; Body Surface Area ; Breast* ; Burns* ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Emigrants and Immigrants ; Female ; Groin ; Humans ; Mammaplasty* ; Methods ; Microsurgery ; Neck ; Quality of Life ; Shoulder ; Skin

Objective: To evaluate the in vitro cytotoxic activity of the fractionated extract as well as isolated compounds of Arum palaestinum Boiss. ( A. palaestinum) (black calla lily), and to identify the volatile components which may be responsible for the potential antitumor activity. Methods: A. palaestinum was collected from its natural habitats and subjected to phytochemical analysis for separation of pure compounds. In vitro cytotoxic activity was investigated against four human carcinoma cell lines Hep2, HeLa, HepG2 and MCF7 for the fractionated extract and isolated compounds. While, the diethyl ether fraction was subjected to GC-MS analysis as it exhibited the most potent cytotoxic effect to evaluate the active constituents responsible for the cytotoxic activities. Results: Four flavonoid compounds were isolated (luteolin, chrysoeriol, isoorientin, isovitexin) from the diethyl ether and ethyl acetate. The extracts and the pure isolated compounds showed a significant high antiproliferative activity against all investigated cell lines. The GC-MS analysis revealed the separation and identification of 15 compounds representing 95.01% of the extract and belonging to different groups of chemical compounds. Conclusions: The present study is considered to be the first report on the cytotoxic activities carried out on different selected fractions and pure compounds of A. palaestinum to provide evidences for its strong antitumor activities. In addition, chrysoeriol and isovitexin compounds were isolated for the first time from the studied taxa.

The search for a parameter representing left ventricular relaxation from non-invasive and invasive diagnostic tools has been extensive, since heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (HF-pEF) is a global health problem. We explore here the feasibility using patient-specific cardiac computer modeling to capture diastolic parameters in patients suffering from different degrees of systolic HF. Fifty eight patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy have undergone thorough clinical evaluation, including cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), heart catheterization, echocardiography, and cardiac biomarker assessment. A previously-introduced framework for creating multi-scale patient-specific cardiac models has been applied on all these patients. Novel parameters, such as global stiffness factor and maximum left ventricular active stress, representing cardiac active and passive tissue properties have been computed for all patients. Invasive pressure measurements from heart catheterization were then used to evaluate ventricular relaxation using the time constant of isovolumic relaxation Tau (s). Parameters from heart catheterization and the multi-scale model have been evaluated and compared to patient clinical presentation. The model parameter global stiffness factor, representing diastolic passive tissue properties, is correlated signif-icantly across the patient population with s. This study shows that multi-modal cardiac models can successfully capture diastolic (dys) function, a prerequisite for future clinical trials on HF-pEF.