The heart is an unusual site of metastasis from any malignancy. We report a case of cardiac metastasis from colorectal cancer. A 70-year-old woman was referred with a presumptive diagnosis of sigmoid colon cancer with cardiac myxoma. Two-dimensional echocardiography showed a 4 cm × 4.5 cm mobile mass on the lateral right atrial wall, and computed tomography revealed a low attenuated lobulating mass in the right atrium. The patient underwent anterior resection for sigmoid colon cancer (T4N2). Thereafter, she experienced progressive shortness of breath. Therefore, a cardiac operation was performed 2 wk after the colorectal operation. Histological examination revealed adenocarcinoma, which was identical to the primary lesion. Although twodimensional echocardiography has become the diagnostic test of choice for detecting cardiac tumors, in patients with colorectal cancer showing a cardiac mass, further diagnostic evaluation such as a magnetic resonance imaging might be necessary.
Introduction: A functional total knee replacement has to be well aligned, which implies that it should lie along the mechanical axis and in the correct axial and rotational planes. Incorrect alignment will lead to abnormal wear, early mechanical loosening, and patellofemoral problems. There has been increased interest of late in total knee arthroplasty with robotic assistance. This study was conducted to determine whether robot-assisted total knee arthroplasty is superior to the conventional surgical method with regard to the precision of implant positioning. Materials and Methods: Twenty knee replacements, comprising ten robot-assisted procedures and ten conventional operations, were performed on ten cadavers. Two experienced surgeons performed the surgeries. Both procedures on each cadaver were performed by the same surgeon. The choice of which procedure was to be performed first was randomized. Following implantation of the prosthesis, the mechanical axis deviation, femoral coronal angle, tibial coronal angle, femoral sagittal angle, tibial sagittal angle, and femoral rotational alignment were measured via 3D CT scanning. These variables were then compared with the preoperatively planned values. Results: In the knees that underwent robot-assisted surgery, the mechanical axis deviation ranged from À1.94 to 2.13 ) in relation to the transepicondylar axis. In the conventional knee replacement group, there were two instances of outliers outside the range of 3 varus/valgus for the mechanical axis deviation. The robot-assisted knee replacements showed significantly superior femoral rotational alignment results compared with conventional surgery ( p ¼ 0.006). There was no statistically significant difference between robot-assisted and conventional total knee arthroplasty with regard to the other variables. All the measurements showed high intra-observer and inter-observer reliability. Conclusion: Robot-assisted total knee arthroplasty showed excellent precision in the sagittal and coronal planes of the 3D CT scan. In particular, the robot-assisted technique showed better accuracy in femoral rotational alignment compared to the conventional surgery, despite the fact that the surgeons who performed the operations were more experienced and familiar with the conventional method than with robot-assisted surgery. It can thus be concluded that robot-assisted total knee arthroplasty is superior to conventional total knee arthroplasty.
Background
Acute ischemic stroke secondary to aortic dissection (AoD) is challenging in the era of thrombolysis owing to the diagnostic difficulty within a narrow time window and the high risk of complications.
Case Report
A 64-year-old woman with middle cerebral artery occlusion syndrome admitted to the emergency room within intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) time window. Her neurological symptoms improved during thrombolysis, but chest and abdominal pain developed. Repeated history-taking, physical examination, and imaging studies led to the timely diagnosis and surgical treatment of AoD, which produced a successful outcome.
Conclusions
Clinical suspicion is invaluable for the diagnosis of this rare cause of stroke. Considering the stroke mechanism and complications, the risks of thrombolysis might outweigh its benefits.
Good quality Al 2 O 3 thin films are deposited on polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrates through atomic layer deposition (ALD) at temperatures as low as 35°C. Trimethylaluminum [TMA, Al(CH 3 ) 3 ] and water are used as precursors in the present study. Growth rates of 1.14 A per cycle are observed at 35°C, while the average arithmetic roughness (Ra) of the film is 0.86 nm.X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis confirms the high purity of the grown films with no carbon contamination. Good insulating properties are observed for the films and optical transmittance of more than 90% is recorded in the visible region.
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