A new method called PAIR (Puncture-Aspiration of cyst contents--Injection of hypertonic saline solution--Reaspiration) was used as a percutaneous treatment of hydatid cysts. In 37 patients, 120 cysts were punctured. All patients had not been considered surgical candidates. The cysts were localized in the liver, peritoneum, spleen, kidneys, muscles, and bones. In 70% of patients, good results were obtained. Recurrence occurred in 5 of 120 cysts, all at the beginning of our experience when a low concentration of sodium chloride solution was injected. Moderate allergic reactions occurred during seven cyst aspirations. No anaphylactic shock, sudden deaths or dissemination of cyst contents were observed.

No abstract

In five separate families, we identified nine individuals affected by a previously unidentified syndrome characterized by growth retardation, spine malformation, facial dysmorphisms, and developmental delays. Using homozygosity mapping, array CGH, and exome sequencing, we uncovered bi-allelic loss-of-function CDK10 mutations segregating with this disease. CDK10 is a protein kinase that partners with cyclin M to phosphorylate substrates such as ETS2 and PKN2 in order to modulate cellular growth. To validate and model the pathogenicity of these CDK10 germline mutations, we generated conditional-knockout mice. Homozygous Cdk10-knockout mice died postnatally with severe growth retardation, skeletal defects, and kidney and lung abnormalities, symptoms that partly resemble the disease's effect in humans. Fibroblasts derived from affected individuals and Cdk10-knockout mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) proliferated normally; however, Cdk10-knockout MEFs developed longer cilia. Comparative transcriptomic analysis of mutant and wild-type mouse organs revealed lipid metabolic changes consistent with growth impairment and altered ciliogenesis in the absence of CDK10. Our results document the CDK10 loss-of-function phenotype and point to a function for CDK10 in transducing signals received at the primary cilia to sustain embryonic and postnatal development.

The importance of this paper is threefold; first, little information is available in the literature regarding the magnitude and the diversity of spine pathology in patients with Goldenhar syndrome. Second, is to alert spine specialists that conventional radiographic assessment of the craniocervical area is an insufficient modality to assess children with syndromic associations. Third, a rotation and flexion deformity of the neck associated with facial asymmetry and/or plagiocephaly should be considered as a syndromic entity rather than a simple physiological deformation.

A group of syndromes, consisting of Malpuech syndrome, Michels syndrome, Carnevale syndrome, OSA syndrome, and Mingarelli syndrome share the combination of symptoms of highly arched eyebrows, ptosis, and hypertelorism, and vary in other symptoms such as asymmetry of the skull, eyelid, and anterior chamber anomalies, clefting of lip and palate, umbilical anomalies, and growth and cognitive development. It has been suggested that they are in fact part of the same entity. Here, we describe a brother and sister with the same constellation of symptoms, and compare these with the various entities. We conclude that the present patients resemble most patients with Carnevale and Mingarelli syndrome, and the case reported by Guion-Almeida, and that these patients form together most probably the same entity. We suggest the name Carnevale syndrome as this author described this combination of symptoms for the first time. Malpuech and Michels syndromes are probably separate entities, although they may still be allelic. Pattern of inheritance of Carnevale syndrome is most likely autosomal recessive.