Mineralization and ossification in the human costal cartilages were studied radiologically. The aim of our study was to evaluate differences between males and females with respect to patterns of costal cartilage calcification and also with respect to ageing. Material for this study consists of 1044 chest and abdominal radiograms of the Czech population from the Department of Radiology (537 males and 507 females).Further radiograms of 18 chest plates were obtained at routine necropsy of cadavers. The radiograms were examined for pattern of ossification of the costal cartilage. The first rib cartilages were not considered because there are no sex differences.The lower ribs exhibit sexual dimorphism. Mineralization and ossification changes appear at the end of puberty and their occurrence increases with age. The sexual difference in pattern of human costal cartilages is statistically significant and thus highly predictive of sex determination.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease with significant morbidity and mortality. Recent studies suggest that modulation of adenosine signaling, a potent immunosuppressive pathway, is a promising approach for treatment of RA. Extracellular adenosine can come from two sources: transport of intracellular adenosine and hydrolysis of extracellular adenine nucleotides by CD73. In this study, we investigated the susceptibility of CD73-deficient C57BL/6 mice to collagen-induced arthritis (CIA), a well-established mouse model of RA. Our data demonstrated that CD73-deficient mice are significantly more susceptible to CIA than wild-type mice. CD73 deficiency resulted in an increased production of proinflammatory cytokines in the joints, increased Th1 T cell responses, and increased joint destruction. Surprisingly, this was accompanied by delayed anticollagen IgG responses, suggesting defective isotype class switching in CD73-deficient mice. Using bone marrow chimera mice, we demonstrated that CD73 expression on nonhematopoietic cells, but not on hematopoietic cells, was important for protection from CIA. We further demonstrated that administration of a selective A2A adenosine receptor agonist to CD73-deficient mice resulted in arthritis incidence similar to wild-type mice in support of a protective role for A2A signaling. Taken together, our study identifies CD73 as an important regulator of CIA in mice. It also strengthens the notion that CD73-generated adenosine by nonhematopoietic cells plays a protective role in RA and suggests that strategies able to enhance CD73 activity or expression levels may be a valid therapeutic option.

The authors report on a neonate with oesophageal atresia and tracheo-oesophageal fistula associated with bilateral anophthalmia and duplication of the left kidney.The combination of oesophageal atresia and anophthalmia has been reported in the literature several times before. We here report a boy with this disorder, with the additional feature of renal duplex.A term baby boy born spontaneously to a 25-year-old mother was admitted to our department on the 2nd day of life because of suspected oesophageal atresia and fused eyelids. The family history did not reveal any malformations. There was no history of abortions, miscarriages or consanguinity. The prenatal period was normal except for maternal penicillin treatment of acute tonsillitis in the 2nd month of gestation and mild respiratory infection in the 4th month of gestation.At birth, the baby had apparently fused eyelids without palpable eyeballs. Oral secretions were excessive. Attempts to pass a feeding tube failed. His genitals were normal without hypospadias or cryptorchism. Apgar scores were 9, 9, and 10 at 1.5 and 10 min, respectively. Birth weight was 3480 g, length was 52 cm and occipital-frontal-circumference was 32 cm.Radiological investigation revealed oesophageal atresia/Vogt type IIIB/ with distal tracheo-oesophageal fistula, both repaired within 24 h after admission. He received total parenteral nutrition until the 3rd postoperative day, at which time oral feeding was begun. MRI was performed on the 16th day of life and disclosed aplasia of the eyeballs, optic nerves and chiasm (Fig. 1). Mild dysgenesis of the corpus callosum was also noted. Moreover, duplication of the left kidney was detected on abdominal ultrasound whereas the right kidney was reported as normal. Diagnostic tests included a normal echocardiogram and chromosome analysis revealed a normal 46,XY karyotype.Despite a special rehabilitation programme, the boy showed a significant delay in psychomotor development at the age of 18 months which was greater than that in other blind children of the same age.Similar cases of associated anophthalmia and oesophageal atresia (McKusick 600992) have been reported in the literature. The first such case, described Fig. 1 Transverse T2-weighted MR image showing bilateral ocular aplasia and absence of the optic nerves. The intra-orbital muscles are hypotrophic but developed Eur

Diffeomorphic shape registration allows for the seamless geometric alignment of shapes. In this study, we demonstrated the use of a registration algorithm to automatically seed anthropological landmarks on the CT images of the pelvis. We found a high correlation between manually and automatically seeded landmarks. The registration algorithm makes it possible to achieve a high degree of automation with the potential to reduce operator errors in the seeding of anthropological landmarks. The results of this study represent a promising step forward in effectively defining the anthropological measures of the human skeleton.

No abstract