A human squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) from the floor of the mouth (FOM) was implanted by a needle aspiration technique in the FOM site of athymic nude mice. Mice were killed at 3-week intervals, and the oral cavity, mandible, and neck were sectioned and examined histologically. Tumor growth was observed in 65% of the animals, with histologic features consistent with the engrafted human invasive SCC. These features included invasion of connective tissue in 92%, invasion of muscle in 77%, invasion and destruction of bone in 54%, and vascular invasion in 15% of the mice. In contrast, FOM tumor implanted subcutaneously on back sites of nude mice was totally encapsulated by fibrous connective tissue with evidence of capsular invasion. SCC from other head and neck sites showed similar locally invasive growth after intraoral implantation in nude mice. The results demonstrate the invasive characteristics of human head and neck SCC grown in the homologous oral cavity site in nude mice and support the nude mouse as a biologically relevant in vivo model in the investigation of the biologic characteristics and therapy of head and neck carcinoma.
INTRODUCTION Magnesium is important for cardiac function. Hypomagnesaemia is associated with a higher incidence of arrhythmias and poorer outcomes in cardiac surgery. No studies have investigated the incidence or impact of postoperative hypomagnesaemia after abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) surgery. We aim to assess the incidence of hypomagnesaemia after AAA repair in our population. METHODS Retrospective analysis was performed of patients who underwent elective AAA surgery at a single vascular centre. The last 110 patients undergoing open or endovascular AAA repair were identified. The hospital pathology system was used to identify the immediate postoperative serum magnesium levels as well as patient demographics and admission details. Hypomagnesaemia was defined as serum magnesium of <0.7mmol/l. RESULTS A total of 211 patients were studied and there were 3 deaths. Of the patients included, 101 underwent open elective AAA repair and 110 underwent endovascular repair. In the elective open repair group, 73 patients (73%) were hypomagnesaemic. In the endovascular repair group, 35 (32%) had hypomagnesaemia. A t-test showed a statistically significant difference in hypomagnesaemia between the open and endovascular groups (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS AAA surgery is associated with a high incidence of postoperative hypomagnesaemia, which is significantly greater among open repair patients. This is likely to have an effect on cardiac activity and lead to cardiac complications such as arrhythmias and poorer postoperative outcomes, especially in the open AAA repair subgroup. This stresses the importance of serum magnesium and cardiac monitoring in the postoperative phase. A prospective study is proposed to further investigate these findings, and their potential implications on perioperative morbidity and mortality.
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