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✓ Retroodontoid or periodontoid pseudotumor unassociated with rheumatoid arthritis or hemodialysis is clinically rare. The authors report three cases of retroodontoid pseudotumor that they treated surgically. All patients exhibited myelopathy of the upper cervical spinal cord. Plain radiography depicted atlantoaxial instability in two of the three patients. Spinal cord compression caused by a mass lesion in all patients was clearly demonstrated on magnetic resonance images. In two patients, the mass lesion was not limited to the retroodontoid region and expanded continuously to the cranial base. Posterior laminectomy of the atlas and occipitocervical fusion were performed. After surgery, the pseudotumor disappeared in two cases and was clearly reduced in one case, and neurological symptoms also improved. Retroodontoid pseudotumor is a lesion for which symptomatic improvement can be expected with posterior decompression and fusion, even without direct tumor excision.

In the development of the CNS, radial glial cells are among the first cells derived from neuroepithelial cells. Recent studies have reported that radial glia possess properties of neural stem cells. We analyzed the antigen expression and distribution of radial glia after spinal cord injury (SCI). Sprague-Dawley rats had a laminectomy at Th11-12, and spinal cord contusion was created by compression with 30 g of force for 10 min. In the injury group, rats were examined at 24 h and 1, 4, and 12 weeks after injury. Frozen sections of 20-microm thickness were prepared from regions 5 and 10 mm rostral and caudal to the injury epicenter. Immunohistochemical staining was performed using antibodies to 3CB2 (a specific marker for radial glia), nestin, and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). At 1 week after injury, radial glia that bound anti-3CB2 MAb had spread throughout the white matter from below the pial surface. From 4 weeks after injury, 3CB2 expression was also observed in the gray matter around the central canal, and was especially strong around the ependymal cells and around blood vessels. In double-immunohistochemical assays for 3CB2 and GFAP or 3CB2 and nestin, coexpression was observed in subpial structures that extended into the white matter as arborizing processes and around blood vessels in the gray matter. The present study demonstrated the emergence of radial glia after SCI in adult mammals. Radial glia derived from subpial astrocytes most likely play an important role in neural repair and regeneration after SCI.

Study design: A standardized animal model of contusive spinal cord injury (SCI) with incomplete paraplegia was used to test the hypothesis that moderate systemic hypothermia reduces neural cell death. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase [TdT]-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate [dUTP] nick-end labeling (TUNEL) staining was used as a marker of apoptosis or cell damage. Objective: To determine whether or not moderate hypothermia could have a neuroprotective effect in neural cell death following spinal cord injury in rats. Setting: Kagawa Medical University, Japan. Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats (n ¼ 39) weighing on average 300 g (280-320 g) were used to prepare SCI models. After receiving contusive injury at T11/12, rats were killed at 24 h, 72 h, or 7 days after injury. The spinal cord was removed en bloc and of examined at five segments: 5 and 10 mm rostral to the center of injury, center of injury, and 5 and 10 mm caudal to the center of injury. Rats that received hypothermia (321C/4 h) were killed at the same time points as those that received normothermia (371C/3 h). The specimens were stained with hematoxylin and eosin, and subjected to in situ nick-end labeling (TUNEL), a specific method for visualizing cell death in the spinal cord. Results: At 24 h postinjury, TUNEL positive cells (TPC) decreased significantly 10 mm rostral to center of injury in hypothermic animals compared to the normothermia group. At 72 h post-SCI, TPC also decreased significantly at 5 mm rostral, and 5 and 10 mm caudal to the lesion center compared to normothermic animals. At 7 days postinjury, a significant decrease of TPC was observed at the 5 mm rostral and 5 mm caudal sites compared to normothermic animals. Conclusion: These results indicate that systemic hypothermia has a neuroprotective effect following SCI by attenuating post-traumatic TPC.

✓Tumoral calcinosis commonly occurs in the articular soft tissues of the extremities but rarely in the spine. The authors performed surgery to treat lumbar tumoral calcinosis in a patient with scleroderma, in whom symptoms of neurological dysfunction had manifested. This 49-year-old woman presented with low-back pain and gait disturbance. Seven years before presentation, scleroderma had been diagnosed, and the patient had received medical treatment ever since. Imaging revealed tumoral calcinosis centered at the bilateral facet joints between L-3 and L-4, marked stenosis of the spinal canal, L-3 spondylolisthesis, and intervertebral instability. Surgery was performed to excise the lesion en bloc. After neural decompression, posterolateral fusion and pedicle screw fixation were undertaken. Symptoms improved after surgery. In this case, the underlying scleroderma that predisposes to calcinosis and facet joint degeneration due to lumbar spondylolisthesis were probably factors leading to the development of tumoral calcinosis in the lumbar spine.