We present a 25 year old Caucasian male patient with multiple recurrences of cardiac myxomas after surgical removal of the original tumor. His mother was operated on for right ventricular myxoma. The genetic analyses disclosed an aneuploid DNA content by flow cytometry analysis. The familial form of the cardiac myxomas must be distinguished from Carney complex syndrome. A long- term echocardiographic follow up is recommended to patients and their first degree relatives with cardiac myxomas.

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Background: Cerebral vein thrombosis, is an emergent condition presenting with a variety of symptoms ranging from isolated headache to profound coma. Case Presentation: We present the case of a previously healthy young woman on the 18th postpartum day admitted into our hospital with a persistent headache for three days followed by seizures and coma. Magnetic Resonance Angiography revealed superior sagittal sinus and right transverse sinus thrombosis. Despite supportive measures and anticoagulation, the patient died because of uncontrolled increase in intracranial pressure. Conclusion: The possibility of cerebral vein thrombosis should be considered in all women with brain dysfunction during the puerperium.

Radiotherapy is widely used for the treatment of breast cancer. However, we have shown that ionizing radiation can provoke premature senescence in breast stromal cells. In particular, breast stromal fibroblasts can become senescent after irradiation both in vitro and in vivo and they express an inflammatory phenotype and an altered profile of extracellular matrix components, thus facilitating tumor progression. Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) represent another major component of the breast tissue stroma. They are multipotent cells and due to their ability to differentiate in multiple cell lineages they play an important role in tissue maintenance and repair in normal and pathologic conditions. Here, we investigated the characteristics of human breast ASCs that became senescent prematurely after their exposure to ionizing radiation. We found decreased expression levels of the specific mesenchymal cell surface markers CD105, CD73, CD44, and CD90. In parallel, we demonstrated a significantly reduced expression of transcription factors regulating osteogenic (i.e., RUNX2), adipogenic (i.e., PPARγ), and chondrogenic (i.e., SOX9) differentiation; this was followed by an analogous reduction in their differentiation capacity. Furthermore, they overexpress inflammatory markers, that is, IL-6, IL-8, and ICAM-1, and a catabolic phenotype, marked by the reduction of collagen type I and the increase of MMP-1 and MMP-13 expression. Finally, we detected changes in proteoglycan expression, for example, the upregulation of syndecan 1 and syndecan 4 and the downregulation of decorin. Notably, all these alterations, when observed in the breast stroma, represent poor

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