The feasibility of a novel intraoperative imaging technique to differentiate tumor from surrounding parenchyma during laparoscopic and robot-assisted partial nephrectomy was evaluated.

Patients and Methods: Patients who were scheduled to undergo laparoscopic or robot-assisted partial nephrectomy were recruited from April 2009 to July 2010. The Endoscopic SPY Imaging System was used as an adjunct to intraoperative imaging in all cases. Stem Cells & Wnt inhibitor Patients received intravenous injections of indocyanine green (ICG), which was visualized intraoperatively with the near infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging capability

of the SPY scope. The degree of tumor fluorescence compared with surrounding renal parenchyma was qualitatively assessed before tumor resection, and partial nephrectomy was then performed with standard techniques while intermittently using NIRF imaging.

Results: Nineteen patients underwent intravenous administration of ICG followed by NIRF during partial nephrectomy. Average tumor size was 3.0 cm (range 0.8-5.9 cm). Thirteen masses were malignant on final pathology

results, and all of these were seen to be hypofluorescent compared with surrounding renal parenchyma during intraoperative imaging. The imaging behavior of benign tumors ranged from isofluorescent selleckchem to hyperfluorescent compared with normal parenchyma. No complications were associated with ICG injection.

Conclusion: NIRF imaging after intravenous ICG administration may be a useful intraoperative imaging tool to differentiate malignant tumors from normal renal parenchyma during laparoscopic and robot-assisted partial nephrectomy. Advanced intraoperative imaging techniques such as this one may become increasingly helpful as more complicated tumors are resected with minimally invasive approaches.”
“P>Splenectomized mice control Listeria monocytogenes infection better than non-splenectomized mice. Here, BALB/c mice subjected to splenectomy and autogenous grafting of spleen

were evaluated after 3 and 7 days of intravenous L. monocytogenes infection. The group of splenectomized animals (SP) presented a lower number of bacteria in the liver in comparison with both the sham-operated control group (CT) and the group that received splenic autotransplantation (AT) in the retroperitoneal Quizartinib clinical trial site. The AT group presented bacterial counts in the liver similar to the CT group. SP animals showed larger production of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and nitric oxide (NO) in the liver in comparison with CT and AT, this being associated with greater accumulation of mononuclear cells. IFN-gamma production by spleen cells after stimulation with heat-killed Listeria was similar between the AT and CT groups, suggesting that the implanted fragments behaved like the original organ. The autogenous grafting of spleen fragments reverses the resistance to L.