The surgical management of patients desiring removal of silicone mammary prostheses can be controversial. Patients fearful of implants may choose not to undergo implant exchange with saline implants. This fear is well documented and has been influenced by the media. Anecdotal reports attempting to link silicone mammary prostheses to human adjuvant diseases have exacerbated this fear. Large outcome studies refute these claims. Significant breast deformity can result after implantectomy/capsulectomy. Various autogenous tissues have been used in the post mastectomy group of patients. Recently, latissimus dorsi muscle has been used in breast augmentation. This case report delineates the thought process involved in patient selection, describes the techniques employed, and suggests that bilateral deepithelialized TRAM flaps can be utilized in the aesthetic reconstruction of a growing population of patients: those who decline implant exchange but desire to maintain or improve the aesthetic appearance of their breasts.

Female↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Stability and attractivity in discrete dynamical systems.

It is proven that one-dimensional discrete dynamical systems do not possess attractors that are unstable. Also, a C1 two-dimensional discrete system with a global attractor that is unstable is constructed.

Models, Theoretical↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Transplantation of metanephroi to sites within the abdominal cavity.

A novel approach to circumventing the shortage in transplantable donor organs is the use of embryonic primordia that develop inside the host. Previously published work has shown that transplantation of rat fetal kidney primordia (metanephroi) onto the omentum of adult rat hosts results in growth and development of the metanephroi into functioning kidney units capable of providing a measurable renal function. However, for anatomical and physiological reasons the omentum may not provide the ideal site for transplantation and may limit the maximum renal function that the transplants can achieve. We postulate that it may be possible to increase the renal function of the transplants by transplantation to sites with increased blood flow. To test this we transplanted rat embryonic day 15 metanephroi into the retroperitoneal fat adjacent to major blood vessels in the peritoneum of unilaterally nephrectomized rats; 21 days later the transplants were examined and suitable transplants connected to the host urinary system. Approximately 130 days later the glomerular filtration rate of the connected transplants was analyzed. Our results show that transplantation of metanephroi to the regions highlighted in this study results in an increased presence of urinary cysts, suggesting increased early renal function in the transplants compared to metanephroi transplanted onto the omentum, but most importantly we show that we can increase the renal function of the transplants to a level comparable with other renal therapies such as dialysis. This work suggests life-sustaining renal function could be achieved through transplantation of renal primordia.

Abdomen↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Contact-sensing by hyphae of dermatophytic and saprophytic fungi.

Contact-sensing or thigmotropism is the directional growth response of cells in relation to topographical guidance cues. Thigmotropism is thought to play a major role in the location of infectable sites on plants by phytopathogenic fungi and has recently been shown to be a property of hyphae in the human pathogenic fungus Candida albicans. Here we show that hyphae of the dermatophytes Epidermophyton floccosum, Microsporum canis and Trichophyton mentagrophytes reorientate their direction of growth in response to grooves and pores of membrane substrata as did hyphae of the saprophytes Mucor mucedo and Neurospora crassa. This suggests that the thigmotropic behaviour of hyphae is not a specific property of pathogens, but rather a general feature of the growth of fungal hyphae that must forage for nutrients on surfaces and within solid materials.

Arthrodermataceae↗