Nonoperative treatment of acute appendicitis in children: A feasibility study.

Purpose: Nonoperative treatment of acute appendicitis appears to be feasible in adults. It is unclear whether the same is true for children.

Methods: Children 5-18 years with <48 h symptoms of acute appendicitis were offered nonoperative treatment: 2 doses of piperacillin IV, then ampicillin/clavulanate ×1 week.

Utility of admission serum lactate in pediatric trauma.

Background/purpose: Serum lactate measurement has a predictive value in adult trauma. To date, there has been no prospective analysis of the predictive value of admission serum lactate in pediatric trauma.

Methods: Admission serum lactate was prospectively measured over a two year period on all children under age 15 years who met trauma alert criteria at an urban Level 1 trauma center.

Rapamycin increases neuroblastoma xenograft and host stromal derived osteoprotegerin inhibiting osteolytic bone disease in a bone metastasis model.

Purpose: Osteoprotegerin (OPG) is a decoy receptor for the Receptor of NF-κB (RANK) ligand that can inhibit osteoclastogenesis. Previous studies have suggested that Mammalian Target of Rapamycin (mTOR) inhibition upregulates OPG production. We tested the hypothesis that the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin could inhibit neuroblastoma bone metastases through its action on OPG.

HIF-1α activation mediates resistance to anti-angiogenic therapy in neuroblastoma xenografts.

Introduction: The anti-tumor activity of angiogenesis inhibitors is often limited by the development of resistance to these drugs. Here we establish HIF-1α as a major factor in the development of this resistance in neuroblastoma xenografts.

Methods: Neuroblastoma xenografts were established by injecting unmodified SKNAS or NB-1691 cells (2 × 10(6) cells), or cells in which HIF-1α expression had been knocked down with shRNA, into the retroperitoneal space of SCID mice.

Robot-assisted thoracoscopic thymectomy for treating myasthenia gravis in children.

Introduction: In the United States, the prevalence of myasthenia gravis (MG) is approximately 14-20 per 100,000. One treatment option involves a thymectomy, which can lead to remission of symptoms. The amount of thymic tissue removed is correlated with a better outcome for patients.

The effects of irrigation on outcomes in cases of perforated appendicitis in children.

Introduction: Appendicitis is the most common indication for urgent abdominal operation in children. Approximately 20%-30% of patients will have a perforation at operation. Intra-abdominal abscess after appendectomy is reported in 3%-20% of patients and adds significantly to hospital stay with increased morbidity and overall cost.

Bevacizumab-induced tumor vessel remodeling in rhabdomyosarcoma xenografts increases the effectiveness of adjuvant ionizing radiation.

Purpose: Inhibition of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) may effect transient "normalization" of tumor vasculature by pruning immature vessels, resulting in improved tumor perfusion and oxygenation. This may improve the efficacy of adjuvant ionizing radiation (IR). We tested this hypothesis using bevacizumab, an anti-VEGF antibody, in rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) xenografts.

Focal adhesion kinase expression in human neuroblastoma: immunohistochemical and real-time PCR analyses.

Purpose: The focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is a nonreceptor protein tyrosine kinase important in signaling between cells and their extracellular matrix. Studies have shown that FAK expression is up-regulated in several human tumors and is related to tumor progression. We recently found an increase in p125(FAK) expression in human neuroblastoma cells lines and wished to determine its expression in human neuroblastoma specimens and evaluate for a possible correlation between p125(FAK) expression and known prognostic factors for neuroblastoma.

Artificial rearing of mouse pups: development of a mouse pup in a cup model.

Artificial rearing of rat pups has been used in the investigation of the neonatal gut. We propose to adapt the model of artificially rearing rat pups for use in mouse pups, thereby allowing the use of transgenic animals for our research. We hypothesized that gastrostomy catheters may be placed successfully into neonatal mouse pups and that the pups may be artificially reared without significant alterations in their growth or intestinal development.