Publications by authors named "Michael Synowitz"

Background And Objectives: Intraoperative tumor visualization is an essential factor for successful glioma surgery. The aim of this study was to examine the extent of glioma resection and the patients' postoperative clinical conditions after resection with intraoperative imaging guidance (iMRI and "modern" ultrasound combined with neuronavigation [iUS]) and without intraoperative imaging guidance.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 300 glioma patients who underwent surgery for supratentorial low-grade gliomas and high-grade gliomas at our department between 2015 and 2022.

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Although the intraoperative molecular diagnosis of the approximately 100 known brain tumor entities described to date has been a goal of neuropathology for the past decade, achieving this within a clinically relevant timeframe of under 1 h after biopsy collection remains elusive. Advances in third-generation sequencing have brought this goal closer, but established machine learning techniques rely on computationally intensive methods, making them impractical for live diagnostic workflows in clinical applications. Here we present MethyLYZR, a naive Bayesian framework enabling fully tractable, live classification of cancer epigenomes.

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  • The study aimed to explore the emotional health of parents caring for children with shunted hydrocephalus and to see if psychological issues were linked to caregivers' backgrounds and children's clinical conditions.
  • Conducted in outpatient settings at two German hospitals, the research involved administering various psychological questionnaires to 63 parents, assessing levels of depression, anxiety, psychosocial distress, and concerns related to their children's illness.
  • The results revealed that 60% of parents experienced significant mental health issues, with no connections to demographic factors or children's clinical issues, but a strong correlation was found between parents' worries and their psychological distress.
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Purpose: The introduction of molecular markers in to the diagnosis of gliomas has changed the therapeutic approach to this tumors. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of surgery on anaplastic astrocytomas (AA), which has not previously been fully elucidated.

Methods: This was a retrospective study involving a total of 143 patients who underwent surgery for primary AA in our department between 1995 and 2020.

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Glioblastomas (GBMs) are characterized by high heterogeneity, involving diverse cell types, including those with stem-like features contributing to GBM's malignancy. Moreover, metabolic alterations promote growth and therapeutic resistance of GBM. Depending on the metabolic state, antimetabolic treatments could be an effective strategy.

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Tumor-associated microglia and blood-derived macrophages (TAMs) play a central role in modulating the immune suppressive microenvironment in glioma. Here, we show that GPNMB is predominantly expressed by TAMs in human glioblastoma multiforme and the murine RCAS-PDGFb high grade glioma model. Loss of GPNMB in the in vivo tumor microenvironment results in significantly smaller tumor volumes and generates a pro-inflammatory innate and adaptive immune cell microenvironment.

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Background: Molecular brain tumor diagnosis is usually dependent on tissue biopsies or resections. This can pose several risks associated with anesthesia or neurosurgery, especially for lesions in the brain stem or other difficult-to-reach anatomical sites. Apart from initial diagnosis, tumor progression, recurrence, or the acquisition of novel genetic alterations can only be proven by re-biopsies.

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A 41-year-old female patient presented due to acute onset of unilateral hearing loss 3 months previously and persistent since then. Systemic therapy with oral glucocorticoids in decreasing doses had been performed beforehand, but did not lead to any improvement. In the course of audiological diagnostics, based on subjective and objective methods, a retrocochlear hearing disorder was suspected.

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Background: Convexity meningiomas (CM) can be successfully treated with neurosurgery. However, clinical complications due to CM have been reported. Moreover, systematic investigations of CM with respect to all relevant clinical factors are currently lacking.

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Local drug delivery systems (LDDS) represent a promising therapy strategy concerning the most common and malignant primary brain tumor glioblastoma (GBM). Nevertheless, to date, only a few systems have been clinically applied, and their success is very limited. Still, numerous new LDDS approaches are currently being developed.

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  • Researchers studied how a type of brain cancer called glioblastoma (GBM) can become dormant and how a drug called temozolomide (TMZ) affects this process.
  • They found specific genes that change their activity during this dormancy, including CCRL1, SLFN13, SKI, Cables1, and DCHS1, which they looked at more closely.
  • The study showed that these genes are connected to the cancer's stemness, meaning they help the cancer cells stay alive and grow, and stopping one of these genes (SKI) made the drug work better against the cancer.
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Glioblastoma (GBM) is a poorly treatable disease due to the fast development of tumor recurrences and high resistance to chemo- and radiotherapy. To overcome the highly adaptive behavior of GBMs, especially multimodal therapeutic approaches also including natural adjuvants have been investigated. However, despite increased efficiency, some GBM cells are still able to survive these advanced treatment regimens.

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Current treatment strategies for glioblastoma (GBM) including surgical resection and adjuvant radio/chemotherapy result in a limited progression-free survival time of patients due to rapidly occurring tumor recurrences. The urgent need for more effective treatments has led to the development of different approaches for localized drug delivery systems (DDSs) offering the advantages of reduced systemic side effects. A promising candidate for the treatment of GBMs is AT101, the R-(-)-enantiomer of gossypol due to its ability to induce apoptosis or trigger autophagic cell death in tumor cells.

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Background: As compared with supratentorial intracerebral hemorrhages (ICH), bleeds that occur within the cerebellum require special consideration given the nature of the posterior fossa.

Objective: To validate ICH and ICH grading scale (ICH-GS) scores in patients with cerebellar hemorrhage and examine the outcomes of patients managed surgically as compared with those who underwent conservative treatment.

Methods: This observational multicenter study included 475 patients with cerebellar hemorrhage from 9 different neurosurgical departments in Germany between 2005 and 2021.

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Background: Peritumoral brain edema (PTBE) is a common complication related to intracranial meningiomas. In several studies, researchers have investigated the pathogenesis of PTBE, and the factors involved in its development in patients with intracranial meningiomas have been reported. However, very little is known about the clinical effect of PTBE on patients with intracranial meningiomas; therefore, a systematic examination of this matter is necessary.

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Introduction: SHARE TO CARE (S2C) is a comprehensive implementation program for shared decision making (SDM). It is run at the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH) in Kiel, Germany, and consists of four combined intervention modules addressing healthcare professionals and patients: (1) multimodal training of physicians (2) patient activation campaign including the ASK3 method, (3) online evidence-based patient decision aids (4) SDM support by nurses. This study examines the sustainability of the hospital wide SDM implementation by means of the Neuromedical Center comprising the Departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery.

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Localized therapy approaches have emerged as an alternative drug administration route to overcome the limitations of systemic therapies, such as the crossing of the blood-brain barrier in the case of brain tumor treatment. For this, implantable drug delivery systems (DDS) have been developed and extensively researched. However, to achieve an effective localized treatment, the release kinetics of DDS needs to be controlled in a defined manner, so that the concentration at the tumor site is within the therapeutic window.

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The German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC) was founded in Bonn in 1950 and saw itself as the all-German representation of neurosurgeons. The development of neurosurgery in divided Germany was different in each case as part of a system and was not unaffected by the confrontation between the two blocs (cold war), which also had a negative impact on the field of science. Thus, early on, restrictions on intra-German travel from the East made normal relations difficult.

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  • Researchers found that a substance called CCL18 from special brain cells called GAMs helps glioblastoma multiforme (a type of brain cancer) to grow and spread.
  • They created a way to study CCL18 using human brain cells in mice to see how it works, since it’s not found in mouse cells.
  • They discovered that CCL18 helps glioma cells grow by using a specific receptor (CCR8) and acts through another molecule (ACP5) to cause this growth.
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Pituitary gland metastases are very rare. Most patients with pituitary gland metastases are asymptomatic; therefore, most cases of this disease are diagnosed during autopsies. Moreover, the four most common primary tumors that metastasize to the pituitary gland are breast, lung, thyroid, and renal carcinomas.

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In neurosurgery, an exact delineation of functional areas is of great interest to spare important regions to ensure the best possible outcome for the patient (i.e., maximum removal while maintaining the highest possible quality of life).

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The cellular and molecular mechanisms that presumably underlie the progressive functional decline of the myelomeningocele (MMC) placode are not well understood. We previously identified key players in post-traumatic spinal cord injury cascades in human MMC tissues obtained during postnatal repair. In this study, we conducted experiments to further investigate these mediators in the prenatal time course under standardized conditions in a retinoic acid-induced MMC rat model.

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  • The study looked at how well surgery works for meningiomas (a type of brain tumor) in young people compared to older people.
  • Researchers found that older patients had a higher success rate in removing tumors but also faced more risks and complications after surgery than younger patients.
  • Most patients, regardless of age, improved in their health after surgery, but those over 80 had less improvement compared to younger patients.
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Deep brain stimulation (DBS) seems to modulate inflammatory processes. Whether this modulation leads to an induction or suppression of inflammatory mediators is still controversially discussed. Most studies of the influence of electrical stimulation on inflammation were conducted in rodent models with direct current stimulation and/or long impulses, both of which differ from the pattern in DBS.

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