The goal of this study is to identify which patient and tumor characteristics are associated with specific preoperative symptoms; surgical complications, patient outcomes, and tumor recurrence in order to guide craniopharyngioma treatment. We retrospectively identified 84 patients with newly diagnosed craniopharyngiomas treated at our institution from

1986-2010. We used binary logistic regression and survival analysis to determine the effect of several variables (including sex, age, tumor size, location, surgical approach, and extent of resection) on preoperative symptoms and postoperative outcomes, including complication rates and tumor selleck chemical recurrence. Age and tumor location were associated with increased rates of preoperative symptoms, with children being more likely than adults to present with endocrine dysfunction, and intraventricular tumors being more likely than extraventricular tumors to present with headaches and hydrocephalus. A transcranial surgical approach was associated with 1.5 times higher rate of surgical complications

than transsphenoidal Akt inhibitor surgery, while only intraventricular tumor location was associated with a poorer patient outcome. The main factor significantly associated see more with tumor recurrence was extent of resection. We conclude that intraventricular tumor location is most highly correlated with preoperative symptoms. If feasible, transsphenoidal approaches are preferred, as they result in fewer surgical complications, and gross total resections are optimal because they lead to lower

rates of recurrence. When gross total resection is not possible, we favor multimodal treatment approaches. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Accumulating evidence strongly supports the premise that testosterone may be a key player in fetal programming on hypertension. Studies have shown that gestational protein restriction doubles the plasma testosterone levels in pregnant rats. In this study, we hypothesized that elevated testosterone levels in response to gestational protein restriction were caused by enhanced expression of steroidogenic enzymes or impaired expression of Hsd17b2, a known testosterone inactivator that converts testosterone to androstenedione in placenta. Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were fed normal (20% protein, control; n = 10) or a low-protein diet (6% protein, PR; n = 10) from Day 1 of pregnancy until killed at Days 14, 18, or 21.