Notes

Aftereffect of Frictional Dropping on the Durability of Ribbon-Reinforced Composite.
A a 80-year-old male underwent routine transthoracic echocardiography the day after primary percutaneous revascularization procedure for ST-elevation myocardial infarction. When ultrasound contrast was injected, regular contrast-enhancement of the left ventricle (LV) excluded the presence of thrombus. A second echocardiogram, performed four months later, showed a hyperechoic image in the LV apex, which was confirmed after contrast injection as a thrombus. Four weeks later, a third follow-up echocardiogram appears apparently normal. However, contrast injection clearly demonstrates a new apex thrombus, in a slightly different location from the one detected previously. Standard echocardiography is often inconclusive or falsely negative regarding the detection of apical thrombus. Maybe the time has come for routine contrast-echo screening in post-myocardial infarction patients with the high likelihood of thrombus, such as in cases of apical infarction, even if the standard echocardiogram appears unremarkable.Background Fibromuscolar dysplasia (FMD) is an idiopathic, non-atherosclerotic and non-inflammatory stenotic lesion of renal arteries causing renovascular hypertension up-regulating renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. Case report A 18-year-old man was referred to our Hypertension Center (Clinica e Terapia Medica) for the recent onset of hypertension, poorly controlled on calcium channel blockers, already associated to electrocardiographic and echocardiography signs of left ventricular hypertrophy and significant albuminuria (728 mg/24 h). An increased plasma renin activity (PRA), aldosterone level and a mild hypokalemia raised the suspicion of renovascular hypertension. Abdominal CT and MRI angiography showed mild kidneys asymmetry and a tubular stenosis of the right renal artery in its mid-distal portion close to renal hilum. Radionuclide renal scintigraphy documented a kidneys asymmetry of separated glomerular filtration rate. Renal FMD was diagnosed based on patient age and the absence of cardiovascular risk factors for atherosclerosis. Patient successfully underwent right renal angioplasty giving a rapid normalization of blood pressure levels without antihypertensive drugs. Plasma aldosterone and PRA rapidly normalized as well as serum potassium levels. Six months after angioplasty echocardiography showed a regression of left ventricular hypertrophy and the patient albumin urine excretion became normal (14 mg/24 h). selleck kinase inhibitor Conclusions FMD can cause renovascular hypertension associated to organ damage such myocardial hypertrophy and albuminuria through mechanisms dependent but also independent from blood pressure levels. Renal angioplasty turned off renin-angiotensin-aldosterone overactivity allowing the cure the hypertension and a surprisingly rapid reverse of myocardial hypertrophy and of excess of albumin urine excretion not only dependent on blood pressure normalization.Chemodectomas are rare neuroendocrine tumors that typically arise at the carotid bifurcation and progressively englobe the internal and external carotid artery. Surgical asportation of the capsulated mass is the elective treatment. Pre-procedural embolization of this high vascular tumors is highly recommended because it has shown to improve surgical outcome by reducing both, mean blood loss and total operation time. Many different embolization techniques have been described in literature. In the here presented case we opted for an endovascular approach using resorbable purified porcine skin gelatin cross-linked with glutaraldehyde microspheres (Optisphere - MEDTRONIC) as an embolic agent. These turned out to be very safe and effective in improving surgical outcome by reducing operative blood loss and thus reducing treatment-related morbidity.
Onychomatricoma is a rare subungual tumor composed of stroma and nail matrix-like epithelium. Only seven cases of the pigmented variant have been reported in the literature.

We present a 62-year-old male patient with a 2-years history of a single fingernail thickening, deformation, and hyperpigmentation. He had been treated for onychomycosis, without improvement. Due to the increasing hyperpigmentation, and to rule out tumoral entities, including melanoma, a color Doppler ultrasound examination of the nail was requested, which showed a hypoechoic tumor of the nail matrix and bed, with hyperechogenic linear images inside, suggesting the diagnosis of onychomatricoma. Onychectomy and partial matricectomy were performed. Histological evaluation confirmed the diagnosis of onychomatricoma. Discusion and conclusion Histological evaluation is the gold standard for the diagnosis of onychomatricoma. However, ultrasonography represents an easily accessible, non-invasive diagnostic tool for the initial evaluation of these tumors, especially in unsuspected atypical clinical presentations.
We present a 62-year-old male patient with a 2-years history of a single fingernail thickening, deformation, and hyperpigmentation. He had been treated for onychomycosis, without improvement. Due to the increasing hyperpigmentation, and to rule out tumoral entities, including melanoma, a color Doppler ultrasound examination of the nail was requested, which showed a hypoechoic tumor of the nail matrix and bed, with hyperechogenic linear images inside, suggesting the diagnosis of onychomatricoma. Onychectomy and partial matricectomy were performed. Histological evaluation confirmed the diagnosis of onychomatricoma. Discusion and conclusion Histological evaluation is the gold standard for the diagnosis of onychomatricoma. However, ultrasonography represents an easily accessible, non-invasive diagnostic tool for the initial evaluation of these tumors, especially in unsuspected atypical clinical presentations.
We describe the first case to our knowledge of Hypervascularised placental polyp (HPP) presenting with acute pelvic pain and hemoperitoneum.

A 33 years-old woman with a history of medical abortion three months earlier came to our attention complaining acute pelvic pain and vaginal bleeding. Transvaginal (TV) and transabdominal (TA) ultrasound (US) demonstrated a highly vascular intrauterine lesion and intra-abdominal free fluid consistent with a diagnosis of haemoperitoneum. Emergency laparoscopy yielded no intra-abdominal bleeding and was followed by bilateral selective embolization of the uterine arteries due to persistent vaginal bleeding. Hysteroscopy and pathology findings were consistent with a final diagnosis of HPP.

HPP may occur months or years after pregnancy or abortion and the clinical picture of abnormal vaginal bleeding associated with acute abdominal pain and haemoperitoneum should warrant to consider HPP among the differential diagnosis. Clinical and imaging findings need to be considered when planning the conservative management of HPP.
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