AbstractAim of the work We attempt here to describe 2 cases of Behçet’s disease (BD) with pulmonary vascular complications. Case presentation Two cases of Behçet’s disease with major vessel involvement are presented. The first case presented with hemoptysis and investigations revealed the presence of pulmonary artery aneurysm (PAA). The patient received pulsed methylprednisolone 1 gm/day for 3 successive days and pulse cyclophosphamide 600 mg monthly for 6 months, and oral maintenance therapy 1 mg/kg prednisolone daily. The patient’s symptoms improved within 2 weeks and a follow up \{CT\} angiography after 1 year revealed normal pulmonary arteries. The second case presented with dilated tortuous veins over the chest wall and was diagnosed to have superior vena cava (SVC) obstruction. The patient was prescribed pulsed methylprednisolone 1 gm/day for 3 successive days and pulse cyclophosphamide 600 mg/month for 6 months and oral prednisolone 1 mg/kg/day maintenance therapy, in addition to, oral warfarin therapy 5 mg/day to maintain his İNR\} at 2.5. The patient was discharged after stabilization of his condition. Conclusion Since a significant proportion of patients develops complications in arterial and venous vessels, vascular lesions should be included in the diagnostic criteria of BD. Challenges remain to identify those patients at risk, to understand the cause and best treatment of thrombosis in these patients, and to develop well tolerated and effective therapies to arrest or reverse the course of vasculitis in BD.

Background: The Air-Q intubating laryngeal airway is a new supraglottic airway device which overcomes some of the limitations inherent to the intubating laryngeal mask airway (ILMA Fastrach™) for tracheal intubation. Previous studies showed lower success rate of the Air-Q™ versus ILMA Fastrach™. This study was conducted to illustrate new maneuvers for increasing the success rate of Air-Q™ versus ILMA Fastrach™ and compare between both devices.Methods: One-hundred and seventy adult patients, ASA I or II, aged >16 years old undergoing elective surgery under general anesthesia were divided randomly into 2 equal groups (85 each). Group A: using Air-Q ILA size 3.5 or size 4.5 Group B: using ILMA size 4 or size 5 according to the manufacturer’s recommendations for body weight in both groups. The time and the total success rate of blind intubation through them in 2 attempts only were recorded. In Group A, extension of the head with cricoid pressure was applied. The hemodynamic response to devices insertion and the complications related to both devices were compared.
Results: In Group A, the total success rate in 2 attempts was 94.12%, while in Group B, it was 96.47%. However, this difference was not statistically significant. The first attempt success rate was 81.18% in Group A, while it was 82.35% in Group B. The total time to intubate the hemodynamic response to device insertion and the incidence of complications (sore throat, trauma and hoarseness of voice) showed no statistically significant difference between both groups.
Conclusion: This study showed that extension of the head with cricoid pressure greatly increases the success rate of blind intubation through the Air-Q to 94.12% versus the ILMA Fastrach 96.47% with no statistically significant difference between both devices.

Epilepsy is a chronic widely prevalent neurologic disorder, affecting brain functions with a broad spectrum of deleterious consequences. High mobility group box1 (HMGB1) is a nuclear non-histone protein that targets vital cell receptor of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and advanced glycation end products (RAGE). HMGB1 mediated TLR4/RAGE cascade has been scored as a key culprit in neuroinflammatory signalling that critically evokes development of impaired cognition and epilepsy. The current study aimed to investigate the neuroprotective effect of pentoxifylline (PTX) on pentylenetetrazol (PTZ)-kindling rats by its anti-inflammatory/antioxidant capacity and its impact on memory and cognition were investigated, too. PTZ was intraperitoneally injected 35 mg/kg, every 48 h, for 14 doses, to evoke kindling model. Phenytoin (30 mg/kg, i.p.) and PTX (60 mg/kg, i.p.) or their combination were given once daily for 27 days. PTX treatment showed a statistically significant effect on behavioural, histopathological and neurochemical analysis. PTX protected the PTZ kindling rats from epileptic seizures and improved memory and cognitive impairment through the Morris water maze (MWM) test. Furthermore, PTX reversed PTZ hippocampal neuronal loss by decreasing protein expression of amyloid-β peptide (Aβ), Tau and β site-amyloid precursor protein cleavage enzyme 1 (BACE1), associated with a marked reduction in expression of inflammatory mediators such as HMGB1, TL4, and RAGE proteins. Furthermore, PTX inhibited hippocampal apoptotic caspase 1 protein, total reactive oxygen species (TROS) along with upregulated erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) content. In conclusion, PTX or its combination with phenytoin represent a promising drug to inhibit the epilepsy progression via targeting the HMGB1/TLR4/RAGE signalling pathway.