Expression of human sperm protein 17 in melanophages of cutaneous melanocytic lesions.
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Antigens, Surface↗
Biomedical subjects
G Soda
Publications and source records attributed to G Soda.
[Fractal analysis of liver fibrosis].
This study realized by two different study groups use of Fractal geometry to quantify the complex collagen deposition during chronic liver disease. Thirty standard needle liver biopsy specimens were obtained from patients with chronic HCV-related disease. Three mu-thick sections were cut and stained by means of Picrosirius stain, in order to visualise collagen matrix. The degree of fibrosis was measured using a quantitative scoring system based on the computer-assisted evaluation of the fractal dimension of the deposited collagen surface. The obtained results by both study groups, show that the proposed method is reproducible, rapid and inexpensive. The complex distribution of its collagenous components can be quantified using a single numerical score. This study demonstrated that it is possible to quantify the collagen's irregularity in an objective manner, and that the study of the fractal properties of the collagen shapes is likely to reveal more about its structure and the complex behaviour of its development.
Collagen↗
[Changes in the expression of cellular alpha and beta tubulins in patients with sporadic type colorectal cancer].
The aim of this preliminar report is to evaluate alfa and beta tubulins, components of cellular microtubules, alterated expression in sporadic colorectal cancer patients. The Authors considered 16 patients who underwent surgery for sporadic colorectal carcinoma with radical intent. Alfa and beta tubulins were evaluated in tumoral mucosa by immunohistochemistry. In 56.2% of the examined patients a low expression of alfa and beta tubulins was showed while the alteration of alfa tubulin was showed in 81.2% of the patients. This finding supports the hypothesis of Porter that alterations in microtubule structure might be part of the cellular response to DNA damage.
Colorectal Neoplasms↗
NM23 expression as prognostic factor in colorectal carcinoma.
BACKGROUND: The current most important prognostic indicator in colorectal carcinoma is tumor stage at the moment of diagnosis. The role of NM23 gene as prognostic factor is controversial. The aim of this study was to investigate NM23 expression. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study population included 104 unselected patients who underwent surgery for colorectal carcinoma between 1992 and 1997. NM23 expression was quantified by estimating the percentage of tumor cells with unequivocal reactivity. The percentage was scored: 0 when no tumor cells showed immunoreactivity; 1 when less than 10% of cells showed immunoreactivity; 2 when 11-50% of cells were positive; 3 when more than 51% of cells were positive. RESULTS: Four cases belonged to group 0.21 to group 1.55 to group 2 and 24 to group 3. CONCLUSION: NM23 cannot be considered an independent prognostic variable.
Antigens, Neoplasm↗
[Genetics-based prognosis evaluation of patients surgically treated for sporadic colorectal cancer].
The basic assumption as rationale of this research was that DNA repair genes (MMR system) are at beginning of the genetic mutational cascade causing the induction of oncogenesis of sporadic colorectal cancers as well as their multiclonal heterogeneity. In a previous study the Authors randomly selected, from a series of 256 patients, 29 patients up to the age of 60 years who underwent surgery for colorectal carcinoma with radical intent. All selected cases were considered as sporadic cancers from a clinical point of view, since none of them fulfilled the Amsterdam criteria for HNPCC and familial adenomatous polyposis was included too. Mismatch repair gene proteins expression and, in particular, gene hMSH2 protein was investigated by immunohistochemistry analysis. In 12 cases (41.4%) hMSH2 exhibited strong expression in the tumoral cells as well as in the surrounding mucosa and at distant mucosa. In 14 cases (48.3%) loss of hMSH2 protein expression was observed in tumoral cells and low immunoreactivity was detected in peritumoral mucosa while strong hMSH2 expression was observed in distant mucosa. In a third small group of patients (10.3%) loss of hMSH2 protein expression was detected in tumoral, adjacent and at distance normal mucosa. After a five years follow up, 100% of twelve patients of first group are still alive vs 64.3% of fourteen patients of second group, while in the third group only one patient survives. These results support the hypothesis of an involvement of hMSH2 gene defect in development of a subset of sporadic colorectal cancer. For the patients with strong expression of hMSH2 in the tumoral cells as well as in the surrounding mucosa and at distant mucosa, this parameter could represent an independent criterion for a good prognostic value.
Colorectal Neoplasms↗
Benign tumors of heterotopic tissue in the thyroid gland: a report of two cases of lipomatous lesions.
A report of two cases, concerning heterotopic nests of fat cells in the thyroid gland, is presented here together with a review of lipomatous lesions in the literature. Both cases involved patients who presented with goiter; one had Grave's disease and the other had adenomatous hyperplasia. The fat cells were principally located in the subcapsular areas and scattered among the follicles. The distribution of the immunohistochemical staining, and the morphologic characteristics of the adipose tissue, suggested a probable origin of the fat cells from inclusion nests during embryogenesis of the thyroid gland.
Adipocytes↗
[Secondary costal myxoid chondrosarcoma. Presentation of a clinical case].
A type of malignant neoplasm of not frequent observation is reported and the difficulties concerning the distinction from the benign counterpart are underlined, for which a detailed instrumental study is made necessary, integrated with pre and, above all, postoperative histologic analysis. A white male patient of 83, affected by plurirecidivant chondromyxoma of the rib, was admitted for local recurrence. The lesion objectively appeared not dissimilar from the preceding ones, as an ovalar mass fixed on the underlying plains. Radiologic and ultrasonographic examinations seemed to confirm the admission diagnosis; at the end the patient underwent a new intervention. Histologic examination of the lesion yielded a diagnosis of chondromyxosarcoma. The clinical case is made even more interesting by the finding, through the TC technique, preoperatively performed, of a metastatic repetition on the opposite side. The authors examine the problem of the early recognition of a malignant neoplasm developing, in a patient with a clinical history of recidival chondromyxoma. Physical examination and laboratory analysis are not useful in the assessment of the occurring transformation. At molecular level chondromyxosarcoma is characterized by several genomic rearrangements and mutations. Though primitive chondromyxosarcoma often involves the ribs, chondromyxoma's transformation into its malignant counterpart is not a common event. The development of distant metastasis characterizes long term cases. Given the lack of encouraging results about chemo and radio-therapy efficacy in influencing the natural course of the disease, a systematic approach will be made necessary in patient management.
Aged↗
Exploiting the past and the future in protein secondary structure prediction.
MOTIVATION: Predicting the secondary structure of a protein (alpha-helix, beta-sheet, coil) is an important step towards elucidating its three-dimensional structure, as well as its function. Presently, the best predictors are based on machine learning approaches, in particular neural network architectures with a fixed, and relatively short, input window of amino acids, centered at the prediction site. Although a fixed small window avoids overfitting problems, it does not permit capturing variable long-rang information. RESULTS: We introduce a family of novel architectures which can learn to make predictions based on variable ranges of dependencies. These architectures extend recurrent neural networks, introducing non-causal bidirectional dynamics to capture both upstream and downstream information. The prediction algorithm is completed by the use of mixtures of estimators that leverage evolutionary information, expressed in terms of multiple alignments, both at the input and output levels. While our system currently achieves an overall performance close to 76% correct prediction--at least comparable to the best existing systems--the main emphasis here is on the development of new algorithmic ideas. AVAILABILITY: The executable program for predicting protein secondary structure is available from the authors free of charge. CONTACT: pfbaldi@ics.uci.edu, gpollast@ics.uci.edu, brunak@cbs.dtu.dk, paolo@dsi.unifi.it.
Algorithms↗
[Angiodysplasia of the duodenum with arteriovenous shunts, sub-serosal prevalence and interstitial elastosis; peritonitis and rupture of sub-serous dysplasic vessels and hemoperitoneum. Description of a case and review of the literature].
We present a case report of a 74 year old man, affected by angiodysplasia of the duodenum, which developed in peritonitis and hemoperitoneum. After undergoing two surgical interventions, it is 14 days since he died. First of all, the importance of this case is due to the extreme rarity of the angiodysplasia of the duodenum, specially when it becomes worse in peritonitis and hemoperitoneum, this case having been described only one time till now, then the localization mainly sub-serousal and lastly the presence of a component, characterized by an elastotic nature, disposed in islets and interstitial widespread also among the glands, which we have first described in literature.
Aged↗
Expression of bcl-2, c-erbB-2, p53, and p21 (waf1-cip1) protein in thyroid carcinomas.
The study was carried out on 53 patients who had thyroid cancer with various degree of differentiation. We studied the expression of bcl-2, a-erbB-2, p53, and p21 ras protein. The protein encoded by bCL-2 proto-oncogene is implicated in the prolongation of cell survival by blocking programmed cell death, i.e. apoptosis. The role of p53 and bcl-2 genes in the regulation of apoptosis has important implications in oncogenesis. Wild-type p53 is thought to promote apoptosis, whilst mutant p53 has a similar effect on apoptosis as bcl-2 that is inhibition of programmed cell kinase activity. C-erb-2 protein overexpression is currently being evaluated as a potential risk factor in breast cancer patients? The ras gene family codes for a 21 kD protein (p21), which binds guanine nucleotides and possesses GTPase activity. Through this mechanism, the ras p21 protein participates in the control of cell proliferation, possibly as a signal transducer from cell surface receptors to the nucleus. Activation of ras genes has been implicated in neoplastic transformation of cells. The aim of our study is to evaluate the expression of these markers in thyroid carcinomas. All immunohistochemical study was performed in paraffin-embedded tissues pathology specimen. Any well differentiated tumor in our study was positive for bcl-2 protein. C-erb-2 immunostaining was present in tumor samples in 60% of cases. In most cases, specific membrane staining as well as a weak cytoplasmic positivity of tumor cells were seen. Immunoreactivity for p53 was positive only in 10% of cases. By immunostaining, p21 protein was expressed in 55% of the 53 tumors tested, with different degree of expression. Only some poorly differentiated tumours were positive for bcl-2, furthermore all markers tested were strongly positive in these tumours. In conclusion, our results indicate that bcl-2, c-erbB-2, p53, and p21 ras protein are differently expressed in thyroid carcinomas in relation to the degree of aggressiveness and differentiation.
Adenocarcinoma, Follicular↗
Oral focal mucinosis of the tongue.
Oral focal mucinosis (OFM) is an uncommon clinicopathological entity which is considered to be the oral counterpart of cutaneous focal mucinosis and cutaneous myxoid cyst. It is comprised of a clinically elevated mass with a histological feature of localised areas of myxomatous connective tissue. The present study adds a rare case of OFM of the tongue to the literature, and we present a review of the most characteristic oral myxomatous lesions.
Aged↗
Tenascin expression in elastotic cuffs of invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast.
We studied immunohistochemically one thousand one hundred and thirty-seven cases of primary invasive breast cancers (NST) and adjacent normal mammary glands for tenascin expression, and compared their elastic content to verify if a relationship exists between tenascin expression and elastosis. Periductal, perivascular and stromal elastosis were graded on a scale from 0 to 3 (absent to massive). All carcinomas showed tenascin expression and elastosis with various histological appearances. In the adjacent breast, teanscon was distributed around the normal ducts or with extasia and uctal hyperplasia without atypia. Digestion of the sections with elastase prior to staining resulted in a loss of the specific staining reactions in all areas where elastosis was present. Tenascin staining was observed in the mesenchyme closely surrounding the neoplastic ducts and the cancer cell nests. Stromal tenascin staining appeared stronger in those carcinomas that exhibited marked desmoplastic reactions. The highly differentiated tumours contained more elastosis in their tumour tissue than the poorly differentiated ones, whereas tenascin expression was stronger in poorly differentiated tumours than well differentiated tumours. A strong staining for tenascin was observed in the elastotic cuff. Tenascin staining did not disappear afterwards with elastase. We did not find a statistically significant correlation between tenascin expression, elastosis and prognostic factors such as size of the tumour, lymph node metastasis, tumour necrosis and age. In our study tenascin proved to be an additional element in elastotic areas even though the significance of an association between elastosis and tenascin is still unknown, as is that of elastosis itself.
Adult↗
Histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis (Kikuchi's disease).
We present a case report of a young asiatic women presenting Kikuchi's lymphadenitis, a suprahyoidea mass, pharyngitis, fever, weakness and lack of appetite. The clinical picture quickly improved after biopsy until complete remission within two months. Sierologic studies showed significant antibody titres revealing a previous EBV infection; they were also negative for Toxotest, HbsAg, HIV and serogroup 3 and 9 Yersinia Enterocolitica. Histological findings showed necrotic changes and large foci of infiltration in the cortex and/or paracortex. They consisted of variable numbers of small lymphocytes, immunoblasts, macrophages and so-called plasmacytoid monocytes, neutrophils were absent. Immunohistochemistry revealed within the lesion T-Lymphocytes displaying a phenotype CD4+ while T-Lymphocytes CD8+ were observed in the paracortex and in the peripheral region of the lesion.
Adult↗
[Winging effect in interatrial defect after transseptal mitral valvuloplasty: an anatomical study].
In the balloon catheters the redundancy of the deflated balloon produces 2 or 3 sort of thin wings. The presence of wings can reduce the catheter "pushability" or, in certain conditions, can determine tissue lesion (winging effect). Simulating a transeptal valvuloplasty of the mitral valve by technique of the 2 balloon in human fresh heart, we studied the winging effect over the interatrial septum in 12 hearts; in the first 6 the atrial septum was dilated with a 6 mm balloon (Group A), in the second 6 the atrial septum was dilated with a 10 mm balloon (Group B). The procedure was completed introducing consecutively 2 bigger balloons (15 + 20 mm). We suppose that the winging effect of the 2 bigger balloons (15 + 20 mm) could counter balance the theoretical advantage of a small balloon (6 mm). The atrial septal defect (ASD) after septal dilatation was 5.0 +/- 0.59 mm x 1.56 +/- 0.25 mm (long axis x short axis) in Group A and 6.53 +/- 0.35 x 2.16 +/- 0.39 mm in Group B (p less than 0.01). The final ASD (after introducing the 2 bigger balloons) was 7.04 +/- 1.06 x 2.36 +/- 0.57 mm in Group A and 7.03 +/- 0.18 x 2.16 +/- 0.32 mm in Group B (NS). Our data show that the winging effect can determine biological negative effects.
Catheterization↗
[Pleomorphism of panarteritis nodosa. Considerations on an anatomo-clinical case].
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Adult↗
Detection of Chlamydia pneumoniae in atherosclerotic coronary arteries.
Chlamydia pneumoniae has recently been associated with the development of coronary heart diseases by sero-epidemiological studies and by direct detection of the organism in atherosclerotic tissues. The aim of our study was to employ a semi-nested PCR approach to investigate the presence of C. pneumoniae in both normal and atherosclerotic coronary arteries of humans obtained at autopsy. Moreover, we have evaluated the role of infection with C. pneumoniae in relation to the extent of coronary atherosclerosis. One hundred and eighty coronary artery specimens were collected at autopsy from 60 consecutive subjects (three arterial segments from each subject). Atherosclerosis in each arterial segment was graded histologically by the Stary classification. Thirty normal coronary arteries were also taken at autopsy as control. PCR results evidenced the presence of C. pneumoniae DNA in atherosclerotic coronary arteries in 19 (31.7%) of 60 subjects examined, while none of the 30 subjects with non-atherosclerotic tissues was positive (p=0.001). Moreover, of the 180 atherosclerotic specimens examined, C. pneumoniae DNA was detected in 3.4% (2/59) of mild atherosclerotic lesions, and in 14.0% (17/121) of advanced atherosclerotic lesions (p=0.05). Our results demonstrate that the presence of C. pneumoniae DNA may be associated with the severity of coronary atherosclerosis.
Adult↗
[Differential diagnostic problems between nodular fasciitis and soft-tissue sarcomas. A review of the literature and a case report].
After a review of literature and the report of a case with intrathoracic location, the authors consider present criteria for a correct diagnosis of low grade soft tissue sarcoma, when the possibility of nodular fasciitis is under evaluation. Nodular fasciitis is a benign pathology up to day not well characterised from the clinical and pathological point of view. The authors conclude that differential diagnosis between low grade soft tissue sarcoma and nodular fasciitis is frequently possible only on the basis of clinical course evaluation; otherwise the management may be inadequate.
Adult↗
[Angiodysplasia of the large intestine: unusual rectal localization].
The authors report a case of lower gastrointestinal hemorrhage in a 69-year-old male, in which the sequence colonoscopy-angiography identified the source of bleeding as a rare Angiodysplasia (AD) of the rectum. Such vascular abnormalities are one of the most common causes of major lower gastrointestinal tract bleeding in the elderly and usually occurs predominantly in the right side of the colon. The clinical presentation of Angiodysplasia is varied and accurate diagnosis usually requires a combination of diagnostic techniques such as colonoscopy and angiography. The optimal management is uncertain and should be individualized for each patient depending on severity and rate of rebleeding. A conservative medical approach is indicated for many patients, while endoscopic treatment does not seem modify the risk of recurrent bleeding. In case of massive hemorrhage or recurrent bleeding surgery still represents the definitive treatment for Angiodysplasia. However the risk of rebleeding following surgery is a considerable problem and varies in literature from 5% to 30%.
Aged↗