Tuberculosis in postchemotherapy residual masses in germ cell tumor of the testis

Residual masses following chemotherapy in testicular tumors have been characterized as necrosis, mature or immature teratoma, and malignant tumors. Twenty four patients had retroperitoneal lymph node dissection for postchemotherapy residual masses between January 2000 and December 2008. We report two patients; one with late relapse and other with postchemotherapy residual mass, who had tuberculosis. Tumor markers were normal, and PET scan showed increased uptake in residual mass. There are no previous reports of tuberculosis in postchemotherapy residual masses.

A hospital-based study on knowledge, attitude and practice of pregnant women on gender preference, prenatal sex determination and female feticide

India has witnessed a decline in sex ratio in the past few decades. A hospital-based cross-sectional study was carried out to find out the attitude toward gender preference and knowledge as well as practice toward prenatal sex determination and female feticide among pregnant women. A majority (66.0%) of the pregnant women did not show any gender preference, followed by male preference (22.2%) and female preference (11.8%). A high proportion, i.e. 84.7% and 89.7%, of the total subjects were aware that prenatal sex determination and female feticide is illegal, respectively.

Analysis, assessment and mapping of groundwater quality of Chandigarh (India)

Chandigarh (India) has been depending on groundwater resources to meet its water requirements in addition to the surface water source (Bhakra Main Canal). With a view to assess the groundwater quality, samples were collected from geo-referenced tube wells in different localities of the city. Samples were analysed for conventional parameters indicative of the physico-chemical quality of groundwater. The groundwater quality mapping was attempted using the ARCGIS 9.0. Thematic maps were generated for each parameter of groundwater quality. This paper presents the spatial distribution of groundwater quality of Chandigarh city. The quality of groundwater was found to be varying with geology of the area as well as the land use and land cover.

Trichoadenoma in a mature cystic teratoma: a rare finding

Skin adnexal tumors arising in dermoid cysts of the ovary are exceedingly rare. We report a trichoadenoma arising in a dermoid cyst in a 42-year-old female. The histopathology of trichoadenoma has also been described briefly. Mature teratomas, which are almost all cystic (dermoid cysts), account for approximately 25% of all ovarian tumors, and 30% of benign ovarian tumors. They usually develop in children or women of the reproductive age group. Histologically, they are composed of variable proportions of tissue originating from the ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm. Cystic cavities are lined by mature epidermis. Although skin appendages and neural tissue are extremely common, there are only few case reports of skin adnexal tumors arising in a mature teratoma. We report a case of ovarian teratoma with a trichoadenoma. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first report describing this rare benign skin adnexal tumor, in a mature cystic teratoma of the ovary.

Basal ganglia surface morphology and the effects of stimulant medications in youth with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

OBJECTIVE

Disturbances in the basal ganglia portions of cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuits likely contribute to the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The authors examined the morphologic features of the basal ganglia nuclei (caudate, putamen, and globus pallidus) in children with ADHD.

METHOD

A total of 104 individuals (combined-type ADHD patients: N=47; healthy comparison subjects: N=57), aged 7 to 18 years, were examined in a cross-sectional case-control study using anatomical magnetic resonance imaging. Conventional volumes and the surface morphology for the basal ganglia were measured.

RESULTS

Overall volumes were significantly smaller only in the putamen. Analysis of the morphological surfaces revealed significant inward deformations in each of the three nuclei, localized primarily in portions of these nuclei that are components of limbic, associative, and sensorimotor pathways in the cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuits in which these nuclei reside. The more prominent these inward deformations were in the patient group, the more severe the ADHD symptoms. Surface analyses also demonstrated significant outward deformations of all basal ganglia nuclei in the ADHD children treated with stimulants compared with those ADHD youth who were untreated. These stimulant-associated enlargements were in locations similar to the reduced volumes detected in the ADHD group relative to the comparison group. The outward deformations associated with stimulant medications attenuated the statistical effects of the primary group comparisons.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings potentially represent evidence of anatomical dysregulation in the circuitry of the basal ganglia in children with ADHD and suggest that stimulants may normalize morphological features of the basal ganglia in children with the disorder.

Fibrous hamartoma of infancy in an unusual location- a case report

Fibrous hamartoma of infancy is an uncommon fibroproliferative lesion that occurs only in infancy and childhood. It predominantly affects healthy boys and can be found in almost any subcutaneous tissue. The tumor is most frequently found in the axilla, followed by shoulder, inguinal area, and chest wall. This tumor can cause much concern about malignancy because it is firm and may be fixed to underlying tissues. Despite the occasional local recurrence, the clinical course is benign and the prognosis is excellent. Treatment is by local excision. The diagnosis is made by the characteristic histologic features. In order to avoid the misdiagnosis of malignancy and unnecessary radical therapy, both surgeon and pathologist must be familiar with this entity. We report a case of fibrous hamartoma of infancy in a 4-year-old boy in gluteal region.

Acanthomatous ameloblastoma of anterior maxilla

The unusual case of acanthomatous ameloblastoma occurring in maxillary left anterior region in a 13-year-old female child is presented with chief complaint of swelling in the upper left anterior region since one year and spacing between maxillary left central incisor and canine. Microscopic examination of surgically excised specimen revealed solid epithelial cell nests with peripheral palisading ameloblastic cells and the central squamous cell assemblage that was consistent with the findings of acanthomatous ameloblastoma type. Acanthomatous ameloblastoma is the extremely rare variant. The present report discusses issues related to the incidence of such formations in the target tissues.

Inactivation of fibroblast growth factor receptor signaling in myelinating glial cells results in significant loss of adult spiral ganglion neurons accompanied by age-related hearing impairment

Hearing loss has been attributed to many factors, including degeneration of sensory neurons in the auditory pathway and demyelination along the cochlear nerve. Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs), which signal through four receptors (Fgfrs), are produced by auditory neurons and play a key role in embryonic development of the cochlea and in neuroprotection against sound-induced injury. However, the role of FGF signaling in the maintenance of normal auditory function in adult and aging mice remains to be elucidated. Furthermore, the contribution of glial cells, which myelinate the cochlear nerves, is poorly understood. To address these questions, we generated transgenic mice in which Fgfr1 and Fgfr2 were specifically inactivated in Schwann cells and oligodendrocytes but not in neurons. Adult mutant mice exhibited late onset of hearing impairment, which progressed markedly with age. The hearing impairment was accompanied by significant loss of myelinated spiral ganglion neurons. The pathology extended into the cochlear nucleus, without apparent loss of myelin or of the deletion-bearing glial cells themselves. This suggests that perturbation of FGF receptor-mediated glial function leads to the attenuation of glial support of neurons, leading to their loss and impairment of auditory functions. Thus, FGF/FGF receptor signaling provides a potentially novel mechanism of maintaining reciprocal interactions between neurons and glia in adult and aging animals. Dysfunction of glial cells and FGF receptor signaling may therefore be implicated in neurodegenerative hearing loss associated with normal aging.

Phosphorylation and lipid raft association of fibroblast growth factor receptor-2 in oligodendrocytes

Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) and their receptors (FGFRs) initiate diverse cellular responses that contribute to the regulation of oligodendrocyte (OL) function. To understand the mechanisms by which FGFRs elicit these cellular responses, we investigated the phosphorylation of signal transduction proteins and the role of cholesterol-glycosphingolipid-enriched "lipid raft" microdomains in differentiated OLs. Surprisingly, we found that the most abundant tyrosine-phosphorylated protein in OLs was the 120-kd isoform of FGFR2 and that it was phosphorylated even in the absence of FGF2, suggesting a potential ligand-independent function for this receptor. Furthermore, FGFR2, but not FGFR1, was associated with lipid raft microdomains in OLs and myelin (but not in astrocytes). This provides the first evidence for the association of FGFR with TX-100-insoluble lipid raft fractions. FGFR2 phosphorylated the key downstream target, FRS2 in OLs. Raft disruption resulted in loss of phosphorylated FRS2 from lipid rafts, coupled with the loss of Akt but not of Mek or Erk phosphorylation. This suggests that FGFR2-FRS2 signaling in lipid rafts operates via the PI3-Kinase/Akt pathway rather than the Ras/Mek/Erk pathway, emphasizing the importance of microenvironments within the cell membrane. Also present in lipid rafts in OLs and myelin, but not in astrocytes, was a novel 52-kd isoform of FGFR2 that lacked the extracellular ligand-binding region. These results demonstrate that FGFR2 in OLs and myelin possess unique characteristics that are specific both to receptor type and to OLs and provide a novel mechanism to elicit distinct cellular responses that mediate both FGF-dependent and -independent functions.

Using perturbation theory to compute the morphological similarity of diffusion tensors

Computing the morphological similarity of diffusion tensors (DTs) at neighboring voxels within a DT image, or at corresponding locations across different DT images, is a fundamental and ubiquitous operation in the postprocessing of DT images. The morphological similarity of DTs typically has been computed using either the principal directions (PDs) of DTs (i.e., the direction along which water molecules diffuse preferentially) or their tensor elements. Although comparing PDs allows the similarity of one morphological feature of DTs to be visualized directly in eigenspace, this method takes into account only a single eigenvector, and it is therefore sensitive to the presence of noise in the images that can introduce error intothe estimation of that vector. Although comparing tensor elements, rather than PDs, is comparatively more robust to the effects of noise, the individual elements of a given tensor do not directly reflect the diffusion properties of water molecules. We propose a measure for computing the morphological similarity of DTs that uses both their eigenvalues and eigenvectors, and that also accounts for the noise levels present in DT images. Our measure presupposes that DTs in a homogeneous region within or across DT images are random perturbations of one another in the presence of noise. The similarity values that are computed using our method are smooth (in the sense that small changes in eigenvalues and eigenvectors cause only small changes in similarity), and they are symmetric when differences in eigenvalues and eigenvectors are also symmetric. In addition, our method does not presuppose that the corresponding eigenvectors across two DTs have been identified accurately, an assumption that is problematic in the presence of noise. Because we compute the similarity between DTs using their eigenspace components, our similarity measure relates directly to both the magnitude and the direction of the diffusion of water molecules. The favorable performance characteristics of our measure offer the prospect of substantially improving additional postprocessing operations that are commonly performed on DTI datasets, such as image segmentation, fiber tracking, noise filtering, and spatial normalization.

A study on clinico-social factors for sexually transmitted diseases among urban males

This health center based study was conducted to find out the proportion and distribution of clinico-social factors for sexually transmitted diseases among male OPD attanders of urban health centre, Subharti Medical College, Meerut. Out of the total 150 male cases of genital diseases from January to June 2005, 42 were found to be symptomatic for STDs according to syndromic approach. The most common symptom was urethral discharge (35.7%). Illiteracy, trucker's occupation, multiple sex partners, extra marital relationship and non-usage of condom were found to be important socio-clinical factors for STDs.

A study on hypertension among the bank employees of Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh

Hypertension is becoming a public health emergency worldwide, especially in the developing countries. The job of bank employees is both sedentary in nature and accompanies high levels of mental stress, thereby at a higher risk of developing hypertension. The present cross-sectional study was conducted to find out the prevalence and the determinants of hypertension among bank employees of Meerut district. Prevalence of hypertension was found to be 69.5%. Hypertension was significantly associated with age 45 years, alcohol intake, waist circumference, body mass index and diabetes.

Rotational alignment of the finger nails in a normal population

We measured the alignment of the nails in the hands of 100 normal adults with the interphalangeal joints extended and the metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joints at 0 degrees and 90 degrees. All fingers were naturally supinated (i.e. rotated towards the thumb), the index and little being the most supinated. When examining individual hands in MCP joint extension, only 17% of hands had all nails parallel. With the MCP joints flexed, this improved to 56%. If the little finger was excluded, this improved to 78%. When comparing matching fingers from the two hands, 76% of little, 83% of ring, 77% of middle and 80% of index fingers matched. Thumbnails were assessed in extension and found to match the other side in 95% of individuals. This study identifies that examination of the injured hand alone with all joints extended is an unreliable method of assessing malrotation following fracture, especially in the little finger. Comparing matching fingers in the two hands is more reliable, but there is still substantial variation in approximately 20% of normal individuals.

Fifth metacarpal neck fractures: is follow-up required?

This study examines the premise that follow-up after fifth metacarpal neck fractures is unnecessary after initial assessment in a hand clinic. Forty consecutive patients with this fracture were managed in plaster and followed up. The next 38 patients were treated with neighbour strapping, given information sheets and no follow-up visits were arranged. In the first group, most return visits were for removal of plaster. Almost half of the appointments, thereafter, were not attended. In the second group, only two patients returned to the clinic, one with minor complaints and one with a repeat injury. Patients reported better satisfaction when managed with neighbour strapping (P=0.04) and without regular follow-up visits (P<0.01). The time to return to work was a mean of 5 weeks and 2.7 weeks in the first and second groups, respectively (P<0.01). There was no significant difference in the functional outcome at 12 weeks, as assessed by the DASH score.