Symptomatic Abdominal Wall Schwannoma Mimicking Infected Subcutanous Soft Tissue Lesion. A Case report

INTRODUCTION AND IMPORTANCE

Schwannomas are benign tumors of the nerve sheath, they do not typically present on the abdominal wall and cause symptoms. To the best of our knowledge, this is the second symptomatic case of schwannoma in upper abdominal wall reported according to the reviewed English medical literature.

CASE PRESENTATION

A 25-year-old man post renal transplant two year ago. He presented with left hypochondrial painfull swelling, and redness. On examination, local examination revealed a lesion located in the anterior abdominal wall swelling, 3 × 3 cm, tender with minimal erythema and hotness but no discharge. An ultrasound showed superficial oval shaped with thick wall and mildly increased peripheral vascularity without internal vascularity. He underwent surgical excision and the histopathology result was schwannoma.

CLINICAL DISCUSSION

Usually, a patient presents asymptomatic with a slow growing mass. However, the symptoms can vary and depending on the location. Furthermore, a growing lump can start putting pressure on the nerves around the area, and patients can show symptoms accordingly. The likability of ultrasound to pick up a well-circumscribed mass and reaching a definitive diagnosis without histopathology is nearly impossible. Therefore, a complete excision and histopathology confirmed the presence of schwannoma.

CONCLUSION

Upon the rarity of schwannomas presenting in atypical regions, such as the abdominal wall. A painful mass on the abdominal wall should raise the suspicion of benign schwannoma. The recurrence rate after the treatment of choice is unusual. Moreover, complete surgical excision of the mass is the definitive treatment.

The Role of Radiation Therapy for Symptomatic Desmoid Tumors

OPINION STATEMENT

Desmoid tumors have a variable clinical course that ranges from indolence or spontaneous regression to an aggressive pattern marked by local invasion. Up to half may remain stable or regress; watchful waiting is the preferred approach in the initial management of desmoid tumors. Symptomatic or progressive tumors or those that may affect adjacent critical structures require surgery, radiotherapy, or systemic therapy. Although radiotherapy effectively controls desmoid tumors in most cases, concerns regarding late toxicity exist. Definitive radiotherapy for macroscopic disease is indicated when a non-morbid complete surgical resection cannot be accomplished and provides similar control rates to surgery plus radiotherapy but avoids toxicity from combined-modality treatment (surgery and radiotherapy). Adjuvant radiotherapy can be considered for microscopically involved margins, particularly for recurrent cases or when a future recurrence may be challenging to treat. Large size, extremity site, and younger age are poor prognostic factors after radiotherapy. In the extremity, radiotherapy may have superior outcomes to surgery. Younger patients, especially children, are challenging to manage as they are at particular risk for late toxicity due to the number of potential years at risk. For patients under 20 years old, for whom a non-morbid complete resection is not possible, we recommend systemic therapy as the first line of treatment. Although the long-term efficacy of systemic therapy is unproven, this strategy allows additional time for growth and development prior to radiotherapy. In younger patients and those with axial desmoid tumors adjacent to critical organs, consideration should be given to using proton therapy as the dosimetric advantages may mitigate some of the toxicity associated with conventional radiotherapy.

Normal gastrointestinal tract inflammatory cells and review of select benign hematolymphoid proliferations

The luminal gastrointestinal tract can be a site of robust immune response in which reactive lymphoproliferative processes can sometimes be difficult to distinguish from lymphoma. In this article, we review gastrointestinal tract normal resident inflammatory cells and common nonneoplastic lymphoproliferative responses with emphasis on their differential and links to lymphoma. Topics that are covered include lymphocytic esophagitis, gastric chronic inflammation, mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue, and ulceration, small intestinal lymphoid hyperplasia, celiac disease, microscopic colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, primary immunodeficiency, graft-versus-host disease, and anti-programmed cell death protein-1 effect. We additionally present the less common differential of histiocytic processes within the gastrointestinal tract. The aim of this paper is to serve as a reference for practicing pathologists facing lymphoid, lymphoplasmacytic, or histiocytic processes in the luminal gastrointestinal tract. We hope to help the practicing pathologist distinguish benign from malignant entities and identify features requiring further workup.

Use of Ultrasonography Facilitates Noninvasive Evaluation of Lymphadenopathy in a Lymph Node Diagnostic Clinic

BACKGROUND

Prompt and accurate diagnosis of lymphadenopathy is important, yet there is wide variability in clinical approach and referral patterns, leading to unnecessary investigations and delays in diagnosis. To address this, a lymph node diagnostic clinic (LNDC) was established at our tertiary referral center.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We retrospectively analyzed data from 320 consecutive patients referred to the LNDC from March 2008 to March 2020, to describe their management and outcomes.

RESULTS

The most common diagnoses were reactive (57%) and malignant lymphadenopathy (28%). In those with reactive lymphadenopathy, 33% did not undergo further investigations, 37% underwent imaging only, and 29% underwent biopsy. For malignant lymphadenopathy, diagnosis was made at a median (interquartile range) of 9 (6-16) days from first LNDC review, with the decision to biopsy made at the first LNDC review in 95% of cases. Clinical features significantly associated with malignancy included age > 45, B symptoms, history of malignancy, and lymphadenopathy that was ≥ 2 cm, in multiple regions, bilateral, multiple nodes, or supraclavicular. At least 3 of these features were present in 88% of patients with malignant lymphadenopathy. Ultrasound had a sensitivity of 98% and negative predictive value of 97% for detecting malignant lymphadenopathy.

CONCLUSION

A dedicated LNDC in a tertiary referral center facilitates rapid assessment and diagnosis of lymphadenopathy through a risk-stratified model of management. Ultrasonography, as well as the presence of defined clinical risk factors, were most useful to differentiate benign from malignant lymphadenopathy.

Lung Nodule Classification Using Biomarkers, Volumetric Radiomics, and 3D CNNs

We present a hybrid algorithm to estimate lung nodule malignancy that combines imaging biomarkers from Radiologist’s annotation with image classification of CT scans. Our algorithm employs a 3D Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) as well as a Random Forest in order to combine CT imagery with biomarker annotation and volumetric radiomic features. We analyze and compare the performance of the algorithm using only imagery, only biomarkers, combined imagery + biomarkers, combined imagery + volumetric radiomic features, and finally the combination of imagery + biomarkers + volumetric features in order to classify the suspicion level of nodule malignancy. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Lung Image Database Consortium (LIDC) IDRI dataset is used to train and evaluate the classification task. We show that the incorporation of semi-supervised learning by means of K-Nearest-Neighbors (KNN) can increase the available training sample size of the LIDC-IDRI, thereby further improving the accuracy of malignancy estimation of most of the models tested although there is no significant improvement with the use of KNN semi-supervised learning if image classification with CNNs and volumetric features is combined with descriptive biomarkers. Unexpectedly, we also show that a model using image biomarkers alone is more accurate than one that combines biomarkers with volumetric radiomics, 3D CNNs, and semi-supervised learning. We discuss the possibility that this result may be influenced by cognitive bias in LIDC-IDRI because malignancy estimates were recorded by the same radiologist panel as biomarkers, as well as future work to incorporate pathology information over a subset of study participants.

Case for diagnosis. Dorsal nodule in a 10-year-old male

Granular cell tumors (GCTs) are rare soft-tissue neoplasms. GCT immunohistochemistry is positive for S-100, NSE, and CD68. This report describes the case of a 10-year-old male who presented with a dorsal nodule. A biopsy revealed aggregates and sheets of large epithelioid and spindle cells. The cells had abundant eosinophilic granular cytoplasm. Immunohistochemical analysis was positive for CD68, NKI/C3, and synaptophysin; weakly positive for NSE; and negative for S-100, SOX10, HMB45, Melan A, cytokeratin, SMA, EMA, and CD163. The Ki-67 index was less than 1%. A diagnosis of an S-100 negative, cutaneous, benign GCT was determined.

Lung cancer identification: a review on detection and classification

Lung cancer is one of the most common diseases among humans and one of the major causes of growing mortality. Medical experts believe that diagnosing lung cancer in the early phase can reduce death with the illustration of lung nodule through computed tomography (CT) screening. Examining the vast amount of CT images can reduce the risk. However, the CT scan images incorporate a tremendous amount of information about nodules, and with an increasing number of images make their accurate assessment very challenging tasks for radiologists. Recently, various methods are evolved based on handcraft and learned approach to assist radiologists. In this paper, we reviewed different promising approaches developed in the computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system to detect and classify the nodule through the analysis of CT images to provide radiologists' assistance and present the comprehensive analysis of different methods.

Venous thromboembolism in benign esophageal surgery patients: potential cost effectiveness of Caprini risk stratification

BACKGROUND

The Caprini risk assessment model (RAM) stratifies surgical patients for prescription of post-discharge extended heparin prophylaxis to reduce post-operative venous thromboembolism (VTE) events. The average cost for treatment of a VTE event is $15,123. The 30-day post-operative VTE rate after benign esophageal procedures is < 0.8% per the Society of Thoracic Surgeons database. We hypothesized that the financial cost of selective extended prophylaxis in patients undergoing surgery for benign esophageal disease would exceed the cost of treating these rare events and therefore use of risk stratification for extended prophylaxis would not be beneficial.

METHODS

All patients undergoing operations for benign esophageal pathology from July 2014 to May 2019 were reviewed. Patients designated as moderate or high risk for VTE were prescribed a 10- or 30-day post-operative course of extended prophylaxis with low-molecular weight heparin (LMWH). VTE and adverse bleeding events were recorded for the 60-day post-operative period. The cost of LMWH was provided by the institution pharmacy.

RESULTS

Records from 154 patients were eligible for review. Caprini RAM was used for all patients with the following distribution of risk categories: low = 64.9% (100/154); moderate = 31.8% (49/154); and high = 3.2% (5/154). The average cost of extended prophylaxis at discharge for the moderate-risk group was $121.23, while the high-risk group was $446.46. There were no 60-day VTE or adverse bleeding events recorded.

CONCLUSIONS

The majority of patients undergoing surgical therapy were at low risk of post-operative VTE event, with only 35% requiring extended VTE prophylaxis at time of discharge. When compared with the average cost of treatment for a VTE event, the cost of extended prophylaxis per patient in moderate or high-risk groups is substantially lower. In the era of cost-containment, risk stratification and extended prophylaxis may reduce healthcare costs and warrant future investigations.

Evaluation of cross-sectional imaging features that aid in the differentiation of benign and malignant splenic lesions

PURPOSE

This study aimed to investigate the role of cross-sectional imaging in differentiating between benign and malignant splenic lesions based on various imaging features.

METHODS

Database of imaging reports from January 2015 to December 2017 were searched dedicatedly for "spleen" or "splenic" terms to identify patients with splenic lesions found either on CT or MRI. The study cohort consisted of patients who had available histological reports or had follow-up imaging for a minimum of one year. Patients were categorized into the benign subcohort if they did not have a history of extra-splenic malignancy, and had a splenic lesion(s) falling into one of these categories: benign histopathology on biopsy, stable size and enhancement, or decreased size on follow-up imaging. Those who had malignant histopathology on biopsy were included in the malignant subcohort. Various morphologic features and enhancement patterns of these lesions were carefully reviewed by two radiologists who were blinded to the final histopathologic diagnosis.

RESULTS

We identified 161 patients (54 % males, mean age ± SD = 59.7 ± 15.4) including 124 (77 %) in the benign and 37 (23 %) in the malignant subcohort. Benign lesions were more likely to be cystic (21.7 % vs 2.7 %, p < 0.001), homogenous (59.7 % vs. 29.7 %, p = 0.001) and to demonstrate well-defined borders (69.3 % vs. 29.7 % p= <0.001). Malignant lesions had significantly larger diameter (median size: 15 vs 11 mm, p = 0.03). Restricted diffusion was not seen in any of the benign lesions; however, 50 % of malignant lesions demonstrated restricted diffusion (p = 0.003). Features such as lesion distribution, presence of calcification, splenomegaly and number of lesions were not significantly different between benign and malignant lesions.

CONCLUSION

Smaller lesion diameter, well-defined border and homogeneity favor benign nature of splenic lesions while restricted diffusion should raise suspicion for malignancy.

Gastrointestinal bleeding due to gastrointestinal lipoma: A case report

BACKGROUND

Lipomas are common harmless tumors that are created in the colon in the gastrointestinal tract. The aim of this study was to report a case study on gastrointestinal lipoma with GIB.

CASE PRESENTATION

A 38-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of gastrointestinal bleeding for two months in December 2017. He had abdominal pain, dyspeptic disorders, vomiting, melena, and intermittent hematemesis without significant weight loss. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy indicated a large subepithelial lesion in the antrum of the stomach with near-normal mucosa. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) showed a large well-defined heterogeneous mass-like lesion in the antrum of the stomach. A subtotal gastrectomy was done in the patient. The histology results of the separated samples presented a gastric lipoma.

CONCLUSION

Gastric lipoma is often yellowish. It might ulcerate and bleed, but it does so, only rarely. It most frequently occurs as a solitary and smooth mass in the gastric antrum.

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound of benign and malignant liver lesions in children

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is increasingly being used in children. One of the most common referrals for CEUS performance is characterization of indeterminate focal liver lesions and follow-up of known liver lesions. In this setting, CEUS is performed with intravenous administration of ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs). When injected into a vein, UCA microbubbles remain confined within the vascular network until they dissipate. Therefore, visualization of UCA within the tissues and lesions corresponds to true blood flow. CEUS enables continuous, real-time observation of the enhancement pattern of a focal liver lesion, allowing in most cases for a definite diagnosis and obviating the need for further cross-sectional imaging or other interventional procedures. The recent approval of Lumason (Bracco Diagnostics, Monroe Township, NJ) for pediatric liver CEUS applications has spurred the widespread use of CEUS. In this review article we describe the role of CEUS in pediatric liver applications, focusing on the examination technique and interpretation of main imaging findings of the most commonly encountered benign and malignant focal liver lesions. We also compare the diagnostic performance of CEUS with other imaging modalities for accurate characterization of focal liver lesions.

Benign pathologies results from lung nodule percutaneous biopsies: How to differentiate true and false benign?

Objectives

The objective was to identify predictors of true negatives in lung nodules (LNs) with computed tomography-guided percutaneous biopsy (CTPB)-based benign pathological results.

Materials and Methods

We included 90 total patients between January 2013 and December 2017 that had CTPB-based nonspecific benign pathologies and used these patients as a training group to accurately identify true-negative predictors. A validation group of 50 patients from January 2018 to June 2019 to confirm predictor reliability.

Results

CTPB was conducted on 90 LNs from the training group. True-negative and false-negative CTPB-based pathologies were obtained for 79 and 11 LNs, respectively. CTPB-based benign results had a negative predictive value of 87.8% (79/90). Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed younger age (P = 0.019) and CTPB-based chronic inflammation with fibroplasia (P = 0.010) to be true-negative predictors. A predictive model was made by combining these two prognostic values as follows: score = -7.975 + 0.112 × age -2.883 × CTPB-based chronic inflammation with fibroplasia (0: no present; 1: present). The area under receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.854 (P < 0.001). To maximize sensitivity and specificity, we selected a cutoff risk score of -0.1759. The application of this model to the validation group yielded an area under the ROC curve of 0.912 (P < 0.001).

Conclusions

Our predictive model showed good predictive ability for identifying true negatives among CTPB-based benign pathological results.

The diagnostic value of magnetic resonance imaging in differentiating benign and malignant pediatric ovarian tumors

BACKGROUND

The diagnostic workup of ovarian tumors in children and adolescents is challenging because preserving fertility, in addition to oncological safety, is of particular importance in this population. Therefore, a thorough preoperative assessment of ovarian tumors is required.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the diagnostic value of MR imaging in differentiating benign from malignant ovarian tumors in children and adolescents.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We conducted a retrospective study of all children and adolescents age <18 years who underwent MR imaging of ovarian tumors during 2014-2019 at a pediatric specialty center. Two radiologists reviewed all MR imaging. We used pathology reports to define the histological diagnosis.

RESULTS

We included 30 girls who underwent MR imaging for an ovarian tumor. Signs indicative for malignancy were tumors with a diameter ≥8 cm, with areas of contrast enhancement, irregular margins, extracapsular tumor growth, and ascites. All benign and malignant ovarian tumors were correctly identified by the radiologists.

CONCLUSION

The diagnostic utility of MR imaging in classifying ovarian tumors in children and adolescents as benign or malignant is promising and might aid in defining the indication for ovarian-sparing versus non-ovarian-sparing surgery. We recommend evaluating these tumors with MR imaging prior to deciding on surgical treatment.

Neonatal sacrococcygeal teratoma: Our 20-year experience from a tertiary care centre in North India

Advances in diagnostic and therapeutic interventions have improved the survival of neonates with sacrococcygeal teratoma in richer countries. These changes have not yet taken place in resource-limited settings. A retrospective analysis of neonates with sacrococcygeal teratoma operated at our centre during 1997-2016 was performed. Among 44 neonates enrolled, prenatal diagnosis of sacrococcygeal teratoma was available in 25% of pregnancies. All babies except one were born vaginally. Associated congenital malformations were seen in 20% (9/44). Types of sacrococcygeal teratoma were classified as Altman type I in 12 (27.3%), 24 (54.5%) as type II, 6 (13.6%) as type III and 2 (4.5%) as type IV. Morphologically, 77% (34/44) neonates had cystic lesions. All patients were managed successfully by total excision. Histopathology confirmed mature teratoma in 43 (97.7%). After a 12-month follow-up, no recurrence was observed. An uneventful pregnancy, absence of associated congenital anomalies, cystic morphology and a mature histology are good prognostic factors.

Enlarging cervical vertebral pneumatocyst - A case report

Intraosseous pneumatocyst refers to gas-filled cystic lesions inside bone. Vertebral pneumatocysts are rare and most have been described to remain static over time. We report a rare case of an enlarging spinal pneumatocyst. A 58-year-old male patient with cervical ossified posterior longitudinal ligament with two cervical vertebral pneumatocysts (C4 and C5). The C5 cyst (9.91 × 5.9 × 4.3 mm) was larger than the C4. MRI was suggestive of compression at C4-5 and C5-6 level. Repeat imaging done eight months later showed an increase in the size of the C5 pneumatocyst (12.41 × 7.6 × 6.3 mm). In view of the enlarging pneumatocyst, patient underwent C5 corpectomy. Histopathological examination of the cyst wall revealed fibro-collagenous tissue with histiocytes and foreign body giant cells confirming the benign nature of the disease. This case highlights the importance of radiological follow up of a pneumatocyst.

A novel application of pulmonary transit time to differentiate between benign and malignant pulmonary nodules using myocardial contrast echocardiography

Malignant pulmonary nodules (PNs) are often accompanied by vascular dilatation and structural abnormalities. Pulmonary transit time (PTT) measurement by contrast echocardiograghy has used to assess the cardiopulmonary function and pulmonary vascular status, such as hepatopulmonary syndrome and pulmonary arteriovenous fistula, but has not yet been attempted in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of PNs. The aim of this work was to evaluate the feasibility and performance of myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) for differentiating malignant PNs from benign ones. The study population consisted of 201 participant: 66 healthy participants, 65 patients with benign PNs and 70 patients with malignant PNs. Their clinical and conventional echocardiographic characteristics were collected. MCE with measurements of PTT were performed. There was no difference in age, sex, heart rate, blood pressure, smoking rate, background lung disease, pulmonary function, ECG, myocardial enzymes, cardiac size and function among the healthy participant, patients with benign and malignant PNs (P > 0.05). PTT did not differ significantly in patients with PNs of different sizes, nor did they differ in patients with PNs of different enhancement patterns (P > 0.05). However, the PTT were far shorter (about one half) in patients with malignant PNs than in patients with benign ones (1.88 ± 0.37 vs. 3.73 ± 0.35, P < 0.001). There was no significantly different between patients with benign PNs and healthy participant (3.73 ± 0.35 vs.3.89 ± 0.36, P > 0.05). The area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) of PTT was 0.99(0.978-1.009) in discriminating between benign and malignant PNs. The optimal cutoff value was 2.78 s, with a sensitivity of 98.52%, a specificity of 97.34%, and a accuracy of 97.69%. MCE had a powerful performance in differentiating between benign and malignant PNs, and a pulmonary circulation time of < 2.78 s indicated malignant PNs.

Superficial Acral Fibromyxoma: A case report

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Superficial Acral Fibromixoma (SAF) is a benign and rare tumor of the soft tissues.

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Local recurrence is often associated with a positive margin.

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Follow-up is recommended due to the risk of recurrence.

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Superficial Acral Fibromixoma, one of the rare myxoid neoplasms should be considered in the differential diagnosis.

Introduction

Superficial Acral Fibromixoma is a benign and rare tumor of the soft tissues, also it called digital fibromyxoma. It is a painful, slow growing solitary mass that is frequently observed in the fingers, toes and nail beds. Local recurrence is often associated with a positive margin.

Presentation of case

A 54-year-old male patient had admitted to local state hospital with complaint of a two-lobed mass lesion in the 5th finger of the right hand. The lesion was closely adjacent to the 5th finger flexor tendon. The specimen of the patient undergoing excisional biopsy was sent to our pathology department.

Conclusion

Superficial Acral Fibromyxoma is one of the rare benign myxoid neoplasms. Its treatment is surgical excision.

We reported the case for its rarity and to keep in mind in the acral region neoplasms.

The Clinical Response Time of Epley Maneuvers for Treatment of BPPV: A Hospital Based Study

The Epley maneuver is one of the most effective canalith repositioning procedures for treatment of posterior canal benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. It was found that response to BPPV varies with various factors such as types, single versus multiple canals BPPV, single or repeated cycles of head maneuvers in each session and duration of follow up of patient. Furthermore, less uniform result exists after treatment of BPPV among studies. Hence, the present study was taken with aim to investigate "The clinical response time of Epley maneuvers in treatment of BPPV: A Hospital Based Study. A total of 132 patients were included in study with age ranging from 30 to 50 years These patient visited department of ENT from 2019 to 2020 with complaint of vertigo. The subjective balancing assessments along with Dix-Hallpike maneuver were done and dizziness handicap inventory were administrated for screening of BPPV. The patients, who were diagnosed as posterior canal BPPV, were treated with Canal repositioning procedure i.e. Epley's Maneuvers during the initial visit. In addition, the same maneuvers were repeated after 1 week of sequential sessions if the patient reported no benefit or partial benefit from first session until the patient became asymptomatic and Dix-Hallpike maneuver were negative. The total number of sessions of Epley maneuver required by each patient was recorded. The findings of present study suggested that 37.69% of cases with posterior canal BPPV were asymptomatic after first CRP session of Epleys maneuver whereas repeated sessions were required in 61.52% of cases of BPPV and 0.76% of cases showed no response to repeated CRP up to 6 months. BPPV involving posterior canals may be easily detected by position test with good response to Epley maneuver. Short-term and long term control of symptoms of unilateral posterior SCC through this easy and simple procedure can be achieved. This cost effective approach requires proper trained and committed professionals. The repeated session may be required as complete recovery may not be immediate. Sometimes partial response can be due to canal switching during BPPV Hence, it is necessary to counsel the patient regarding the importance of follow-up.

Diffuse pulmonary meningotheliomatosis

We report the case of an 80-year-old woman presenting with randomly distributed ground glass nodules in the lungs. Since this imaging appearance can be confusing and can mimic other disease processes, it is important to have an organized approach. In this specific case, the distribution and appearance of nodules, their presence for a prolonged period as well as the clinical context were clues to the diagnosis of diffuse pulmonary meningotheliomatosis (DPM). The final diagnosis was established by surgical biopsy. This article reviews the current literature on DPM, imaging appearance, and an algorithmic approach to the presented case.

Excision of Different Oral Benign Exophytic Lesions With a Diode Laser: A Clinical Case Series

Introduction: Lasers are becoming the standard of care for many dental procedures, and are being introduced as a high-tech instrument. They are also becoming more routine in dentistry through the advent of office-based lasers, which are also simple to use within the oral cavity. Many studies have shown the competencies of laser technology for the management of benign oral lesions as these techniques allow for painless and bloodless oral surgery. Cases Report: Nine patients attending the Department of oral and maxillofacial Disease, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, underwent laser outpatient procedures for the surgical removal of a wide range of benign oral lesions. Regarding the history, present illnesses and clinical figures of all reported cases, the clinician ensured that the lesions were benign and after taking informed consent from every patient, he did complete the excision of lesions with diode lasers. Following the injection of local anesthesia, an 810 nm diode laser was applied for the excisional biopsy of oral lesions. The specimens were sent for histopathological evaluations and the patients were assessed on intraoperative and postoperative complications. The patients were followed up for postoperative complications at one week and 2 weeks post-treatment. Conclusions: According to our findings, a diode laser can be a choice for the outpatient treatment of oral mucosal benign lesions as this technique provides painless and almost bloodless treatment.

Presumption of innocence for beta cells: why are they vulnerable autoimmune targets in type 1 diabetes?

It is increasingly appreciated that the pathogenic mechanisms of type 1 diabetes involve both the autoimmune aggressors and their beta cell targets, which engage in a conflicting dialogue within and possibly outside the pancreas. Indeed, autoimmune CD8⁺ T cells, which are the final mediators of beta cell destruction, circulate at similar frequencies in type 1 diabetic and healthy individuals. Hence a universal state of 'benign' islet autoimmunity exists, and we hypothesise that its progression to type 1 diabetes may at least partially rely on a higher vulnerability of beta cells, which play a key, active role in disease development and/or amplification. We posit that this autoimmune vulnerability is rooted in some features of beta cell biology: the stress imposed by the high rate of production of insulin and other granule proteins, their dense vascularisation and the secretion of their products directly into the bloodstream. Gene variants that may predispose individuals to this vulnerability have been identified, e.g. MDA5, TYK2, PTPN2. They interact with environmental cues, such as viral infections, that may drive this genetic potential towards exacerbated local inflammation and progressive beta cell loss. On top of this, beta cells set up compensatory responses, such as the unfolded protein response, that become deleterious in the long term. The relative contribution of immune and beta cell drivers may vary and phenotypic subtypes (endotypes) are likely to exist. This dual view argues for the use of circulating biomarkers of both autoimmunity and beta cell stress for disease staging, and for the implementation of both immunomodulatory and beta cell-protective therapeutic strategies. Graphical abstract.

Performance improvement of mediastinal lymph node severity detection using GAN and Inception network

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

In lung cancer, the determination of mediastinal lymph node (MLN) status as benign or malignant influence treatment planning and survival rate. Invasive pathological tests for the classification of MLNs into benign and malignant have various shortcomings like painfulness, the risk associated with anesthesia, and depends to a large extent on skillset and preferences of the surgeon performing the test. Hence, computer-aided system for MLNs severity detection has been explored widely by the researchers. Very recently, in our earlier concluded work on non-invasive method for MLNs differential diagnosis in computed tomography (CT) images, combination of different data augmentation approaches and state-of-art fully convolutional network (FCN) were implemented to enhance the performance of malignancy detection. However, the performance of FCN network were highly depended on the selection of appropriate data augmentation approach and control of their hyperparameters. Moreover, a standard practice to get hierarchical features in convolutional neural network (CNN) models requires deeper stacking of layers. This leads to an increase in number of trainable parameters which prone to overfitting of the network.

METHODS

In view of the above mention limitations, in this paper, authors have proposed an approach that includes: 1) Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) for data augmentation, and 2) Inception network for malignancy detection. Unlike conventional data augmentation strategy, GAN based augmentation approach generates data that correlates to original data distribution. In the case of Inception based model, it uses multiple size kernels with factorized convolution for hierarchical feature extraction. This helps to a significant reduction in trainable parameters and the problem of overfitting.

RESULTS

In this paper, experiments with different GAN approaches, as well as with different Inception architectures, are conducted to evaluate and justify the selection of appropriate GAN and Inception architecture, respectively for MLNs severity detection. The proposed approach achieves superior results with an average accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and area under curve of 94.95%, 93.65%, 96.67%, and 95%, respectively.

CONCLUSION

The obtained results validate the usefulness of GANs for data augmentation in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant MLNs. The proposed Inception network based classifier for malignancy detection shows promising results compared to all investigated methods presented in various literature.

Squamous cell papilloma of the gingiva with a "garlanding a tooth" appearance: Report of an unusual case

Squamous cell papilloma of the gingiva is a benign, asymptomatic, exophytic nonplaque-associated gingival lesion caused by human papillomavirus. It affects several areas of the oral cavity with a relatively lower predilection for gingiva. The finger-like clinical presentation may be scary, misleading and may be confused with other lesions. This report presents a case of squamous cell papilloma of the gingiva. We report an unusual case of squamous papilloma of the gingiva with an unusual "garlanding a tooth" appearance.

Phyllodes Tumor of the Breast in Pregnancy and Lactation

Phyllodes tumor constitutes around 1% of all and 2.5% of fibroepithelial breast lumps. Three types including benign, borderline, and malignant tumors have been described. The benign variant is the most common, is close to fibroadenoma, but is usually larger and recurs more frequently. The rare malignant type is aggressive. Standard treatment consists of lumpectomy with appropriate margins for benign phyllodes tumor, while the borderline and malignant variants must be treated by wide resection or mastectomy. Phyllodes tumor is a rare tumor in pregnancy and lactation, and the effect of gestational alterations in hormone levels on this tumor have not been discussed in the literature, except for several case reports. In summary and alluding to our recent literature review, large size, fast growth, bilaterality, and probably malignancy are more commonly expected in gestational phyllodes tumors.