A malignant tumour in the breast is not always primary breast cancer

In a 75-year-old woman with a swelling in her left breast, a 39-year-old woman with an anal fissure due to diarrhoea and a 65-year-old woman with chest pain, a mammary tumour was diagnosed that did not originate in mammary tissue. These were a recurrent melanoma, a carcinoma of the thyroid and a B-cell lymphoma, respectively. All patients were treated. The first patient developed new metastases one year later, the second died, partly as a result of the tumour, and the third showed no recurrence of the tumour after two years. Breast cancer is one of the most frequently occurring neoplasms in women. Primary tumours in the breast from other origins and metastatic lesions to the breast from extramammary tumours are rare. Most of these cases concern haematological malignancies and metastases from melanoma and lung cancer. Despite the fact that metastases to the breast are rare, one should always consider the possibility.     

Quantity in health care is not always a substitute for quality

Examines the outcomes of attempts to improve health services in the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe and in the West European democracies. Discovers that while the East Europeans focused their efforts on increasing the numbers of doctors and beds per patient, while keeping to relatively low levels of investment in technological advances, West European countries have taken the opposite approach, emphasizing quality of care, particularly advanced care, reducing the numbers of physicians and hospital beds, acquiring advanced technological systems for diagnosis and treatment and spending ten times as much per patient as in Eastern Europe. Concludes that the West European approach has led to far better results.     

Optimal investment in HIV prevention programs: more is not always better

This paper develops a mathematical/economic framework to address the following question: Given a particular population, a specific HIV prevention program, and a fixed amount of funds that could be invested in the program, how much money should be invested? We consider the impact of investment in a prevention program on the HIV sufficient contact rate (defined via production functions that describe the change in the sufficient contact rate as a function of expenditure on a prevention program), and the impact of changes in the sufficient contact rate on the spread of HIV (via an epidemic model). In general, the cost per HIV infection averted is not constant as the level of investment changes, so the fact that some investment in a program is cost effective does not mean that more investment in the program is cost effective. Our framework provides a formal means for determining how the cost per infection averted changes with the level of expenditure. We can use this information as follows: When the program has decreasing marginal cost per infection averted (which occurs, for example, with a growing epidemic and a prevention program with increasing returns to scale), it is optimal either to spend nothing on the program or to spend the entire budget. When the program has increasing marginal cost per infection averted (which occurs, for example, with a shrinking epidemic and a prevention program with decreasing returns to scale), it may be optimal to spend some but not all of the budget. The amount that should be spent depends on both the rate of disease spread and the production function for the prevention program. We illustrate our ideas with two examples: that of a needle exchange program, and that of a methadone maintenance program.     

Stomatitis in childhood, not always benign

Two boys of 1 and 16 year had painful buccal lesions and were admitted for dehydration. The younger had finger and toe blisters; the older, severely ill, had conjunctivitis, urethritis and skin lesions. Only symptomatic treatment with lidocaine gel and paracetamol gave good recovery. A 5-year-old Turkish girl had recurrent painful buccal ulcers which each time cleared up spontaneously. Stomatitis is common in childhood. Viral infections are the most common causes of stomatitis, in particular infections with herpes simplex virus (herpes gingivostomatitis), Coxsackie virus (herpangina, hand-foot-mouth-disease), chickenpox and infectious mononucleosis. Bacterial infections are rare and mostly secondary to the viral infections. In infants oral candidiasis (thrush) is a common cause of stomatitis. Most infections are self-limiting and reassurance of parents is important. Dehydration is a common complication and admission to hospital can be prevented by analgesics. The most important non-infectious conditions that cause stomatitis in children are recurrent aphthous stomatitis, erythema multiforme major (Stevens-Johnson syndrome), Beh?et's disease, malignancy (leukaemia), immune-mediated disorders (agranulocytosis, cyclic neutropenia), traumata, blistering disorders of the skin and lichen planus. A complete history and a thorough physical examination usually give the correct diagnosis and further investigations are seldom necessary.     

Invagination in children: not always ileocaecal

Three patients, two girls aged 10 and a boy aged 11, suffered from secondary intussusception. Two of the cases were mistakenly managed as an idiopathic or classic intussusception. Hydrostatic reduction with a contrast enema was thought to be successful when retrograde influx in the ileum was seen. As the intussusception recurred, a diagnostic laparoscopy was performed followed by laparotomy and surgical treatment. In both cases an ileo-ileal intussusception was found. In one case the lead point was a malignant lymphoma, in the other case probably an area of vasculitis associated with Henoch Sch?nlein purpura. The enema had only repositioned the ileocolic part of the intussusception. In the third patient, the ileo-ileal intussusception resolved spontaneously. Due to the location of the intus-susception, a lead point was suspected and a laparoscopy was performed. A Meckel's diverticulum was found and resected. The importance of looking for a lead point is emphasized when dealing with an intussusception in children over the age of 3, or with evidence of underlying disease. In such cases, the relative value of a contrast enema for diagnosis and reposition is emphasised. There should be a low threshold for further investigation, including diagnostic laparoscopy.