Liposarcoma of the colon: A case report and review of the literature

Liposarcoma is a malignant mesenchymal tumor frequently located in the retroperitoneum and rarely presents as an isolated lesion in the colon. To our knowledge, only three cases of primary colon liposarcoma have been reported in the world literature to date. In this article, we report a case of liposarcoma of the colon in a 46-year-old man. The patient presented with abdominal pain and a palpable mass. Abdominal ultrasonography and computed tomogram confirmed the presence of a large intra-abdominal fatty tissue mass, but the colon origin of the tumor was revealed only on laparotomy. During surgery, a voluminous (12 cm × 11 cm × 10 cm) lesion situated in the subserosa of the ascending colon was found, and a right hemicolectomy with radical lymph node dissection was performed. The pathological diagnosis of the resected tumor revealed primary colon liposarcoma (myxoid subtype). The postoperative course was uneventful, and the patient remained free of disease for 12 months. No adjuvant therapy was performed. Diagnostic and therapeutic problems related to this type of neoplasm as well as literature reviews are reported. Curative R0 resection remains the main treatment for primary and recurrent liposarcomas.     

Study of crystal structures of the bile in the diagnosis of gallstone composition and prognostication of the possibilities of their dissolution

Bile was studied by polarizing microscopy and gallstones by infrared spectroscopy in 150 patients with cholelithiasis. It was established that the presence or absence of certain hard crystal structures in bile, determined by polarizing microscopy, reflects with sufficient accuracy the chemical composition of gallstones in patients with cholelithiasis. The high degree of correlation of the prognosticated result of litholysis on the basis of polarizing microscopy and the results of gallstone dissolution in experiments shows that the information gained in polarizing microscopy may be used as one of the most important criteria in determining the indications and contraindications for dissolving gallstones with octagline.     

Comparative assessment of validity and reliability of the Oral Impacts on Daily Performance (OIDP) frequency scale: a cross‐sectional survey among adolescents in Davanagere city,Karnataka, India

Abstract: Aim: To evaluate reliability and validity of an abbreviated version of the Oral Impact on Daily Performance (OIDP) questionnaire and to analyse the interrelationship between OIDP scores, socio‐demographic characteristics and oral health status among high school children in Davanagere city, Karnataka, India. Materials and methods: This cross‐sectional survey was conducted with 900 school children aged between 12 and 15. The subjects were randomly selected from six high schools. Selected subjects completed a survey instrument predesigned to measure subjective oral health indicators including the eight‐item OIDP frequency scores. The study participants were clinically examined for dental caries, and they completed a self‐administered questionnaire about demographic information and oral behaviours. Results: 44% of the students reported at least one oral impact in the previous 6 months. The reliability of the instrument was measured in terms of Cronbach’s alpha for the OIDP frequency. It was found to be 0.81. Eating was the most common performance affected (33%) followed by cleaning teeth (22%) and speaking (20%). The severity of impacts was low for relaxing and carrying out works. Conclusion: The OIDP frequency score has acceptable psychometric properties in the context of an oral health survey among high school children of Davanagere city, Karnataka, India.     

Human PIV-2 recombinant Sendai virus (rSeV) elicits durable immunity and combines with two additional rSeVs to protect against hPIV-1, hPIV-2, hPIV-3, and RSV

The human parainfluenza viruses (hPIVs) and respiratory syncytial viruses (RSVs) are the leading causes of hospitalizations due to respiratory viral disease in infants and young children, but no vaccines are yet available. Here we describe the use of recombinant Sendai viruses (rSeVs) as candidate vaccine vectors for these respiratory viruses in a cotton rat model. Two new Sendai virus (SeV)-based hPIV-2 vaccine constructs were generated by inserting the fusion (F) gene or the hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) gene from hPIV-2 into the rSeV genome. The inoculation of either vaccine into cotton rats elicited neutralizing antibodies toward both homologous and heterologous hPIV-2 virus isolates. The vaccines elicited robust and durable antibodies toward hPIV-2, and cotton rats immunized with individual or mixed vaccines were fully protected against hPIV-2 infections of the lower respiratory tract. The immune responses toward a single inoculation with rSeV vaccines were long-lasting and cotton rats were protected against viral challenge for as long as 11 months after vaccination. One inoculation with a mixture of the hPIV-2-HN-expressing construct and two additional rSeVs (expressing the F protein of RSV and the HN protein of hPIV-3) resulted in protection against challenge viruses hPIV-1, hPIV-2, hPIV-3, and RSV. Results identify SeV vectors as promising vaccine candidates for four different paramyxoviruses, each responsible for serious respiratory infections in children.     

Sialidase fusion protein as a novel broad-spectrum inhibitor of influenza virus infection

Influenza is a highly infectious disease characterized by recurrent annual epidemics and unpredictable major worldwide pandemics. Rapid spread of the highly pathogenic avian H5N1 strain and escalating human infections by the virus have set off the alarm for a global pandemic. To provide an urgently needed alternative treatment modality for influenza, we have generated a recombinant fusion protein composed of a sialidase catalytic domain derived from Actinomyces viscosus fused with a cell surface-anchoring sequence. The sialidase fusion protein is to be applied topically as an inhalant to remove the influenza viral receptors, sialic acids, from the airway epithelium. We demonstrate that a sialidase fusion construct, DAS181, effectively cleaves sialic acid receptors used by both human and avian influenza viruses. The treatment provides long-lasting effect and is nontoxic to the cells. DAS181 demonstrated potent antiviral and cell protective efficacies against a panel of laboratory strains and clinical isolates of IFV A and IFV B, with virus replication inhibition 50% effective concentrations in the range of 0.04 to 0.9 nM. Mouse and ferret studies confirmed significant in vivo efficacy of the sialidase fusion in both prophylactic and treatment modes.     

Clinical significance of low levels of myeloperoxidase positivity in childhood acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia

The clinical significance of a low percentage of myeloperoxidase- positive blast cells in childhood acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia was determined. Of 155 consecutive cases studied by cytochemical staining methods, 14 were characterized by 4% to 15% (median 6%) myeloperoxidase- positive blasts. All 14 cases showed reactivity to Sudan black B stain, and 7 had Auer rods. The morphological subtypes of leukemia were M1 (8 cases), M2 (3), M4 (1), and M5 (2). Immunological marker studies disclosed the lymphoid-associated T11 antigen on cells from 8 of the 11 cases tested. Other lymphoid-related findings in these 8 cases included the T3 antigen and E rosette formation in 1 case each. Among cases that were prospectively studied for the expression of lymphoid-associated markers, 6 of 8 with low levels of myeloperoxidase positivity compared with only 1 of 44 with higher levels (greater than 15%) possessed such features (P less than 0.001). We conclude that low levels of myeloperoxidase reactivity distinguish cases of acute leukemia in which the blast cells coexpress lymphoid (T11 antigen) and myeloid markers.     

Efficacy of treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis with multidrug mycobacterial resistance

The efficiency of treatment was studied in 149 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis who isolated multidrug resistance of Mycobacteria tuberculosis (MBT). The multidrug resistance of MTB, to at least isoniazid and rifampicin can be associated with both the resistance to other essential (streptomycin, ethambutol) and that to reserve drugs. With this, patients with MBT resistance to a combination of essential and reserve drugs more frequently showed a chronic course of the disease with severe clinical manifestations and more disseminated infiltrative-and-destructive lesions in the lung. Drug treatment regimens using a combination of reserve drug were effective only in patients with MBT resistance to essential drugs while they were little effective in those with resistance to essential and reserve agents. The use of artificial pneumothorax in patients with MBT resistance to essential and reserve agents could cease bacterial isolation in 77.8% of the patients even by ingesting a small number of the drugs. Clinically, the occurrence of MBT resistance to reserve drugs is justified to determine a radically new status in patients in the context of chemotherapy and the whole further treatment in this group of patients. A clinical classification of MBT multidrug resistance is proposed, which identifies two categories of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis: those resistant to essential drugs and those resistant to a combination of essential and reserve drugs.