Can we increase the cervical cancer screening interval with an HPV test for women living with HIV? Results of a cohort study from Maharashtra,India

We are reporting (a) updated incidence of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) among women who did not have colposcopic or histopathological disease at baseline and (b) disease outcomes among women treated for CIN and their follow-up HPV status; in a cohort of women living with HIV (WHIV). The median overall follow-up was 3.5 years (IQR 2.8-4.3). The incidence of any CIN and that of CIN 2 or worse disease was 16.7 and 7.0 per 1000 person-years of observation (PYO), respectively. Compared with women who were HPV negative at baseline, women who cleared HPV infection had 23.95 times increased risk of incident CIN 2 or worse lesions (95% CI 2.40-661.07). Women with persistent HPV infection had 138.18 times increased risk of CIN 2 or worse lesions (95% CI 20.30-3300.22). Complete disease regression was observed in 65.6% of the HPV positive women with high-grade CIN and were treated with thermal ablation but HPV persistence was seen in 44.8% of those with high-grade disease. Among those who did not have any disease at baseline and were also HPV negative, about 87% (95% CI 83.79-89.48) women remained HPV negative during consecutive HPV test/s with the median interval of 3.5 years. Long-term surveillance of WHIV treated for any CIN is necessary for the prevention of cervical cancer among them. Our study provides an early indication that the currently recommended screening interval of 3 to 5 years among WHIV may be extended to at least 5 years among HPV negative women. Increasing the screening interval can be cost saving and improve scalability among WHIV to support WHO's cervical cancer elimination initiative.     

Pellagra in a child–A rare entity

This case has been presented as pellagra, which is very rare in children. Pellagra is due dietary deficiency of niacin. Usually seen in alcoholics, malabsorption syndromes occur very rarely in children. A 11-y-old girl presented with well-defined, hyperpigmented, hyperkeratotic, symmetrical, thick scaly plaques surrounded by erythema on the dorsum of the hands, arms, feet, legs up to knees, and along the sides of the neck. The child was given 100 mg of Nicotinamide. Skin lesions resolved rapidly with the treatment and the child improved.     

Seasonality in Pediatric Cancer

Although seasonal trends in incidence and diagnosis of pediatric cancers have been widely investigated, the results have been inconclusive. A consistent seasonal trend may possibly provide etiological insights into pediatric cancers. This study aims to determine if there is a seasonal variation in cancer diagnoses in the pediatric population at the IWK Health Centre, a tertiary care center serving three Canadian provinces: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. All pediatric cancer patients aged 0–20 y diagnosed from 1995 to 2015 at the center were included in this study. The annual data was divided into four seasonal periods (December to February, March to May, June to August, and September to November). The cancer diagnoses were categorized as leukemia, lymphoma, sarcoma, brain tumors, and miscellaneous. Seasonal variation was assessed by a harmonic function in a Poisson regression model. The amplitude of multiplicative change in the incidence rate caused by the seasonal variation is expressed as the incidence rate ratio (IRR). For all cancer diagnoses for the entire cohort of 1200 patients, the IRR was 1.03 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.96–1.13]. None of the IRRs for the cancer groups indicated a statistically significant seasonality of cancer diagnosis: Leukemia 1.11 (95% CI 0.96–1.28); Lymphoma 1.17 (95% CI 0.93–1.47); Sarcoma 1.29 (95% CI 0.99–1.69); Brain tumors 1.16 (95% CI 0.97–1.38); Miscellaneous 1.09 (95% CI 0.93–1.27). The present study did not show a seasonal variation in the various cancer types in the pediatric population at the IWK.     

Gender differences in characteristics and outcomes of smokers diagnosed with psychosis participating in a smoking cessation intervention

While research has identified gender differences in characteristics and outcomes of smokers in the general population, no studies have examined this among smokers with psychosis. This study aimed to explore gender differences among 298 smokers with psychosis (schizophrenia, schizoaffective and bipolar affective disorder) participating in a smoking intervention study. Results revealed a general lack of gender differences on a range of variables for smokers with psychosis including reasons for smoking/quitting, readiness and motivation to quit, use of nicotine replacement therapy, and smoking outcomes including point prevalence or continuous abstinence, and there were no significant predictors of smoking reduction status according to gender at any of the follow-up time-points. The current study did find that female smokers with psychosis were significantly more likely than males to report that they smoked to prevent weight gain. Furthermore, the females reported significantly more reasons for quitting smoking and were more likely to be driven by extrinsic motivators to quit such as immediate reinforcement and social influence, compared to the male smokers with psychosis. Clinical implications include specifically focussing on weight issues and enhancing intrinsic motivation to quit smoking for female smokers with psychosis; and strengthening reasons for quitting among males with psychosis.     

In vivo nuclear magnetic resonance imaging of myocardial perfusion using the paramagnetic contrast agent manganese gluconate

Previous nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging studies have indicated that coronary occlusion does not produce sufficient changes in standard tissue relaxation times to allow the detection of acute ischemia. To identify acute myocardial perfusion abnormalities, the use of the paramagnetic agent manganese gluconate combined with calcium gluconate (MnGlu/CaGlu) was investigated in canine models of acute coronary artery occlusion. In vitro studies showed that MnGlu/CaGlu was a more efficient relaxing agent than gadolinium-DTPA (relaxivity of 7.8 versus 5.1 s-1 mM-1) and demonstrated affinity for normal myocardium. The distribution of MnGlu/CaGlu as measured by manganese-54 tracer studies was proportional to myocardial blood flow in both normal and ischemic tissue. Hearts excised from dogs after coronary artery occlusion and administration of 0.035 mM/kg MnGlu/CaGlu were imaged ex vivo using a relatively spin-lattice relaxation time (T1)-weighted gradient reversal technique (repetition time [TR] 50 ms and echo time [TE] 9 ms). These images showed increased signal intensity in the normally perfused myocardium with a mean signal intensity ratio of hypoperfused to normal myocardium of 0.55 +/- 0.12 (mean +/- SD). In vivo images obtained in nine dogs after coronary artery occlusion and administration of the same dose of MnGlu/CaGlu demonstrated the region of hypoperfused myocardium in six dogs with a signal intensity ratio of hypoperfused to normal myocardium of 0.64 +/- 0.23 (p less than 0.05 versus control). When a higher dose of 0.1 mM/kg MnGlu/CaGlu was utilized and in vivo imaging was performed using a relatively spin-spin relaxation time (T2)-weighted (TR gated, TE 60 ms) spin-echo sequence in six dogs, the signal intensity of normal myocardium was decreased.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)