The health of immigrant women: Queensland women from the former Yugoslavia

A study of the social and health status of women from the former Yugoslavia was conducted in Queensland, Australia. Study participants were predominantly refugee women who had migrated to Australia between 1991 and 1996. A significant number of the women rated their health status as poor or fair. Most women did not perceive any change in health following migration, but more felt that their health had deteriorated than improved. Applying a social model of health, we explored the social contexts of countries of origin and destination that impact on women's health. We analyze how preimmigration trauma, settlement problems, health risk behaviors, and participation in screening programs affect women's health status and health needs. Data analysis indicated that government and nongovernment services can reduce the impact of preimmigration experience on health risk behaviors and poor health outcomes only to a limited degree. Since the low socioeconomic status of immigrants following immigration was identified by women as a main contributing factor to their poor health status, government support in tackling structural barriers in accessing the Australian labor market is essential to achieve positive health outcomes.     

Histological characteristics of cutaneous and thyroid mast cell populations in male rats exposed to power-frequency electromagnetic fields

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to determine whether mast cells (MC) in skin and thyroid gland, cutaneous nerve fibers and eosinophils are sensitive to the influence of electromagnetic fields (EMF). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The experiment was performed on two-month-old Wistar male rats, exposed to 50 Hz EMF (100-300 microT, 54-160 V/m) for 4 h a day, seven days a week during one month. After sacrifice, samples of skin and thyroid were processed for toluidine blue staining or indirect immunohistochemistry. The M42 grid placed in the ocular of a light microscope and a special microscopic frame placed in the ocular of a fluorescence microscope were used for stereological analysis. RESULTS: The numerical and volume density of intact type A MC in the thyroid of the exposed group was significantly higher compared to the control. A number of MC and immunoreactive nerve fibers were observed in the skin and of histamine-immunoreactive MC in the thyroid of exposed animals. The differences in stereological data were not statistically significant by the Mann-Whitney test. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate certain alterations of cutaneous and thyroid MC in rats exposed to EMF. However, the possible outcome of changes in the MC population under EMF influence on morphophysiological properties of other structures in skin and thyroid requires further investigation.     

Indolent course of the cutaneous Hodgkin's disease

Skin involvement in Hodgkin's disease (HD) is most often a secondary phenomenon representing a rare, late manifestation of dissemination of the disease heralding a grave prognosis. Primary cutaneous HD is very unusual, being reported in 0.5-3.4% of all patients. Based on the introduction of immunohistochemistry for better detection and classification, we report a case with an ostensibly isolated primary cutaneous HD who developed multiple cutaneous lesions 5 years before enlargement of the lymph node involved during relapse. Pathohistology of skin lesions and the involved lymph node indeed showed the same subtype (mixed cellularity) of HD characterized by the presence of CD15+, CD30+, CD45RO- cell-surface markers and by the presence of Epstein-Barr virus+ marker-analyzed immunohistochemistry.     

Yugoslav HD phenocopies analyzed on the presence of mutations in PrP, ferritin, and Jp-3 genes

Huntington disease (HD) is a well-defined autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease caused by CAG repeat expansions in HD gene. There are a significant number of HD cases where this mutation was not found and such cases are named HD-like phenotype (HDL). This article reports 48 patients with HDL phenotype. Patients were analyzed on the presence of mutations in prion (PrP), ferritin and junctophilin-3 (JP-3) genes. None of the patients showed the presence of the mutation in analyzed genes. This could suggest that there is some other gene/genes where the mutation can cause the disease with clinical features of HD.     

Proliferative activity of myeloma cells determined by Ki-67 antibody: biological and clinical significance

In this study we analyzed proliferative activity of myeloma cells and a possible correlation with selected clinical data, histological features and survival in 59 patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (27 females and 32 males, mean age 62 years). Imunohistochemical method was applied using Ki-67 antibody on B5-fixed and paraffin-embedded bone marrow specimens to evaluate growth fraction of myeloma cells. Clinical staging was done according to the Durie-Salmon classification (4 patients had stage I disease, 16 patients stage II and 39 patients stage III). The number of Ki-67+ myeloma cells ranged from 1% to 36% (mean value 7%). In 39 of 59 patients (66.1%) number of Ki-67+ cells was less than 10% (cases with low proliferative index). Ki-67 expression significantly correlated with the clinical stage, beta2-microglobulin level, plasma cell morphology, volume of myeloma infiltration and the extent of osteolytic lesions. Patients with increased proliferative index (Ki-67+ cells > or = 10%) showed a significantly shorter survival compared to those with low proliferative index (14 months vs. 36 months, p = 0.023). However, this difference was not shown in multivariate analysis, particularly due to the high correlation between proliferative activity and plasma cell morphology and the volume of myeloma infiltration.