Odontogenic myxoma of maxilla.

Odontogenic myxoma (OM) is a rare and locally invasive benign neoplasm found exclusively in the jaws. OM commonly occurs in the second and third decade, and the mandible is involved more commonly than the maxilla. The lesion often grows without symptoms and presents as a painless swelling. The radiographic features are variable, and the diagnosis is therefore not easy. A case of OM of the maxilla with unusual radiographic and histologic features is described in a 30-year-old male. A panoramic radiograph revealed a well-demarcated, multilocular radiolucent lesion with 'tennis racket' appearance involving maxillary antrum. The histopathology showed loosely arranged spindle-shaped stellate cells and few areas of inactive odontogenic epithelium in a mucoid intercellular substance.     

Quality of Life in Cancer Patients with Disfigurement due to Cancer and its Treatments

Aim:

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of disfigurement due to cancer and its treatments on quality of life.

Materials and Methods:

A total of 120 patients from the inpatient/outpatient department of oncology who had undergone various forms of treatment for cancer were included in this study. The WHOQuality of Life BREF (WHOQL-BREF) version was administered to the patients to assess their quality of life.

Results:

Patients’ overall quality of life score ranged from 34 to 79 with an average of 53.18 (SD 11.94) and a large number of patients had scored from 40 to 54 on the WHOQOL-BREF.The study showed a significant difference between gender groups (t = 3.899, P < 0.05), with a significant difference in the mean quality of life between different categories of the prominent stigma (f = 4.018, P < 0.05) and the nature of stigma. Disfigurement clearly was a stressful experience for both sexes, but substantially more distressing for women. Majority of the patients experienced poor quality of life in all dimensions, namely, physical health, psychological health, social relationships, environmental health, and other sociodemographic variables.

Conclusion:

Living with a disfiguring body which is visibly different is not always easy. A sudden change either due to cancer or its treatment or due to side effects leads to significant social maladjustment, elevated anxiety, depression, and poor quality of life among the cancer survivors with body disfigurement which calls for multiprofessional involvement in addressing various psychosocial issues.     

Ischemic colitis associated with pseudoephedrine: four cases

OBJECTIVE: There is one previously reported case linking ischemic colitis and orally administered nasal decongestants containing pseudoephedrine (MEDLINE 1974-1998). We aimed to document an association between pseudoephedrine ingestion and ischemic colitis. METHODS: We reviewed the cases of four women (ages, 37-50 yr) who presented with the sudden onset of colicky abdominal pain followed by hematochezia. Three patients had used medicine containing pseudoephedrine daily for approximately 1 wk before admission. The fourth patient had used pseudoephedrine chronically for 6 months. Two patients had no significant past medical history. One woman had presented 6 months earlier with ischemic colitis while taking both pseudoephedrine and hormone replacement therapy. This time she presented with ischemic colitis while not taking hormone replacement therapy, but still taking decongestants. Another woman had a history of ulcerative colitis, which had been quiescent for 10 yr. One patient had been a smoker; however, like the other patients she had no evidence of systemic vascular disease. On colonoscopy, all four patients had colitis, primarily affecting the splenic flexure in the anatomical watershed area. Other causes of segmental colitis, including infectious colitides, pseudomembranous colitis, and Crohn's disease, were not evident. Colonoscopic biopsies were consistent with ischemic injury. RESULTS: All cases responded to abstinence from pseudoephedrine and medical supportive therapy. None has had a relapse since discontinuing the pseudoephedrine (8-12 months). CONCLUSIONS: The vasoconstrictive action of pseudoephedrine may predispose susceptible patients to develop ischemic colitis in the watershed area of the splenic flexure. Perimenopausal women may be especially susceptible because of irregular ovulation. This may result in relative vasoconstriction when estrogen levels are low or a hypercoagulable state when estrogen levels are excessive.     

Factors predicting poor outcome in patients with fulminant Guillaine-Barré syndrome

This paper describes three patients with acute fulminant Guillain-Barrι Syndrome (GBS) with electrophysiologically inexcitable peripheral nerves not responding to two courses of intravenous immunoglobulin. Their clinical profile is compared with two other GBS patients having similar severity of disease but with demyelinative features, managed similarly during the same period. Patients who failed to respond were elderly with a mean age of 60 years, had prodromal diarrhea, rapid progression of muscle weakness requiring mechanical ventilation within 24 hours, dense weakness of all four limbs with cardiovascular autonomic symptoms and inexcitable peripheral nerves. The remaining two who recovered well were relatively younger with a mean age of 50 years, had no prodromal diarrhea, required ventilatory support by fourth day of illness, no cardiovascular autonomic symptoms and demyelinative neuropathy.     

Sequence-related protein export NTPases encoded by the conjugative transfer region of RP4 and by the cag pathogenicity island of Helicobacter pylori share similar hexameric ring structures

RP4 TrbB, an essential component of the conjugative transfer apparatus of the broad-host-range plasmid RP4, is a member of the PulE protein superfamily involved in multicomponent machineries transporting macromolecules across the bacterial envelope. PulE-like proteins share several well conserved motifs, most notable a nucleoside triphosphate binding motif (P-loop). Helicobacter pylori HP0525 also belongs to the PulE superfamily and is encoded by the pathogenicity island cag, involved in the inflammatory response of infected gastric epithelial cells in mammals. The native molecular masses of TrbB and HP0525 as determined by gel filtration and glycerol gradient centrifugation suggested a homohexameric structure in the presence of ATP and Mg(2+). In the absence of nucleotides and bivalent cations, TrbB behaved as a tetramer whereas the hexameric state of HP0525 remained unaffected. Electron microscopy and image processing demonstrated that TrbB and HP0525 form ring-shaped complexes (diameter: 12 nm) with a central region (diameter: 3 nm) of low electron density when incubated in the presence of ATP and Mg(2+). However, the TrbB average image appeared to be more elliptical with strong twofold rotational symmetry whereas HP0525 complexes are regular hexagons. Six well defined triangle-shaped areas of high electron density were distinguishable in both cases. Covalent crosslinking of TrbB suggests that the hexameric ring is composed from a trimer of dimers, because only dimeric, tetrameric, and hexameric species were detectable. The toroidal structure of TrbB and HP0525 suggests that both proteins catalyze a repetitive process, most probably translocating a cognate substrate across the inner membrane.     

Maternal anthropometric measurements and other factors: relation with birth weight of neonates

The objective of this study was to examine the influence of anthropometric measurements of pregnant women, gestational weight gain, fundal height, and maternal factors, namely age, education, family income, parity along with maternal hemoglobin, on birth weight of neonates. A cross sectional study was performed in Khoy City in north west of Iran. Four hundred and fifty healthy pregnant women in the age between 16-40 years were selected for this study from seven health urban centers and one referral hospital. Findings showed that the mean age, height, fundal height, maternal weight, and gestational weight gain during pregnancy were 26.1 years, 159.1 cm, 32.9 cm, 72.0 kg, 11.8 kg respectively. The mean birth weight of neonates was 3.2 kg and 11% of neonates showed low birth weight. Age, family income, maternal height, weight, gestational weight gain and fundal height were significantly associated with birth weight of neonates. Using binary logistic regression analysis, fundal height, maternal hemoglobin, family income and gestational weight gain of pregnant women could be considered as predictive factors of birth weight of neonates.     

Escherichia coli dnaB mutant defective in DNA initiation: isolation and properties of the dnaB protein.

Extracts of the DNA initiation-defective mutant Escherichia coli dnaB252 are inactive in a dnaB complementation assay but yield a ribonucleoside triphosphatase activity of native molecular weight of about 270,000 (60,000-dalton polypeptide as subunit) that can be inactivated by antibody to dnaB. On the other hand, extracts of a dnaB252(P1 bac) lysogen, in which the dnaB mutation is suppressed in vivo by the constitutive expression of the P1 dnaB analog (ban protein), are active in dnaB complementation and the activity is also sensitive to dnaB antibody. Upon further purification two proteins (with polypeptide molecular weights of 60,000 and 56,000, respectively) are found associated with each other (native molecular weight about 270,000). The larger and the smaller protein are tentatively identified as the dnaB and P1 ban protein. It is suggested that suppression of the dnaB mutation by prophage P1 bac is accomplished by a stabilization of dnaB252 by P1 ban subunit molecules in a heteromultimer.     

Gene therapy for oral squamous cell carcinoma: an overview.

A potential approach to the treatment of genetic disorders is gene therapy. The goal of gene therapy is to introduce therapeutic genetic material into the target cell to exert the intended therapeutic effect. Gene therapy has already shown promising results for the treatment of monogenic disorders such as severe combined immunodeficiency and haemophilia. Now the procedure has been extended to the level of treating malignant conditions such as cancer of the lungs, breast, colon etc. The prevalence of tumours of the larynx and oral cavity has increased in both developed and developing countries. This increase underscores the need for a novel therapeutic modality that would decrease or completely terminate the proliferation of malignant cells. This review highlights various types of gene therapy procedures with respect to oral squamous cell carcinoma.     

Correlation between beta-lipoprotein levels and outcome of hepatitis C treatment

The low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) has been proposed as a candidate receptor for the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Competitive inhibition of HCV binding to the LDLR by low-density lipoprotein (LDL) has been shown in vitro. If similar inhibition occurs in vivo, an elevated serum concentration of beta-lipoproteins may reduce the efficiency of infecting hepatocytes with HCV by competitively inhibiting HCV viral receptor binding. We investigated the role of baseline lipid values in influencing the outcome of HCV treatment. We conducted a retrospective chart review of patients treated with an interferon-based regimen at our liver and gastroenterology clinics between 1998 and 2004. Of 99 patients enrolled in the study, 49 (49.5%) had HCV genotype 1 (LDL 100.2 +/- 30.2 mg/dL [mean +/- SD]), and 50 patients (50.5%) had genotype 2 or 3 (LDL 110.1 +/- 40 mg/dL) infection. Early viral response (EVR), end-of-treatment response (ETR), and sustained viral response (SVR) were documented in 99, 88, and 77 patients, respectively. LDL and cholesterol levels prior to treatment were found to be higher in patients with positive EVR, ETR, and SVR. This difference remained significant independent of age. Multivariate analysis controlling for genotype and age showed that the higher the cholesterol and LDL levels prior to treatment, the greater the odds of responding to treatment. In conclusion, having higher serum LDL and cholesterol levels before treatment may be significant prognostic indicators for treatment outcome of those with chronic hepatitis C infection, particularly in genotypes 1 and 2.