Elevated Serum Cytokines and Trichomonas vaginalis Serology at Diagnosis Are Not Associated With Higher Gleason Grade or Lethal Prostate Cancer

Background

Inflammation and infections have been associated with prostate cancer progression. We assessed whether elevated serum cytokines or T. vaginalis seropositivity at the time of diagnosis was associated with higher grade or lethal prostate cancer.

Impact of neurocognitive function on academic difficulties in pediatric bipolar disorder: A clinical translation.

BACKGROUND: Previous research has demonstrated that academic and neuropsychological functions are compromised in pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD). Investigation of the degree to which neuropsychological deficits might contribute to those academic problems is needed to aid in the recognition and intervention for school achievement difficulties in PBD. METHODS: A sample of 55 children and adolescents with PBD with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (PBD group, n = 28; PBD+ADHD group, n = 27) were tested with a computerized neurocognitive battery and standardized neuropsychological tests. Age range of subjects was 7-17 years, with the mean age of 11.97 (3.18) years. Parents completed a structured questionnaire on school and academic functioning. RESULTS: Logistic regression analyses indicated that executive function, attention, working memory, and verbal memory scores were poorer in those with a history of reading/writing difficulties. A separate logistic regression analysis found that attentional dysfunction predicted math difficulties. These relationships between neuropsychological function and academic difficulties were not different in those with PBD+ADHD than in those with PBD alone. CONCLUSIONS: In PBD neuropsychological deficits in the areas of attention, working memory, and organization/problem solving skills all contribute to academic difficulties. Early identification and intervention for these difficulties might help prevent lower academic achievement in PBD.     

Infantile Digital Fibroma Treated With Mohs Micrographic Surgery

BACKGROUND: Infantile digital fibroma (IDF) is a rare benign fibrous tumor of childhood that frequently recurs despite local excision. Conservative, nonsurgical management may result in regression and/or joint deformity. OBJECTIVE: To describe the histologic features of IDF and discuss a case excised using Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS). METHODS: Case report and review of the clinical, histologic, and ultrastructural features. RESULTS: Characteristic inclusion bodies of actin were identified with hematoxylin and eosin, Masson's trichrome, and rapid actin immunostain. The tumor was debulked and the majority was removed after one stage of MMS, except where the deep margin approached the joint space. The defect healed by secondary intention. At 2 years the patient had no recurrence or functional joint deformity. CONCLUSION: MMS is a surgical treatment option for IDF.     

Affective neural circuitry during facial emotion processing in pediatric bipolar disorder.

BACKGROUND: Facial emotions are central to human interaction. Identifying pathophysiology in affect processing circuitry that supports the ability to assess facial emotions might facilitate understanding of affect regulation in pediatric bipolar disorder. METHODS: Ten euthymic, unmedicated pediatric bipolar patients and 10 healthy control subjects matched for age, gender, race, socioeconomic status, and IQ were scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Angry, happy, and neutral faces were presented in 30-sec blocks, with a 20-sec rest period between blocks. Subjects were asked to press a button when each face appeared, to ensure that attention was maintained on-task. RESULTS: In bipolar patients, in response to both angry and happy faces relative to neutral faces, we observed reduced activation of right rostral ventrolateral prefrontal cortex together with increased activity in right pregenual anterior cingulate, amygdala, and paralimbic cortex. Bipolar patients also showed reduced activation of visual areas in occipital cortex together with greater activation in higher-order visual perceptual areas, including superior temporal sulcus and fusiform gyrus with angry faces and posterior parietal cortex with happy faces. CONCLUSIONS: Findings document a disturbance in affective neurocircuitry in pediatric bipolar disorder. Reduced activation in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex might reflect diminished top-down control that leads to the observed exaggerated activation in amygdala and paralimbic areas. Changes in occipital areas might represent an effort to gate sensory input when affective responses to the faces could not be successfully modulated. Disturbances in affect processing circuitry could contribute to emotional dysregulation and social cognitive difficulties in bipolar youth.     

Changes to the ocular biota with time in extended- and daily-wear disposable contact lens use.

Gram-negative bacteria may play a role in the etiology of certain soft contact lens (SCL)-related diseases. Contact lens (CL) wear may modify the normal ocular biota, providing a more favorable environment for potential pathogens. This study reports temporal changes in ocular biota in daily-wear (DW) and extended-wear (EW) disposable SCL use in experienced and neophyte wearers. Lid margin and bulbar conjunctival biota were sampled prior to CL fitting in 26 previous DW SCL users, 18 previous EW SCL users, and 26 neophytes. Wearers were fitted with an etafilcon A CL in one eye and a polymacon CL in the fellow eye. Lenses were worn on a daily basis by the 26 previous DW SCL wearers and on an EW basis by the remaining 44 subjects. The ocular biota was further sampled after 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of wear. The ocular biota consisted of coagulase-negative staphylococci, Corynebacterium spp., Micrococcus spp., and Propionibacterium spp. Potential pathogens were rarely isolated at baseline. No significant trend of increasing ocular colonization was shown for extended CL wear. Lid and conjunctival colonization increased with DW SCL use (P < 0.001), although this increase occurred for nonpathogenic species only. Fewer potential pathogens were isolated from DW SCL than from EW SCL users (P < 0.05). The lid margin consistently showed greater colonization than the conjunctiva and may be a source of potential pathogens during CL wear. Hydrogel CL wear appears to modify the ocular biota. An increased number of commensal organisms were present in DW SCL use. EW SCL use altered the spectrum of organisms isolated. These alterations may suppress the normal ocular defense mechanisms and may be relevant in the pathogenesis of CL-related disease.     

Smoking and coffee intake following alcohol withdrawal in alcoholic inpatients

The aim of this study was to assess alcoholic inpatients' smoking and coffee intake variation following withdrawal. Only moderate smokers (less than 30 cigarettes/day) showed a significant increase of cigarette consumption after alcohol withdrawal. However, their urinary cotinine level did not vary, suggesting a behavioral, and not biological, compensation through smoking following alcohol withdrawal. Heavy smokers (30 cigarettes/day or more) showed no significant clinical or biological variation of smoking behavior. Coffee consumption increased after alcohol withdrawal in all patients, irrespective of smoking habits.     

Overexpression/amplification of HER-2/neu is uncommon in hepatocellular carcinoma

BACKGROUND： Hepatocellular carcinoma （HCC） is one of the most prevalent fatal cancers in the world. Despite advances in early diagnosis and improvements in surgical techniques, the survival of patients with HCC even after resection is poor because of the high incidence of recurrences. Therefore, the identification of prognostic factors may be helpful in the development of new treatment protocols. AIMS： To investigate HER-2/neu status in HCC by immunohistochemistry （IHC） and fluorescence in situ hybridisation （FISH）, and to explore the possibility of using trastuzumab in the treatment of HCC. METH ODS： Eight hundred and sixty eight surgical samples from patients with primary HCC were examined for their HER-2/neu status. IHC for HER-2/neu was performed with the HercepTest kit; FISH analysis was performed with the PathVysion HER-2 DNA probe kit. The correlations between HER-2/neu overexpression and clinicopathological characteristics were analysed statistically. RESULTS： HER-2/neu overexpression was detected in 21 （2.42%） of the 868 primary HCCs. Only one specimen showed HER-2/neu gene amplification by FISH. No significant associations were found between HER-2/neu overexpression and the clinicopathological parameters. CONCLUSIONS： There is a low frequency of HER-2/neu overexpression/amplification in HCC. There appears to be no role for HER-2/neu as a prognostic marker and no benefit of anti-HER-2/neu trastuzumab treatment in patients with HCC.     

Acute pustulosis of the legs in diverticulitis with sigmoid stenosis: an overlap between bowel-associated dermatosis–arthritis syndrome and pustular pyoderma gangrenosum

BACKGROUND: Bowel-associated dermatosis-arthritis syndrome denotes the occurrence of diarrhoea with arthritis and skin lesions related to bowel disease with or without bowel bypass. In this condition, the histological finding of cutaneous aseptic neutrophilic cell infiltrate is non-specific and common to a wide spectrum of neutrophilic dermatoses, including pyoderma gangrenosum. OBSERVATION: We describe a 78-year-old woman with fever, abdominal discomfort and arthralgias, who developed grouped pustular lesions on her shins with histologically spongiform pustule formation. Aetiological assessment disclosed diverticular disease with sigmoid stenosis. CONCLUSION: Although clinical and histological features in our case fit the diagnosis of bowel-associated dermatosis-arthritis syndrome, they may also correspond to a pustular variant of pyoderma gangrenosum. Our observation raises the question of the nosological classification of bowel-associated dermatosis-arthritis syndrome within the spectrum of neutrophilic diseases.