Discrepancy of target sites between clinician and cytopathological reports in head neck fine needle aspiration: Did I miss the target or did the clinician mistake the organ site?

The diagnostic accuracy of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of head and neck lesions is relatively high, but cytologic interpretation might be confusing if the sample is lacking typical cytologic features according to labeled site by physician. These errors may have an impact on pathology search engines, healthcare costs or even adverse outcomes. The cytology archive database of multiple institutions in southern Iran and Australia covering the period 2001–2011, were searched using keywords: salivary gland, head, neck, FNAC, and cytology. All the extracted reports were reviewed. The reports which showed discordance between the clinician’s impression of the organ involved and subsequent fine needle biopsy request, and the eventual cytological diagnosis were selected. The cytological diagnosis was confirmed by histology or cell block, with assistance from imaging, clinical outcome, physical examination, molecular studies, or microbiological culture. The total number of 10,200 head and neck superficial FNAC were included in the study, from which 48 cases showed discordance between the clinicians request and the actual site of pathology. Apart from the histopathology, the imaging, clinical history, physical examination, immunohistochemical study, microbiologic culture and molecular testing helped to finalize the target organ of pathology in 23, 6, 7, 8, 2, and 1 cases respectively. The commonest discrepancies were for FNAC of “salivary gland” [total: 20 with actual final pathology in: bone (7), soft tissue (5), lymph node (3), odontogenic (3) and skin (2)], “lymph node” [total: 12 with final pathology in: soft tissue (3), skin (3), bone (1) and brain (1)], “soft tissue” [total: 11 with final pathology in: bone (5), skin (2), salivary gland (1), and ocular region (1)] and “skin” [total: 5 with final pathology in: lymph node (2), bone (1), soft tissue (1) and salivary gland (1)]. The primary physician requesting FNAC of head and neck lesions are incorrect in their clinical impression of the actual site in nearly 0.5 percent of cases, due to the overlapping clinical and imaging findings or possibly due to inadequate history taking or physical examination

Smartphone-Based Tracking of Sleep in Depression, Anxiety, and Psychotic Disorders

Purpose of ReviewSleep is an important feature in mental illness. Smartphones can be used to assess and monitor sleep, yet there is little prior application of this approach in depressive, anxiety, or psychotic disorders. We review uses of smartphones and wearable devices for sleep research in patients with these conditions.Recent FindingsTo date, most studies consist of pilot evaluations demonstrating feasibility and acceptability of monitoring sleep using smartphones and wearable devices among individuals with psychiatric disorders. Promising findings show early associations between behaviors and sleep parameters and agreement between clinic-based assessments, active smartphone data capture, and passively collected data. Few studies report improvement in sleep or mental health outcomes.SummarySuccess of smartphone-based sleep assessments and interventions requires emphasis on promoting long-term adherence, exploring possibilities of adaptive and personalized systems to predict risk/relapse, and determining impact of sleep monitoring on improving patients' quality of life and clinically meaningful outcomes.Peer reviewe

Weighted temporal event graphs

The times of temporal-network events and their correlations contain information on the function of the network and they influence dynamical processes taking place on it. To extract information out of correlated event times, techniques such as the analysis of temporal motifs have been developed. We discuss a recently-introduced, more general framework that maps temporal-network structure into static graphs while retaining information on time-respecting paths and the time differences between their consequent events. This framework builds on weighted temporal event graphs: directed, acyclic graphs (DAGs) that contain a superposition of all temporal paths. We introduce the reader to the temporal event-graph mapping and associated computational methods and illustrate its use by applying the framework to temporal-network percolation

A genetic polymorphism in the CYP1B1 gene in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus: an Iranian Mashhad cohort study recruited over 10 years

Background: Esophageal-cancer is the seventh most common-cause of cancer-related-deaths in men. Cytochrome-P450-family-1-subfamily-B-polypeptide-1 (CYP1B1) plays a role in the metabolism of xenobiotics, and is associated with several cancers. Here we investigated the association between a genetic-variant, CYP1B1-rs1056836, with the clinical-characteristics of patients with esophagus-squamous-cell-carcinoma (ESCC). Method: 117-patients with ESCC and 208 healthy-subjects were recruited. DNA was extracted and genotyped. Kaplan-Meier curves were utilized to assess overall and progression-free survival. The relationship between clinicopathological-data, disease-prognosis, and survival, were evaluated with the genotypes. Results: the genotypic frequency for GG, GC, and CC were 58.6%, 29.8%, 11.5% respectively in the healthy subjects and 51.8%, 36.14% and 12% in the ESCC group. An association between the GG genotype and stage of ESCC was found. Conclusion: Our findings suggest a relationship between the CYP1B1-rs1056836 genetic polymorphism and clinical features of ESCC, supporting further studies in larger-populations in different-ethnic groups, taking into account potentially important environmental-factors

The effect of topical application of autologous blood serum and platelet rich plasma mixture on clinical vision improvement after induction of experimental corneal stromal ulcers in rabbit

Corneal ulcers which are mostly due to trauma are among the most common ocular disorders of animals that if not cured properly, might progress to blindness. In this research, the effects of platelet derived rich plasma (PRP) combined with autologous blood serum on vision improvement time (attainment of maximum corneal clarity) following creation of deep corneal stromal ulcer was evaluated. For this purpose, 25 adult male New Zealand which rabbits which were allocated to three groups of positive control (10 rabbits), negative control (5 rabbits) and treatment (10 rabbits) were used. In the control corneal regions of each animal, a deep stromal ulcer (extending from the corneal epithelium to the last stromal layer) with a diameter of 4mm was created by means of a probe. Then in the treatment group, pre-prepared PRP was placed immediately on the ulcer and autologous serum drop was administered as 2 drop, 3 times per day for 35 days. In the positive control group Chloramphenicol, Ciprofloxacin and Naphazoline ophthalmic drops and in the negative control group only distilled water were used in the same manner. During the 35 days of the study period, the visual status of the rabbits was evaluated daily. Based on clinical examinations, the treatment group achieved ideal vision significantly faster than the negative and positive control groups and the created ulcer had healed with the least amount of scar production (maximum light penetration from the cornea). Based on the results of this study, the used of PRP is recommended in the treatment of superficial to deep corneal ulcers to obtain faster heading, better vision improvement and least scar production