Oral acantholytic squamous cell carcinoma shares clinical and histological features with angiosarcoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>acantholytic squamous cell carcinomas (ASCC) and intraoral angiosarcoma share similar histopathological features. Aim of this study was to find marker for a clear distinction.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Four oral acantholytic squamous cell carcinomas and one intraoral angiosarcoma are used to compare the eruptive intraoral growth-pattern, age-peak, unfavourable prognosis and slit-like intratumorous spaces in common histological staining as identical clinical and histopathological features. Immunohistochemical staining for pancytokeratin, cytokeratin, collagen type IV, γ2-chain of laminin-5, endothelial differentiation marker CD31 and CD34, F VIII-associated antigen, Ki 67-antigen, β-catenin, E-cadherin, α-smooth-muscle-actin and Fli-1 were done.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Cytokeratin-immunoreactive cells can be identified in both lesions. The large vascularization of ASCC complicates the interpretation of vascular differential markers being characteristic for angiosarcoma. Loss of cell-cell-adhesion, monitored by loss of E-cadherin and β-catenin membrane-staining, are indetified as reasons for massive expression of invasion-factor ln-5 in ASCC and considered responsible for unfavourable prognosis of ASCC. Expression of Fli-1 in angiosarcoma and cellular immunoreaction for ln-5 in ASCC are worked out as distinguishing features of both entities.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Fli-1 in angiosarcoma and ln-5 in ASCC are distinguishing features.</p

MRI compared to conventional diagnostic work-up in the detection and evaluation of invasive lobular carcinoma of the breast: a review of existing literature

Item does not contain fulltextPURPOSE: The clinical diagnosis and management of invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) of the breast presents difficulties. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been proposed as the imaging modality of choice for the evaluation of ILC. Small studies addressing different aspects of MRI in ILC have been presented but no large series to date. To address the usefulness of MRI in the work-up of ILC, we performed a review of the currently published literature. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a literature search using the query "lobular AND (MRI OR MR OR MRT OR magnetic)" in the Cochrane library, PubMed and scholar.google.com, to retrieve all articles that dealt with the use of MRI in patients with ILC. We addressed sensitivity, morphologic appearance, correlation with pathology, detection of additional lesions, and impact of MRI on surgery as different endpoints. Whenever possible we performed meta-analysis of the pooled data. RESULTS: Sensitivity is 93.3% and equal to overall sensitivity of MRI for malignancy in the breast. Morphologic appearance is highly heterogeneous and probably heavily influenced by interreader variability. Correlation with pathology ranges from 0.81 to 0.97; overestimation of lesion size occurs but is rare. In 32% of patients, additional ipsilateral lesions are detected and in 7% contralateral lesions are only detected by MRI. Consequently, MRI induces change in surgical management in 28.3% of cases. CONCLUSION: This analysis indicates MRI to be valuable in the work-up of ILC. It provides additional knowledge that cannot be obtained by conventional imaging modalities which can be helpful in patient treatment

Management of firebrand potential through the candling of bark fuel

Aerially suspended fuels play an important role in forest fire behaviour. They can act as a ladder to flames, increasing the potential for crownfire, and can ignite and act as firebrands. When large accumulations of these fuels are present, wildfires may spread more rapidly, be more difficult to suppress and be more likely to impact assets such as houses. However, as these fuels are suspended above the ground, their moisture status is predominantly a function of atmospheric humidity. As a result, bark and suspended fuels may become flammable at times when the remainder of the fuel bed is too wet to burn due to high soil moisture levels. This means that these fuels can be reduced by burning when conditions are unfavourable for prescribed burning using the practice candling. Candling is the deliberate ignition of bark and other dead fine ladder fuels under conditions where surface fires are unlikely to spread. We compared the number of days available for prescribed burning and candling for a locality in South Eastern Australia and found that in the period 2012 – 2016, candling could be undertaken for an average 124 days per year, 48 days more than the window available for prescribed burning (76 days). As each accumulation of aerial fuel must be individually lit during candling, the practice is labour intensive and inefficient over large areas relative to prescribed burning, so it is best used for targeted risk reduction such as near control lines or assets. However, it can be used to reduce risk with low chance of escape in locations where prescribed burning is difficult such as the Wildland Urban Interface. The practice is applied operationally in South Eastern Australia, however to date there has been limited research into its effects on wildfire spread and intensity. Given its suitability for strategic use near highly vulnerable assets, we believe further investigation into its utility is warranted

Darker, cooler, wetter: forest understories influence surface fuel moisture

The moisture content of dead leaves, twigs and bark on the forest floor is a key determinant of fire behaviour. The microclimate inside forests, which drive the moisture content of these dead fuel components, is typically measured at screen height (150 cm). However, in some forest types, the surface fuel at ground level may be subject to additional sheltering from low shrubs, ferns and grasses, which could alter the microclimate near the surface (hereafter near-surface). In such cases, screen height measurements may not adequately represent the near-surface conditions that determine dead fuel moisture contents. We sought to quantify the effect of understorey vegetation on near-surface microclimate. We measured in-forest temperature, relative humidity and solar radiation in eucalypt forests over two fire seasons at both screen height and the near-surface using weather stations at 25 sites. The sites encompassed wet eucalypt forest (n=18) with a dense, mesic understorey and dry eucalypt forest (n=7) with a sparser, scleromorphic understorey. Wet forests with dense understorey vegetation had near-surface air temperatures that averaged 1.3°C lower, relative humidities that averaged 13.1% higher and total solar radiation that was 0.84 MJ less per day compared with those measured at screen height. These microclimate differences led to predicted fuel moistures which averaged 4.7% higher at the near-surface compared with screen height – this was statistically significant. In contrast, dry forests with less understorey vegetation, had near-surface air temperatures that averaged 4.2°C higher, and relative humidities that averaged 3.1% lower compared to screen height. These differences were not large enough to translate into statistically significant differences in predicted fine fuel moisture between heights. Overall, these findings show that understorey vegetation plays an important role in moderating near-surface microclimate in some forest types and this needs to be taken into consideration when predicting fuel moisture

Plant traits linked to field-scale flammability metrics in prescribed burns in Eucalyptus forest

Vegetation is a key determinant of wildfire behaviour at field scales as it functions as fuel. Past studies in the laboratory show that plant flammability, the ability of plants to ignite and maintain combustion, is a function of their traits. However, the way the traits of individual plants combine in a vegetation community to affect field flammability has received little attention. This study aims to bridge the gap between the laboratory and field by linking plant traits to metrics of field-scale flammability. Across three prescribed burns, in Eucalyptus-dominated damp and dry forest, we measured pre-burn plant species abundance and post-burn field flammability metrics (percentage area burnt, char and scorch height). For understory species with dominant cover-abundance, we measured nine traits that had been demonstrated to influence flammability in the laboratory. We used fourth-corner ordination to evaluate covariation between the plant traits, species abundance and flammability. We found that several traits covaried at the species level. In some instances, these traits (e.g. specific leaf area and bulk density) could have cumulative effects on the flammability of a species while in other instances (e.g. moisture and specific leaf area) they may have counteractive effects, assuming trait effects on flammability are akin to previous research. At field scales, species with similar traits tended to co-occur, suggesting that the effects of individual traits accumulate within a plant community. Fourth-corner analyses found the trait-field flammability relationship to be statistically significant. Traits significantly associated with increasing field flammability metrics were: bulk density (negatively associated) and hydrocarbon quantity, specific leaf area and surface area to volume ratio (all positively associated). Our study demonstrates that some traits known to influence flammability in the laboratory can be associated with field-scale flammability metrics. Further research is needed to isolate the contributions of individual traits to understand how species composition drives forest flammability

Estimation of surface dead fine fuel moisture using automated fuel moisture sticks across a range of forests worldwide

Field measurements of surface dead fine fuel moisture content (FFMC) are integral to wildfire management, but conventional measurement techniques are limited. Automated fuel sticks offer a potential solution, providing a standardised, continuous and real-time measure of fuel moisture. As such, they are used as an analogue for surface dead fine fuel but their performance in this context has not been widely evaluated. We assessed the ability of automated fuel sticks to predict surface dead FFMC across a range of forest types. We combined concurrent moisture measurements of the fuel stick and surface dead fine fuel from 27 sites (570 samples), representing nine broad forest fuel categories. We found a moderate linear relationship between surface dead FFMC and fuel stick moisture for all data combined (R2 = 0.54), with fuel stick moisture averaging 3-fold lower than surface dead FFMC. Relationships were typically stronger for individual forest fuel categories (median R2 = 0.70; range = 0.55–0.87), suggesting the sticks require fuel-specific calibration for use as an analogue of surface dead fine fuel. Future research could identify fuel properties that will enable more generalised calibration functions