Fractal Characteristics of May-Grünwald-Giemsa Stained Chromatin Are Independent Prognostic Factors for Survival in Multiple Myeloma

The use of computerized image analysis for the study of nuclear texture features has provided important prognostic information for several neoplasias. Recently fractal characteristics of the chromatin structure in routinely stained smears have shown to be independent prognostic factors in acute leukemia. In the present study we investigated the influence of the fractal dimension (FD) of chromatin on survival of patients with multiple myeloma.We analyzed 67 newly diagnosed patients from our Institution treated in the Brazilian Multiple Myeloma Study Group. Diagnostic work-up consisted of peripheral blood counts, bone marrow cytology, bone radiograms, serum biochemistry and cytogenetics. The International Staging System (ISS) was used. In every patient, at least 40 digital nuclear images from diagnostic May-Grünwald-Giemsa stained bone marrow smears were acquired and transformed into pseudo-3D images. FD was determined by the Minkowski-Bouligand method extended to three dimensions. Goodness-of-fit of FD was estimated by the R(2) values in the log-log plots. The influence of diagnostic features on overall survival was analyzed in Cox regressions. Patients that underwent autologous bone marrow transplantation were censored at the day of transplantation.Median age was 56 years. According to ISS, 14% of the patients were stage I, 39% were stage II and 47% were stage III. Additional features of a bad prognosis were observed in 46% of the cases. When stratifying for ISS, both FD and its goodness-of-fit were significant prognostic factors in univariate analyses. Patients with higher FD values or lower goodness-of-fit showed a worse outcome. In the multivariate Cox-regression, FD, R(2), and ISS stage entered the final model, which showed to be stable in a bootstrap resampling study.Fractal characteristics of the chromatin texture in routine cytological preparations revealed relevant prognostic information in patients with multiple myeloma

Fetal liver iron overload: The role of MR imaging

Objective: To assess the potential role of MR imaging in the diagnosis of fetal liver iron overload. Methods: We reviewed seven cases of abnormal liver signal in fetuses referred to MR imaging in a context of suspected congenital infection (n∈=∈2), digestive tract anomalies (n∈=∈3) and hydrops fetalis (n∈=∈2). The average GA of the fetuses was 31 weeks. The antenatal diagnoses were compared with histological data (n∈=∈6) and postnatal work-up (n∈=∈1). Results: Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated unexpected abnormal fetal liver signal suggestive of iron overload in all cases. The iron overload was confirmed on postnatal biopsy (n∈=∈2) and fetopathology (n∈=∈4). The final diagnosis was hepatic hemosiderosis (haemolytic anaemia (n∈=∈2) and syndromal anomalies (n∈=∈2)) and congenital haemochromatosis (n∈=∈3). In all cases, the liver appeared normal on US. Conclusions: Magnetic resonance is the only imaging technique able to demonstrate liver iron overload in utero. Yet, the study outlines the fundamental role of MR imaging in cases of congenital haemochromatosis. The antenatal diagnosis of such a condition may prompt ante-(in the case of recurrence) or neonatal treatment, which might improve the prognosis. © 2010 European Society of Radiology.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Molecular characterization of the porcine testis-specific phosphoglycerate kinase 2 (PGK2) gene and its association with male fertility

The original publication can be found at www.springerlink.comWe have isolated and characterized the porcine testis-specific phosphoglycerate kinase 2 (PGK2) gene, and 1665 bp of full-length PGK2 cDNA were also compiled using modified rapid amplification 5’-RACE and 3’-RACE information. The results of genomic and cDNA sequences of the porcine PGK2 gene demonstrated that it is a single-exon intronless gene with a complete open reading frame of 1251 bp encoding a PGK protein of 417 amino acids. Real-time quantitative PCR results showed that PGK2 mRNA was solely expressed in the testis. There was a lower amount of PGK2 expression in the testis of a 10-month-old herniated boar and a very small amount of PGK2 expression in the testis of an 8–week-old cryptorchid piglet compared to an adult boar. Two SNPs in the PGK2 gene (SNP-A: T427C; SNP-B: C914A) resulting in amino acid substitutions (SNP-A: Ser¹⁰²–Pro¹⁰²; SNP-B: Thr²⁶⁴–Lys²⁶⁴) were detected and genotyped among six pig breeds. The nucleotide C at SNP-A responsible for the amino acid exchange to proline could lead to the loss of a casein kinase II (CK2) phosphorylation site in the PGK2 peptide. Association analyses between PGK2 genotypes and several traits of sperm quantity and quality were performed. The results showed that SNP-B has a positive significant effect on semen volume in the breed Pietrain (p = 0.08), i.e., boars carrying genotype CC revealed an increased volume of 49 ml compared with boars having the genotype AA. The nucleotide sequence data reported in this article have been submitted to GenBank and have been assigned the accession numbers AY500132 and AY486962