Accent attribution in speakers with Foreign Accent Syndrome

Purpose: The main aim of this experiment was to establish the extent to which the impression of foreignness in speakers with Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) is in any way comparable to the impression of foreignness in speakers with a real foreign accent. Method: Three groups of listeners attributed accents to conversational speech samples of 5 FAS speakers which were embedded amongst those of 5 speakers with a real foreign accent and 5 native speaker controls. The listener groups differed in their familiarity with foreign accented speech and speech pathology. Results: The findings indicate that listeners’ perceptual reactions to the three groups of speakers are essentially different at all levels of analysis. The native speaker controls are unequivocally considered as native speakers of Dutch while the speakers with a real foreign accent are very reliably assessed as non-native speakers. The speakers with Foreign Accent Syndrome, however, are in some sense perceived as foreign and in some sense as native by listeners, but not as foreign as speakers with a real foreign accent nor as native as real native speakers. This result may be accounted for in terms of the trigger support model of foreign accent perception. Conclusions: The findings of the experiment is consistent with the idea that the very nature of the foreign accent in different in both groups of speakers, although it cannot be fully excluded that the perceived foreignness in the two groups is one of degree

The first case of acinic cell carcinoma of the breast within a fibroadenoma: Case report

AbstractA case of acinic cell carcinoma of the breast is reported in a 26-year-old woman. She presented a lump in her right breast, that seemed to be a fibroadenoma. The open biopsy revealed a well-bordered fibroadenoma, together with a proliferation of cells characterized by serous acinar differentiation and eosinophilic cytoplasmic granules. Tumor cells stained for amylase, lysozyme, α-1-antichymotripsin, epithelial membrane antigen, S-100 protein, pan-cytokeratin, cytokeratin 7 and E-cadherin. Estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 overexpression, CD10, P63, smooth muscle actin, cytokeratin 5/6 were negative. The sentinel node was negative. 8 months after surgery she is in good clinical conditions without recurrence or metastases

A predictive index of axillary nodal involvement in operable breast cancer.

We investigated the association between pathological characteristics of primary breast cancer and degree of axillary nodal involvement and obtained a predictive index of the latter from the former. In 2076 cases, 17 histological features, including primary tumour and local invasion variables, were recorded. The whole sample was randomly split in a training (75% of cases) and a test sample. Simple and multiple correspondence analysis were used to select the variables to enter in a multinomial logit model to build an index predictive of the degree of nodal involvement. The response variable was axillary nodal status coded in four classes (N0, N1-3, N4-9, N > or = 10). The predictive index was then evaluated by testing goodness-of-fit and classification accuracy. Covariates significantly associated with nodal status were tumour size (P < 0.0001), tumour type (P < 0.0001), type of border (P = 0.048), multicentricity (P = 0.003), invasion of lymphatic and blood vessels (P < 0.0001) and nipple invasion (P = 0.006). Goodness-of-fit was validated by high concordance between observed and expected number of cases in each decile of predicted probability in both training and test samples. Classification accuracy analysis showed that true node-positive cases were well recognised (84.5%), but there was no clear distinction among the classes of node-positive cases. However, 10 year survival analysis showed a superimposible prognostic behaviour between predicted and observed nodal classes. Moreover, misclassified node-negative patients (i.e. those who are predicted positive) showed an outcome closer to patients with 1-3 metastatic nodes than to node-negative ones. In conclusion, the index cannot completely substitute for axillary node information, but it is a predictor of prognosis as accurate as nodal involvement and identifies a subgroup of node-negative patients with unfavourable prognosis

Randomized comparison of power Doppler ultrasound-directed excisional biopsy with standard excisional biopsy for the characterization of lymphadenopathies in patients with suspected lymphoma.

PURPOSE: The sensitivity of lymph node excisional biopsy requires validation. Power Doppler ultrasound (US) helps predict the malignant status of lymphadenopathies. We used power Doppler US to select for biopsy the lymph node most suspected of malignancy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: One hundred fifty-two patients having lymphadenopathies with clinical suspicion of lymphoma were divided into two well-matched groups and randomly assigned to undergo either standard or power Doppler US-directed lymph node excisional biopsy. RESULTS: Histology showed a malignancy in 64% of patients in the standard group (lymphoma, 49 patients; carcinoma, two patients) and in 87% of patients in the US-assisted group (lymphoma, 62 patients; carcinoma, one patient). There were significantly fewer biopsy-related complications in the assisted group than in the standard group. During the follow-up of the patients with lymph nodes reported as being reactive, 14 of 29 patients in the standard group were rebiopsied and were found to have lymphoma (13 patients) or carcinoma at the subsequent lymph node histology, whereas none of the patients in the assisted group (nine patients) required a second biopsy. Thus, biopsy provided false-negative results for malignancy in 21% of patients affected by lymphoma in the standard group and ever in the assisted group (P <.01). CONCLUSION: Power Doppler US is an accurate tool for screening lymphadenopathies to be removed by excisional biopsy in patients with suspected lymphoma

Brain imaging in rabbits : preliminary results of CBF variation by different anaestethic drugs

In the last decades the animal model has been usually considered as a research tool, especially for functional studies and brain imaging. Although general anesthesia and sedation are fundamental requirements to perform nuclear imaging in veterinary patients, very few studies have been published on the effect of anesthesia itself, on brain perfusion. Brain SPECT in humans is widely applied to assess brain perfusion mainly in awake patients. The aim of the study was to evaluate general brain perfusion in rabbits through a non-invasive nuclear medicine technique, before and after the administration of different anesthetic protocols commonly used for veterinary patients. Ten male New Zeland White rabbits of 6 months of age were enrolled in the prospective study. Before SPECT examinations, the rabbits underwent CT studies of the skull in order to exclude any gross malformations or lesions and to acquire images for CT/SPECT fusion. 99mTc-HMPAO brain SPECT scans were acquired with a single head gamma camera: circular orbit, continuos rotation 10 seconds/step and 120 steps. During the first session 99mTc-HMPAO was IV injected in two groups of five awake rabbits, with a randomized selection. The first one was subsequently anesthetized with propofol and the other with dexmedetomidine. The same procedure was repeated three weeks later when the injection of the radiopharmaceutical was performed after the induction of general anaesthesia. The brain perfusion uptake index (BPUi%) was calculated as the percentage ratio between total counts in the brain and injected activity. Rabbits anesthetized with propofol showed exactly the same tracer distribution in both injection condition: awake or asleep. The radiopharmaceutical was concentrated in the brain but a generalized distribution was observed also in the facial muscles. On the contrary when dexmedetomidine was used, rabbits anesthetized after the 99mTc-HMPAO injection showed a distribution similar to propofol group, while when the radiotracer was injected after the anesthetic drug, a generalized reduction of the uptake was observed especially in extra-encephalic tissues. The average BPUi% values were about 1.6% for all rabbits anesthetized with propofol and for rabbits injected with 99mTc-HMPAO before dexmedetomidine administration. Animals injected with 99mTc- HMPAO after dexmedetomidine administration showed a lower value of BPUi% equal to about 1.25 %. Although the major limitation of our study is the small number of subjects analyzed, our results showed that when propofol is used as anesthetic drug, any difference in brain perfusion occurred if the radiotracer was injected prior or before anesthesia. On the contrary the vasocostriction of dexmedetomidine is responsible of a mild reduction of the IRU in the brain and a good inhibition of tracer uptake in other tissues. These preliminary data suggest that the use of propofol in uncooperative patients, that need sedation before brain perfusion studies, could not influence the CBF. On the other hand the results of the CBF in rabbits medicated with dexmedetomidine before tracer injection, suggest a possible neuronal protective proprieties of this drug

Solid-pseudopapillary tumour of the pancreas as a rare cause of gastric outlet obstruction: a case report

The presence of a large bulky pancreatic tumour in a young female should raise suspicions of the diagnosis of solid-pseduopapillary tumour of the pancreas