Honey Bees (Apis mellifera, L.) as Active Samplers of Airborne Particulate Matter

© 2015 Negri et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. [CC by 4.0] The attached file is the published version of the article

Simple hysterectomy versus radical hysterectomy in early-stage cervical cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: This systematic review (SR) and meta-analysis aims to compare the surgery-related results and oncological outcomes between SH and RH in patients with early-stage cervical cancer. Method: We systematically searched databases including PubMed, Embase and Cochrane to collect studies that compared oncological and surgery-related outcomes between SH and RH groups in patients with stage IA2 and IB1 cervical cancer. A random-effect model calculated the weighted average difference of each primary outcome via Review Manager V.5.4. Result: Seven studies comprising 6977 patients were included into our study. For oncological outcomes, we found no statistical difference in recurrence rate [OR = 0.88; 95% CI (0.50, 1.57); P = 0.68] and Overall Survival (OS) [OR = 1.23; 95% CI (0.69, 2.19), P = 0.48]. No difference was detected in the prevalence of positive LVSI and lymph nodes metastasis between the two groups. Concerning surgery-related outcomes, the comprehensive effects revealed that the bladder injury [OR = 0.28; 95% CI (0.08, 0.94), P = 0.04] and bladder disfunction [OR = 0.10; 95% CI (0.02, 0.53), P = 0.007] of the RH group were higher compared to the SH group. Conclusion: This meta-analysis suggested there are no significant differences in terms of both recurrence rate and overall survival among patients with stage IA2-IB1 cervical cancer undergoing SH or RH, while the SH group has better surgery-related outcomes. These data confirm the need to narrow the indication for RH in early-stage cervical cancer

Growth hormone response to arginine test distinguishes multiple system atrophyfrom Parkinson's disease and idiopathic late-onset cerebellar ataxia

OBJECTIVE: Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is difficult to distinguish from idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) and idiopathic late-onset cerebellar ataxia (ILOCA). This study aimed to evaluate GH response to three different GH stimulation tests in order to establish a reliable test to differentiate these degenerative disorders. DESIGN: Twelve patients with MSA, 10 with PD, eight with ILOCA and 30 healthy controls entered the study. They were submitted to clonidine, arginine, and GH-releasing-hormone (GHRH) + arginine tests in a random manner on three different nonconsecutive days. The peak serum GH response was used as a primary variable for analysis of stimulation tests. By ROC analysis, the optimum cut-off level was considered as the cut-off with the maximal sum of sensitivity and specificity. RESULTS: After clonidine administration, GH peak was significantly lower in patients with MSA than in those with ILOCA (P < 0.05) and in the controls (P < 0.001). At the optimum cut-off level of 5 mU/l, the clonidine test distinguished patients with MSA from those with PD with a sensitivity and specificity of 78%. Moreover, this test distinguished patients with MSA from those with ILOCA with a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 75% at a cut-off level of 5 mU/l, and with a sensitivity of 75% and a specificity of 100% at the cut-off level of 7.6 mU/l. After arginine administration, the GH peak was significantly lower in patients with MSA than in those with ILOCA (P = 0.001) and in controls (P < 0.001). At the optimum cut-off level of 5 mU/l, the arginine test distinguished patients with MSA from those with PD with a sensitivity and a specificity of 100%. At a GH peak cut-off value of 3.6 mU/l the arginine test distinguished patients with MSA from those with ILOCA with a sensitivity and specificity of 100%. After GHRH + arginine administration, a significant GH increase was found in all groups of patients and controls. CONCLUSIONS: The GH response to arginine administration is impaired in MSA. Therefore, the arginine test showed the highest diagnostic accuracy to distinguish MSA from both PD and ILOCA, and could be used in the clinical practice of these neurodegenerative diseases

Mesonephric-Like Adenocarcinomas a Rare Tumor: The Importance of Diagnosis

Mesonephric-like adenocarcinomas (MLA) are rare neoplasms that arise in the uterine body and ovary and have been added to the World Health Organisation’s recent 2020 classification of female genital cancers. The pathogenesis of MLA is unknown and it remains debated whether they represent mesonephric carcinomas (Wolffian) arising in the endometrium/ovary or endometrioid carcinomas (Müllerian) closely mimicking mesonephric carcinomas. Here we report the case of a 57-year-old woman with an initial misdiagnosis of endometrioid adenocarcinoma on diagnostic biopsy. The patient came to our clinical evaluation for the appearance of menometrorrhagia complicated by anemia for several months. Therefore, she underwent pelvic echo-flowmetry, with indication for diagnostic hysteroscopy with endometrial biopsy, which yielded a positive result for endometrioid endometrial adenocarcinoma. Following staging CT scan and targeted examinations on pulmonary findings, the patient underwent surgery with surprise of definitive diagnosis deponent for endometrial MLA. Our intention is to establish a brief review of the scientific evidence in the literature and the tools available for a correct histological diagnosis, in the light of the scant anatomopathological evidence. Our question gives rise to the motive for the publication: is immunohistochemistry the right way to resolve the diagnostic error at histology, which is usually the only source of diagnostic certainty? This case is intended to alert of diagnostic error that risked having the patient treated as a neoplasm with a favorable prognosis and low degree of aggressiveness instead of for a very aggressive and poor prognosis tumor such as MLA

RNA analysis of consensus sequence splicing mutations: implications for thediagnosis of Wilson disease

Wilson disease (WD) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by a defective function of the copper-transporting ATP7B protein. This results in progressive copper overload and consequent liver, brain, and kidney damage. Approximately 300 WD-causing mutations have been described to date. Missense mutations are largely prevalent, while splice-site mutations are rarer. Of these, only a minority are detected in splicing consensus sequences. Further, few splicing mutations have been studied at the RNA level. In this study we report the RNA molecular characterization of three consensus splice-site mutations identified by DNA analysis in WD patients. One of them, c.51 + 4 A --> T, resides in the consensus sequence of the donor splice site of intron 1; the second, c. 2121 + 3 A --> G, occurred in position + 3 of intron 7; and the c.2447 + 5 G --> A is localized in the consensus sequence of the donor splice site of intron 9. Analysis revealed predominantly abnormal splicing in the samples carrying mutations compared to the normal controls. These results strongly suggest that consensus sequence splice-site mutations result in disease by interfering with the production of the normal WD protein. Our data contribute to understanding the mutational spectrum that affect splicing and improve our capability in WD diagnosis

CUP-syndrome: Inguinal high grade serous ovarian carcinoma lymph node metastases with unknown primary origin – a case report and literature review

Objective: High-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSC) often presents lymph node involvement. According to the paths of lymphatic drainage, the most common site of nodal metastasis is in the aortic area. However, pelvic lymph nodes are also involved and inguinal metastases are less frequent. Methods: Our report concerns the case of a 78-year-old woman with an inguinal lymph node relapse of HGSC, with the prior positivity of a right inguinal lymph node, after the primary surgery. Ovaries and tubes were negative on histological examination. A comprehensive search of the literature published from January 2000 to October 2021 was conducted on PubMed and Scopus. The papers were selected following the PRISMA guidelines. Nine retrospective studies were evaluated. Results: Overall, 67 studies were included in the initial search. Applying the screening criteria, 36 articles were considered eligible for full-text reading of which, after applying the exclusion criteria, 9 studies were selected for the final analysis and included in the systematic review. No studies were included for a quantitative analysis. We divided the results according to the relapse location: loco-regional, abdominal, and extra-abdominal recurrence. Conclusions: Inguinal node metastasis is a rare but not unusual occurrence in HGSC. A reasonable level of suspicion should be maintained in patients with inguinal adenopathy and high CA125 values, especially in women with a history of gynecologic surgery, even in the absence of negative imaging for an ovarian origin