Molecular signatures of oxidative stress: relevance to clinic and research

Study on the redox biology of health and disease has come of age. Redox imbalance also defined as redox stress constitutes one of the main cellular lesion associated with many types of pathologies including cardiometabolic, neurodegenerative, oncological, rheumatic and autoimmune diseases. Reactive species (either centered on oxygen or on nitrogen) can induce many damaging cellular processes, such as DNA oxidative lesions and loss of membrane integrity due to lipid peroxidation. Thus the evaluation of the redox imbalance of biological samples is extremely important in clinical practice as well as in research settings. This may constitute an important tool to evaluate the level of cellular lesions associated with specific pathological mechanisms, or the response to pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatment. The present review focuses on the molecular signatures of redox imbalance in various diseased processes.Adipobiology 2013; 5: 33-37

ADRENAL ULTRASOUND

Ultrasound is the first step to detect an abdominal tumour at the level of adrenal. The most common scenario is related to the pelvic and abdominal ultrasound. This kind of tumour is more frequently seen in menopausal women than in premenopausal ones. We introduce a case of a menopausal woman accidentally detected at ultrasound with an adrenal mass starting from a routine gynaecological control. The use of ultrasound on adrenal masses is related to their detection and follow-up in cases when surgery is not necessar

ADULT WOMEN WITH PAPILLARY THYROID CANCER

Differentiated thyroid cancer of papillary type have an increasing incidence on women of reproductive age but also in menopause, possible related to new triggers that act as endocrine disruptors which are more or less described until this moment or possible related to the increased accessibility to thyroid ultrasound. The incidence of non-medullary thyroid cancer in women is 3 times higher than in males so the influence of estrogens seems rational. Yet, some meta-analyses did not confirm a direct link with estrogens exposure during reproductive years. Thyroid cancer is also diagnosed in menopause which is a low estrogens status thus other risk factors should be taken into consideration; among these obesity and smoking are frequently incriminated. We aim to introduce a two cases series of adult females with differentiated thyroid carcinoma which was diagnosed from an initial routine ultrasound

Mammary cancer: Sneak peek to thyroid nodules

Breast cancer has a worldwide increasing incidence and once the diagnosis is done a screening is performed using method like ultrasound, computed tomography etc in order to assess disease spreading, according to the mammary malignancy’s stage. During this type of evaluation, a thyroid condition might be detected. Generally, 50-70% of adult population has a thyroid nodule of different dimensions, usually with a very low clinical relevance and a very good prognosis. If the pathogenic correlation between a thyroid nodule and the breast tumour is indeed sustained this is still a matter of debate. Our purpose is to introduce a series of subjects associating non-syndromic mammary cancer and thyroid nodules of various types. The use of thyroid ultrasound in patients with mammary cancer is mandatory. Most of thyroid nodules are incidental but some thyroid pathologies may actually be linked to breast malignancy