THE PREVALENCE OF DYSPLASIA IN COLORECTAL SERRATED/HYPERPLASTIC POLYPS IN OMANI POPULATION

Purpose: Serrated/hyperplastic polyps (SPs) are characterised histologically by sawtooth architecture. Historically, these polyps were considered benign, without malignant potential and thus clinically unimportant. At present, the WHO defines serrated/hyperplastic lesions as heterogeneous group, which include hyperplastic polyps (HP), sessile serrated adenoma (SSA)/polyp and traditional serrated adenoma (TSA). These can have malignant potential. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of dysplastic changes in SP of colon and rectum of Omani population reported at a tertiary care centre.Methods: The study was conducted in the pathology department of a tertiary care centre including endoscopic polypectomies from colon and rectum of Omani patients presenting to gastroenterology clinic reported between 2014 and 2016, and these were analysed retrospectively for dysplastic changes and their association with different clinical parameters.Results: Dysplasia was seen in 32 of 146 cases (21.9%) and 114 (78.1%) were without dysplasia. Of these dysplastic, biopsies’ only two cases (1.4%) showed high-grade dysplasia and rest 30 (20.5%) low-grade dysplasia. According to the type of polyp, dysplasia was found in TSA 8/21 cases (46.7%) and SSA 9/17 cases (53.3%). Association of dysplasia was more common in the age group of > 50 (15.07%) and male patients (62.5%).Conclusion: SPs are now common findings that a gastroenterologist faces in their daily practice. In our study of Omani population, the prevalence of dysplasia is associated with older age group, male gender, SSA/polyp and traditional serrated adenoma.Key words: Dysplasia. colorectal, polyp

Erdheim-Chester Disease Presenting as Bilateral Facial Masses: A case report and review of literature

Erdheim-Chester disease (ECD) is a rare form of non-Langerhans cell histiocytosis with unknown etiology. It is recently recognized to be neoplastic with genetic mutations affecting the mitogen-activating protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. We here present a case of a 49-year-old female who initially presented in 2012 with bilateral facial masses to a tertiary care center. These were removed but later recurred over a period of ten years. She then presented with xanthelasmas, bone lesions, secondary infertility due to hypothalamic hypogonadism, diabetes insipidus, and Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism. The facial masses were biopsied, and they showed classic morphological features in the form of diffuse infiltration by foamy histiocytes, with scattered Touton type of giant cells, patchy lymphocytic infiltrates, and dense fibrosis. The presented ECD case is particularly interesting due to the recurrent bilateral facial masses.  To the best of our knowledge, this is the first documented case in Oman.  The patient is stable and is being followed up in the clinic. Keywords: Erdheim-Chester disease, Langerhans cell histiocytosis

The Value of Programmed Death Ligand 1 Expression in Cancer Patients Treated with Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy

Programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) is an inhibitory molecule expressed by cancer cells to supress T-cell activity and escape anti-tumour immunity. The role of PD-L1 in cancer has been studied extensively as it is considered an important immune checkpoint against immune over-activation through its interaction with Programmed death receptor 1 (PD-1) expressed on activated lymphocytes. PD-L1 expression was found to be enhanced by chemotherapy through different proliferation pathways. However, the predictive and prognostic value for PD-L1 expression in cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is not yet established. This review focused on the potential effects of chemotherapy on PD-L1 expression and the role of PD-L1 as a prognostic and predictive marker in NAC-treated cancer patients. In addition, the potential use of this marker in clinical practice is discussed.Keywords: Programmed Cell Death 1 Ligand 1; Programmed Cell Death 1 Receptor; Neoadjuvant Therapy; Cancer

Long Term Facial Parts Tracking in Thermal Imaging for Uncooperative Emotion Recognition

Abstract This paper proposes a tracking approach for regions of interest (ROI) in thermal image videos, where vital signs can be measured for emotion recognition. The proposed tracking framework overcomes a number of problems associated with this goal; mainly size of the ROI, appearance variations in the ROI with physiological changes, and the duration of tracking in a practical setting. The proposed framework consists of three modules: An adaptive particle filter tracker, an online detector, and finally a module to integrate the outputs of the two previous modules for learning as well as the final decision. The template of the adaptive particle filter tracker is updated based on the learning decision module to avoid drifting. In the detector module, a randomized classifier is used to detect the ROI. Then the output of this classifier is enhanced by removing false positives using a proposed geometrical constraint. The proposed framework is tested and compared to the state of art approaches on 32 human subjects with different physiological changes. Experimental results show that proposed method outperforms the others

Calpain-1 Expression in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: A Potential Prognostic Factor Independent of the Proliferative/Apoptotic Index

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive type of breast cancer in which calpain system plays an important role in its cellular processes including apoptosis and proliferation. Although such roles have been assessed in tumor pathogenesis, the correlation of its expression to the proliferating/apoptotic index has not been studied yet. Immunohistochemical staining of calpain-1 was performed on paraffin-embedded tissues to correlate its expression with clinicopathological variables and outcome. The proliferation activity was determined by calculating the percentage of cells expressing the Ki-67 antigen. The apoptotic index was assessed morphologically and biochemically using Haematoxylin & Eosin method and Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling assay, respectively. Calpain-1 was significantly expressed in TNBC tissues varying from low to high with a significant correlation to lymph node status but not with the other clinicopathological variables, suggesting its role as a prognostic factor. In addition, a positive correlation was found between both apoptotic counts assays (P<0.001, r=0.547) as well as with proliferation (P=0.045). Calpain-1 expression had no significant correlation with either proliferation (P=0.29) or apoptotic indices (P=0.071 and P=0.100). Determining calpain-1 expression may provide relevant prognostic value for TNBC cancer patients

Reproductive Toxicity to Male Mice of Nose Only Exposure to Water- Pipe Smoke

Background/Aims: Water-pipe smoking (WPS) is popular in the Middle East and is starting to gain popularity in several Western countries as well. It is widely and erroneously perceived to be less harmful than other forms of tobacco use. The reproductive adverse effects of cigarette smoking have been studied before with conflicting results, but data on the possible adverse reproductive effects of WPS are lacking. Here, we assessed the effects of nose-only exposure to mainstream WPS generated by commercially available honey-flavored "moasel" tobacco in mice. Methods: The duration of the session was 30 min/day for one month. Control mice were exposed to air. Twenty- four h after the last exposure, mice were killed and the testes and plasma removed for analysis. In testicular homogenates total protein, alkaline phosphatase activity, several indices of oxidative damage and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor 2 (VEGFR2) were quantified. The plasma concentrations of leptin, testosterone, estrogen and luteinizing hormone (LH) were also measured. Histological analysis of testes and lungs was also conducted. Results: WPS caused statistically significant decreases in the plasma concentrations of leptin, testosterone, and LH, and in the concentrations of total protein and the antioxidant indices measured. A statistically non - significant decrease in VEGFR2 protein in the WPS - exposed mice compared to the control mice was also found. The body and testicular weights of mice exposed to WPS, as well as their testicular alkaline phosphatase activity and light microscopic histology, and plasma estrogen concentration were all not significantly affected by WPS. Conclusion: Further studies on the functional implications of these findings in mice exposed to WPS for longer durations are warranted

Prevention of Postoperative Adhesion Bands by Alkali-treated Cellulosic Luffa Fibers

The formation of postsurgical intra-abdomen adhesion bands can cause severe complications. The luffa fibers were alkali treated to produce the desire hydrophobic and microfibrous structure. The scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction results have demonstrated that this treatment furnished a fine and hydrophobic fibrous structure. Moreover, the crystallinity of luffa increased from 17.4% to 63.32% by alkali treatment. Moreover, the in vivo results represented a significant reduction of inflammatory cells and adhesion bands after one week of luffa fibers implantation. These results suggest that the luffa fibers have the potential to act as a barrier for prevention of adhesion bands

Role of the transcription factor T (brachyury) in the pathogenesis of sporadic chordoma: a genetic and functional-based study

A variety of analyses, including fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), quantitative PCR (qPCR) and array CGH (aCGH), have been performed on a series of chordomas from 181 patients. Twelve of 181 (7%) tumours displayed amplification of the T locus and an additional two cases showed focal amplification; 70/181 (39%) tumours were polysomic for chromosome 6, and 8/181 (4.5%) primary tumours showed a minor allelic gain of T as assessed by FISH. No germline alteration of the T locus was identified in non-neoplastic tissue from 40 patients. Copy number gain of T was seen in a similar percentage of sacrococcygeal, mobile spine and base of skull tumours. Knockdown of T in the cell line, U-CH1, which showed polysomy of chromosome 6 involving 6q27, resulted in a marked decrease in cell proliferation and morphological features consistent with a senescence-like phenotype. The U-CH1 cell line was validated as representing chordoma by the generation of xenografts, which showed typical chordoma morphology and immunohistochemistry in the NOD/SCID/interleukin 2 receptor [IL2r]gamma(null) mouse model. In conclusion, chromosomal aberrations resulting in gain of the T locus are common in sporadic chordomas and expression of this gene is critical for proliferation of chordoma cells in vitro. Copyright (C) 2010 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd