Effect of low level laser therapy on articular cartilage and synovium in osteoarthritis and adjuvant arthritis models in rats: Histopathology, electron microscopy and oxidative stress markers assessment

The effect of low energy level laser [LLL] therapy was assessed on the basis of physical parameter [paw edema] and histopathological examination of knee joints using light and electron microscopes. Serum nitric oxide, malondialdehyde and ceruloplasmin in addition to blood glutathione and erythrocyle superoxide dismutase levels/activities were also determined. The results revealed that LLL possesses antiedematous and antiarthritic effects, being more relevant in adjuvant arthritis [AA] animals. This was evidenced by a marked reduction in paw edema in addition to decrease in villous formation and disappearance of inflammatory cells in the synovium of AA rats. The histopathological picture of the articular cartilage was also improved; however, not reaching statistically significant level. In AA mode1, the anti-arthritic effect of LLL was extended systemically causing significant reduction in the elevated levels of malondialdehyde, ceruloplasmin and supxoxide dismutase by 46%, 22% and 25%, respectively, as compared to the corresponding untreated AA rats. No marked effects were clearly demonstrated in osteoarthritis [OA] model as noticed from the hisropathological and biochemical aspects, except for the presence of intact mitochondria even in cells undergoing apoptosis. LLL confers good anti-arthritic effect in AA model that support its anti-inflammatory and immunosuprresive effects. More research should be performed using different schedules of laser to explore its role in OA

Immunohistochemical study of p53 in gastric carcinoma

P53 is a tumor suppressor gene product identified in a wide variety of tumors. It is a nuclear phosphoprotein encoded by a gene at position 13 on the short arm of chromosome 17. Studies have shown that wild type p53 has an inhibitory effect on cell proliferation and transformation. Mounting evidence indicated that p53 is involved in the pathogenesis of a large proportion of human neoplasms as a major biochemical regulator of growth control. Mutation of p53 was found in 50% of gastric cancer and 90% of esophageal cancer. This work studied the accumulation of p53 by immunohistochemistry in 20 patients with gastric carcinoma who underwent surgery in Kasr El-Aini Hospital. Expression of the p53 protein was found in 50% of all tumors. Expression of p53 was found in 62.5% of patients with tumors in the upper region, 50% of the patients with tumors in the middle region and 33.3% of patients with tumors in the low region of the stomach. Expression of p53 was slightly common in the ulcerative type than in the polypoidal type. P53 was found in 54.5% of patients with advanced tumor and positive lymph node infiltration and in 44.4% of patients with early tumor and without lymph node infiltration. There was significant relationship between p53 expression and the histological type of the tumors. Many cancer cells in the intestinal type carcinomas showed nuclear p53 expression, but only few cells in diffuse type carcinomas expressed nuclear p53. The results suggested that gene alterations of p53 are not rare in gastric carcinoma and may participate in carcinogenesis of intestinal type carcinomas of the stomach. P53 expression is at present not a predictor of the outcome of patients with gastric carcinoma and can not identify subgroups of patients who may be at a higher risk

Unexpected malignancy in perimenopausal versus postmenopausal uterine bleeding

In this study, a total of 600 cases of irregular uterine bleeding in the age group 40-60 years were chosen. Full dilatation and endometrial curettings was done in every patient and the biopsy obtained was subjected to histopathological examination. Out of the 600 patients studied, 515 [85.8%] were perimenopausal and 85 [14.2%] were postmenopausal. The incidence of malignancy was 6.5%. The highest incidence was coporal malignancy with a peak at the age group 55-59 years followed by cervical malignancy with a peak at the age group 40-49 years. The incidence of malignancy in age group 40-44 was 2% and it increased tremendously with age representing 68.4% of cases of uterine bleeding at the age group 55-59 and 87.5% at the age of 60. Premalignant lesions represented 81.5% of cases. Cystic hyperplasia and simple hyperplasia with or without atypia represented 56.7% and affected mostly women of the age group 40-44 years. Disorders of pregnancy represented 7.8% of cases, while atrophic endometritis accounted for 4.2% of causes of uterine bleeding. Thus, the relatively high incidence of malignancy in peri and postmenopausal bleeding justified the employment of dilatation and full curettings as a definite diagnostic method to exclude malignancy

Microbiology of chronic suppurative otitis media [CSOM]

A microbiological study was carried out on 100 chronic suppurative otitis media patients. Infection by single organism was observed in 70 patients and mixed infection in 23 cases. On the other hand, no growth was detected in 7 cases. Pure aerobes were isolated from 61% of patients, while pure anaerobes were detected in 7% of cases. However, mixed aerobes and anaerobes were recovered from 15% of cases. Fungi were isolated in association with bacteria from 7 patients, while pure fungi were only detected in 3 cases. The most frequently isolated aerobes were Staph. pyogenes [24%], E. coli [14%], K. aerogenes and proteus spp [12% each], Pseudomonas aeruginosa [11%] and Strept. pyogenes [10%]. On the other hand, the most frequently recovered anaerobes were: Bacteroides fragilis [10%] and peptostreptococcus [7%]. Candida spp. were isolated from 10 cases; C. albicans was the most frequently recovered fungus [8%]. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacteroides fragilis, peptococcus and C. tropicalis were more frequently isolated from patients with history of recurrent upper respiratory tract infection. Three out of 6 patients with cholesteatoma yielded mixed aerobic and anaerobic infection and the other 3 yielded aerobes only