ABSTRACT
Background: Progressive proteinuria implies worsening of the condition in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and hence its quantification guides clinician in making decision and planning treatment. The gold standard is 24 hour urine protein estimation. Urine sediment cytology, also known as ‘liquid renal biopsy’ identifies and analyses the extent of renal damage.Methods: Objectives of the study were to compare the efficacy of urine dipstick test to 24 hour urine protein estimation in detecting proteinuria in pre-eclampsic patients and to describe the findings in urine sediment examination in assessing proteinuria in above patients. Urine dipstick test and sediment cytology were performed on the urinary samples of 242 pregnant women with high BP recordings (BP>140/90 mm Hg) which were collected and tested in Department of Pathology, Government Medical College, Kottayam during the study period of 18 months. This was compared with 24 hour urine protein values (gold standard).Results: About 154 patients (63.63%) had significant proteinuria of more than 300mg/24hr. Dipstick method showed 78.57% sensitivity and 81.82% specificity for prediction of significant proteinuria. Positive predictive value and negative predictive value of urine dipstick test were 88.32% and 68.57% respectively. Urine sediment examination revealed the presence of casts only in 11.98% of study population. Conclusions: Diagnostic accuracy of automated urine dipstick test in assessing proteinuria was 79.75%. For grade 1 proteinuria, diagnostic accuracy was 79.81%, for Grade 2 it increased to 93.14% and for grade 3 & 4, accuracy was 98.68%. Urine sediment examination didn’t correlate with proteinuria and hence the extent of renal damage in pre-eclampsia.
ABSTRACT
Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is a haematological malignancy with various etiological factors and one among them is Epstein Barr Virus. The expression of Epstein-Barr virus in Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma can be identified by immunohistochemistry for detection of Epstein-Barr virus latent membrane protein (LMP-1). In our study, we are trying to clarify the extent of expression LMP-1 in our population. This can be used as a prognostic marker and for therapeutic interventions targeting EBV encoded proteins. We wanted to determine the proportion of LMP1 (EBV marker) expression in Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and evaluate the association of LMP1 expression in B cell and T cell type of NHL.METHODSThis is a cross sectional analytical study conducted at Department of Pathology, Govt. Medical College, Kottayam, from December 2017 to May 2019. A total of 67 cases were studied. All of them were histopathologically diagnosed Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma specimens received in the Department of Pathology, Govt. Medical College, Kottayam, during the study period of 18 months. NHL was subtyped into B cell type and T cell type. LMP-1 immunohistochemistry was done on all cases to assess its expression. Then analysis was done using SPSS software and strength of association between LMP 1 positivity and cell type was calculated using Chi square test and Fisher’s exact test.RESULTSMean age of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is 57.82 +/- 7.4 in this study. Minimum age is 2 years and maximum age is 89 years. The present study had 10.4 % LMP 1 positive cases. Of which there were 6% moderately stained positive cases, 3% of weakly stained cases and 1.5% cases of intensely stained cases. Among NHL 86.6% cases were B cell lymphoma and 13.4% cases of T cell lymphoma. And they had a LMP 1 positivity of 10.3% and 11.1 % respectively. But there was no significant association between LMP 1 positivity and cell type according to our study.CONCLUSIONSThe present study was done to determine the proportion of LMP 1 expression in Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and to find out whether there is any association between LMP1 expression in B cell and T cell type of NHL. LMP 1 was positive in 10.4% of NHL and there was no association between LMP 1 positivity in B cell and T cell Lymphoma. This suggest that EBV might play a role in pathogenesis of NHL.
ABSTRACT
Background: Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide. Breast carcinoma is currently managed by assessing clinicopathological features. Elucidation of molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis of breast carcinoma may lead to the development of new targeted therapies, particularly in triple negative cancers. Literature shows a few studies on the expression of calretinin in breast carcinoma particularly in basal like type and its prognostic significance. In this study, authors are trying to assess the expression of a new marker calretinin in different molecular subtypes of invasive carcinoma breast.Methods: This study was done in 107 cases of invasive carcinoma breast specimens received in Department of Pathology, Government Medical college, Kottayam from December 2017 to May 2019.Results: Among the molecular subtypes, Basal like tumours showed 68.4% of cases with high level and 31.6% of cases with low level calretinin expression which is comparable with the study by Farrag et al. All the other molecular subgroups showed predominantly low level of calretinin expression.Conclusions: Different molecular subtypes of invasive carcinoma breast showed varied calretinin expression. High level calretinin expression was significantly associated with grade 3 (p value = 0.002), ER negativity (p = 0.004), PR negativity (p = 0.018) and Basal like molecular subtype (p : <0.001). This suggests that calretinin might play a role in pathogenesis of basal like breast carcinomas.