The relative frequency and histopathological pattern of ovarian masses - 11 year study at tertiary care centre.

Background: Ovarian tumours are one of the major cause of gynaecological problems in females and present marked variation in their histological types. Relative frequency of these lesions is different for Western and Asian countries. Aims & Objective: This study was designed to find out frequency of various histological patterns of ovarian tumours in patients attending Pathology department of a teaching institute in Gujarat. Material and Methods: A retrospective – series study was conducted on 337 cases of ovarian masses, reported from January 2002 to December 2012. Results: Mean age of the subjects was 33.6 years, ranging from 8 to 70 years. In a total 337 cases of ovarian masses, 197 (58.46%) were non-neoplastic and 140 (41.54%) were neoplastic. Among neoplastic lesions, 77.14% (108/140) were benign, 3.57% (5/140) were borderline and 19.29% (27/140) were malignant. The commonest non-neoplastic lesion was luteal cyst (59/197) followed by simple serous cyst (56/197). The commonest malignant tumour was serous cystadenocarcinoma (11/27) followed by mucinous cystadenocarcinoma (5/27). The commonest borderline tumour was borderline serous tumour (4/5). Conclusion: Non-neoplastic lesions were more common than neoplastic lesions. Among neoplastic lesions benign tumours were common. The commonest benign tumour was serous cystadenoma and malignant was serous cystadenocarcinoma. The commonest non-neoplastic lesion was luteal cyst. Among histological types of ovarian tumours, surface epithelial tumours dominated the other types.

Microalbuminuria in essential hypertension.

Background & objectives: Microalbuminuria has been described as an early sign of vascular damage in certain high risk goups such as diabetes, hypertension & family history of cardiovascular renal disease. In diabetes mellitus the prognostic value of microalbuminuria as a marker of early nephropathy and increased cardiovascular risk has been well established. The aim of this study is to establish the prevalence of microalbuminuria in nondiabetic essential hypertensive patients and its relation with target organ damage. Material and Methods: 100 non diabetic essential hypertensive patients attending OPD as well as admitted in the tertiary care hospital of Jamnagar were included in this study. They underwent detailed clinical examination. A single early morning urine sample was used to measure microalbuminuria by Micral test strip and urine creatinine was measured to establish albumin creatinine ratio. Results: The age of patients selected for study varied from 35 to 76 years; mean age being 51.5 years. 52% were males and mean duration of hypertension was 3.9 +/- 3.9 yrs. Microalbuminuria was found in 46% of the patients and showed significant association with male gender (p=0.001), age (p<0.05) & target organ damage in any form (p<0.05). Interpretation and conclusion: Measuring urinary albumin excretion (UAE), a simple, low cost and readily available test, can be regarded as a cost effective way to identify nondiabetic essential hypertensives at high risk and can thus help to prevent the development of complications by aggressive treatment to get down to target blood pressure.

T2 weighted MRI in assessment of volume changes during radiotherapy of high grade gliomas.

AIM: To determine whether any changes in gross tumor volume occur between pre treatment MRI and week 5 MRI in high grade gliomas treated by conformal radiotherapy. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Between July 2003-July 2005, 17 patients with WHO grades 3 and 4 malignant gliomas treated with conformal radiotherapy to a total dose of 60 Gy were included in this retrospective study. All patients had undergone T2 weighted MRI a day before treatment and then again at end of week 5 of treatment for definition of initial and boost fields respectively. Gross tumor volumes were delineated on the two MRI's of each patient and the differences were noted. Two patients with multifocal disease were excluded from the final analysis. RESULTS: Of the 15 patients with unifocal disease, 12/15 cases (80%) showed a reduction in tumor volumes (median 54.85 cc). Of these, 4/15 (26.6%) cases (two each of grade 3 and grade 4 gliomas) had an objective reduction in GTV (> or = 50%) and 3/15 (20%) cases (two of grade 4 and one of grade 3 gliomas) demonstrated an increase in tumor volume (median 14 cc). CONCLUSIONS: This study has shown that a change in gross tumor volume occurred in almost all patients on week 5 MRI. The likelihood of treatment success would appear to be decreased if the tumour is not within the treatment field and hence it may be worthwhile to do a mid treatment MRI for definition of boost volumes especially in dose escalation trials employing highly conformal radiotherapy fields.

Thermometry studies of radio-frequency induced hyperthermia on hydrogel based neck phantoms.

A cylindrical phantom, resembling average human neck, was prepared by using hydrogel sheets containing vinyl and polysaccharide. The phantom was used to obtain temperature distributions for 6 values of input power of radio frequency (RF) at 8MHz,by invasive thermometry technique, using thermistor probes.The inclusion of cervical vertebrae and calcium carbonate pieces (human bone representative) with a hollow tube (windpipe equivalent) in the phantom simulates the change in thermal distributions. This is similar to the alterations in heat disposition obtained in the real human neck, during RF induced heating, without extensive distortion of the uniform temperature distribution provided by the RF heating instrument.This paper compares the hydrogel neck phantom with other phantoms, that have been developed for studying thermal distributions and optimization of novel non invasive thermometry techniques in hyperthermic oncology.