[Frequency of ABO and Rh blood groups in patients with acute leukemia]

There are some reports about probable association between acute leukemia and special blood groups. Frequency of ABO and RH blood group is different in each population. This study was done to determine frequency of ABO and Rh blood groups in patient with acute leukemia and healthy population. This case-control study was done on 214 patients [132 males, 82 females] that suffering from acute leukemia as case group and 117026 individuals healthy population who were voluntary blood donors as controls in Mashhad, Iran during 2001-07. Age, sex, ABO blood group and RH blood group were collected from hospital files for each cases. Furthermore the results of ABO and RH blood groups of controls were collected. Data were analyzed with Chi-Square, fisher test and Odd's ratio. The frequency of A, B, AB, O and RH blood groups in cases were 23.8%, 32.8%, 7.0%, 36.4% and 90.7%, respectively. The frequency of A, B, AB, O and RH blood groups in controls were 29.8%, 27.4%, 8.9%, 33.9% and 88.3%, respectively. Odds Ratio test didn't show association of ABO and RH blood groups with acute leukemia. Odds Ratio test showed association of B blood group with acute leukemia in females [OR=0.571, 95%CI: 0.358-.0908, P=0.021]. This study showed although there was not any association between ABO and RH blood groups and acute leukemia but probably females with B blood group are more susciptible toward acute lymphoblastic leukemia

[Evaluation of bone marrow involvement in surgically resected patients with esophageal cancer]

Bone marrow samples obtained during rib resections in esophageal cancer patients evaluated by immunohistochemical and quantitative polymerase chain reaction techniques revealed disseminated tumor cells in up to 90% samples, but the clinical relevance of these findings is unclear. Evaluation of bone marrow involvement in these patients and its correlation with clinicopathological finding of tumor. 43 patients with esophageal cancer who referred to Omid and Ghaem hospitals from April 2008-2009 were selected to transthorasic surgery[without neoadjuvant treatment].Bone marrow samples from rib were evaluated by Hematoxylin-Eosin staining for tumoral involvement and cytokeratin immunohistochemistry to determine micrometastatic cells. The results were compared with primary tumor histopathologial characteristics; T stage, N stage, tumoral length and personal characteristics; age and sex. Patients mean age was 60.9 [51-70 years], the ratio of male to female was 2.9. 38 cases [88.4%] had squamous cell carcinoma and 5 [11.6%] adenocarsinoma. In 9 cases [20.9%] Hematoxylin-Eosin staining and 13 cases [30.2%] immunohistochemistry results were positive. There was no correlation between pathologic type and T stage with Hematoxylin-Eosin and cytokeratin results. [p=0.277, p=0.153] and [p=0.221, p=0.097]. There was a significant relation between bone marrow dissemination and mediastinal involvement and tumoral grade [p=0.008, p=0.001] and [p=0.002, p=0.001]. According to our study, there is a correlation between grade and N stage and bone marrow involvement in esophageal cancer patients and there is no statistically correlation with other clinicopathologial characteristic there is a low bone marrow involvement in our region patients, overally

Telecytology in the diagnosis of pleural effusion smears

Telecytologic diagnosis of pleural effusion smears is potentially useful because it could allow more efficient use of cytopathologist resources and expertise. The purpose of our investigation was to evaluate how well this type of review correlates with a review which the entire silde is available for examination by the. pathologist. 35 pleural effusion smears with different diagnosis were selected retrospectively. they includ 16 benign, 5 suspiicious for malignancy and 14 malignant which were confirmed with two expert cytopathologists. for each slide number 3 to 11 fields containing abnormal cells were digitaly imaged. Pathologists reviewed all glass slides and digitized images individually. Diagnoses based on selected digitized images were compared with those based on conventional review. The kappa static, a measure of chance-corrected agreement [reroducibility], was calculated in each setting. The interobserver kappa value for the 3 observe for the slides was 76%. The interobserver kappa value for the digital images was 67%. The disagreement between a pathologist's glass slide and digital dignose [mean intraobserver kappa value = 73%] is greate than that or different pathologists reviewing glass slides [mean slide interobserverr kappa value= 76%]. Overall, intraobserver and intreobserrver reproducibility of pleural effusion slides [consists of direct smear after centrifugation and cytospin preparation] diagnoses is good to excellent