Ectopic thyroid tissue- A case series

@#<p><strong>OBJECTIVE:</strong> To describe the clinical presentation and course of seven ectopic thyroid patients. <br /><br /><strong>METHODS:<br />Design:</strong> Retrospective Chart Review<br /><strong>Setting:</strong> Tertiary Government Teaching Hospital<br /><strong>Patient:</strong> Seven patients<br /><br /><strong>RESULTS:</strong> Five patients were female and two were male (ratio of 5:2). Three belonged to the 20 to 30 year-old age group, whereas two were below 10 years of age. All seven were biochemically hypothyroid and ectopic thyroid was found to be the only functioning thyroid tissue. Three patients were managed medically with levothyroxine, while ectopic thyroid was excised in four. Ectopic thyroid tissue was autotransplanted in two cases following excision.<br /><br /><strong>CONCLUSION:</strong> The ages of presentation in the present series correspond with the increased physiological demand of thyroid hormone. Thyroid substitution therapy is a must in the presence of clinical and/or biochemical hypothyroidism. Surgical excision should be avoided as far as possible especially if the ectopic tissue is the only functioning thyroid in the body. Surgery is required in selected cases presenting with obstructive symptoms or hemorrhage which are unresponsive to substitution therapy. Auto transplantation of the ectopic thyroid may not provide significant benefit to the patient and more research is warranted in this aspect.</p>

Giant cell tumor of the maxilla

@#OBJECTIVE/strong: To present a rare case of maxillary swelling; its investigation and management.br /br /strongMETHODS/strong:br /strongDesign/strong: Case Report br /strongSetting/strong: Tertiary Government Teaching Hospital br /strongPatient/strong: One br /br /strongRESULTS/strong: A 45-year-old female presented with a right maxillary swelling of six months duration. Radiological investigation revealed a radiolucent lesion arising from the inferior aspect of the right maxilla with no areas of calcification. Incisional biopsy report was consistent with giant cell tumor. The mass was excised via a Weber Ferguson incision under general anesthesia.CONCLUSION/strong: Though rare, giant cell tumor should be considered as one of the differential diagnosis in cases of maxillary swelling. Adequate surgical excision with long-term follow-up should be the treatment of choice for managing a giant cell lesion of the maxilla./p

An odyssey in search of a cure: the evolution of treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia in the United Kingdom.

This review charts the evolution of therapy for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in the United Kingdom. The present chemotherapeutic regimen is the result of experience gained from carefully planned randomised cooperative studies carried out during the last two decades. In common with the experience of the West German and American groups, the best results have been in those treated with post remission intensification blocks. With current chemotherapy protocols, almost 70% of children with ALL in U.K. can be cured but there may be a medical cost of such a cure, in terms of both acute and long term toxicity. This was especially true when central nervous system (CNS) therapy with cranial irradiation was used. Therefore present regimens are examining chemotherapeutic options for CNS disease control and the efficacy of additional post remission intensification. Failure of chemotherapy is most often seen in those children with a presenting white cell count of more than 50 x 10(9)/l, very young children and/or the presence of certain chromosomal rearrangements (e.g. t4: 11, t9: 22). At present the optimum therapeutic option for such high risk patients and for the majority of those in second remission, is an allogenic bone marrow transplant if an HLA-matched sibling is available. Modern day therapy is both complicated and costly and will be beyond the resources available for most children with ALL in developing countries. A significant decrease in worldwide mortality due to ALL will only occur if either the disease can be prevented or a simpler cure devised.

Detection of rabies virus in different tissues of experimentally infected mice at preclinical and postclinical stages of the disease.

Rabies fixed virus (CVS) was passaged 10 times in mice by intramuscular (im) route followed by experimental inoculation of the titrated virus in 4 groups of mice with the dose of 0.1 ml of 1000 mouse (LD50 0.03 ml) using intracerebral (ic), intravenous (iv), intramuscular (im), intraocular (io), and intranasal (in) routes respectively. No marked variation in clinical signs due to variation of routes could be detected. Involvement of brain with io route could be detected even in preclinical stage. Although the virus could be detected in the postclinical stage in all the tissues under study (brain, skin, salivary gland and corneal impression), with io and ic routes spread of the virus was observed in comparatively higher concentrations.