Esophageal cancer in Yemen

To document the age and gender distribution, histopathologic type as well as grading characteristics of Esophageal Cancer [EC] in Yemen. A case series. Department of Pathology, Sana'a University, Sana'a, Yemen, from January 2005 to December 2011. Three hundred twenty five cases of EC were included for review. The diagnoses were made on hematoxylin and eosin stained sections and the cases were categorized into Squamous Cell Carcinoma [SCC] and adenocarcinoma [ADC]. Out of the 325 EC cases, 163 [50%] were SCC [females 67%, males 33%] and 158 [49%] were ADC [females 30%, males 70%]. The rest of the cases were 2 adenosquamous carcinoma and 2 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The mean age, for SCC was 60 years while the mean age for ADC was 65 years. The peak incidence for SCC was found in the age groups of fifth and sixth decades for females and in fifth and seventh decades for males. The maximum number of patients with ADC was seen in sixth and seventh decades for both gender. Well-differentiated histological grading accounted for 247 [77%] for both genders and types. The moderately differentiated and poorly differentiated accounted, for 17% and 6% respectively. The EC in Yemen had a predominance of SCC in female patients and predominance of ADC in male patients which was usually of a well-differentiated grade

Childhood lymphomas in Yemen. Clinicopathological study

To find out the frequency of childhood lymphomas in all ages, and to describe patterns of lymphomas in relation to gender and site in Yemen. This is a descriptive record-based study of 1167 cases of lymphomas diagnosed by 3 pathologists in the Department of Pathology, Sana'a University, Sana'a, Yemen from 1st January 2004 to 30th December 2007. The diagnoses were made on hematoxylin and eosin stained, and categorized non-Hodgkin's lymphoma [NHL] according to the National Cancer Institute Working Formulation classification, and Hodgkin's disease [HD] according to Rye classification. Out of 1167 lymphomas, 801 [68.6%] were NHL, and 366 [31.4%] were HD, amongst these 347 [29.7%] were patients aged

diagnostic value of fine needle aspiration cytology in thyroid swellings in a University Hospital, Yemen

To evaluate the correlation between the fine needle aspiration [FNA] cytology and the histopathological findings in cases of the thyroid swellings and to assess the accuracy of cytological examination of thyroid nodules. This study was carried out at Kuwait University Hospital, Sana'a, Yemen. There were 243 thyroid FNAs of which 199 had subsequent excisional histopathological examination in the period 1997 to 2001. All the records of cytology and histology were reviewed. Cases were classified into 6 subsets: benign follicular lesion, thyroiditis, follicular neoplasm, suspicious for papillary carcinoma, malignant, and non-diagnostic aspirate. For statistical analysis, we excluded cases, which had not had subsequent histopathological examination [n=44], and cases with non-diagnostic aspirate [n=3], so only the histology and medical records of 196 cases were reviewed and correlated with the cytology results. There were 156 [78.4%] cases of benign aspirate, 31 [15.6%] cases of follicular neoplasm, 4 [2%] cases that were suspicious for papillary carcinoma, 4 [2%] cases of papillary carcinoma, and 3 [1.5%] cases of non-diagnostic aspirates. The 196 cases, which underwent cytological and histopathological examinations, were classified as non-neoplastic and neoplastic [including follicular neoplasm and malignancy] according to postoperative histopathology and correlation which, was carried out with preoperative cytology. There were 115 true negatives, 26 true positives, 42 false negatives, and 13 false positives. This gives a sensitivity of 38%, specificity of 89.9%, positive predictive value of 66.7%, negative predictive value of 73.2%, and accuracy of 72%. The sensitivity of FNA cytology in this study is very low compared to published studies, which had adversely affected the surgical decision making as well as the outcome. We should realise that negative FNA cytology does not exclude malignancy and we have to seriously evaluate the situation and to rethink on how to raise the scale of sensitivity in FNA cytology in the diagnosis of thyroid nodules, and to improve the level of expertise in cytology