Clinicopathological spectrum of gall bladder cancer in Kashmir - an institutional study

Gallbladder cancer is a highly aggressive malignancy that usually presents at an advanced incurable stage. It is the fifth most common gastro-intestinal tumor and leads to approximately 2800 deaths in United States annually. This was a retrospective study carried out in the Department of Pathology, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, a 650-bed super speciality hospital in Kashmir valley. We reviewed the histopathological records of all the patients who were diagnosed as carcinoma gallbladder from Dec 2009-Dec 2013. Gross findings and histopathological findings were noted from the departmental archival material and clinical records of the patients including the clinical presentation, laboratory investigations, radiological investigations, pre-operative diagnosis and intra-operative findings, were retrieved from the hospital records. We analyzed 57 cases of carcinoma gallbladder for their clinicopathological features It included 19 males and 37 females. In our study, adenocarcinomas accounted for 87.5% of total carcinomas. Incidentally, all but one patient where gall stones were found, adenocarcinomas were seen. We have 4 patients of squamous cell carcinoma. In our series we have a single case of small cell carcinoma which was positive for neuroendocrine markers. In our study, gall stones were seen only in 8 cases [14%] of the total cases

Acute lower respiratory tract infections in Jeddah

One hundred and five patients with signs and symptoms of acute lower respiratory tract infection were investigated in a prospective study over a period of 1 year. Potential bacterial pathogens were isolated from the sputum of 27% of patients with productive cough; Haemophilus influenzae was the most frequent organism found in 19% of sputum specimens. Antibiotics had already been prescribed for 36-4% of the 66 patients whose urine was examined for antibacterial activity. Appropriate convalescent serum was obtained from 33 patients only, because of lack of compliance. This resulted in detecting two cases of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection, and two of adenovirus infections. The total leucocyte count in the blood was not helpful in the diagnosis except in the case of leucopenia where it was associated with a negative sputum culture