Atypic Drainage Pattern of Posterior Intercostal Veins Into the Azygos Venous System.

The azygos venous system vary greatly in theirmode of origin, course,tributaries, anastomoses and termination which resulst predominantly due to its complex embryological development. Azygos venous system develops as right and left azygos venous lines. Right azygos venous line develops into vertical part of azygos vein whereas the left one develops into accessory hemiazygos and inferior hemiazygos veins. These are connected by subcentral/ transvertebral veins. In the present case, we found an atypic drainage pattern of posterior intercostal veins into azygos venous system, left being more variable. Right superior intercostal vein formed by 2nd and 3rd posterior intercostal veins whereas left superior intercostal vein was found to be absent. 2nd, 3rd, 4th& 5th left posterior intercostal veins thus drained into accessory hemiazygos vein. Sixth and seventh left PICVs formed a common trunkwith accessory hemiazygous vein and drained into the azygous vein at T6 level. Eighth one united with the hemiazygos vein and formed a common trunkwhich drained into azygos vein at T8 level. Such variations of the azygos venous system are important for a clinician during mediastinal surgeries to prevent inadvertent hemorrhagic complications.

Anthropometric measurements of hand length for estimation of stature in North Indians.

Stature or body height is one of the important and useful anthropometric parameter that determines the physical identity of an individual. The present study was done in department of Anatomy, Sri Guru Ramdas Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Amritsar on 400 (200 males and 200 females) healthy, asymptomatic medical subjects belonging to various regions of North India. The subjects were measured for stature and hand length of left side with standard anthropometer and a sliding caliper respectively and data was subjected to statistical analysis for deriving regression equations. The regression equations were derived both for male and female North Indians separately by means of which living stature can be accurately estimated when fragmentary or mutilated portion of upper extremity is recovered. The present study showed significant (p< 0.001) positive correlation between stature and hand length.

Chromosomal instability in the lymphocytes of breast cancer patients.

Genomic instability in the tumor tissue has been correlated with tumor progression. In the present study, chromosomal aberrations (CAs) in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) of breast tumor patients were studied to assess whether chromosomal instability (CIN) in PBLs correlates with aggressiveness of breast tumor (i.e., disease stage) and has any prognostic utility. Cultured blood lymphocyte metaphases were scored for aberrations in 31 breast cancer patients and 20 healthy age and sex-matched controls. A variety of CAs, including aneuploidy, polyploidy, terminal deletions, acentric fragments, double minutes, chromatid separations, ring chromosome, marker chromosome, chromatid gaps, and breaks were seen in PBLs of the patients. The CAs in patients were higher than in controls. A comparison of the frequency of metaphases with aberrations by grouping the patients according to the stage of advancement of disease did not reveal any consistent pattern of variation in lymphocytic CIN. Neither was any specific chromosomal abnormality found to be associated with the stage of cancer. This might be indicative of the fact that cancer patients have constitutional CIN, which predisposes them to the disease, and this inherent difference in the level of genomic instability might play a role in disease progression and response to treatment.