Pictorial essay: Mammography of the male breast.

Mammography is an imaging modality that is widely perceived to be of use only in women for the detection and diagnosis of breast pathologies. Here, we present a pictorial essay on the mammographic spectrum of male breast pathologies.

Human cultured dendritic cells show differential sensitivity to chemotherapy agents as assessed by the MTS assay.

Assessment of the chemosensitivity of dendritic cells (DC) may allow more rational development of combined chemotherapy and immunotherapy protocols. Human monocyte-derived DC generated reproducible results in the MTS (Owen's reagent) assay, which was then used to study DC survival after treatment with four different chemotherapy agents. DC preparations from three different donors were used per drug. DC were sensitive to doxorubicin (concentration range 0.1-50 microM) with variation in sensitivity between donors (IC50 244-1100 nM). The most extreme variation was seen for vinblastine (concentration range 250-0.025 microM with IC50 0.15-17.25 microM). In contrast, there was relative resistance to etoposide (concentration range 0.2-200 microM) and 5-fluorouracil (concentration range 0.7-7700 microM) with no toxicity seen until 50 microM and 770 microM respectively. The function of DC in allogeneic mixed leucocyte reactions closely paralleled results from the MTS assays. The differential sensitivity to chemotherapy agents did not appear to be due to expression of P-glycoprotein. These results suggest that etoposide or 5-fluorouracil is less likely to reduce the immunotherapeutic potential of DC and may be valuable in the design of prodrug activation therapy.

Usefulness of immunoperoxidase test for serodiagnosis of genital chlamydial infections.

An immunoperoxidase test detecting Chlamydia trachomatis specific serum IgG and IgA antibodies, was carried out to determine its efficacy in establishing chlamydial etiology in 104 clinically diagnosed patients attending a major STD Clinic in Delhi. The patients consisted of 58 with nonspecific urethritis/cervicitis (NSU/NSC), 11 with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), 23 with primary infertility in either male or female and 12 with lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV). IgG antibodies were tested at a dilution of 1:64 and 1:128 and IgA antibodies at 1:16. Although 27.7 per cent (5 of 18) of the controls had IgG antibodies (> or = 1:128), none had IgA, showing the IgA marker as 100 per cent specific. In 80.8 per cent of all the patients, active infection was detected, 81.0 per cent in NSU/NSC, 81.8 per cent in PID, 76.9 per cent in female infertility, 80 per cent in male infertility and 83.3 per cent in LGV patients. The immunoperoxidase test was found to be an extremely simple and rapid test especially suited for laboratories where facilities are limited.