Clinicopathologic evaluation of CDw75 antigen expression in patients with gastric carcinoma.

Situated on mature B lymphocytes, CDw75 antigen is a sialylated carbohydrate epitope generated by the enzyme beta-galactosyl alpha-2,6-sialyltransferase. Although CDw75 antigen expression was found to be correlated with aggressive behaviour of tumour cells in gastric adenocarcinomas, its prognostic role still remains unknown. The objective of this study was to determine the value of CDw75 antigen expression as a marker of the metastatic potential and prognosis of gastric adenocarcinomas. CDw75 antigen expression was evaluated immunohistochemically in 64 tumours and their nodal metastases. The correlation was analysed between CDw75 antigen expression and selected clinicopathological variables, including survival. Positive staining was detected in 31 cases. Non-neoplastic gastric mucosa was consistently negative. CDw75 expression was correlated with larger tumour size (p<0.006), infiltrative growth pattern (p<0.044), advanced stage (p<0.0006), and positive lymph nodes (p<0.0003). The overall survival rate of patients with CDw75 expression was 28%, which was significantly worse than that of patients without CDw75 expression (53%) (p<0.0005). Multivariate analysis showed that CDw75 expression was an independent prognostic indicator, together with the growth pattern of the tumour. These results indicate that immunohistochemical detection of CDw75 antigen expression may be a good indicator of metastatic potential and of prognosis in patients with gastric carcinomas.

Microvessel count, proliferating cell nuclear antigen and Ki-67 indices in gastric adenocarcinoma.

The aim of the present study was to immunohistochemically investigate the prognostic value of neovascularization (expressed as microvessel count-MVC) and tumor cell proliferation (expressed as PCNA labeling index PLI and Ki-67 labeling index KLI) in gastric adenocarcinoma. Correlations with clinicopathologic features were also evaluated. Tumor specimens from 74 patients diagnosed as gastric adenocarcinoma were included in this study. Formalin fixed, paraffin embedded tissue sections stained immunohistochemically with F-VIII, PC10 and MIB-1 monoclonal antibodies. By ocular grid subdivided into 100 areas, number of microvessels and PC10, MIB-1 positive and negative cells were counted at x400 magnification. Chi-square test, Kaplan-Meier method and cox regression analysis were used for statistical analysis. The results showed that, MVC and PLI had a significant correlation with invasion and lymph node metastasis. The prognosis was significantly worse in patients with high MVC (>14 ) and with high PLI (>49%). However any relationship was not observed between KLI (38%) and clinicopathologic parameters, so KLI failed to predict the prognosis. Cox model showed that, MVC and PLI were independent prognostic variables. Ki-67 labeling index in gastric carcinomas has no prognostic relevance. However, the evaluation of microvessel count and proliferating cell nuclear antigen index in gastric carcinomas could be reliable indicators of prognosis.

Stereologic estimation of mean nuclear volume in well-differentiated adenocarcinoma and carcinoma in situ of the gallbladder.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate mean nuclear volume of cells in well-differentiated adenocarcinomas (20 cases) and carcinoma in situ (20 cases) of the gallbladder by the principle of estimation of the volume of particles with arbitrary shapes. STUDY DESIGN: Hematoxylin and eosin-stained, 4-micron-thick, vertical sections from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue blocks were analyzed by using a projection microscope with a 100:1 oil immersion objective (NA 1.3); the final magnification was 2,500:1. The measurements were carried out in 10 microscopic fields for each slide. Mean nuclear volume was obtained by the stereologic method of point-sampled intercepts for vertical sections. RESULTS: Mean nuclear volume in well-differentiated adenocarcinomas (127.67 +/- 46.95 micron 3) was significantly larger than in carcinoma in situ (69.17 +/- 15.74 micron 3) (P < .000001). CONCLUSION: Stereologic estimation of mean nuclear volume may be helpful in the discrimination of malignant and borderline lesions of the gallbladder.

Human herpesvirus 6 and human herpesvirus 7 infections in renal transplant recipients and healthy adults in Turkey.

We explored the prevalence of human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) and human herpesvirus 7 (HHV-7) infections in 16 renal transplant recipients and 16 healthy controls by virus isolation, serology, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by dot blot hybridization. HHV-6 variant A was isolated from one renal transplant recipient. Seven patients (44%) and six controls (38%) had HHV-6 variant B DNA in their peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The prevalence of HHV-7 DNA was found to be the same in patients and controls (19%).

[Legionnaires' disease following kidney transplantation]. / Böbrek transplantasyonu sonrasi gelisen Lejyoner hastaligi.

Legionella pneumonia was diagnosed in two patients receiving triple immunosuppressive drug therapy after renal transplantation. High fever was the predominant symptom of these patients. Hyponatremia, leucopenia and anemia were also observed. The disease was diagnosed by immunofluorescence antigen technique and easily controlled with erythromycin therapy.