Peritumoral allergic response in epithelial ovarian carcinoma.

AIMS: Desmoplasia, intratumoral lymphocyte infiltration, and calcification within the tumor and peritoneum are quite common in advanced epithelial ovarian carcinoma. Peritumoral inflammatory reactions associated with hematologic paraneoplastic syndrome are extremely rare. MATERIALS AND METHOD: We describe in detail two cases of epithelial ovarian carcinoma associated with proliferation of Russell bodies and Mott cells in desmoplastic tumor stroma. RESULTS: In the first case, monoclonal proliferation was diagnosed with intranuclear inclusions (Dutcher bodies) in plasma cells. Dutcher bodies were seen both in the tumoral tissue and bone marrow. Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) was diagnosed with an IgM level less than 3 g/l and clonal paratrabecular lymphoplasmocytoid infiltrate less than 10% in the bone marrow. There were no light chain restrictions. Elevated beta 2 microglobulin level and anemia complicated the patients' survival. In the second case, because of desmoplasia the tumor volume did not decrease after the standard chemotherapy although a significant portion of the carcinomatous tissue disappeared. In this study, we checked the role of peritumoral allergic response prospectively in five epithelial ovarian carcinoma cases by actin, desmin, and lambda light chain immunohistochemical staining of the omentum. CONCLUSIONS: Further studies are necessary to show the relation between peritumoral hypersensivity reaction and HLA 1 antigen processing machinery to improve disease-specific survival in epithelial ovarian carcinoma.

Cross-sectional assessment of psychiatric disorders in renal transplantation patients in Turkey: a preliminary study.

BACKGROUND: Psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety may be seen after a successful renal transplantation (RTx). The aim of this cross-sectional study was the assessment of psychiatric disorders after RTx in Turkey. The value of self-report scales in predicting depression and anxiety was also assessed. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study group consisted of 20 male and 20 female RTx patients (mean age 35.42 +/- 10.09 years), with a mean duration of 61.65 +/- 48.30 months of follow-up after transplantation. All patients were assessed with the validated Turkish versions of Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV (SCID-I), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Hospital Anxiety Depression Scales (HADS), Spielberger Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-I), and Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS). RESULTS: Twenty of the 40 patients warranted a DSM-IV psychiatric diagnosis with SCID-I evaluation. Major depression was observed in 25% of patients. The remaining diagnoses were within the affective and/or anxiety spectrum disorders. The set of age, gender, education, income, marital status, employment, type of transplantation, duration of illness, and duration after the transplantation was not significantly different between patients with or without psychiatric diagnoses. BDI, HADS, STAI-I, and BHS were significantly higher among patients with psychiatric diagnoses at P = .001 level using Student t test. Even after control of the variance explained by the set of demographic variables, hierarchical regression analysis revealed that HADS scores significantly predicted the psychiatric morbidity (P = .003). CONCLUSION: The frequency of psychiatric disorders is quite high in renal transplantation patients. Additionally, HADS, which significantly predicts depression and anxiety, may be used for screening purposes.

MMPI profiles of Turkish headache sufferers.

The investigations of personality traits have been the issue of many studies on patients with headache. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is the most popular assessment instrument used in these studies. MMPI responses of 36 cases (14 male, 22 female) with tension headache and 44 cases (11 male, 33 female) with migraine headache had been compared with 36 nonheadache controls (12 male, 24 female). Because of the inadequate number of male subjects, the statistical analyses were made between female groups. The results obtained revealed that subjects in the tension-type headache group got significantly higher scores on neurotic subtests (hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria) than subjects in the control group. Likewise, migraine subjects got significantly higher scores on hysteria subtest than control subjects. No significant differences were noted between migraine and tension groups. However, none of the headache groups could be characterized by marked elevations on any of the validity and clinical scales. These results, support the finding that neurotic symptoms occur with a higher frequency in headache sufferers.