Prevalence of abnormal oral cytology and impact of sexual behavior in women with abnormal cervical cytology.

UNLABELLED: PURPOSE OFINVESTIGATION: To assess the frequency of oral cytological abnormalities in women who have cervical intraepithelial lesions, and transmission of infection depending on their sexual behavior. The authors also aimed to investigate the oral cytological changes in male partners. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Thirty patients with abnormal cervical cytological results via punch biopsy formed the case group, and 68 patients constituted the control group with normal cervical smear results. The Bethesda system was used for classification of the cytological alterations. RESULTS: Oral dysplasia was significantly higher in the squamous intraepithelial lesion (SIL) group. Oral sex percentage was 43.3% in SIL group, whereas it was 19.1% in the control group. History of genital warts in women with SIL was also significantly higher in the case group. Three patients were diagnosed with abnormal oral cytology in the SIL group (10%), however abnormal oral cytology was not detected in the control group. No oral dysplastic changes was identified in the male partners of women with oral lesions. CONCLUSION: The authors detected oral dysplastic changes in the SIL group, especially in the (low grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LGSIL) patients. Interestingly they could not find any oral dysplastic changes in the male partners of the study population.

Primary vaginal endometrial stromal sarcoma associated with endometriosis: a case report with a review of the literature.

Extrauterine endometrial stromal sarcomas (ESSs) are quite rare tumors, and vagina is an unusual site for these tumors. This paper presents a very rare pathological entity of primary vaginal ESS. A 46-year-old woman with a complaint of postcoital vaginal bleeding, low abdominal pain, and constipation was admitted to the clinic. She had a mass of seven cm in size, located in the posterior fornix detected on physical examination. The preoperative biopsy showed ESS, surgical material, and evaluation of an endometrium confirmed the diagnosis of primary vaginal ESS. She underwent total abdominal hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and partial vaginectomy. The diagnosis of ESS performed by pathologic and immunohistochemical evaluation was: caldesmon (-), actin (-), desmin (-). CDIO (+), ER (+), PR (+), and vimentin (+). There was no ESS lesion in the endometrium. The patient was free of tumor for 22 months after the surgery without any additional therapy. In this study, the authors report the sixth case of primary vaginal ESS in the literature and aim to discuss diagnostic criteria and management protocols in the light of the literature.

Color Doppler analysis of female reproductive vasculature in Behçet's disease.

Behçet's disease (BD) may affect female reproductive vasculature. We aimed to evaluate Doppler sonographic characteristics of female reproductive vasculature and also ovarian volume, endometrial thickness (EMT) and antral follicle count of BD patients in comparison with a healthy control group. Seventeen premenopausal women aged between 18-45 years with BD, and a control group of 31 age- and body mass index-matched healthy women was included in the study. Uterine, spiral and intraovarian artery blood flow were examined by Doppler sonography in the late follicular phase. Resistance index, pulsatility index and systolic/diastolic ratio were recorded together with ovarian volume, EMT and antral follicle count. In particular this is a pilot study including the evaluation of the spiral and uterine arteries in BD. Doppler sonographic parameters, ovarian volume, EMT and antral follicle count of BD patients and healthy controls were not found to be statistically different. As a result of our analysis, we found similar Doppler sonographic features of both BD patients and the control group. Further studies conducted on a larger sample population with more aggressive BD symptoms may reveal the actual effect of BD on the female reproductive system.

Effects of temperature - heavy metal interactions, antioxidant enzyme activity and gene expression in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) seedlings.

In this study, the effect of heat and chromium (Cr) heavy metal interactions on wheat seedlings (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Ç-1252 and Gun91) was investigated by measuring total chlorophyll and carotenoid levels, catalase (CAT) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) antioxidant enzyme activities, and MYB73, ERF1 and TaSRG gene expression. Examination of pigment levels demonstrated a decrease in total chlorophyll in both species of wheat under combined heat and heavy metal stress, while the carotenoid levels showed a slight increase. APX activity increased in both species in response to heavy metal stress, but the increase in APX activity in the Gun91 seedlings was higher than that in the Ç-1252 seedlings. CAT activity increased in Gun91 seedlings but decreased in Ç-1252 seedlings. These results showed that Gun91 seedling had higher resistance to Cr and Cr + heat stresses than the Ç-1252 seedling. The quantitative molecular analyses implied that the higher resistance was related to the overexpression of TaMYB73, TaERF1 and TaSRG transcription factors. The increase in the expression levels of these transcription factors was profound under combined Cr and heat stress. This study suggests that TaMYB73, TaERF1 and TaSRG transcription factors regulate Cr and heat stress responsive genes in wheat.

PCNA and Ki-67 in endometrial hyperplasias and evaluation of the potential of malignancy.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate malignancy potential in endometrial hyperplasias and association with PCNA and Ki-67. METHODS: Hysterectomy or probe curettage materials of 62 patients (20 simple hyperplasias (SH), six SH with atypical changes, five complex hyperplasias (CH), 11 CH with atypical changes, ten proliferative endometrium (PE) and ten secretory endometrium) were included in our study. Immunohistochemical staining for PCNA and Ki-67 protein was performed on formalinfixed and paraffin-embedded tissue samples. RESULTS: Immunoreactivity of PCNA was found to be significantly higher in atypical CH as compared to all other groups (p < 0.05). Also immunoreactivity of PCNA was significantly lower in SH as compared to atypical CH, and PE (p < 0.05). Average values showed that Ki-67 immunoreactivity is highest for atypical CH, and PE. Immunoreactivity of Ki-67 was found to be significantly higher in atypical CH as compared to other groups except PE (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: PCNA immunoreactivity can be useful in patients with endometrial CH showing mild or moderate atypical changes in terms of prefering more conservative treatment modalities in those with low PCNA index. Also we suggest that Ki-67 could be insufficient to determine the potential of malignancy.