Primary breast synovial sarcoma: a rare primary breast neoplasm

A primary synovial sarcoma based on the breast is rare. The usual tumours on the breast are carcinomas. Synovial sarcomas account for about 6-9% of soft tissue sarcomas and most commonly develop in the extremity of young adults (80%). The other 20% of synovial sarcomas can arise in non-extremity sites (trunk 8%, retroperitoneal/ abdominal 7%, head and neck 5%) but synovial sarcomas can develop in almost any other anatomical location. We report a case of a young woman who presented with a suspected common breast tumour and started treatment of this tumour with carcinoma neoadjuvant chemotherapy. We were surprised when the pathologist identified a synovial sarcoma in the histopathology study (AU)

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Effectiveness of argon plasma coagulation in the treatment of chronic actinic proc.

INTRODUCTION: There are two kinds of actinic proctitis--one is acute and self-limited, and lasts about 3 months; the other is chronic and develops months to years after radiation therapy. The incidence of chronic actinic proctitis is about 5-20% of radiated prostate tumors. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of argon plasma coagulation in the treatment of chronic actinic proctitis. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A retrospective search of patients with the diagnosis of actinic proctitis. The number of argon plasma coagulation therapies needed to achieve the symptom resolution was analyzed. RESULTS: We found 22 patients with a diagnosis of actinic proctitis. Nineteen were males (86.7%) and three (13.6%) were females. Nineteen patients (86.4%) had a diagnosis of prostate adenocarcinoma, one had a diagnosis of squamous-cell cervix carcinoma (4.5%), and two had a diagnosis of endometrial carcinoma (9.1%). The mean number of coagulation sessions needed for symptom resolution was 2.58 (absolute range 1-7) with a median of 2 sessions. CONCLUSION: Multiple treatments are described in the literature. None of them have shown promising results. Our results suggest that argon plasma coagulation is effective in the treatment of this condition, and achieves a rapid and sustained response with few sessions and a good safety profile.

Efectividad de la fulguración con argón plasma en el tratamiento de la proctitis actínica crónica / Effectiveness of argon plasma coagulation in the treatment of chronic actinic proctitis

Introducción: existen 2 tipos de proctitis actínica, una aguda autolimitada, que dura aproximadamente 3 meses y otra crónica que aparece a los meses o años de la radioterapia. La incidencia de proctitis actínica crónica es del 5-20% de los tumores prostáticos irradiados. Objetivo: evaluar la efectividad de la fulguración con argón plasma en el tratamiento de este tipo de proctitis. Material y método: estudio retrospectivo. Realizamos una búsqueda retrospectiva de aquellos pacientes diagnosticados de proctitis actínica entre 2004 y 2007. Analizamos el número de sesiones de fulguración con plasma de argón que fueron necesarias para la resolución de la sintomatología. Resultados: hemos hallado 22 pacientes con el diagnóstico de proctitis actínica. Diecinueve de los pacientes eran varones (86,4%) y tres mujeres (13,6%). De todos los pacientes 19 fueron diagnosticados de adenocarcinoma prostático (86,4%), una fue diagnosticada de carcinoma epidermoide de cérvix uterino (4,5%) y dos fueron diagnosticadas de adenocarcinoma de endometrio (9,1%). La media de sesiones de fulguración con plasma de argón necesarias para resolución de la clínica presentada fue de 2,58 (rango entre 1 y 7 sesiones) y con un mediana de 2 sesiones. Conclusión: en la literatura hay descritos múltiples tratamientos para la proctitis actínica. No obstante, ninguno de ellos ha presentado resultados demasiado prometedores. Nuestros resultados sugieren que la fulguración con plasma de argón es efectiva en el tratamiento de esta patología, consiguiendo una resolución rápida y mantenida de la sintomatología con pocas sesiones, además de presentar un buen perfil de seguridad(AU)

Introduction: there are two kinds of actinic proctitis - one is acute and self-limited, and lasts about 3 months; the other is chronic and develops months to years after radiation therapy. The incidence of chronic actinic proctitis is about 5-20% of radiated prostate tumors. Objective: to evaluate the effectiveness of argon plasma coagulation in the treatment of chronic actinic proctitis. Material and method: a retrospective search of patients with the diagnosis of actinic proctitis. The number of argon plasma coagulation therapies needed to achieve the symptom resolution was analyzed. Results: we found 22 patients with a diagnosis of actinic proctitis. Nineteen were males (86.7%) and three (13.6%) were females. Nineteen patients (86.4%) had a diagnosis of prostate adenocarcinoma, one had a diagnosis of squamous-cell cervix carcinoma (4.5%), and two had a diagnosis of endometrial carcinoma (9.1%). The mean number of coagulation sessions needed for symptom resolution was 2.58 (absolute range 1-7) with a median of 2 sessions. Conclusion: multiple treatments are described in the literature. None of them have shown promising results. Our results suggest that argon plasma coagulation is effective in the treatment of this condition, and achieves a rapid and sustained response with few sessions and a good safety profile(AU)

Influence of a rehabilitation sports programme on the fibrinolytic activity of patients after myocardial infarction.

The influence of regular physical exercise on fibrinolysis was studied in two groups of patients after myocardial infarction. The two groups were of similar age and living habits. One of the groups took part in a rehabilitative training programme while the other group did not participate in any sports activities. Several fibrinolytic variables, including plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI) activity and PAI-1 antigen, were studied before and after an ergometric test performed at three different times: at the end of hospitalization (before beginning the rehabilitation programme), three months and six months after myocardial infarction. Our results indicate that by the sixth month fibrinolytic activity, measured by the tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) capacity, had decreased significantly (p less than 0.025) in the patients who were not participating in the rehabilitation programme whereas it had increased slightly in the patients involved in the rehabilitation programme in comparison with the initial values. It was also observed that while PAI activity remained constant or decreased slightly in patients after six months in the rehabilitative sports programme, these PAI levels increased significantly in patients who were not in the sports programme. Our results indicate that there was a significant decrease in the fibrinolytic capacity of patients who were not participating in the rehabilitation sports programme, while the patients involved in the rehabilitation programme showed a slight improvement in their fibrinolytic activity.

Plasminogen activator inhibitor activity and other fibrinolytic variables in patients with coronary artery disease.

Several fibrinolytic variables, including plasminogen activator inhibitor activity, were studied before and after exercise in 67 normolipidaemic patients with coronary artery disease and in 25 hyperlipidaemic patients with coronary artery disease. Before exercise plasminogen activator inhibitor activity was higher in the patient groups than in a group of 10 healthy volunteers. For those who were normolipidaemic plasminogen activator inhibitor activity was greater in patients with angina pectoris who had had a myocardial infarction. The concentration of antigenic tissue-type plasminogen activator was similar in all the patients with coronary artery disease and higher than in the control group. After the exercise test fibrinolytic capacity was lower in the patients with angina pectoris and a previous history of myocardial infarction. After exercise both the released immunological tissue-type plasminogen activator and fibrinolytic capacity were lower in the hyperlipidaemic patients than in the normolipidaemic patients. The concentration of plasminogen activator inhibitor was also higher in the hyperlipidaemic patients. Patients with hyperlipidaemia IV had the highest plasminogen activator inhibitor activity. The increase in plasminogen activator inhibitor activity found in the patients was partially inhibited by antiserum against plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 in vitro. The formation of a complex of about 115,000 daltons between plasminogen activator inhibitor and purified tissue-type plasminogen activator was detected by a zymographic fibrin technique. These findings show that in patients with coronary artery disease fibrinolytic activity is impaired by an increase in plasminogen activator inhibitor. Impaired fibrinolysis may be related to the clinical evolution of coronary artery disease in these patients.

Reduced fibrinolytic activity in coronary heart disease in basal conditions and after exercise.

Fibrinolysis may be impaired in coronary heart disease patients. 20 coronary heart disease patients and 10 control subjects were examined for tissue-plasminogen activator activity, tissue-plasminogen activator antigen, fast tissue-plasminogen activator inhibitor and other fibrinolytic and haemostatic parameters including antigenic and functional protein C. Both patient and control groups were similar in age and smoking habits. All of these patients had a myocardial infarction between 1-3 months before this study. Assays were evaluated before and after an exercise test. Prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time, protein C, plasminogen, alpha 2-antiplasmin, fibrinogen/fibrin degradation products and contact-activated fibrinolysis were similar before and after exercise in both groups. Fibrinolytic activity assayed by the euglobulin lysis time and fibrin-plate lysis methods was decreased in the patient group as compared with the control group but the difference was not significant. In basal conditions, tissue-plasminogen activator activity was defective in 50% of the coronary heart disease patients (p less than 0.01) and after exercise this percentage rose to 77% (p less than 0.01). However, tissue-plasminogen activator antigen in the coronary heart disease group was similar to that of the control group, both before and after exercise. The activity of the tissue-plasminogen activator inhibitor was persistently increased in coronary heart disease though this increase was not statistically significant. It is concluded that in coronary heart disease patients there is a defective fibrinolytic activity probably due to an increase in tissue-plasminogen activator inhibitor.

Factors predicting the result of physical training after acute myocardial infarction.

We have studied the predictive effect of physical training on physical working capacity (PWC) in a group of 48 male survivors of acute myocardial infarction. In regression analysis with single variables, the training heart rate correlated most strongly with the change of PWC after training (r = 0.54; p less than 0.01). The initial PWC and exercise-induced R wave amplitude change also correlated significantly with the change in PWC after training (r = -0.33; p less than 0.05 and r = 0.32 p less than 0.05, respectively). The initial maximum heart rate and the exercise-induced rise in systolic blood pressure failed to show such correlations. In multiple regression analysis all these variables, with the exception of the blood pressure, were found to make statistically significant, independent contributions to the prediction of the change of PWC after training. The training heart rate was the best criterion in the prediction of the success of physical training after myocardial infarction. Variables obtained from a pre-training exercise test can be used as additional criteria.

Early load-limiting versus symptom-limited exercise testing: prognostic value in 200 myocardial infarction patients.

The prognostic value of early load-limited and symptom-limited exercise testing has been compared in 200 men younger than 65 years of age, after myocardial infarction. 164 patients performed both tests and in 79 of the 200 cases who performed the early test the result was positive (40%); the percentage of positive tests was higher with the symptom-limited test (53.6%). The prognostic value of both tests was high. During the follow-up the mortality rate was higher in patients with positive results, but the early test enables the identification of patients in a higher risk group before hospital discharge.