Carotid Body Paraganglioma with Prominent Lymphocytic Infiltration Mimicking Metastatic Lymph Node: A Case Report.

Carotid body paraganglioma is a neuroendocrine neoplasm of the mandibular region. Due to its prominent stromal alternations, carotid body paraganglioma is a great emulator of other neoplasms in the head and neck region especially in metastatic tumors and its definite diagnosis is a great challenge. To the best of our knowledge, the most frequently reported variant is sclerosing and paraganglioma with a prominent lymphoplasmacytic infiltration is extremely rare. We report a rare case of a carotid body lymphoplasmacytic paraganglioma presented as a single asymptomatic mass of the right mandibular region in a 45-year-old woman. In order to exclude other possibilities, the use of immunohistochemistry is essential which shows a strong positive immunoreaction for chromogranin and synaptophysin. Surgical resection is the treatment of choice which is replaced with radiotherapy in contraindications. Overall, the tumor has a favorable clinical outcome.

Copper and Zinc Levels in Myelodysplastic Syndrome Patients versus Healthy Subjects.

BACKGROUND: Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is a heterogeneous hematological disease and certain serum factors are assumed to be involved in its pathogenesis and progression. Given this, our aim was to comparatively investigate the copper, zinc, and iron levels in MDS patients and healthy individuals. METHODS: This case-control study was conducted on 31 patients with MDS (according to the WHO criteria after investigating laboratory tests such as peripheral blood smear and bone marrow aspiration) attending Bahonar Hospital, Kerman, Iran, and 31 healthy subjects from 2016 to 2018. The levels of copper, ceruloplasmin, zinc, ferritin, and iron were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: Among the MDS patients, five individuals (16.13%) had low serum copper level (mean: 67.8 ± 4.35 µg/dl). Serum copper level was 111.3 ± 27.7 and 138.3 ± 26.6 in case and control groups, respectively (P = 0.0001). The serum zinc level and bone marrow iron level were also significantly different between the two groups (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Overall, it can be concluded that because only a small proportion of the MDS patients enrolled in this study were found to have lower copper levels compared with the MDS patients population, further studies with a larger sample size and also clinical trials in MDS patients with serum zinc, and copper deficiency are recommended, and post-treatment hematological reassessment would also be beneficial to achieving more definitive results.