[Schistosoma haematobium, a rare aetiology of spinal cord compression]. / Schistosoma haematobium, une cause rare de compression médullaire.

Human schistosomiasis is the second endemic disease after malaria. About 200 millions people are concerned, particularly in Africa, South America and Asia. Schistosomal spinal cord compression is under reported in Africa and not well known. Authors present the case of a 10-year-old boy with no suggestive past-medical story, admitted for spinal cord compression. MRI shows tumor like intra dural lesion. Schistosomal granuloma was found after lesion removal by posterior approach. Treatment was completed by praziquantel. Controversies of the treatment are presented.

Thalassaemia: a study on the perception of patients and family members.

Marked improvement in the management of thalassaemia has not been matched by progress in psychosocial rehabilitation as thalassaemia continues to pose challenges to patients and their family members. Few studies have been carried out in Malaysia to look at such issues. This study is therefore to explore the concerns, beliefs and feelings about thalassaemia. It was conducted in the year 2009 over 7 months on "focus groups", in patients aged 8-22 years and parents attending Paediatric Clinic of Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital, Kuantan, Pahang. Results showed that concerns and adverse impact were related to lower grades in education, poor self-image, less chance of employment, marriage, financial burden and social integration. Compliance to subcutaneous iron chelator was poor. There were various concerns related to blood transfusion therapy. It is evident that thalassaemia greatly affects the psychosocial dimensions and a more structured long term psychosocial support is needed to improve quality of life of patients.

Radiation-induced atypia of endocervical epithelium: a histological, immunohistochemical and cytometric study.

Radiation-induced changes of the endocervical glandular epithelium have not been well characterized. Ten specimens (nine from hysterectomy, one from biopsy) from patients with therapeutic radiation to the pelvis for genitourinary or gastrointestinal cancer were examined by histological, immunohistochemical, flow cytometry and image cytometry analysis, and comparison was made to 10 cases of adenocarcinoma in situ (ACIS) of the cervix. Patients ranged from 34 to 68 years of age and received at least 3600 cGy total dosage to the pelvis. Hysterectomy or biopsy was performed six weeks to 17.5 years after completion of radiotherapy. Gross examination of the hysterectomy specimen revealed fibrosis, induration, stenosis, surface irregularity or an unremarkable cervix. Microscopic examination of endocervical glandular epithelium showed sparse, widely spaced glands which were tubular or dilated. Epithelium was simple cuboidal or flattened and consisted of large cells with at most a slight increase in N/C ratio, well-defined intercellular borders and eosinophilic or finely vacuolated cytoplasm. Nuclei frequently showed loss of polarity, one or two prominent eosinophilic nucleoli, and evenly dispersed chromatin; only occasional hyperchromatic cells were seen. Rare scattered cells were immunoreactive for carcinoembryonic antigen in seven of nine cases. One case was hyperdiploid by both flow cytometry and image cytometry. The remaining cases were diploid by flow cytometry and either diploid (five cases) or hypodiploid (four cases) by image cytometry. These findings indicate that pelvic radiation therapy causes characteristic histologic changes in endocervical glandular epithelium that are distinct from those of ACIS of the cervix. Cytoplasmic CEA staining frequently is focally positive and does not allow distinction from ACIS.

Genome scanning using endogenous LTR-like elements for rapid DNA-fingerprinting of breast-cancer and transformed human breast epithelial-cells.

In the present work genomic DNAs from nine primary breast cancers and transformed human breast epithelial cell lines obtained by treatment of MCF 10F, a spontaneously immortalized human breast epithelial cell line, with benzo(a)pyrene (BP) or 7,12 dimethyl benz(a)anthracene (DMBA), were used for genomic scanning. The treatment of MCF 10F with BP gave rise to different clones designated BP1 and BP1E, the latter being a tumorigenic cell line. Treatment with DMBA gave rise to D3 and D3-1 clones. The clones D3-1 and BP1 have been transfected with the plasmid pH06T1 containing the mutated c-Ha-ras oncogene resulting in the D3-1Tras and BP1T-ras cell lines, that are highly tumorigenic in SCID mice. Genomic DNA are separately hybridized to two different probes representing different families of human endogenous retrovirus like sequences (RTLV-H and HERV-K LTR). The technique of genomic scanning allows the mapping of each tumor or cell line and comparison with its counterpart obtained from the adjacent normal tissue of the same patient or with the untreated MCF 10F cells. DNA changes such as deletions, amplifications and/or rearrangements were detected in 5 of the tumor pairs studied. We have identified genomic alterations that involved amplification of a 10 kb band in the transformed cell lines. The cell lines D3-1Tras and BP1T-ras show, in addition, the presence of a second band of 4.5 kb in size. A third band of 500 bp size was found in clones D3-1 and BP1E that have a more aggressive behavior in vitro than their precursors D3 and BP1 cells respectively. In conclusion the present report indicates that genomic scanning detects DNA aberrations in primary primary tumors and in human breast epithelial cells transformed with chemical carcinogens and/or oncogene transfection that are not present in their normal counterpart. These results further indicate that detection of endogenous retrovirus elements may help in genome mapping and can be a useful tool for detecting genomic changes in the preliminary screening of DNA extracted from primary breast cancer and transformed cells.

Physiologic role of relaxin on mammary gland growth in rats.

The role of relaxin in stimulating growth of the mammary gland was assessed in ovariectomized and intact male rats for a period of 20 days. In addition to relaxin alone, the ovarian mammogenic hormones estradiol and progesterone were used in combination with relaxin and with each other to evaluate responses of mammae. Indices for mammary growth included wet weight, dry fat-free tissue, DNA, RNA, total protein, and collagen. Quantitative estimates of DNA and collagen represented the best indicators of parenchymal and stromal growth, respectively. Because changes in body weights were significantly different among hormonally administered groups, these were included as well. In Ovariectomized young rats, relaxin alone and in combination with estradiol and progesterone increased all indices significantly (P less than 0.01). The collagenous portion of total protein was high for the group receiving relaxin alone (62%) compared with the control group (46%). Relaxin administered along with estradiol and progesterone increased collagen accumulation to 73%, compared with 54% in the estradiol + progesterone group. Relaxin did not significantly increase growth indices when administered to male rats at 10 and 20 micrograms/day, while 30 micrograms stimulated a significant increase in total protein (P less than 0.05), suggesting that 30 micrograms of relaxin/day may be considered the basal concentration needed to induce a physiologic response in males. Relaxin induced a growth effect on mammae by synergizing with progesterone and estradiol in order to stimulate parenchymal proliferation, as noted by a DNA increase, and to increase stromal distensibility of the mammary pad by invoking accumulation of collagen and total protein in substituting for mammary adipose tissue.

Orotic acid in guinea pig milk: changes in concentration during lactation.

The orotic acid concentration in guinea pig milk decreased rectilinearly beginning on d 1 through a lactation duration of 21 d. Concentration was 29 micrograms/ml on d 1 and 5 micrograms/ml on d 17. On d 18 to 21 it was less than 1 microgram/ml. The regression equation of orotic acid on day of lactation was: Y(micrograms orotic acid per milliliter milk) equals 32.3 - 1.6X (day of lactation) with a correlation coefficient of .94. Total orotic acid on a daily basis peaked on d 6 at 950 micrograms and declined to less than 5 micrograms by d 21. The rectilinear regression equation from d 6 to 21 was as follows: Y(micrograms orotic acid per milliliter milk) equals -1.64 + .68X (grams of milk production per day) with a correlation coefficient of .97. This may be used as a marker for persistency of lactation.