1,720,995 research outputs found
Risk of vulvar carcinoma in women affected with lichen sclerosus: results of a cohort study
No full textThe association between vulvar lichen sclerosus (VLS) and vulvar carcinoma (VC) has long been known [1-4]. However, to date only a few population-based studies have addressed the VC risk in VLS patients. The main objective of this retrospective cohort study was to assess the risk of VC development in a cohort of VLS women in the province of Ferrara, northern Italy (~360,000 inhabitants). All patients enrolled in the study had a first (index) diagnosis of VLS with histopathological ascertainment between 1995 and 2011 and were linked with Ferrara Cancer Registry dataset to identify vulvar invasive cancer incidence (ICD-O 3 topography code C51.0-9, morphology 8010-8576, behavior code /3
Pathological and Molecular Features of Mucinous Colorectal Adenocarcinoma
No full textBackground: Mucinous carcinomas (MC) account for 10-15% of colorectal carcinomas (CRC) and are considered aggressive tumors.They differ from conventional adenocarcinoma for many clinico-pathologic and molecular characteristics with implications on patient management and prognosis. Aim of the study was to compare clinical, pathological and biologic features of MC (mucin >50%) with those of conventional adenocarcinomas (AD) and of adenocarcinomas with <50% of mucin (AD-MC).
Design: The study included 1675 patients with CRC surgically resected between 2004 and 2018. Mismatch repair status (MMR) was determined in 1422 cases by immunohistochemical analysis of MLH1, MSH2, MSH6 and PMS2 expression and/or by microsatellite instability analysis using a fluorescent PCR method. Tumors with loss of MMR protein expression and/or MSI-H were classified as MMRdeficient (MMR-D) and tumors with retained MMR proteins expression and/or MSS/MSI-L as MMR-proficient (MMR-P). KRAS exon 2 and BRAF-V600E mutation were investigated by direct DNA sequencing or RT-PCR in 630 cases.
Results: Of the 1675 tumors, 1123 (67%) were classified as AD, 352 (21%) as AD-MC and 200 (12%) as MC. Comparing the three
groups, MC and AD-MC occurred more frequently in the proximal colon (p<0.001) and more often demonstrated poor differentiation. No other significative differences were found concerning the other clinical and pathological variables examined. MC (37%) and AD-MC (34%) were more frequently MMR-D (p<0.001) than AD (6%). MC (36%) and AD-MC (41%) were also more often BRAF mutated than AD (12%). KRAS mutations were detected at a higher rate in AD and MC with respect to AD-MC (p=0.01). As a whole the proportion of KRASwt/BRAFwt AD (45%) was higher with respect to AD-MC (22%) and MC (18%). The strong association between BRAF mutation and tumor type was also observed in the group of MMR-P carcinomas.
Conclusions: MC represent a distinct but heterogeneous group of CRC, characterized by specific molecular features such as MMR deficit and BRAF mutation. Interestingly, AD-MC display a geneti
COVID-19 induced aorto duodenal fistula following evar in the so called “negative” patient
No full textObjectives: Since October 2019, SARS-CoV-2 pandemic represents a challenge for the international healthcare system and for the treatment and survival of patients. We normally focus on symptomatic patients, and symptoms can range from the respiratory to the gastrointestinal system. In addition, we consider patients without fever and respiratory symptoms, with both a negative RT nasopharyngeal swab and lung CT, as a “Covid-19 negative patient.” In this article, we present a so called Covid-19 “negative” patient, with an unsuspected vascular clinical onset of the viral infection. Methods: An 80 y.o. man, who previously underwent endovascular aortic repair for an infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm, presented to our department with an atypical presentation of an aorto-enteric fistula during the pandemic. While in hospital, weekly nasopharyngeal swab tests were always negative for SARS-CoV-2. However, the absence of aortic endograft complications, the gross anatomy of duodenal ischemic injury, and the recent history of the patient who lived the last months in Bergamo, the Italian city with the highest number of COVID-19 deaths, lead the senior Author to suspect an occult SARS-CoV-2 infection. The patient underwent to resection of the fourth portion of the duodenum and the first jejunal loop, with subsequent duodenum–jejunal latero-lateral anastomosis and the direct suture of the aortic wall. The intestinal specimen was investigated as suspected SARS-CoV-2 bowel infection by the means of immune-histochemistry (IHC). An ileum sample obtained in the pre-COVID-19 era was used as a control tissue. Results: The histological analysis of the bowel revealed sustained wall ischemia and liponecrosis of the duodenal wall, with intramural blood vessels thrombosis. Blood vessel endotheliitis and neo-angiogenesis were also observed. Finally, the IHC was strongly positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA and for HLA-G presence, with a particular concentration both in blood vessels and in the intestinal villi. The control tissue sample was not positive for both SARS-CoV-2 and HLA-G. Conclusions: Coronavirus pandemic continues to be an international challenge and more studies and trials must be done to learn its pathogenesis and its complications. As for thromboembolic events caused by SARS-COV-2, vascular surgeons are involved in treatment and prevention of the complications of this syndrome and must be ready with general surgeons to investigate atypical and particular cases such as the one discussed in this article
Hepatosplenic T-Cell Lymphoma Mimicking Acute Onset of Cholestatic Hepatitis in a Young Immunocompetent Man: A Case Report
Full text linkWe herein report a case of hepatosplenic T-cell lymphoma (HSTCL) incidentally found in a 30-year-old man who came to the emergency department after an ankle trauma. At admission, laboratory tests revealed abnormal liver enzymes and pancytopenia, and imaging showed mild hepatosplenomegaly. During hospitalization, the patient's clinical condition worsened rapidly, with a concomitant increase in cholestatic enzymes, severe jaundice, and the worsening of pancytopenia. Causes of liver injury, including many infectious diseases, were explored until the diagnosis of HSTCL was made by liver and bone marrow biopsies. Subsequently, the patient underwent six cycles of chemotherapy with a CHOP (cyclophosphamide, hydroxydaunorubicin, oncovin and prednisone or prednisolone) regimen and one with Hyper-CVAD (fractionated cyclophosphamide, vincristine, doxorubicin, dexamethasone) but, despite this aggressive treatment, died due to disease progression 2 months after diagnosis. This rare disease should be considered in the diagnostic workup of acute cholestatic hepatitis presenting with concomitant hepatosplenomegaly and cytopenia
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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