Tehran University Medical Journal

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Background: Endometrial cancer is the most common malignancy of genital system which is commonly seen after menopause. Rises in the age of marriage non-surgical methods, using systemic progestins, have been evaluated to treat the young patients with well-differentiated endometrial cancer who wish to preserve their fertility.
Methods: Twenty one infertile patients with stage Ia well-differentiated endometrial adenocarcinoma were enrolled in a quasi-experimental study. The treatment initiated with 160mg/d of megestrol acetate then continued with 320mg/d for non-responsive cases. Patients follow up with FD&C and hysteroscopy. Patients divided in two groups on the basis of response to therapy and persistent. The responsive patients were introduced to IVF group and evaluated for later fertility and birth of alive newborns for three years.
Results: This study showed a response rate of 85.71% and 14.29% undergoing TAH. The mean duration of treatment was 5.85±2.00 month. The response to therapy was observed in 27.78% with dose of 160mg/d and the remaining patients with 320mg/d. Pregnancy occurred in 27.78%, 2 of which ended up in a term delivery and the others ended before term. Recurrence happened in 16.67% that 66.67% of them experienced remission again.
Conclusion: Use of 320mg/d seems to be associated with a better therapeutic response. Serious complications were not observed with this dose. Furthermore, continuance of the drug for three month following a normal pathology report was decreased the rate of recurrence.

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 Background: Uterine sarcomas are malignant mesenchymal neoplasms that represent three to five percent of all uterine tumors, and are classified into three major groups: 1) mixed mullerian sarcoma 2) endometrial stromal sarcoma 3) leiomyosarcoma. The purpose of this study is to determine the association of different prognostic factors with patient survival and tumor relapse.
Methods: Twenty-seven patients with a previous diagnosis of uterine sarcoma were entered into this survival study. Inclusion criteria were presence of primary uterine tumor, confirmation of previous diagnosis in pathologic reassessment and availability for follow-up. We evaluated the association of overall and disease-free survival with eight factors, including FIGO stage, lymph node status, mitotic count per 10 high-power fields, vascular status, age, histology of sarcoma, myometrial depth of invasion and size of tumor.
Results: The median age of our patients was 47 years, ranging from 18 to 73 years, and median time of follow-up was 28 months, ranging from 1 to 114 months. Five-year survival was 61% and the mean time of overall survival was 78 months, with a 95% confidence interval, ranging from 56 to 100 months. LSS histology type, in contrast to other subtypes, and a mitotic count of 0-9, in contrast to 20 and more, were two factors that significantly related to relapse of tumor (p<0.05). The three factors related to survival were FIGO stage (p=0.0039), mitotic count (p=0.0005) and LSS histology type in contrast to other subtypes (p< 0.05). Relapse occurred mostly in the pelvic region or lung.
Conclusion: From our findings and a review of other reports, the FIGO stage is associated with survival, although other factors discussed in the literature are controversial. Some factors had been reported to have significant association only within a restricted histological subgroup. However, due to the limitation of our number of cases in each subgroup, we could not make such an analysis. Future studies with adequate numbers of samples are recommended.

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Background: Tumor diathesis (TD) refers to the granular proteinaceous precipitates on the slide surface of cytologic (Pap) smears. Found in the background of smears from some, but not all, invasive carcinoma cases, TD is present in the majority of smears from large cell nonkeratinizing carcinoma. It is more pronounced than keratinizing SCC also is almost always present in small cell carcinoma.  Smears from patients with adenocarcinoma are frequently associated with dense inflammatory and fresh blood exudates and less often there is a recognizable tumor diathesis.

Methods: To determine the prevalence of TD in cervicovaginal smears from patients with uterine cervix carcinoma, cytologic smears and histologic slides of 46 patients with histologically-confirmed uterine cervix carcinoma were reviewed for the presence or absence of TD, red blood cells and neutrophils on cytologic smears, as well as depth of invasion, histologic types and grade of differentiation of tumor on histologic slides.

Results: TD was identified in 28 smears (60.9%), 18 patients with squamous cell carcinoma (62.1%), seven patients with adenocarcinoma (58.3%), two patients with adenosquamous carcinoma (66.7%) and one patient with endometrial carcinoma that involved the uterine cervix. TD was seen in smears from four (33.3%) patients with uterine cervix carcinoma with invasion <5 mm and 17 (65.4%) carcinomas with invasion >5mm. However, some of the patients with invasive carcinoma lacked TD on the cytologic smears. Red blood cells were identified on 16 (34.8%) smears.

Conclusions: Although TD is the hallmark of invasive carcinoma of the cervix on cytological smears, there have been few studies performed on it. We found that tumors with greater depth of invasion and reduced differentiation are associated with TD cytologic smears. TD was absent in some cases, particularly in micro-invasive carcinoma. This study reinforced what has been recognized from other studies.

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Background: Tuberculosis is still one of the most important causes of mortality and morbidity in many countries and is the second only to human immunodeficiency virus as a cause of death worldwide resulting from a single infectious agent. In 1993, the World Health Organization declared tuberculosis a global public health emergency. Conven-tional methods for the diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infections are time consuming, as MTB culture requires 3-8 weeks for growth. To determine the sensitivity of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), we have evaluated Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA in peripheral blood samples with PCR technique in adults with new cases of pulmonary and extra-pulmonary tuberculosis. Setting: Department of Infectious disease of Imam Khomeini Hospital, 2004- 2005, Tehran, Iran.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we evaluated MTB DNA extracted from 3ml citrated peripheral blood samples from 95 adults with new cases of pulmonary and extra-pulmonary tuberculosis. DNA extraction was performed using a commercial PCR kit with IS1081 primers. For prevention of cross contamination and reduction of false positives, all steps were performed under laminar hood.

Results: The 95 patients, 59 of whom were male, had a mean age 44.44 years (SD±20.26) 69 cases had pulmonary and 26 had extra-pulmonary tuberculosis. PCR was positive in 32 (33.7%) patients and negative in 63 (66.3%) cases. The overall sensitivity and accuracy of the PCR assay was 44.1% for pulmonary, 19.2% for extra-pulmonary and 10% for disseminated tuberculosis, respectively.

Conclusion: The low sensitivity of the IS1081 primer MTB-PCR assay on PBMC may pose problems for the rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis. However, further studies are needed to confirm this technique as an alternative test for the diagnosis of tuberculosis.

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Background: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer of the women worldwide. It is also an important cause of cancer-related mortality in women, after breast cancer. Nearly half million of new cases are identified yearly. The incidence rate in developing countries is greater than the developed countries. Epidemiologic studies have shown that the association of genital human papilloma virus (HPV) with cervical cancer is strong, independent of other risk factors, and consistent in several countries. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of HPV in patients with high grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CINIII, CIN II) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of cervix.
Methods: Hundred specimens from patients with SCC and CINIII, CIN II, confirmed by histological review, referring to Mirza Koochak Khan Hospital from 1999-2004 were enrolled in a cross sectional study. Polymerase chain reaction was utilized for identification and typing of HPV DNA. To increase the sensitivity of HPV detection, nested PCRs were performed using MY09/MY11 as outer and GP5/GP6 as inner primers.
Results: It was possible to extract 77 of 100 specimens that HPV DNA was detected in 47 of 77 specimens. Infection with HPV was present in 32 specimens (86.5%) among SCC patients and in 15 specimens (37.5%) among CINIII, CIN II patients. The most frequent HPV types in SCC patients were HPV 16 and 18 (59.38%) and then 33 (34.38%) and in CINIII, CIN II patients was 16 (53.33%) and 18 (40%). the most frequent co-infection in both groups was HPV 16 and 18 which was present in 40.62% and 26.7% of cases respectively.
Conclusions: The most frequent HPV types in patients with SCC and CINIII, CIN II was 16 and 18 that is identical to many other countries infection pattern.

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Background: The papanicolaou (pap) smear has been used to screen cervical cancer since 1940. Recently, a number of new technologies have been developed to improve the detection of cervical cancer and its precursors. However, there is substantial controversy about whether the new tests offer meaningful advantages over the conventional pap smear. Ideally, these new tests will increase the early detection of meaningful pap smear abnormalities, reduce the number of unsatisfactory smears and provide fewer ambiguous results.

Methods: In this prospective study the result of Liquid- based cytology smears (Liquid prep method) compared with conventional pap smears in terms of adequacy and ASC diagnosis in 289 patients in pathology department of mirza kochak khan hospital (Tehran, 2005- 2006). The smears were interpreted based on Bethesda system 2001.

Results: In conventional pap smear method, the number of occasions of unsatisfactory smear was 24(5%). In Liquid- based cytology method 66(22.8%) smears were unsatisfactory, In which difference between unsatisfactory groups were statistically significant (p<0.05), Also ASC diagnosis in conventional method 5(1.8%) as compared with Liquid- based cytology 6(2.1%), was not statistically significant (p>0.05).

Conclusions: There was no significant difference between two methods in term of ASC diagnosis but in conventional method adequacy of specimen was significantly better as compared with this Liquid- based cytology method.

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Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE AR-SA MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Background: Acardiac twin is a rare complication affecting monozygotic twins and is related to the twin reversed atrial perfusion sequence (TRAP). The TRAP sequence involves a pump twin perfusing a recipient twin through vascular anastomosis. Here, we report two cases with different presentations of acardiac twin.
Case report: The first acardiac twin was composed of a healthy fetus and a fetus with proximal of trunk, pelvic and lower limbs without head, neck and arms (acardia acephalus- classic form). The pregnancy was followed with ultrasonography and pregnancy terminated at 29 weeks, because there was abnormal doppler of ductus venosus and non-reassuring NST in pump twin. The second acardiac twin first time was diagnosed at a rotine ultrasonography at 26 weeks gestation as a healthy fetus and an acardia fetus with a hypoplastic lower limb and intestine like organ (amorphic mass). The pregnancy following, normal infant was born with a sac with some loops of the intestine at term. Each two cases were diagnosed at 26 week and each was delivered healthy pump twin.
Conclusion: Acardiac twin has different presentation and here we presented two end of acardia twin presentation with different management and outcome.

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Background: Thyroid transcription factor-1 (TTF-1) is widely used in the diagnosis of lung and thyroid carcinomas. Although there have been reports of TTF-1 immunoreactivity in tumors other than those originating from the lung or thyroid, endocervical and endometrial adenocarcinomas have not been studied in large numbers in this regard.

Methods: Thirteen endocervical adenocarcinomas, 39 endometrioid endometrial adenocarcinomas and four uterine serous carcinomas which had no neuroendocrine component were retrieved, stained by TTF-1 and examined. A semiquantitative grading system was used to evaluate the distribution of TTF-1 staining (0= negative, 1+  5%, 2+= 5% to 25%, 3+= 26% to 50%, 4+= 51% to 75% and 5+  75%). A qualitative system was also used to evaluate the intensity of TTF-1 staining (weak, moderate and strong).

Results: TTF-1 expression was seen in 1 out of 13 (7.7%) endocervical adenocarcinoma samples, showing 1+ distribution rate and weak intensity. The positive sample was moderately differentiated. TTF-1 expression was present in 2 out of 39 (5.1%) endometrioid adenocarcinoma samples (one grade I and the other grade II) with 1+ distribution rate and weak intensity. There was no apparent correlation between the degree of differentiation and TTF-1 positivity in the studied adenocarcinomas. None of the four endometrial serous carcinomas were positive for TTF-1.

Conclusion: Although some recent studies cast doubt about the specificity of TTF-1 for lung and thyroid carcinoma, our study showed that TTF-1 was negative in endocervical and endometrial adenocarcinomas and established the specificity of TTF-1 for lung and thyroid carcinomas.