• Gomez Montoya posted an update 1 week ago

    Chagas disease is a vector-borne neglected tropical disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. It is a systemic and chronic parasitic infection which is endemic in 21 countries with 10 million cases worldwide and 12,000 annual deaths. Around 70 million people in the Americas are at risk of contracting this disease, and less than 1% of infected people are treated due to low disease awareness and limited access to treatment. The current treatment for Chagas disease consists of benznidazole and nifurtimox under the World Health Organization (WHO) authorization protocol. The current treatment has limitations in terms of efficacy against the chronic phase of infection and side effects associated with prolonged therapy. This review provides an update on nifurtimox progress over the years and its recent approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2020 for the treatment of Chagas disease in pediatric patients under 18 years of age.Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) can metastasize to various organs of the body. The skin is an uncommon site for metastasis. However, if metastasis to skin occurs, scalp is a common area. We present a 77-year-old male patient, with a 12-year history of RCC. In the current presentation, he was hospitalized due to hematuria, fatigue, electrolyte imbalance, and deteriorating kidney functions. After the patient was stabilized, he was referred to the plastic surgery clinic due to an unusual, extremely large, hemorrhagic, ulcerative, and vegetative mass on his scalp. Total excision of the scalp mass was performed and, it was noted that the calvarium was intact and the defect was grafted. Histology report of the specimen confirmed to metastatic RCC. Clinicians need to keep in mind that large cutaneous lesion can be a metastasis from an internal malignancy.

    Endodontic treatment failure is one of the most common problems encountered in dentistry.

    This study aimed to evaluate the causes of failure of endodontic treatment among patients in the Saudi Arabian city of Al-Kharj.

    A total of 250 patients of both genders were involved in the study. Criteria confirming the failure of the endodontic treatment were pain, tenderness on pressure, periapical radiolucency, and sinus tract. Patients were selected by convenience sampling methods. A diagnostic chart was prepared to complete the investigation in three different hospitals, during a six-month period (October 2018 – March 2019). The results were analyzed statistically using Chi-square test and use of simple arithmetical methods to determine percentage and frequencies.

    The main cause for endodontic failure was poor quality adjunctive treatment. 147 out of 179 male patients and 53 out of 71 female patients received poor quality treatment. There was a statistically significant difference between gender versus adju the failure of endodontic treatment. Poor adjunctive treatment and inadequate filling of the root canals were the most common causes of endodontic failure, more commonly seen in male than female patients and in private clinics/hospitals than government hospitals.

    To assess the VHL gene expression as a prognostic marker in Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC) and compare it with clinicopathologic features.

    This retrospective observational study was conducted in the department of Urology and Renal Transplantation in Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai from August 2016 to August 2018. Thirty patients who have undergone a radical/partial nephrectomy with biopsy proven histological diagnosis of RCC during the study period were included in the study. Data was analyzed using Statistical package for Social Sciences version 17.

    A complete loss and retained VHL expression were noted in 60% and 40% of the RCC specimens. Go6976 Association between smoking and VHL expression was found to be statistically significant. There was no statistical significance found between age group, sex, chief complaints, BMI. ECOG score, hypertension, family history, location of tumor, calcification, venous system or lymphnode involvement. However, rT staging, nature of lesion and cut surface, HPE type, pT staging, HPE grade, necrosis and lympho-vascular invasion were also found to be statistically significant.

    Complete loss of VHL expression was noted in majority of the specimens that leads to the development of RCC. Smoking has been found to be statistically significant in tumors that retain VHL expression which may contributes to more aggressive form of tumor. Association between rT staging, nature of lesion and cut surface, HPE type, pT staging, HPE grade, necrosis and lympho-vascular invasion were also found to be statistically significant.

    Complete loss of VHL expression was noted in majority of the specimens that leads to the development of RCC. Smoking has been found to be statistically significant in tumors that retain VHL expression which may contributes to more aggressive form of tumor. Association between rT staging, nature of lesion and cut surface, HPE type, pT staging, HPE grade, necrosis and lympho-vascular invasion were also found to be statistically significant.

    Adiponectin (ApN) is a 244-amino acid protein mainly secreted from the adipose tissue and involved in various physiological functions. ApN exerts its metabolic effects by binding to two major receptors adiponectin receptor-1 (Adipo-R1) and adiponectin receptor-2 (Adipo-R2). Recent studies have reported ApN’s involvement in the progression of cancer. However, there are no studies evaluating the relationship between Adipo-R1/R2 expression and gastric intestinal metaplasia (IM), which is a predisposing factor in gastric cancer (GC) development, and Helicobacter pylori H. pylori infection.

    In this study we aimed to investigate the relationship between the Adipo-R1/-R2 expression and H. pylori infection in patients with GC and gastric IM.

    Forty patients that underwent gastric resection and 56 patients that developed gastric IM were included in the study. The Adipo-R1/-R2 expression and the presence of H. pylori were examined immunohistochemically. The univariate analyses showed that the expression of Adipo-R1/-R2 in GC patients was significantly lower compared to both complete metaplasia (CM) and incomplete metaplasia (ICM) patients (p <0.