Greenland-wide inventory of ice marginal lakes using a multi-method approach.

Ice marginal lakes are a dynamic component of terrestrial meltwater storage at the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Despite their significance to the sea level budget, local flood hazards and bigeochemical fluxes, there is a lack of Greenland-wide research into ice marginal lakes. Here, a detailed multi-sensor inventory of Greenland's ice marginal lakes is presented based on three well-established detection methods to form a unified remote sensing approach.

Diagnostic use of endoscopic full-thickness wall resection (eFTR)-a novel minimally invasive technique for colonic tissue sampling in patients with severe gastrointestinal motility disorders.

Background: Complex gastrointestinal (GI) motility disorders such as chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction (CIPO) or Hirschsprung's disease (HD) are challenging to diagnose and treat appropriately. Thorough assessment of patient history, radiographic exams, endoscopy, and motility measurements aid in diagnostic workup, yet underlying histology is the cornerstone to enable a more distinct diagnosis of neuromuscular GI disorders. Traditionally, surgical procedures have been performed to obtain specimen suitable for accurate histologic analysis.

Uterine Tumors Resembling Ovarian Sex Cord Tumors - Treatment, recurrence, pregnancy and brief review.

Background: Uterine Tumors Resembling Ovarian Sex Cord Tumors (UTROSCT) are rare tumors of low malignancy. In the past, these tumors were mainly treated by hysterectomy. More recently, some authors have proposed conservative surgical management for women wishing to preserve fertility.

Value of postmortem studies in deceased neonatal and pediatric intensive care unit patients.

Worldwide, various autopsy studies have shown a decrease in the diagnostic error rate over the last years. The cause of this positive development is mainly due to the improvement of modern medicine. However, intensive care unit patients are thought to have a higher risk for diagnostic errors, which is documented in several studies in the adult population.

Targeting the ROR1 and ROR2 receptors in epithelial ovarian cancer inhibits cell migration and invasion.

Aim: In recent years, the Wnt signalling pathway has been implicated in epithelial ovarian cancer and its members have potential as diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic targets. Here we investigated the role of two Wnt receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs), ROR1 and ROR2, and their putative ligand, Wnt5a, in ovarian cancer.

Methods: Immunohistochemistry for ROR2 was performed in a large patient cohort, including benign controls, borderline tumours and epithelial ovarian cancer.

KPNA2 is overexpressed in human and mouse endometrial cancers and promotes cellular proliferation.

Endometrial cancer is the most frequently occurring malignancy of the female genital tract in Western countries. Although in many cases surgically curable, about 30% of the tumours represent an aggressive and untreatable disease. In an attempt to establish a reliable prognostic marker for endometrial carcinomas disregarding their histological diversity, we investigated the expression of KPNA2, a mediator of nucleocytoplasmic transport, and other cell proliferation-associated proteins and their correlation with cancer progression.

The non-canonical Wnt ligand, Wnt5a, is upregulated and associated with epithelial to mesenchymal transition in epithelial ovarian cancer.

Objective: Aberrant Wnt signalling has previously been associated with gynaecological cancers, and the aim of this study was to investigate the expression of Wnt5a in epithelial ovarian cancer, and clarify its role in activating or inhibiting β-catenin dependent and independent Wnt signalling pathways.

Method: Wnt5a expression was investigated in a large cohort of epithelial ovarian cancer patient samples using immunohistochemistry and correlated with clinicopathological variables. Wnt5a function was investigated in vitro in ovarian cell lines.

Minimally invasive, imaging guided virtual autopsy compared to conventional autopsy in foetal, newborn and infant cases: study protocol for the paediatric virtual autopsy trial.

Background: In light of declining autopsy rates around the world, post-mortem MR imaging is a promising alternative to conventional autopsy in the investigation of infant death. A major drawback of this non-invasive autopsy approach is the fact that histopathological and microbiological examination of the tissue is not possible. The objective of this prospective study is to compare the performance of minimally invasive, virtual autopsy, including CT-guided biopsy, with conventional autopsy procedures in a paediatric population.

TP53 mutations are common in all subtypes of epithelial ovarian cancer and occur concomitantly with KRAS mutations in the mucinous type.

Aims: Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) can be classified into four major types (serous, endometrioid, clear cell, mucinous). The prevalence of driver gene mutations in the different subtypes is controversial. High-grade serous carcinomas show frequent TP53 mutations, whereas KRAS and BRAF mutations are less common.

Meta-analysis of microarray data identifies GAS6 expression as an independent predictor of poor survival in ovarian cancer.

Seeking new biomarkers for epithelial ovarian cancer, the fifth most common cause of death from all cancers in women and the leading cause of death from gynaecological malignancies, we performed a meta-analysis of three independent studies and compared the results in regard to clinicopathological parameters. This analysis revealed that GAS6 was highly expressed in ovarian cancer and therefore was selected as our candidate of choice. GAS6 encodes a secreted protein involved in physiological processes including cell proliferation, chemotaxis, and cell survival.

Enteroviral myocarditis in neonates.

Enteroviruses are a leading cause of viral infections in children. While most enteroviral infections are mild and self-limiting, severe disease such as a viral sepsis syndrome, myocarditis, hepatitis and meningoencephalitis may occur. We present two cases of neonatal enteroviral myocarditis.

Heart transplantation in congenital heart disease: in whom to consider and when?

Due to impressive improvements in surgical repair options, even patients with complex congenital heart disease (CHD) may survive into adulthood and have a high risk of end-stage heart failure. Thus, the number of patients with CHD needing heart transplantation (HTx) has been increasing in the last decades. This paper summarizes the changing etiology of causes of death in heart failure in CHD.

Expression of MAGE-C1/CT7 and selected cancer/testis antigens in ovarian borderline tumours and primary and recurrent ovarian carcinomas.

MAGE-C1/CT7, NY-ESO-1, GAGE and MAGE-A4 are members of the cancer/testis (CT) antigen family, which have been proposed as potential targets for cancer immunotherapy. To determine the prevalence and biologic relevance of the novel CT antigen MAGE-C1/CT7 and other antigens, 36 ovarian borderline tumours (BTs), 230 primary ovarian carcinomas (OCs) and 80 recurrent OCs were immunohistochemically analysed using the monoclonal antibodies CT7-33 (MAGE-C1/CT7), E978 (NY-ESO-1), clone 26 (GAGE) and 57B (MAGE-A4). Positivity of at least one CT antigen was present in 39.

Occupational health risks of pathologists--results from a nationwide online questionnaire in Switzerland.

Background: Pathologists are highly trained medical professionals who play an essential part in the diagnosis and therapy planning of malignancies and inflammatory diseases. Their work is associated with potential health hazards including injuries involving infectious human tissue, chemicals which are assumed to be carcinogenic or long periods of microscope and computer work. This study aimed to provide the first comprehensive assessment of the health situation of pathologists in Switzerland.

Board examination for anatomical pathology in Switzerland: two intense days to verify professional competence.

About 15 years ago, the Swiss Society of Pathology has developed and implemented a board examination in anatomical pathology. We describe herein the contents covered by this 2-day exam (autopsy pathology, cytology, histopathology, molecular pathology, and basic knowledge about mechanisms of disease) and its exact modalities, sketch a brief history of the exam, and finish with a concise discussion about the possible objectives and putative benefits weighed against the hardship that it imposes on the candidates.

p53 suppresses type II endometrial carcinomas in mice and governs endometrial tumour aggressiveness in humans.

Type II endometrial carcinomas are a highly aggressive group of tumour subtypes that are frequently associated with inactivation of the TP53 tumour suppressor gene. We show that mice with endometrium-specific deletion of Trp53 initially exhibited histological changes that are identical to known precursor lesions of type II endometrial carcinomas in humans and later developed carcinomas representing all type II subtypes. The mTORC1 signalling pathway was frequently activated in these precursor lesions and tumours, suggesting a genetic cooperation between this pathway and Trp53 deficiency in tumour initiation.

Expression of the G protein-coupled estrogen receptor (GPER) in endometriosis: a tissue microarray study.

Background: The G protein-coupled estrogen receptor (GPER) is thought to be involved in non-genomic estrogen responses as well as processes such as cell proliferation and migration. In this study, we analyzed GPER expression patterns from endometriosis samples and normal endometrial tissue samples and compared these expression profiles to those of the classical sex hormone receptors.

Methods: A tissue microarray, which included 74 samples from different types of endometriosis (27 ovarian, 19 peritoneal and 28 deep-infiltrating) and 30 samples from normal endometrial tissue, was used to compare the expression levels of the GPER, estrogen receptor (ER)-alpha, ER-beta and progesterone receptor (PR).

Skin lesions, malaise, and heart failure in a renal transplant recipient.

A male Caucasian patient developed nodular erythematous skin lesions, malaise, and clinical signs of progressive heart failure 4 months after renal transplantation. Bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage performed for a small infiltrate seen on a computed tomography scan revealed Trypanosoma, which had at this point not been suspected as a cause. Parasitemia was present, and reactivation rather than transmission of Chagas' disease was established by performing polymerase chain reaction and serology in the donor and recipient.

Loss of secreted frizzled-related protein 4 correlates with an aggressive phenotype and predicts poor outcome in ovarian cancer patients.

Background: Activation of the Wnt signaling pathway is implicated in aberrant cellular proliferation in various cancers. In 40% of endometrioid ovarian cancers, constitutive activation of the pathway is due to oncogenic mutations in β-catenin or other inactivating mutations in key negative regulators. Secreted frizzled-related protein 4 (SFRP4) has been proposed to have inhibitory activity through binding and sequestering Wnt ligands.

Loss of ARID1A/BAF250a-expression in endometriosis: a biomarker for risk of carcinogenic transformation?

Mutations of the tumor-suppressor gene ARID1A result in the loss of protein expression of the BRG-associated factor 250a (BAF250a), a large subunit of transcription-regulating Human SWI/SNF complexes, which have an important role in the control of cell proliferation and tumor suppression. ARID1A mutations are particularly frequent in endometriosis-associated ovarian clear cell and endometrioid carcinomas, and were recently described as a possible key mechanism and early step in the transformation of endometriosis into cancer. Here, we examined the immunohistochemical expression pattern of BAF250a in a tissue microarray including 74 endometriosis and 30 endometrium samples.

Astrovirus infection in hospitalized infants with severe combined immunodeficiency after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Infants with severe primary combined immunodeficiency (SCID) and children post-allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) are extremely susceptible to unusual infections. The lack of generic tools to detect disease-causing viruses among more than 200 potential human viral pathogens represents a major challenge to clinicians and virologists. We investigated retrospectively the causes of a fatal disseminated viral infection with meningoencephalitis in an infant with gamma C-SCID and of chronic gastroenteritis in 2 other infants admitted for HSCT during the same time period.

Expression pattern of class I histone deacetylases in vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia and vulvar cancer: a tissue microarray study.

Background: Epigenetic regulation is an important mechanism leading to cancer initiation and promotion. Histone acetylation by histone deacetylases (HDACs) represents an important part of it. The development of HDAC inhibitors has identified the utility of HDACs as a therapeutic target.

Comparison of printed glycan array, suspension array and ELISA in the detection of human anti-glycan antibodies.

Anti-glycan antibodies represent a vast and yet insufficiently investigated subpopulation of naturally occurring and adaptive antibodies in humans. Recently, a variety of glycan-based microarrays emerged, allowing high-throughput profiling of a large repertoire of antibodies. As there are no direct approaches for comparison and evaluation of multi-glycan assays we compared three glycan-based immunoassays, namely printed glycan array (PGA), fluorescent microsphere-based suspension array (SA) and ELISA for their efficacy and selectivity in profiling anti-glycan antibodies in a cohort of 48 patients with and without ovarian cancer.

Alpha-methylacyl-CoA racemase (AMACR) expression in epithelial ovarian cancer.

Alpha-methylacyl-CoA racemase (AMACR) is involved in the cellular metabolism of fatty acids. It is a prognostic factor in prostate and colorectal cancer. So far, little is known about its expression and prognostic role in ovarian cancer.