Gastric Schwannoma: A Rare Cause of Gastric Bleeding.

Gastric schwannomas and gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are two types of mesenchymal tumors, which represent a group of rare tumors of the gastrointestinal tract. The differential diagnosis between these two tumors is difficult given their very similar appearance and clinical features. The authors present a case of a 63-year-old man with melena and epigastric pain.

Hemoperitoneum secondary to mesenteric laceration after abdominal trauma - Case report.

Mesenteric laceration is an uncommon cause of hemoperitoneum, with nonspecific signs and symptoms and frequently is camouflaged by the signs of other traumatic lesions. There is a high risk to go unnoticed increasing morbidity and mortality. We report a case of a 43-year-old man, who was involved in a motorcycle accident, with thoraco-abdomino-pelvic trauma, but without evidence of intra-abdominal lesions on exams, with exception of hemoperitoneum.

Accuracy of Corneal Thickness by Swept-Source Optical Coherence Tomography and Scheimpflug Camera in Virgin and Treated Fuchs Endothelial Dystrophy.

Purpose: To assess intraobserver repeatability, intersession reproducibility, and agreement of swept-source Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) and the Scheimpflug camera in measuring corneal thickness in virgin and grafted eyes with Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD).

Methods: Thirty-six control eyes, 35 FECD eyes, 30 FECD with corneal edema eyes, 25 Descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK) eyes, and 29 Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK) eyes were included. The apical center, pupillary center, and thinnest corneal thickness were determined in 3 consecutive images and repeated 2 weeks later.

Trichobezoar - A Rare Cause of Abdominal Mass and Gastric Outlet Obstruction.

The authors present the clinical case of a 14-year old girl with weight loss, anorexia, epigastric abdominal pain and postprandial vomiting with 5 months duration. There was a background of trichophagia for 2 years without evidence of alopecia or psychiatric history. The physical examination revealed an epigastric mass motionless, stony, with poorly defined limits, painful on palpation and about 7 cm diameter.

Diffuse vascular hamartoma with malignant behavior.

Pulmonary hamartomas are benign lesions, usually asymptomatic and incidentally discovered on a routine chest radiograph; occasionally, however, this benign lesion may cause life threatening symptoms due to it's location and diffuse vascular involvement. We report the case of a 27 year-old male, non-smoker, who presented with dyspnea, cough, hemoptysis and weight loss. He was found to have a mass in the right hilar region which also involved the right main bronchus, pulmonary artery and esophagus.

Increased lung inflammation with oxygen supplementation in tracheotomized spontaneously breathing rabbits: an experimental prospective randomized study.

Background: Mechanical ventilation is a well-known trigger for lung inflammation. Research focuses on tidal volume reduction to prevent ventilator-induced lung injury. Mechanical ventilation is usually applied with higher than physiological oxygen fractions.

Circumscribed morphea and breast asymmetry in an adolescent.

Morphea is a rare fibrosing disorder of the skin and underlying tissues. Circumscribed morphea presents with less than three discrete indurated plaques and breasts are commonly affected in women. We report the case of a 12-year-old female with a right infra-areolar, nontender, brownish patch and asymmetry of the right breast with 2 years of evolution.

[Whipple's Disease: retrospective analysis of twelve cases and review of the literature].

Background: Whipple's disease is a rare and chronic bacterial disease with multiorganic involvement. Although there is no valid estimate of its actual prevalence, only about 1,000 cases have been reported.

Objective: To describe the demographic, clinical, laboratory, endoscopic and pathologic features, type of treatment used, its duration and response.

[Conscientious objection in the clinical setting. A proposal for its appropriate use (II)].

Social changes and new technologies have brought new problems in doctor-patient relationship. In many clinical contexts conscientious objection is misused, with negative effects for patients, healthcare professionals and institutions. In this article an attempt will be made to clarify the problem from a clinical point of view, assessing the increase in risks in clinical praxis due to patient choice, the complexity of current clinical praxis, and the appropriate use of life support measures.

[Conscientious objection in the clinical setting. A proposal for its appropriate use].

Social changes and new technologies have brought new problems in doctor-patient relationships. In many clinical contexts conscientious objection is misused, with negative effects for patients, healthcare professionals and institutions. The paper aims to clarify what conscientious objection means in a plural society based on a deliberative democracy and to show the different ways of understanding this society in order to respect both the ethical reasons of individuals and the compulsory normative framework of the Rule of Law.

Development of an analytical methodology for simultaneous determination of vincristine and doxorubicin in pharmaceutical preparations for oncology by HPLC-UV.

A high-performance liquid chromatography-UV methodology (lambda=230 nm) was developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of vincristine and doxorubicin in pharmaceutical preparations used in oncology. The chromatography was carried out on a C18 column using acetonitrile 90% in water-potassium hydrogenphosphate buffer 50 mM, pH 3.2+/-0.

(1)H NMR based metabonomics of human amniotic fluid for the metabolic characterization of fetus malformations.

An NMR-metabonomic study of malformed fetuses was carried out through human amniotic fluid (HAF) analysis. Over 70 compounds were detected in control HAF by NMR. Possible confounding variables (fetus gender and gestational and maternal ages) were shown not to induce detectable compositional trends in the control group considered.

[Not Available].

The debate about the "right to die with dignity" will only be productive if the words used are constructed properly. "Euthanasia" is probably the word that most needs further clarification. This word is frequently abused and still remains unclear.

Tetra-amelia and lung hypo/aplasia syndrome: new case report and review.

Tetra-amelia is a rare malformation that may be associated with other anomalies and is usually inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern. We describe a fetus, born to a nonconsanguineous couple, with tetra-amelia, bilateral cleft lip and palate and bilateral lung agenesis, without other anomalies. Karyotype was normal (46,XX) and premature centromere separation was excluded.

Chromoblastomycosis associated with Fonsecaea pedrosoi in a carpenter handling exotic woods.

Chromoblastomycosis is a rare, hard to diagnose disease that arises mostly in the tropics, especially in humid areas, affecting mainly males and rural workers. It is characterized by verrucous plaques or nodules that are slow growing and attributed to infection by different pigmented (dematiaceous) fungi. Usually the infection develops after injury, being primarily located on the lower extremities.

Metabolite profiling of human amniotic fluid by hyphenated nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

The metabolic profiling of human amniotic fluid (HAF) is of potential interest for the diagnosis of disorders in the mother or the fetus. In order to build a comprehensive metabolite database for HAF, hyphenated NMR has been used, for the first time, for systematic HAF profiling. Experiments were carried out using reverse-phase (RP) and ion-exchange liquid chromatography (LC), in order to detect less and more polar compounds, respectively.

[Review of breast pathology: diagnosed by fine needle aspiration and correlation between cytological and histological findings].

The 980 exams concerning breast pathology performed in an 18-month period, including 626 fine needle aspiration biopsies, were reviewed. A diagnosis was made in 78.2% of fine needle aspiration biopsies, and in the remaining 21.

Potential of NMR spectroscopy for the study of human amniotic fluid.

1D and 2D 800 MHz high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of human amniotic fluid (HAF) enabled the identification of approximately 50 metabolites. In addition, liquid chromatography-NMR and diffusion ordered spectroscopy (DOSY) allowed signal overlap to be reduced and the characterization of higher molecular weight (Mw) components, respectively. Indeed, the DOSY spectrum of a Mw >10 kDa HAF fraction enabled three protein families, differing in average Mw, to be detected and may therefore be of potential value in the study of disorder-related variations in HAF protein profiles.

Three unusual but cytogenetically similar cases with up to five different cell lines involving structural and numerical abnormalities of chromosome 18.

We report two prenatal and two postnatal diagnosed cases (the latter monozygotic twins) with ring chromosomes after GTG banding. All four, de novo r(18), cases turned out to be more complex after application of high-resolution molecular cytogenetics techniques such as use of fluorescence in situ hybridization, centromeric probes, multicolor banding, and locus-specific probes for chromosome 18. All four cases are mosaics involving chromosome 18 in up to five different cell lines, including 46,r(18); 46,dr(18); 47,r(18)x2; 46,mar(18); and 45,-18.

Prenatal determination of the fetal RhD blood group by multiplex PCR: a 7-year Portuguese experience.

Objectives: This is a retrospective study to evaluate the efficacy and accuracy of the multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification, for early detection of fetuses at risk for hemolytic disease, in the population living in Portugal, and to characterize the RhD-negative individuals at serologic and molecular level.

Methods: 2030 uncultured amniotic fluid samples and 2012 blood samples from the respective RhD-negative pregnant women were studied by multiplex PCR of intron 3/intron 4, exon 7 and 3'UTR. Amniocentesis was performed for a variety of medical indications.