Kimura Disease: Rare Parotid Entity.

Kimura disease is a rare chronic inflammatory disorder of unknown cause, primarily seen in young Asian males. The disease is characterized by painless subcutaneous swelling, blood and tissue eosinophilia and raised IgE levels. Early diagnosis of Kimura's disease may spare the patient from unnecessary invasive diagnostic procedure.

Efficacy of ready-to-use therapeutic food in malnourished children with cancer: Results of a randomized, open-label phase 3 trial.

Background: The adverse influence of undernutrition in children with cancer may be remediated by early nutritional intervention. This study assessed the efficacy of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) in improving nutritional status and reducing treatment-related toxicities (TRTs) in such children.

Methods: In a randomized controlled phase-3 open-label trial, severely and moderately undernourished children with cancer were randomized 1:1 to receive standard nutritional therapy (SNT) or SNT+RUTF for 6 weeks.

Migrated esophageal stent posing a challenge for ventilation.

Self-expandable esophageal stents are being commonly used for palliative treatment in advanced esophageal cancer patients to relieve dysphagia, prevent tracheoesophageal fistula, and facilitate symptomatic betterment. The modern covered stents reduce the ingrowth of the tumor but have seen an increase in the incidence of stent migrations. We report a rather complicated presentation of an esophageal stent for esophageal dilatation and a challenging management of a difficult tracheostomy.

Use of Pedicled Buccal Fat Pad for Cranial Base Reconstruction.

Craniofacial reconstruction for closure of skull base defects after removal of anterior cranial base lesions is challenging. Persistent skull base defect produces extremely high risk of cerebrospinal fluid leaks and consecutive infectious complications. The authors' article focuses on the use of pedicled buccal fat pad for the reconstruction of anterior cranial base defects using combined endoscope-assisted approach and Lefort I access osteotomy.

A Comparative Study of Bone Scan Findings and Serum Levels of Tumor Marker CA15-3 in Patients with Breast Carcinoma.

Breast cancer is one of the most frequent malignancies in the world. Available staging procedures to detect breast cancer are bone scan, chest X-ray, liver ultrasonography, computerized tomography, estimation of tumor markers like carbohydrate antigen (CA15-3) and carcino embryonic antigen. These procedures are expensive and may not be required in all cases.

Biochemical parameters in neuroblastoma.

Apart from the biochemical parameters routinely used like Vanillyl Mandellic Acid for the patients with neuroblastoma the parameters like neuron specific enolase, ferritin, lactate dehydrogenase, gamma glutamyl transferase were also studied to assess the utility in diagnosing the patients with neuroblastoma. The study involved 40 healthy ambulatory subjects and 30 untreated cases of histologically proved neuroblastoma referred to the Tata Memorial Hospital for further management and treatment. The urinary Vanillyl Mandellic Acid levels and the serum levels of neuron specific enolase, ferritin, lactate dehydrogenase had increased significantly, p<0.

Lipid profile in leukemia and Hodgkin's disease.

A number of epidemiologic studies has been published in recent years showing an increase risk of death from cancer in subjects with low plasma cholesterol levels. Although several authors proposed that hypocholesterolemia is predisposing factor for cancer development, no causative relation has been established so far and that it may be that low plasma cholesterol is secondary to malignant disease. Hence, the present study was undertaken to examine the lipid profile in children patients with leukemia and Hodgkin's disease in comparison with age matched controls.

Place of salivary β glucuronidase activity in head & neck cancers.

Salivary β-glucuronidase activity was studied in 20 healthy subjects without habits and 10 with habits, 38 untreated patients of advanced head and neck cancer and 21 patients after treatment either after surgery or radiation.Salivary β-glucuronidase activity was elevated in untreated cases of head and neck cancer (p<0.001), with a fall in the activity after treatment.

Significance of tumor markers in lung cancer.

The objective was to test the utility of the cytokeratins CYFRA 21-1, tissue polypeptide specific antigen (TPS), Neuron specific enolase (NSE) and Carcino Embryonic antigen (CEA) in patients with lung cancer and in the pleural fluid of the patients with lung cancer and also the predicting ability of these tumor markers with respect to the histological types [including non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC)] and pathological stages. 40 normal subjects and 222 cases of histological proven lung cancer were studied. The findings suggest that TPS and CYFRA 21-1, are useful serum markers for the diagnosis of NSCLC and NSE seems to be useful tumor marker for monitoring course of patients especially SCLC.

Leucine amino peptidase a better indicator of disseminated malignant disease.

Leucine amino peptidase (LAP) activity was studied in serum and urine samples of 25 healthy ambulant subjects, 20 patients with localised and 41 patients with malignant disseminated disease. Serum levels of the enzyme were elevated but not significantly in both localised and disseminated disease whereas the urinary activity of the enzyme was markedly elevated in disseminated disease (p<0.001) as compared to localised disease.

Leucine amino peptidase a better indicator of carcinoma of liver, biliary tract and pancreas.

Serum levels of leucine amino peptidase (LAP) was studied along with bilirubin, aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and the ratio of AST/ALT and GGT/AST in 25 healthy subjects and 52 patients with hepatobiliary malignancies of which 12 were with hepatocellular carcinoma, 12 with liver metastasis, 6 with obstructive jaundice, 9 with carcinoma of gall bladder, 6 with carcinoma of pancreas and 7 with periampullary carcinoma. 24 Of the 52 patients studied had jaundice and 28 were without jaundice.LAP as compared to the other enzymes AST, ALT, GGT, ALP and AST/ALT ratio and GGT/AST ratio showed 100% elevation in obstructive jaundice, carcinoma of gall bladder and pancreas and periampullary carcinoma, 91.