Publications by authors named "Marijke R Van Dijk"

Article Synopsis
  • Juvenile xanthogranuloma (JXG) is a type of skin tumor mostly found in children, but some cases occur in other parts of the body, and their genetic causes are not fully understood.* -
  • A study analyzed 16 children and 5 adults with extracutaneous JXG using advanced sequencing, finding that numerous genetic alterations, especially related to kinase fusions, were present in most children.* -
  • The findings indicate that while surgery is common for treatment, some cases can regress on their own, and specific genetic alterations could help inform better treatment options in the future.*
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  • Identifying early-stage mycosis fungoides (MF), a type of skin cancer, is hard because it looks a lot like harmless skin conditions.
  • Researchers are using deep learning (DL), a type of computer technology, to help doctors tell the difference between MF and these benign conditions by looking at images from skin biopsies.
  • The study showed that this DL method can get pretty close to the accuracy of expert doctors, which is promising for improving cancer diagnoses in the future.
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  • The increased use of dupilumab for treating atopic dermatitis (AD) has led to reports of cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCL) and related lymphoid infiltrates in patients.
  • A study at the University Medical Center Utrecht analyzed adult patients with AD who were thought to have CTCL during dupilumab treatment, finding that some patients had symptoms resembling mycosis fungoides (MF), but with different histopathologic features.
  • The findings suggest that while dupilumab can induce a benign lymphoid reaction that mimics CTCL, these changes are reversible and exhibit distinct histological characteristics.*
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Primary cutaneous lymphomas (CLs) represent a heterogeneous group of T-cell lymphomas and B-cell lymphomas that present in the skin without evidence of extracutaneous involvement at time of diagnosis. CLs are largely distinct from their systemic counterparts in clinical presentation, histopathology, and biological behavior and, therefore, require different therapeutic management. Additional diagnostic burden is added by the fact that several benign inflammatory dermatoses mimic CL subtypes, requiring clinicopathological correlation for definitive diagnosis.

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Purpose: Various sustained-release formulations incorporate high bupivacaine concentrations but data on local toxicity is lacking. This study explores local toxic effects of highly concentrated (5%) bupivacaine compared to clinically used concentrations in vivo following skeletal surgery, to assess the safety of sustained-release formulations with high bupivacaine concentrations.

Methods: Sixteen rats underwent surgery, in which screws with catheters affixed were implanted in the spine or femur in a factorial experimental design, allowing single-shot or continuous 72 h local administration of 0.

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Sweet's syndrome (acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis) consists of acute onset of painful cutaneous erythematous lesions, mostly found in the upper extremities followed by the head and neck region, particularly in patients with underlying malignancies. We describe the case of a woman in her mid-30s, who was treated for acute myeloid leukaemia and presented with a severe painful and progressive erythematous lesion of the retroauricular skin. Clinical features, laboratory tests, blood cultures and histological biopsy yielded a diagnosis of Sweet's syndrome.

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Background: The pathogenesis of chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), including the mechanism of action of omalizumab, remain unclear. We hypothesized complement system involvement given the often fast clinical response induced by treatment, including omalizumab. Therefore, we assessed the role of various complement factors surrounding omalizumab treatment.

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Background: The aim of this study was to investigate which histopathologic findings are most indicative for necrotizing soft tissue infections (NSTIs) in ambivalent cases.

Methods: Patients undergoing surgical exploration for suspected NSTIs with obtainment of incisional biopsies for histopathological assessment were included from January 2013 until August 2019. The frozen sections and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples were retrospectively re-assessed.

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The 2020 COVID-19 crisis has had and will have many implications for healthcare, including pathology. Rising number of infections create staffing shortages and other hospital departments might require pathology employees to fill more urgent positions. Furthermore, lockdown measures and social distancing cause many people to work from home.

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Glioblastoma multiforme is the most frequent primary brain tumor. The clinical course of glioblastoma is almost invariably fatal. Combined chemo-irradiation with temozolomide is currently the standard of care for newly diagnosed glioblastoma and concurrent Nivolumab, an anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody is being studied for de novo glioblastoma.

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Humanized mouse models can well be modified to study specific aspects of Graft-versus-Host Disease (GvHD). This paper shows the results of both macrophage depletion and (early) B-cell depletion in a humanized mouse model using RAG2 c mice injected with HuPBMCs. Macrophage depletion showed a significant decrease in survival and also lead to a change in the histomorphology of the xenogeneic reaction.

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Background: The standardized approach with triple diagnostics (surgical exploration with visual inspection, microbiological and histological examination) has been proposed as the golden standard for early diagnosis of severe necrotizing soft tissue disease (SNSTD, or necrotizing fasciitis) in ambivalent cases. This study's primary aim was to evaluate the protocolized approach after implementation for diagnosing (early) SNSTD and relate this to clinical outcome.

Methods: A cohort study analyzing a 5-year period was performed.

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Molecular pathology is becoming an increasingly important discipline in oncology as molecular tumor characteristics will increasingly determine targeted clinical cancer care. In recent years, many technological advances have taken place that contributed to the development of molecular pathology. However, attention to ethical aspects has been lagging behind as illustrated by the lack of publications or professional guidelines.

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Background: Polyalkylimide hydrogel is supposed to be a permanent, biocompatible implant. However, years after subcutaneous implantation clinical complications are seen.

Objective: To increase the understanding of the changes that occur over time in this subdermal implanted filler.

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Background: Necrotizing fasciitis is an uncommon, rapidly progressive and potential lethal condition. Over the last decade time to surgery decreased and outcome improved, most likely due to increased awareness and more timely referral. Early recognition is key to improve mortality and morbidity.

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Purpose: We investigated inflammatory cell infiltrates in iris biopsies in uveitis associated with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) in comparison with other pediatric uveitis entities and noninflammatory pediatric controls.

Methods: Iridectomy specimens were obtained during elective trabeculectomy from 31 eyes of 25 patients: 12 eyes with JIA-associated uveitis, 13 eyes with other uveitis entities, and 6 eyes with open angle nonuveitic juvenile glaucoma. Histopathologic and immunohistochemical analyses were performed.

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Risk factors for graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) following allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HCST) include: HLA mismatches, sex-mismatch, and stem-cell source. We retrospectively analyzed if HLA- and sex-mismatching quantitatively affects the composition of GVHD-induced T-cell infiltrates. We quantified absolute numbers of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells present in tissue sections from skin biopsies of 23 pediatric HSCT-recipients with GVHD.

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Article Synopsis
  • GVHD is a common and challenging complication in stem cell transplants, often studied using mouse models to better understand its complex mechanisms and treatments.
  • This study details the histological features of GVHD-related fibrosis in specific mice models after human cell injection, highlighting unique tissue infiltration and fibrosis near blood vessels.
  • The research combines immunohistochemistry and mRNA analysis to show how both donor and host cytokines interact, contributing to fibrosis development in the affected organs.
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Background: During the last decade, whole slide images (WSI) have been used in many areas of pathology such as teaching, research, digital archiving, teleconsultation and quality assurance testing. However, WSI have not regularly been used for routine diagnosis, because of the lack of validation studies.

Aim: To test the validity of using WSI for primary diagnosis of skin diseases.

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Aims:  Most melanoma patients with a positive sentinel node (SN) undergo completion lymph node dissection and frequently experience associated morbidity. However, only 10-30% of SN-positive patients have further lymph node metastases. The aim of the present study was to predict the absence of non-SN metastases in a multicentre study of patients with a positive SN based on primary melanoma features and SN tumour load.

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Pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) is a systemic disorder affecting elastic tissues most markedly in skin, retina, and blood vessels. It is caused by mutations in the ABCC6 gene and is transmitted in an autosomal recessive fashion. In 1994 a new classification system for PXE was published as the result of a consensus conference.

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