Liquid Biopsy: A Tool for the Diagnostic and Prognostic Evaluation of Cancers.

Liquid biopsy is defined as the process of obtaining material for pathologic examination and analysis from body fluids. Liquid biopsy has been intensively researched for its clinical application in patients with solid malignancies, including melanoma and colon, breast, and lung cancers. This will become a standard and routine tool for the diagnostic and prognostic evaluation of all cancer types.

Splenic non-Hodgkin's lymphoma presenting as recurrent kidney stones -- an "incidentaloma"?

Splenic lymphoma, or primary malignant lymphoma of the spleen (PMLS), is an uncommon condition whose true nature is difficult to define due to the variable ways it has been classified. Out of all non-Hodgkin's lymphomas it comprises less than 2% of cases. Some experts suggest that PMLS only involves the spleen and splenic hilum, while others consider PMLS to be an entity that develops within the spleen and later has the potential for invading adjacent organs and metastasizing.

[The effects of vitamin D2 on the lipid profile and on the platelet and cardiovascular activities in castrated or testosterone-treated male rats].

The changes in serum and hepatic lipid fractions (LT, Col, TG, beta-LP), aggregability indices (IAg), platelet adhesiveness (IA), atherogenicity (Ia) and microscopic aspect of aorta and myocardium in three groups of animals injected with vitamin D2: normal, orchiectomized and treated with testosterone, were followed up. In the normal animals the injection of vitamin D2 induced the increase of all lipid fractions, of IA, IAg, Ia and histologically microcalcifications at the coronaries level were present; in the orchiectomized animals the biochemical changes were less marked and histologically thickenings of aortic and coronary endothelium with areas of intestinal sclerosis in the myocardium were found. In the animals with hyperandrogenism, the administration of vitamin D2 induced the decrease of TG and increase of IAg and IA; histologically, aspects similar to those noticed after the administration of testosterone alone were present.

[The use of positron-emission tomography in psychiatry].

Positron-emission tomography (PET), a noninvasive analytical method, made possible the detection of regional alterations in the central nervous system, thus demonstrating "in vivo" the presence of biochemical alterations and the organization of cerebral function in the pathological states. The study of glucose cerebral metabolism velocity, performed recently with the aid of PET, reveals that in the patients with thymic disorders the values recorded for the bipolar syndromes differ from those recorded the for unipolar ones. At the same time, the direct measurement of the activity of the neuroanatomic structures involved in schizophrenia and their response to neuroleptics was possible.

[The psychoprophylactic importance of treatment with depot neuroleptics in schizophrenia].

The authors refer to the analysis of a sample of 104 schizophrenic inpatients treated with depot neuroleptics. The study relates to the duration of the illness, the number of admissions, social and professional integration and the patient's and family attitude to the long term treatment. The analysis and the interpretation of the data allow the estimation of the efficiency of the depot neuroleptics in outpatient schizophrenia reflected by social integration, the prophylaxis of recurrences and severe developments, the stabilization of symptoms and shortening of hospitalization span.

Irreversible bone loss in osteomalacia. Comparison of radial photon absorptiometry with iliac bone histomorphometry during treatment.

We examined the relationships between the changes in bone mineral deficit in the radius, determined by single-energy photon absorptiometry at standard proximal and distal sites, and in the ilium, determined by bone histomorphometry, during the treatment of osteomalacia of diverse etiology in 28 patients. In the ilium, relative osteoid volume decreased by 75-80% in both cortical bone (from 6.0% to 1.

The role of three-dimensional trabecular microstructure in the pathogenesis of vertebral compression fractures.

We compared indices of three-dimensional microstructure of iliac trabecular bone between 26 patients with vertebral compression fractures due to postmenopausal osteoporosis and 24 control subjects without vertebral fracture, who were matched for age, sex, race, menopausal status, and several densitometric and histologic indices of both cortical and trabecular bone mass. The patients with fracture had a significantly lower mean value (1.03 +/- 0.