Axilla Management in Breast Cancer Surgery: Brief Review and Current Practice Recommendations.

The diagnostic and therapeutic approach to the axilla in breast cancer patients has changed significantly over the past 30 years, with the replacement of complete axillary lymph node dissection practices by less invasive approaches. Reference is made to clinical findings that have led to practical treatment recommendations and are paving the way to new levels of de-escalation in breast cancer surgery.

Vulnerability of β-Thalassemia Heterozygotes to COVID-19: Results from a Cohort Study.

Background: The assignment of mortality risk from SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19) to vulnerable patient groups is an important step toward containment of the pandemic. Methods: A total of 760 patients with a positive molecular test for SARS-CoV-2 who were unvaccinated against COVID-19 were recruited between 1 January and 30 June 2021. Patients were grouped by age; sex; and common morbidities, such as atrial fibrillation, chronic respiratory disease, coronary disease, diabetes type II, neoplasia, hypertension and β-Thalassemia heterozygosity.

Susceptibility of β-Thalassemia Heterozygotes to COVID-19.

Background: β-Thalassemia is the most prevalent single gene blood disorder, while the assessment of its susceptibility to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) warrants it a pressing biomedical priority.

Methods: We studied 255 positive COVID-19 participants unvaccinated against severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), consecutively recruited during the last trimester of 2020. Patient characteristics including age, sex, current smoking status, atrial fibrillation, chronic respiratory disease, coronary disease, diabetes, neoplasia, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and β-thalassemia heterozygosity were assessed for COVID-19 severity, length of hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission and mortality from COVID-19.

Association of maternal Toll-like receptor-4 alleles with susceptibility to early-onset preeclampsia in central Greece.

Introduction: Altered maternal inflammatory responses may play a role in the development of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy like preeclampsia, its more severe early-onset form and intrauterine growth restriction. We evaluated the relation of common allelic variants of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), known to impair the inflammatory response, with the susceptibility to early-onset preeclampsia in Central Greece.

Methods: We compared the occurrence of TLR4 (Asp299Gly and Thr399Ile) alleles in heterozygous (A/G, C/T) and homozygous (G/G, T/T) states in 84 women with a history of early-onset preeclampsia and 94 age matched controls with a history of only uneventful pregnancies, by direct sequencing.

Readressing the role of Toll-like receptor-4 alleles in inflammatory bowel disease: colitis, smoking, and seroreactivity.

Background: Toll-like receptor (TLR) polymorphisms, and especially TLR-4 Asp299Gly and TLR-4 Thr399Ile, have been linked with Crohn's disease (CD) and to a lesser extent with ulcerative colitis (UC), CD behavior, and compromised seroreactivity to microbial antigens. Available data, however, are conflicting.

Aims: To address these issues, the distribution of TLR-4 polymorphic alleles was assessed in patients with UC, CD, and healthy controls (HC), considering patient and disease characteristics as well as related serological markers.

On the management of hyperglycaemia in critically ill patients undergoing surgery.

Hyperglycaemia is a major health risk and a negative determinant of surgical outcome. Despite its increasing prevalence, the limited treatments for restoration of normoglycaemia make its effective management a highly complex individualized clinical art. In this context, we review the mechanisms leading to hyperglycaemic damage as the basis for effective management of surgical complications of diabetic and non diabetic critically ill patients.

Practical approaches to effective management of intestinal radiation injury: benefit of resectional surgery.

Aim: To study the outcome of patients undergoing surgical resection of the bowel for sustained radiation-induced damage intractable to conservative management.

Methods: During a 7-year period we operated on 17 cases (5 male, 12 female) admitted to our surgical department with intestinal radiation injury (IRI). They were originally treated for a pelvic malignancy by surgical resection followed by postoperative radiotherapy.

TLR4 gene polymorphisms: evidence for protection against type 2 diabetes but not for diabetes-associated ischaemic heart disease.

Objective: Several factors either predisposing or protecting from the onset of diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2) have been proposed. Two specific polymorphisms of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4; Asp299Gly and Thr399Ile) have recently been identified either as candidate protector genes against DM2 and associated neuropathy or risk alleles for the manifestation of diabetic retinopathy. The impact of these alleles on the risk for ischaemic heart disease (IHD) is controversial while their role in diabetes-associated IHD has never been studied.

Expression of 6 common antigenic markers in invasive ductal breast carcinoma: potential clinical implications.

Expression of estrogen (ER) and progesterone receptors, c-erbB-2 oncogene, mutant p53 antioncogene (mp53), e-cadherin adhesion, and apoptotic caspase-8 antigens in tumor relative to matched normal tissue specimens from 102 unselected patients with primary ductal breast carcinoma of various tumor grades was assessed by immunohistochemistry and correlated with patient's biologic and clinical features, such as age, menstrual status, age of menarche, tumor grade and diameter, the presence or absence of metastases, and number of infiltrated lymph nodes. We observed association of e-cadherin adhesion, ER and progesterone antigen marker expression with low histologic grade tumors and limited number of lymph node metastases and of c-erbB-2, mp53, and casp-8 antigen marker expression with high histologic grade tumors and increased number of lymph node metastases. We also observed strong correlation (P<0.

Immunophenotypic evaluation of DNA mismatch repair markers in 2 cases of synchronous histomorphologically distinct gastric adenocarcinomas with gastrointestinal stromal tumors of the proximal small bowel.

Objectives: To assess the prognostic value of combined mismatch DNA repair (MMR) phenotyping in 2 synchronous histomorphologically distinct gastric adenocarcinomas (GADCs), each accompanied by gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) of the proximal small bowel.

Summary Background Data: A 72-year-old female and a 55-year-old male patient were submitted to partial and total gastrectomy, respectively, with synchronous resection of a GIST in the proximal small bowel. The 2 patients attained contrasting survival outcomes.

Sequence-based genotyping HPV L1 DNA and RNA transcripts in clinical specimens.

We developed a direct sequence-based genotyping method to detect single and multiple HPV L1 DNA and RNA types in genital and dermatological specimens. Our method couples PCR amplification of a highly conserved HPV L1 segment using a broad spectrum-generic primer cocktail mix with automated sequencing of amplified PCR products, followed by GenBank sorting of sequencing data. We genotyped 5 skin and 30 cervical HPV DNA-positive specimens using this method and established its first experimentally derived working cutoff value with the aid of commercial hybridization-based techniques.

Surgical complications of hyperglycaemia.

We review the mechanisms leading to hyperglycaemic damage and draw functional extrapolations aiming to an improved management of surgical complications, which are common among diabetic patients.

Low-Grade Appendiceal Mucinous Neoplasm Presenting as a Surgical Emergency: A Case Report.

We present the case of a female patient admitted to our University Hospital with acute abdominal pain mimicking an intraperitoneal septic condition caused possibly by acute appendicitis. CT and ultrasound scan showed a mass situated in the right iliac fossa. The patient was submitted to laparotomy and right hemicolectomy.

Phenotypic mismatch repair hMSH2 and hMLH1 gene expression profiles in primary non-small cell lung carcinomas.

Background: Defects in the human DNA mismatch repair genes (MMR) hMSH2 and hMLH1 are responsible for the development of sporadic and hereditary colorectal cancers. The role of MMR genes in the pathogenesis of lung cancer has not been elucidated. The aim of this study was to address the phenotypic mRNA expression profiles of mismatch DNA repair system in lung cancer.