Squamous cells in fine-needle aspiration biopsies of salivary gland lesions: potential pitfalls in cytologic diagnosis

A spectrum of neoplastic and non-neoplastic lesions of the salivary glands may contain squamous cells. These include chronic sialadenitis, lymphoepithelial cyst, pleomorphic adenoma, Warthin's tumor, mucoepidermoid carcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma. The squamous cells may be a defining feature of the lesion, or an occasional and thus unexpected finding, with a consequent potential for misdiagnosis. Clinical management of these lesions differs significantly, and careful evaluation of the squamous elements, along with attention to other cellular and background components, facilitates accurate diagnosis.     

Enhancing assignment perceptions in students with mathematics learning disabilities by including more work: An extension of interspersal research.

Active student responding is often required to remedy computation skill deficits in students with learning disabilities. However, these students may find computation assignments unrewarding and frustrating, and be less likely to choose to engage in assigned computation tasks. In the current study, middle school students with learning disabilities worked on control assignments containing 15 four-digit minus four-digit target computation problems and interspersal assignments containing 15 similar problems and five additional one-digit minus one-digit problems. Results showed that interspersing the brief problems did not reduce target problem accuracy levels or opportunities to respond to target problems. Students did complete more total problems (i.e., target and single-digit problems) on the interspersal assignment. Even though the interspersal assignment contained more work, significantly more students rated it as requiring less effort to complete and selected it for homework. Discussion focuses on applied implications, causal mechanisms, and future research related to the interspersal procedure and the discrete task completion hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vena caval resection for bulky metastatic germ cell tumors: an 18-year experience

PURPOSE: The operative management and followup of vena caval resection for bulky metastatic germ cell tumors have been previously described in 3 series. In 1989 Ahlering and Skinner described their experience with 12 patients. We now update this experience with the most recent followup on 19 patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From April 1978 to May 1995, 19 men underwent retroperitoneal lymph node dissection for stage B3 (N3) or C (N3, M+) germ cell tumor after induction chemotherapy. In all cases the inferior vena cava was resected because of extensive thrombosis or direct involvement of the vessel wall by a tumor. The inferior vena cava was resected from just below the renal veins to beyond the level of disease involvement. Complete resection of retroperitoneal disease was accomplished in all patients. Morbidity and mortality were examined. RESULTS: The mean hospital stay was 10 days (range 7 to 13) for uncomplicated recoveries (9 patients) versus 19 days (range 6 to 32) for complicated recoveries (10 patients). Followup ranged from 1 month to 16 years. Complications included prolonged ileus, small bowel obstruction, fascial dehiscence and pneumonia with pleural effusion. Chronic edema persisted in 3 of 11 patients with followup of greater than 6 months. Of the 6 patients who died of disease recurrence 4 did not have normalization of tumor markers before surgery, and all 4 had persistence of cancer in the resected specimen. Seven patients are without disease at followup of 24 months to 16 years. All survivors had normalized tumor markers before surgery. Only 1 patient (5%) had retroperitoneal recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: En bloc vena caval resection for tumor involvement or extensive thrombosis can be associated with short and long-term morbidity, is feasible, and may contribute to a prolonged tumor-free interval and a chance for cure.     

Endoscopic resection of the intranasal frontal sinus floor

The current accepted treatment for chronic frontal sinus disease unresponsive to medical management and endoscopic surgery is an external approach to either obliterate the sinus or restore communication to the nasal cavity. Here reported is an endoscopic approach for resection of the intranasal frontal sinus floor, a modification of a procedure first described by Lothrop in 1899. Eleven patients underwent this operation from April 1993 to December 1993. One complication, a cerebrospinal fluid leak treated successfully endoscopically, has occurred. Of the 7 patients followed up 3 months or longer after surgery, only 1 has developed symptoms of recurrent frontal sinusitis. On the basis of this limited preliminary experience, the endoscopic Lothrop procedure shows promise as an effective operation designed to establish a physiologic communication between the frontal sinus and the nasal cavity in selected patients who would otherwise be candidates for an external approach.     

Microorganisms and psoriasis

Spatial summation is known to influence the magnitude of sensation for stationary cutaneous stimuli. Yet analysis of moving stimuli may also be pertinent, since most stimuli that attract our attention involve movements over the skin surface. The present investigation dealt with the importance of spatial summation for the appreciation of the direction of motion for moving stimuli. The ability to detect the direction of motion was tested on the radial surface of the forearm with the two-alternative forced-choice method. Stimulation was performed with a rolling wheel, in order to exclude friction-generated activation of stretch receptors. Each subject was tested with two wheels with the same radius but different widths, 1 mm and 15 mm. On average, the subjects performed better with the wide wheel than with the narrow one for stimulation distances > or = 16 mm. This value also probably exceeds the threshold distance for directional discrimination for the narrow wheel, which indicates that spatial summation improves suprathreshold performance.     

CT image correction for beam hardening using simulated projectiondata

A general beam-hardening correction technique is presented. Knowledge of the CT (computerized tomography) scanner X-ray spectrum is necessary. This postreconstruction method does not require the original projection data. Simulated projections through an uncorrected reconstructed image are used to correct for beam hardening. Errors in the mean linear attenuation coefficient are decreased from 30% to 5% with virtual elimination of the visual streaking artifact. The theoretical image improvement equals that of projection linearization postreconstruction methods using the original projection data. The correction is limited to cases where the material causing the beam hardening is contained within the reconstruction space     

Epidemiology of neuromuscular diseases, including the postpolio sequelae, in a Swedish county

The epidemiology of neuromuscular diseases was studied in the county of Orebro, Sweden (study population 270,000). Several different sources of data were utilized, compared and validated. On the prevalence of day (January 1, 1988) 474 patients were identified. The rate per 100,000 population was 92 for the postpolio sequelae (PPS) and 84 for the other neuromuscular diseases (motor neuron disease 9, hereditary neuropathies 9, myoneural disorders 16, myotonic disorders 19, muscular dystrophies 20 and myositis 11). Of the patients with the PPS, 80% reported late-onset symptoms. On the basis of an expanded survey including all medical records in one health care district, the prevalence of the PPS was estimated to be 186/100,000 population.     

Population inversion and gain measurements for soft X-ray laser development in a magnetically confined plasma column

We present population inversion and gain measurements from an experimental investigation of possibilities to obtain high gain and lasing action in the soft X-ray region. Our approach to soft X-ray laser development is based on rapid plasma cooling after the laser pulse by radiation losses, leading to fast recombination and collisional cascade into upper excited levels of CVI, for example, while the lower excited levels depopulate rapidly by radiative transitions, thus creating population inversions and gain. A ≈ 0.5 kJ CO2laser was focused onto a target of solid carbon or teflon; or CO2, O2, Ne gas, and the resulting plasma confined in a 50-90 kG magnetic field. Spectroscopic diagnostics with absolute intensity calibration were used to measure level populations. Population inversions were observed between the4dand3dlevels in the lithium sequence ions: CIV, OVI, FVII, and NeVIII, and a gain of 0.1 (10 percent) was estimated for the OVI4f-3dtransition at 520 Å. In experiments with a solid carbon target, we observe relatively high CVI 182 Å emission in the axial direction compared to the transverse direction, which, if due to stimulated emission, would correspond to a gain of 4. Extension of these results to potential lasing transitions below 100 Å will be discussed.