Study of role of computerized tomography (CT) in evaluation of groove pancreatitis

Background: Groove pancreatitis is a rare form of chronic pancreatitis affecting the groove between the pancreatic head, duodenum and common bile duct. The exact cause of the disease is not known, although there are strong associations with long term alcohol abuse, functional obstruction of duct of Santorini and brunner gland hyperplasia. The purpose of this study was to describe the imaging findings of groove pancreatitis (GP) on Contrast enhanced CT Abdomen. Material and Methods: Present study was retrospective study conducted, with help of medical records of 16 patients with a final diagnosis of Groove pancreatitis. CT, MRI and MRCP findings were analysed. Statistical analysis was done using descriptive statistics. Results: In present study, two types of groove pancreatitis (GP) as pure type (50%) and segmental type (50%) were noted. Other important findings were focal duodenal wall thickening (62.5%) and cysts in the duodenal wall itself or in groove between the pancreatic head and the duodenum (37.5%), CBD dilatation and distal smooth tapering (62.5%) including all the segmental types and 2 of the pure type leading to intra- and extra-hepatic biliary system dilatation. MRI and MRCP were available in 6 patients in our study. There was a CT similarity regarding the sheet of tissues within the pancreaticoduodenal groove. These were seen expressing T1 hypo-intense and T2 slightly hyperintense signal in 3 patients with depiction of mild enhancement in the delayed phases in three of them (50%). On the MDCT examinations hypodense sheet at the PD groove was seen in 12 patients with modest enhancement identified in delayed phase seen in 6 of the them. Duodenal wall thickening was seen in 10 patients while associated cysts within the duodenal wall or in PD groove were seen in 6 patients. Pancreatic head enlargement with diffuse enhancement was seen in 8 patients. Mild pancreatic duct dilatation was seen in 8 patients while dilatation of the CBD was seen in 10 patients with distal tapering and intra-hepatic biliary dilatation. Conclusion: Groove pancreatitis (GP) is a disease that should be considered in the list of differential diagnosis of masses implicating the pancreatic head and medial duodenal wall. Imaging findings that are suggestive of GP include chronic inflammatory changes with fibrosis in the PD groove with or without implication of the nearby head of the pancreas, duodenal medial mural thickening with luminal stenosis and cysts at the PD groove or within the duodenal wall.

Centrilobular zonal necrosis is a unique subtype of autoimmune hepatitis A cohort study

BACKGROUND Centrilobular zonal necrosis (CZN) is advocated as a histological hallmark present in a small number of patients with autoimmune hepatitis (CZN-AIH). Moreover, CZN has been detected in the absence of significant interface hepatitis, one of the most important histological findings of AIH. The concept of CZN-AIH as a distinctive subtype of AIH remains controversial, due to the rarity of CZN-AIH and the ambiguous definition of CZN. To elucidate the clinicopathological and immunogenetic features of CZN-AIH, and to evaluate the significance of co-existent interface hepatitis in CZN-AIH. METHODS A total of 102 biopsy samples of AIH, obtained at The Jikei University Katsushika Medical Center and Jikei University Hospital, were reviewed. The 32 patients whose biopsies showed CZN were selected as the CZN-AIH group and the remaining 70 were grouped as the non-CZN-AIH controls. In the CZN-AIH group, interface hepatitis was histologically present in 37.5% (n=12; mixed-type) and absent in 62.5% (n=20; pure-type). Data on clinical, histopathologic and immunogenetic features were statistically compared between the CZN-AIH group and the non-CZH-AIH controls. Additionally, significance of interface hepatitis in CZN-AIH was determined by comparative analysis of the mixed-type and pure-type subgroups. RESULTS Cases of CZN-AIH were more frequently of acute-onset hepatitis (56.2% vs chronic: 32.9%, P=0.031), lower immunoglobulin G level (P<0.001), lower antinuclear antibodies titer (P<0.001), and lower AIH score (P<0.001). Compared to the non-CZN-AIH cases, the CZN-AIH cases also tended to lack the typical histological characteristics of AIH and of the immunogenetic disproportionate distribution of HLA-DR genotypes in AIH (increased HLA-DR4 and decreased HLA-DR9), and responded more favorably to first-line therapy (P=0.054). For the acute-onset CZN-AIH cases, the clinical and histological features were indistinguishable from the non-acute cases. In contrast, the acute-onset non-CZN-AIH cases were distinguishable from the non-acute cases by lower antinuclear antibodies titer, lower immunoglobulin G level, and less advanced histological stage. The presence of interface hepatitis generally did not influence the morbidity of CZN-AIH, except for comorbid autoimmune diseases, higher gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase level, and increased immunoglobulin M level. CONCLUSION CZN-AIH is clinicopathologically and immunogenetically distinguishable. CZN can characterize a distinct AIH subtype, regardless of onset-pattern or co-existent interface hepatitis.

Characteristic Cytological Findings of Lobular Endocervical Glandular Hyperplasia Associated with Adenocarcinoma of the Uterine Cervix

<b><i>Objective:</i></b> To investigate the cytological findings of lobular endocervical glandular hyperplasia (LEGH) associated with adenocarcinoma and to clarify its characteristics and the coexisting adenocarcinoma using histochemistry and immunohistochemistry. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Eighteen surgical cases of LEGH of the uterine cervix were retrospectively reviewed and classified into 3 groups: pure (pure type), atypical (atypical type), and LEGH with adenocarcinoma (mixed type). The mixed type is defined as LEGH or atypical LEGH with in situ or invasive adenocarcinoma. Cytological findings of conventional endocervical smear specimens (Papanicolaou stain) were analyzed. Histochemistry (periodic acid-Schiff reaction) and immunohistochemistry (M-GGMC-1, Muc-6 glycoprotein, and Ki-67) were performed using tissue specimens. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Cytologically, the pure type (7 cases) is characterized by glandular cell clusters that tended to form monolayered sheets with uniformly small nuclei and contain golden-yellowish mucin, whereas atypical (5 cases) and mixed (6 cases) types are characterized by glandular cell clusters similar to those of the pure type, but with complex glandular structures and mucin localization on the surface of glandular cell clusters. Ki-67 labeling index was significantly higher in atypical and mixed types than that in the pure type. Gastric-type mucinous carcinoma (MC-G) was observed in 2 out of 6 cases with mixed type. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> LEGH is found to be associated with adenocarcinoma types other than MC-G. Complex glandular structures or mucin localization on the surface of glandular cell clusters may be useful cytological findings to detect atypical and mixed types of LEGH.

New Community Estimation Method in Bipartite Networks Based on Quality of Filtering Coefficient

Community detection is an important task in network analysis, in which we aim to find a network partitioning that groups together vertices with similar community-level connectivity patterns. Bipartite networks are a common type of network in which there are two types of vertices, and only vertices of different types can be connected. While there are a range of powerful and flexible methods for dividing a bipartite network into a specified number of communities, it is an open question how to determine exactly how many communities one should use, and estimating the numbers of pure-type communities in a bipartite network has not been completed. In our paper, we propose a method named as “biCNEQ” (bipartite network communities number estimation based on quality of filtering coefficient), which ensures that communities are all pure type, for estimating the number of communities in a bipartite network. This paper makes the following contributions: (1) we show how a unipartite weighted network, which we call similarity network, can be projected from a bipartite network using a measure of correlation; (2) we reveal the relation between the similarity correlation and community’s edges in the vertices of a unipartite network; (3) we design a measure of the filtering quality named QFC (quality of filtering coefficient) to filter the similarity network and construct a binary network, which we call approximation network; and (4) the number of communities in each type of unipartite networks is estimated using Riolo’s method with the approximation network as input. Finally, the proposed biCNEQ is demonstrated by both synthetic bipartite networks and a real-world network, and the results show that it can determine the correct number of communities and perform better than two classical one-mode projection methods.

Evolution, not transgenerational plasticity, explains the divergence of acorn ant thermal tolerance across an urban-rural temperature cline

Disentangling the mechanisms of phenotypic shifts in response to environmental change is critical, and although studies increasingly disentangle phenotypic plasticity from evolutionary change, few explore the potential role for transgenerational plasticity in this context. Here, we evaluate the potential role that transgenerational plasticity plays in phenotypic divergence of acorn ants in response to urbanization. F2 generation worker ants (offspring of lab-born queens) exhibited similar divergence among urban and rural populations as F1 generation worker ants (offspring of field-born queens) indicating that evolutionary differentiation rather than transgenerational plasticity was responsible for shifts towards higher heat tolerance and diminished cold tolerance in urban acorn ants. Hybrid matings between urban and rural populations provided further insight into the genetic architecture of thermal adaptation. Heat tolerance of hybrids more resembled the urban-urban pure type, whereas cold tolerance of hybrids more resembled the rural-rural pure type. As a consequence, thermal tolerance traits in this system appear to be influenced by dominance rather than being purely additive traits, and heat and cold tolerance might be determined by separate genes. Though transgenerational plasticity does not explain divergence of acorn ant thermal tolerance, its role in divergence of other traits and across other urbanization gradients merits further study.