Pulmonary mucoepidermoid carcinoma in children: a rare diagnosis not to be overlooked - case report.

Pulmonary mucoepidermoid carcinoma (PMEC) in children is a rare entity. The diagnosis is often unrecognized, often treated as pneumonia, a more frequent diagnosis at this age. Case presentation: The authors report in this article, the case of a 12-year-old child with a clinical history of chronic cough evolving for 6 months with recurrent episodes of pneumonia. The presence of a foreign body was suggested on the thoracic computed tomography (CT). PMEC was histopathologically determined on biopsy. Fluorine-18-fluorodesoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18 F-FDG PET)/CT was performed as part of the extension work-up prior to surgical management. Clinical discussion: Preoperative imaging with 18F-FDG PET/CT seems to be a valuable tool for predicting tumor grade, nodal stage, and postsurgical prognosis in mucoepidermoid carcinoma. PMEC patients with high 18F-FDG PET/CT uptake may need extensive mediastinal lymph node dissection and adjuvant therapy. Conclusion: PMEC has different presentations depending on the degree of tumor differentiation on PET/CT whose input in the management of these rare cancers requires further studies.

Evaluation of Quality of Life in Tunisian patients with Differentiated Thyroid Cancer.

INTRODUCTION: Differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC), despite its good prognosis, affects the quality of life (QOL) of patients by its physical and psychological repercussions and by the toxicity of treatment. A study of the quality of life as well as the potentially associated factors is necessary in order to carry out targeted actions. AIM: This work was conducted to assess the quality of life of patients treated for thyroid cancer. METHODS: 89 patients treated surgically and by iratherapy for DTC responded from January 2018 to December 2019 to the SF36 questionnaire in its validated version in Tunisian dialect. A descriptive and bivariate analysis between the scores of the different domains and the variables of interest was performed. RESULTS: The overall mean score (SMG) of the QOL of our patients ranged from 12.8 to 94.25 with a mean of 58±22%. The factors that proved to have a positive impact on the QOL of patients followed for CDT assessed by the SMG and/or the mental summary score (MSS) and/or the physical summary score (PSS) were: male gender (p=0.034), higher educational level (p=0.037), early TNM stage (p=0.041) and low cumulative iodine-131 dose (≤ 5550 MBq) (p=0.031). CONCLUSION: QOL is strongly influenced by many sociodemographic and clinical factors. More attention should be paid to patients followed for DTC to improve quality of life.

Influencing factors of absenteism among first cycle of medical students in the Faculty of Medicine of Sousse.

BACKGROUND: Student absenteeism is a major concern for higher education and especially for medical studies. AIM: This work was conducted to assess the extent of this phenomenon among undergraduate medical students at the Faculty of Medicine of Sousse and to determine whether certain student characteristics affect student absenteeism. METHODS: We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study among first and second year of medical study students from the faculty of medicine of Sousse during the second semester of the 2015-2016 academic year using a pretested self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: The response rate was 80.9%. Of the respondents, 9.6% reported never having attended the lectures. The reason that justified this absenteeism was the boring teaching. Absenteeism was significantly associated with gender (15.7% of male students never attended versus 7.1% of female students, p = 0.015), with the year of study (7.4% of first-year students versus 12.1% of second-year students, p = 0.0001) and the repetition of the year (9.1% of non-repeaters versus 21.1% of repeaters, p = 0.002). CONCLUSION: Various reasons for missing classes have been identified which suggesting the complexity of this decision. Knowledge of these factors could potentially help university medical teachers to develop innovative teaching strategies that would reduce the rate of absenteeism.