Neutrophils in Extravascular Body Fluids: Cytological-Energy Analysis Enables Rapid, Reliable and Inexpensive Detection of Purulent Inflammation and Tissue Damage.

The simultaneous cytological and metabolic investigation of various extravascular body fluids (EBFs) provides clinically relevant information about the type and intensity of the immune response in particular organ systems. The oxidative burst of professional phagocytes with the concomitant production of reactive oxygen species consumes a large amount of oxygen and is the cause of switch to the development of anaerobic metabolism. We assessed the relationships between percentages of neutrophils, aerobic and anaerobic metabolism, and tissue damage via the determination of aspartate aminotransferase catalytic activities (AST) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), pleural effusions (PE), abdominal effusions (AE), and synovial fluids (SF). EBFs with 0.0-20.0% neutrophils: 83.0% aerobic and 1.3% strongly anaerobic cases with median of AST = 13.8 IU/L in CSF; 68.0% aerobic and 9.0% strongly anaerobic cases with median of AST = 20.4 IU/L in PE; 77.5% aerobic and 10.5% strongly anaerobic cases with median of AST = 18.0 IU/L in AE; 64.1% aerobic and 7.7% strongly anaerobic cases with median of AST = 13.8 IU/L in SF. EBFs with 80.0-100.0% neutrophils: 4.2% aerobic and 73.7% strongly anaerobic cases with median of AST = 19.2 IU/L in CSF; 7.4% aerobic and 77.3% strongly anaerobic cases with median of AST = 145.2 IU/L in PE; 11.8% aerobic and 73.7% strongly anaerobic cases with median of AST = 61.8 IU/L in AE; 25.5% aerobic and 38.2% strongly anaerobic cases with median of AST = 37.2 IU/L in SF. The significant presence of neutrophils, concomitant strong anaerobic metabolism, and elevated AST in various EBFs are reliable signs of damaging purulent inflammation.

Cytological-energy analysis of pleural effusions with predominance of neutrophils.

BACKGROUND: The predominance of neutrophils in pleural effusions of patients with different serious impairments of the pleural cavity organs is often found. The aim of this study was to identify the type of injury using the cytological-energy analysis of pleural effusions. METHODS: We analysed 635 samples of pleural effusions with predominance of neutrophils. We compared the values of the coefficient of energy balance (KEB), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) catalytic activities in the following subgroups of patients: with transudative effusions, purulent pneumonia, chest empyema and after chest surgery with and without purulent complications. Statistical analysis was performed using the ANOVA Kruskal-Wallis test (p < 0.05 was considered as significant). RESULTS: We found the lowest KEB values in pleural effusions of patients with chest empyema and their gradual increases in patients with purulent pneumonia and with transudative effusions. We observed the highest LDH and AST enzymes activity in patients with chest empyema and their gradual decrease in patients with purulent pneumonia and with transudative effusions. LDH and AST enzymes activity was significantly higher in pleural effusions of patients after chest surgery with purulent complications compared with non-purulent cases. CONCLUSION: The most intensive inflammation and the most extensive tissue destruction in the pleural cavity were found in patients with chest empyema. Significantly better parameters were observed in patients with purulent pneumonia. The absence of serious inflammation and the absence of tissue destruction were typical for patients with transudative effusions. Finally, our results confirmed an anticipated higher tissue destruction in patients after chest surgery. Significantly worse injury was found in surgical patients with purulent complications compared with non-purulent ones. The reviews of this paper are available via the supplemental material section.

Circulating Endometrial Cells in Women With Spontaneous Pneumothorax.

BACKGROUND: The occurrence of catamenial pneumothorax (CP) is rare, and the awareness of this diagnosis among physicians is insufficient. CP is highly correlated with pelvic endometriosis and remains the most common form of thoracic endometriosis syndrome. Circulating endometrial cells (CECs) have been previously detected in patients with pelvic endometriosis. Could CECs bring new insights into pneumothorax management? METHODS: This study aims to describe the occurrence and molecular characteristics of CECs in women with spontaneous pneumothorax (SP) (N = 20) with high suspicion of its catamenial character. CECs were enriched from peripheral blood by size-based separation (MetaCell). In addition to cytomorphology, gene expression profiling of captured cells was performed for 24 endometriosis-associated genes. RESULTS: CECs were present in all 20 patients with SP. Enriched CECs exhibited four character features: epithelial, stem cell-like, stroma-like, and glandular. However, not all of them were present in every sampling. Gene expression profiling revealed two distinct phenotypes of CECs in SP and/or CP: one of them refers to the diaphragm openings syndrome and the other to endometrial tissue pleural implantations. Comparisons of the gene expression profiles of CECs in pneumothorax (CECs-SP group) with CECs in pelvic endometriosis (CECs-non-SP group) have revealed significantly higher expression of HER2 in the CECs-SP group compared with the CECs-non-SP group. CONCLUSIONS: This proof-of-concept study demonstrates successful isolation and characterization of CECs in patients with SP. Identification of CECs in SP could alert endometriosis involvement and help early referral to gynecologic consultation for further examination and treatment.

Circulating Tumor Cells in Diagnosis and Treatment of Lung Cancer.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), detached from the primary tumor or metastases and shed in the patient's bloodstream, represent a relatively easily obtainable sample of the cancer tissue that can indicate the actual state of cancer, and their evaluation can be repeated many times during the course of treatment. As part of liquid biopsy, evaluation of CTCs provides a lot of clinically relevant information, which reflects the actual, real-time conditions of the disease. CTCs can be used in cancer diagnosis or screening, real-time long-term disease monitoring and even therapy guidance. Their analysis can include their number, morphology, and biological features by using immunocytochemistry and all "-omic" technologies. This review describes methods of CTC isolation and potential clinical utilization in lung cancer.