Histopathological diagnosis of gastrointestinal malignancies - A retrospective study.

Objective: Worldwide gastrointestinal malignancies are a leading cause of both mortality and morbidity with marked epidemiological differences in various geographic and ethnic populations. The objective of current study was to study the prevalence, age and sex distribution and to analyze variations in histopathological lesions of gastrointestinal malignancies. Method: The entire specimens were fixed overnight in 10% formalin, processed using automatic tissue processor and stained with routine Haematoxylin and Eosin stain. Results and conclusion: Total 98 cases of gastrointestinal malignancies were analyzed; out of these, total 61 were male patients while 37 were female patients with overall male to female ratio of 1.65:1. The commonest affected age group was 46-60 years with more than 50% cases of gastrointestinal malignancies in this age group. The youngest patient was 14 years of age while the oldest was 92 years old. Adenocarcinoma was the commonest histopathological diagnosis with 70 cases followed by 15 cases of squamous cell carcinoma. We also found cases of malignant gastrointestinal stromal tumour, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, carcinoid tumour and malignant melanoma at different anatomical location of gastrointestinal tract.

Electrophoresis pattern in clinically and hematologically suspected cases of haemoglobinopathies.

Objective: Haemoglobinopathies are a group of disorders with structural or quantitative variation in normal hemoglobin structure. There are various identified haemoglobinopathies worldwide, among these sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia are prevalent in Gujarat. Both of them are associated with marked morbidity and mortality.Method: Hemoglobin electrophoresis is a low cost method helpful in early diagnosis of many of these haemoglobinopathies. In current retrospective study- 33 cases of clinically and hematological suspected cases of haemoglobinopathies were subjected for hemoglobin electrophoresis on agarose gel at pH 8.6. Result and conclusion: Out of 33 suspected cases 13 cases of thalassemia major, 10 cases of sickle cell anemia and 7 cases of sickle cell trait were diagnosed with varying degree of clinical and hematological findings.