An Evaluation of Ultrasound Features of Breast Fibroadenoma.

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is among the most common cancers in the world. Ultrasound evaluations of breast have come into attention as an alternative route. Ultrasound features of benign lesions such as fibroadenoma can be overlapping with those in a malignant tumor. Here, we assessed the reports of breast ultrasound in patients with pathologic diagnosis of fibroadenoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study and enrolled female patients with confirmed histologic diagnosis of fibroadenoma. Ultrasound studies were performed on the participants to see which sonographic patterns are more frequent in such lesions. RESULTS: In 92 patients with 40.4 ± 9.2 years of age, all participants were classified as stage 4 on Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System scale. The mean ± standard deviation of size for the lesions was 167.4 ± 101.4 mm2. Upper outer quadrants in the breasts had the most number of lesions. Almost lesions were round with only 2.2% were oval. When assessed for the margin definition, 57.8% were circumscribed. Noncircumscribed masses were reported in 21.7%. About 91.3% of cases were hypoechoic in the ultrasound evaluation. Lobulated masses were in 28.3% of the cases. 8.7% of the masses were spongy whereas 9.8% and 2.2% of them had calcification and heterogenic appearance, respectively. CONCLUSION: The most frequent features include a hypoechoic mass with a circumscribed border; however, complex presentations that overlap malignant masses are also detectable including noncircumscribed margin, lobulation, presence of a posterior shadow, heterogenicity, and micro calcification.

The prevalence of hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) variations and correlation with the clinical and serologic pictures in chronic carriers from Khorasan Province, North-East of Iran.

This study was designed to determine the correlation of hepatitis B virus surface Ag (HBsAg) variations with the clinical/serological pictures among chronic HBsAg positive patients. The surface gene (S-gene) was amplified and directly sequenced in twenty-five patients. Eight samples (group I) contained at least one mutation at the amino acid level. Five showed alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels above the normal range of which only one sample was anti-HBe positive. Group II (17 samples) did not contain any mutation, 4 were anti-HBe positive and 9 had increased ALT levels. In both groups, from a total of 18 mutations, 5 (27.5%) and 13 (72.5%) occurred in anti-HBe and HBeAg positive groups respectively. The small number of amino acid mutations might belong to either the initial phase of chronicity in our patients; or that even in anti-HBe positive phase in Iranian genotype D-infected patients, a somehow tolerant pattern due to the host genetic factors may be responsible.

Release profile and stability evaluation of optimized chitosan/alginate nanoparticles as EGFR antisense vector.

Chitosan/alginate nanoparticles which had been optimized in our previous study using two different N/P ratios were chosen and their ability to release epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antisense was investigated. In addition, the stability of these nanoparticles in aqueous medium and after freeze-drying was investigated. In the case of both N/P ratios (5, 25), nanoparticles started releasing EGFR antisense as soon as they were exposed to the medium and the release lasted for approximately 50 hours. Nanoparticle size, shape, zeta potential, and release profile did not show any significant change after the freeze-drying process (followed by reswelling). The nanoparticles were reswellable again after freeze-drying in phosphate buffer with a pH of 7.4 over a period of six hours. Agarose gel electrophoresis of the nanoparticles with the two different N/P ratios showed that these nanoparticles could protect EGFR antisense molecules for six hours.