Clinical and pathological considerations in lumbar herniated disc associated with inflammatory lesions.

Lumbar herniated disc is the most frequent cause for lumbar pain. It is caused by degenerative, macroscopic and microscopic changes of the intervertebral discs. It is a chronic disease, with periods of exacerbation and remission under drug and physiotherapeutic treatment. When the disc lesions are large, with intense symptoms, reduced or impossible movements, with pain radiating to the sciatic nerve trajectory, a surgical treatment is required, to remove the herniated nucleus pulposus and decompress the nerve roots. Patients who present high inflammatory signs, high inflammatory serous markers, may have a longer postoperative recovery period, while the motor recovery may be late and incomplete. We analyzed a group of 24 patients with lumbar herniated disc that required discectomy, with clear inflammatory signs, together with histopathological and immunohistochemical changes present in the herniated disc.

Diabetic foot - epidemiological and histopathological aspects.

Our study included a total of 259 patients with diabetes, who were admitted to the Department of Plastic Surgery and Reconstructive Microsurgery of the Emergency County Hospital of Pitesti, Romania, in 2016, with the diagnosis of "diabetic foot". Of the 259 patients, 55 (21.23%) were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and the remaining 204 (78.77%) were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes; the ratio of type 1∕type 2 diabetes was 1∕3.7. The injuries presented by the patients were osteitis (27.81%), moist gangrene (21.62%), abscesses (18.92%), cellulitis (11.19%), various forms of fasciitis (8.88%), perforating strand (6.18%), and dry gangrene (5.4%). The disease was most commonly diagnosed in males in the rural environment. Most of the patients were in the age group of 61-70 years old. All patients were surgically treated, but 142 (54.82%) patients needed amputations of foot segments (fingers, metatarsal or tarsal bones). The histopathological and immunohistochemical study on excised fragments revealed the existence of a chronic inflammatory process formed mainly from macrophages, mast cells and CD4+ T-lymphocytes.

The Protective Role of Thiourea on Leuciscus cephalus Exposed to Sublethal Doses of Pendigan 330EC (Pendimethalin) Herbicide.

The aim of the study was to investigate the protective role of thiourea on the physiological, hematological, biochemical and histopathological parameters of Leuciscus cephalus exposed to sublethal concentration of Pendigan 330 EC herbicide. The animals were divided in four experimental groups (control, animals subjected to 1 ‰ thiourea, animals subjected to 4 × 10(-4) mL/L herbicide and, respectively, animals subjected to 4 × 10(-4) mL/L herbicide and 1 ‰ thiourea). Exposure of European chub to herbicide administered in water for 2 weeks determined installation of pathological changes in the liver and gills tissues. Also, were observed a decrease in the number of white blood cells and oxygen consumption, breathing frequency, and an increase in the number of red blood cells and glycaemia values. Thiourea counteracts the toxic action, describing itself as normal liver parenchyma and normal gills in animals intoxicated with herbicide, without lesion, and a return to normal values of the studied markers.

The influence of irradiation on autophagy process in normal and malignant colorectal epithelia.

AIM: The authors assessed the influence of preoperative radiotherapy on autophagy process using a quantitative assessment of LC3 expression on both normal and tumoral colorectal tissues. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Normal and malignant tissue samples were taken from 50 patients that underwent surgery for colorectal adenocarcinoma of which 11 received preoperative radiotherapy. Tissue samples were included in paraffin and sections were immunomarked for LC3 expression. LC3 percentage was assessed with dedicated software on 10 randomly selected fields with 40× objective from both normal and malignant tissue samples of each patient. The resulting data were assessed and compared with a statistical apparatus. RESULTS: LC3 was overexpressed in tumoral tissue as compared with normal one. The LC3 percentage is different from person to person and the higher it is in normal epithelium, the higher will be in tumoral epithelium of the same person, regardless the irradiation. The LC3 expression levels are decreasing from tumoral non-irradiated epithelia to normal irradiated epithelia. LC3 expression in tumoral cells is granular, with particular perinuclear disposal and often "annular" pattern. CONCLUSIONS: The autophagy process has a basal level in the normal tissue, with interindividual variability. The autophagy process proved to be upregulated in the tumoral cells, with a particular morphological expression, namely the presence of cytoplasmic coarse granules disposed in an "annular" pattern. Preoperative radiotherapy is downregulating the autophagy process both in normal and tumoral tissue but to a lesser extent in the latter.

Prevalence and histopathological types of skin carcinomas in Arges County, Romania.

Non-melanoma skin cancers presented a significant incidence increase in the last decades, worldwidely. Even though the impact upon mortality is a relatively low one, through the incidence increase, their impact upon the public healthcare systems is a considerable one. In our study, we evaluated 109 cases of skin carcinomas hospitalized during 2012 in the Department of Plastic Surgery of the Emergency Hospital of Pitesti, Romania, for a surgical treatment. The gender distribution showed slight lesion predominance in women, being recorded 56 (51.38%) tumors in women and 53 (48.62%) in men. The highest incidence of skin carcinomas (75.23%) was recorded in the persons aged over 60-year-old. Of 109 cases of skin carcinomas, 80 (73.4%) carcinomas developed on indignant tegument areas, while 29 (26.6%) on premalignant skin lesions (fiberconjunctive papillomas, keratocantomas, keratosic verrucas). The histopathological study highlighted the fact that of 109 skin carcinomas, 87 (79.82%) were basal cell carcinomas and only 22 (20.18%) were squamous cell carcinomas. The immunohistochemical reaction to 34ßE12 cytokeratin was highly positive in the cells of the basal cell carcinomas and well-differentiated squamous cell carcinomas (except for the "keratosic pearls") and moderately positive in the moderately differentiated squamous cell carcinoma.