Bartholin Duct Cyst and Nodular Hyperplasia: A Clinicopathological Study of 32 Patients.

Background: Inflammatory lesions and cysts are the most common Bartholin glands pathologic diagnoses. There have been very few reports of benign solid lesions of Bartholin glands such as nodular hyperplasia. Materials and methods: Thirty-two lesions diagnosed as Bartholin duct cyst in the gynecologic specialized institute were reviewed by two expert gynecological pathologists. Results: Using specific criteria, 7 qualified as nodular hyperplasia, 25 as Bartholin duct cyst. The average age of the patients with nodular hyperplasia was 31 years (range, 24 to 43). These lesions were solid, solid and cystic or purely cystic, had a mean maximal dimension of 3.3 cm, and were frequently thought to be Bartholin cysts on clinical examination. Four lesions were diagnosed as Bartholin duct cysts, while in the review they were considered as nodular hyperplasia. Conclusion: Nodular hyperplasia of Bartholin gland may be more common than is reported in the literature. This study showed that the diagnosis of nodular hyperplasia has been overlooked due to limited literature sources.

Vascular Subinvolution of the Placental Implantation Site as the Cause of Hysterectomy.

Background. Vascular subinvolution of the placental bed is one of the uncommon but life-threatening forms of secondary postpartum hemorrhage. Studies on subinvolution of the implantation site are sparse and there is a scarcity of practice-based literature for this diagnosis. Case presentation. A 40-year-old woman with vaginal bleeding and light-headedness was admitted a few days after spontaneous abortion. Based on her unstable condition, hysterectomy was done. Pathologic gross evaluation of the uterus identified multiple large and dilated blood vessels, and microscopically, the myometrium showed thrombosis with scattered extravillous trophoblastic cells within the vessel walls. Conclusions. We described this rare case and explored the literature focusing on the pathophysiology and helpful ancillary studies for diagnosing this situation.

2D Gadolinium Oxide Nanoplates as T1 Magnetic Resonance Imaging Contrast Agents.

Millions of people a year receive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents for the diagnosis of conditions as diverse as fatty liver disease and cancer. Gadolinium chelates, which provide preferred T1 contrast, are the current standard but face an uncertain future due to increasing concerns about their nephrogenic toxicity as well as poor performance in high-field MRI scanners. Gadolinium-containing nanocrystals are interesting alternatives as they bypass the kidneys and can offer the possibility of both intracellular accumulation and active targeting. Nanocrystal contrast performance is notably limited, however, as their organic coatings block water from close interactions with surface Gadoliniums. Here, these steric barriers to water exchange are minimized through shape engineering of plate-like nanocrystals that possess accessible Gadoliniums at their edges. Sulfonated surface polymers promote second-sphere relaxation processes that contribute remarkable contrast even at the highest fields (r1 = 32.6 × 10-3 m Gd-1 s-1 at 9.4 T). These noncytotoxic materials release no detectable free Gadolinium even under mild acidic conditions. They preferentially accumulate in the liver of mice with a circulation half-life 50% longer than commercial agents. These features allow these T1 MRI contrast agents to be applied for the first time to the ex vivo detection of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in mice.

Gadolinium oxide nanoplates with high longitudinal relaxivity for magnetic resonance imaging.

Molecular-based contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are often characterized by insufficient relaxivity, thus requiring the systemic injection of high doses to induce sufficient contrast enhancement at the target site. In this work, gadolinium oxide (Gd2O3) nanoplates are produced via a thermal decomposition method. The nanoplates have a core diameter varying from 2 to 22 nm, a thickness of 1 to 2 nm and are coated with either an oleic acid bilayer or an octylamine modified poly(acrylic acid) (PAA-OA) polymer layer. For the smaller nanoplates, longitudinal relaxivities (r1) of 7.96 and 47.2 (mM s)(-1) were measured at 1.41 T for the oleic acid bilayer and PAA-OA coating, respectively. These values moderately reduce as the size of the Gd2O3 nanoplates increases, and are always larger for the PAA-OA coating. Cytotoxicity studies on human dermal fibroblast cells documented no significant toxicity, with 100% cell viability preserved up to 250 µM for the PAA-OA coated Gd2O3 nanoplates. Given the 10 times increase in longitudinal relaxivity over the commercially available Gd-based molecular agents and the favorable toxicity profile, the 2 nm PAA-OA coated Gd2O3 nanoplates could represent a new class of highly effective T1 MRI contrast agents.