RÉSUMÉ
BACKGROUND: Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) is the modality of choice for quantification of myocardial iron overload in ß-thalassemia major patients using the T2* sequence. CMR feature tracking (FT) is a recent magnetic resonance imaging tool that gives an idea about myocardial fibers deformation; thus, it can detect early impairment in myocardial function even before the reduction in ejection fraction. METHODS: This study aims to assess the ability of left ventricular CMR-FT in the early detection of systolic dysfunction in ß thalassemia major patients and to correlate it with the degree of myocardial iron overload measured by CMR T2*. This prospective study enrolled 57 ß thalassemia major patients who received long-term blood transfusion and 20 healthy controls. CMR was used to evaluate left ventricular volumes, ejection fraction, and the amount of myocardial T2*. A two-dimensional left ventricular FT analysis was performed. Both global and segmental left ventricular strain values were obtained. RESULTS: The mean global circumferential strain (GCS) and global radial strain (GRS) values were significantly lower in patients compared to control (P = 0.002 and P = 0.006, respectively). No correlation was found between T2* values and ejection fraction; however, there was a significant correlation between T2* values and GCS and GRS (P = 0.012 and P = 0.025, respectively) in thalassemia patients. Regional strain revealed significantly lower values of GCS and GRS in basal regions compared to apical ones (P = 0.000). CONCLUSIONS: Our study revealed that CMR-FT can play a role in the early detection of systolic impairment in thalassemia patients.
RÉSUMÉ
OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to investigate the impact of BRCA1 protein expression on the patients' outcome of ovarian serous carcinoma, and its correlation with different clinicopathologic features. METHODS: Immunohistochemistry with BRCA1 was done for 80 cases of ovarian serous carcinoma that had a positive family history. Correlation with clinico-pathologic variables and patients' outcomes was investigated. RESULTS: BRCA1 expression was detected in 61.2% of the studied cases. A significant relation with patients' age, tumor grade and tumor stage was found (P<0.05). Also, there was a significant decrease in disease free survival (DFS) & overall survival (OS) in the positive BRCA1 group. Metastasis, recurrence, residual disease, and mortality rate showed significantly higher figures in patient with BRCA1 expression (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Positive BRCA1 expression had proven to be associated with advanced stage & grade of tumors, as well as worsened prognostic survival parameters (metastasis, recurrence, residual disease, and mortality) in patients with ovarian serous carcinoma.