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Osteoarticular tuberculosis (OATB) Aim: The authors made a clinical morphological assessment of tissue samples from patients admitted in Surgical Departments of the Emergency County Hospital of Craiova, Romania, between 1990 and 2015, proved as presenting tuberculous lesions of the spine in the Department of Pathology of the same Hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The studied material consisted of bone, joint and sometimes muscle tissue fragments resulted from biopsies or surgical excisions from 7 cases coming out of 54 patients investigated in the above-mentioned period of time, where the established histological diagnosis was tuberculosis (TB). For diagnostic confirmation, Ziehl-Neelsen staining has been used as a rule but, in some cases, immunohistochemistry was also used. RESULTS: TB lesions have prevailed in men and around the age of 50 years. Thoracic segment of the spine was the most involved. Epithelioid and giant Langhans cells dominated the inflammatory cellular population. Necrosis was always present, usually in its classical acidophilic form. Fibrosis was almost always absent. On the whole, the granulomatous reaction was in almost half of the cases hyporeactive and disorganized. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical morphological profile of our series is fitting with data described in the literature. Because of its life threatening potential, spinal TB should be investigated thoroughly especially in its morphological features in order to obtain as quickly as possible an etiological diagnosis.
RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Platelet activation plays an important role in the pathophysiology of non-ST elevation acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Mean platelet volume (MPV), an indicator of platelet reactivity, was previously associated with an increased risk of acute coronary events. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the MPV variability in young patients presenting with NSTEMI, as compared to young patients with cardiovascular risk factors and no overt ischemic cardiac disease, as well as with elderly patients presenting with NSTEMI. METHODS: We analyzed data from 174 patients admitted in our cardiology department between January 2009 and December 2010: 35 patients younger than 45 years of age with NSTEMI, 41 patients younger than 45 without ACS and 98 patients older than 45 with NSTEMI. RESULTS: Young patients with NSTEMI had a significantly higher mean MPV (8.88 ± 1.14fl) than young patients without ACS (8.31 ± 0.37fl, p<0.01), while the older subjects with NSTEMI had the highest mean MPV (9.48 ± 1.35fl, p=0.02). MPV correlated with age (r=0.375, p<0.0001). After a multivariate analysis, elevated levels of MPV were independent predictors of NSTEMI in young patients (odds ratio [OR] 2.75, 95% CI 1.04-7.92, p=0.04), while hypertension (OR 0.34, 95% CI 0.6-1.78, p=0.20), dyslipidemia (OR 1.61, 95% CI 0.17-14.51, p=0.67), obesity (OR 5.77, 95% CI 0.80-41.53, p=0.08) and smoking status (OR 8.97, 95% CI 0.84-95.26, p=0.06) were not. CONCLUSION: NSTEMI is associated with high MPV in old as well as in young patients. Elevated MPV is predictive for NSTEMI in young patients, separately of a high cardiovascular risk profile.