Detection of chytridiomycosis caused by Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in the endangered Sardinian newt (Euproctus platycephalus) in southern Sardinia, Italy.

The chytridiomycete fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis is known to be focally distributed across Europe, but has only been linked to "chytridiomycosis at a few locations in Spain. Here we report the second occurrence of chytridiomycosis in European amphibians. We found a population of endangered Sardinian newts (Euproctus platycephalus) exhibiting clinical signs of disease including loss of digits and patchy, discolored skin. Molecular examination of skin samples tested positive for B. dendrobatidis. The population of E. platycephalus has been in decline on a timescale consistent with the global emergence of chytridiomycosis, and the ecology of this salamander suggests that the disease in this species warrants concern.

[Gynaecological oncology from the Egyptian papyruses to Hippocratic texts]. / L'oncologia ginecologica dai papiri egiziani ai testi ippocratici.

There is little paleopathological evidence of gynaecologic cancer in antiquity. Indeed descriptions of lesions of tumor-like pathologies may be found in the medical texts - Egyptian papyruses and the Hippocratic Corpus - in particular, they offer some interesting descriptions of gynecological tumoral diseases, which were well known because they were surface-diseases (e.g. breast cancer) or inspectable ones (e.g. uterine cancer). Thus literature supports the absence of paleopathological evidence and helps us in reconstructing the history of cancer.