Optimal dosage and early intervention of L-ascorbic acid inhibiting K2Cr2O7-induced renal tubular cell damage.

Chromium poisoning can cause renal failure and death. Chromium intoxication may be managed using L-ascorbic acid (vitamin C) therapy. However, the evidence supporting the effectiveness of this treatment is insufficient, and the mechanism of action has not been clarified in renal cells. In this study, our results showed that the optimal regimen of L-ascorbic acid therapy in human epithelial renal proximal tubule cells, HK-2 cells, was 30 µg/mL. Supplementation of L-ascorbic acid with 30 µg/mL and within 8 h of chromium intoxication (K2Cr2O7, Cr6+) was effective to inhibit renal tubular cell damage by blocking generation of free radicals, cell apoptosis, and autophagy. Intracellular chromium concentrations were estimated using electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. Treatment of L-ascorbic acid within 8 h of chromium intoxication significantly decreased the entry of chromium into the cells. Moreover, concomitant administration of L-ascorbic acid with repeatedly dosing at 8-hourly intervals had a better protective effect at lower concentration of L-ascorbic acid when compared to single dosing of L-ascorbic acid at an early time point of chromium intoxication. These findings might help physicians develop effective therapy strategies in renal failure.

Semi-automatic segmentation and classification of Pap smear cells.

Cytologic screening has been widely used for detecting the cervical cancers. In this study, a semiautomatic PC-based cellular image analysis system was developed for segmenting nuclear and cytoplasmic contours and for computing morphometric and textual features to train support vector machine (SVM) classifiers to classify four different types of cells and to discriminate dysplastic from normal cells. A software program incorporating function, including image reviewing and standardized denomination of file names, was also designed to facilitate and standardize the workflow of cell analyses. Two experiments were conducted to verify the classification performance. The cross-validation results of the first experiment showed that average accuracies of 97.16% and 98.83%, respectively, for differentiating four different types of cells and in discriminating dysplastic from normal cells have been achieved using salient features (8 for four-cluster and 7 for two-cluster classifiers) selected with SVM recursive feature addition. In the second experiment, 70% (837) of the cell images were used for training and 30% (361) for testing, achieving an accuracy of 96.12% and 98.61% for four-cluster and two-cluster classifiers, respectively. The proposed system provides a feasible and effective tool in evaluating cytologic specimens.

Primary leiomyosarcoma of the nipple-areola complex: report of a case and review of literature.

Primary leiomyosarcoma of the nipple-areola complex is extremely rare. Less than ten such cases have been reported in English literature so far. Herein we describe a 52-year-old female presenting with a 1.5 cmx1.1 cmx0.7 cm nodular lesion over her left nipple, and leiomyosarcoma was proved by pathological examination of the excised specimen. Positron emitted tomogram (PET) revealed no abnormal signal other than the primary site. Microscopically, this poorly circumscribed tumor was composed of interlacing bundles of smooth muscle cells with bizarre and pleomorphic nuclei, as well as prominent nucleoli. Its mitotic count was up to 7 mitoses per 10 high power fields (HPF). Immunohistochemical study of tumor cells revealed positive stain for alpha-smooth muscle actin and vimentin; and negative for cytokeratin, CD34 and S-100. Left simple mastectomy was undertaken and no residual mass lesion was noted on the resected specimen. Related literatures about the diagnosis and treatment for breast leiomyosarcoma will be presented here.