Epidermal Cyst in the Breast: A Diagnostic Dilemma.

Epidermal cyst [10] and panniculitis are relatively uncommon conditions [2]. A combination of these arising in the breast is extremely rare. We report a case of epidermal cyst with panniculitis in the breast. A patient presented with a large breast lump of 5 cm in the right breast. Sonography showed a well-defined, central hyperechoic mass. A giant fibroadenoma was suspected clinically and based on imaging. Fine needle aspiration revealed a benign breast lump. The lump was excised, and the specimen revealed an epidermal cyst with panniculitis.

Computer modelling integrated with micro-CT and material testing provides additional insight to evaluate bone treatments: Application to a beta-glycan derived whey protein mice model.

The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of a whey protein diet on computationally predicted mechanical strength of murine bones in both trabecular and cortical regions of the femur. There was no significant influence on mechanical strength in cortical bone observed with increasing whey protein treatment, consistent with cortical tissue mineral density (TMD) and bone volume changes observed. Trabecular bone showed a significant decline in strength with increasing whey protein treatment when nanoindentation derived Young׳s moduli were used in the model. When microindentation, micro-CT phantom density or normalised Young׳s moduli were included in the model a non-significant decline in strength was exhibited. These results for trabecular bone were consistent with both trabecular bone mineral density (BMD) and micro-CT indices obtained independently. The secondary aim of this study was to characterise the influence of different sources of Young׳s moduli on computational prediction. This study aimed to quantify the predicted mechanical strength in 3D from these sources and evaluate if trends and conclusions remained consistent. For cortical bone, predicted mechanical strength behaviour was consistent across all sources of Young׳s moduli. There was no difference in treatment trend observed when Young׳s moduli were normalised. In contrast, trabecular strength due to whey protein treatment significantly reduced when material properties from nanoindentation were introduced. Other material property sources were not significant but emphasised the strength trend over normalised material properties. This shows strength at the trabecular level was attributed to both changes in bone architecture and material properties.

Integrating micro CT indices, CT imaging and computational modelling to assess the mechanical performance of fluoride treated bone.

In this study we evaluate the influence of low-dose fluoride treatment on 23 patient biopsies. Computational finite element (FE) models of each biopsy were subjected to a range of loads including compression, shear and torsion. The modelling framework was validated against three 3D printed models with known material properties subjected to compression till failure using an Instron machine. The primary outcomes from this study were that mechanical strength was not significantly correlated to low-dose (<10 mg/day) of fluoride levels (one-way ANOVA, P-values of 0.78, 0.69 and 0.62 for compression, shear and torsion, respectively). However, when bulk bone material properties were derived from DXA bone mineral density (BMD) from each patient's proximal femur a non-significant linear decline in mechanical strength with increase in fluoride was predicted. When the same material property was used for all bones (to evaluate bone architecture influence) then mechanical strength showed a characteristic concave upwards trend, consistent with the variation of micro CT derived percentage bone volume (BV/TV). The secondary outcomes from this study were that in compression, BV/TV was observed to be a strong surrogate measure for mechanical strength (R(2) = 0.83), while bone surface density (R(2)=0.6), trabecular thickness (R(2) = 0.5) and intersection surface (R(2) = 0.6) also explained the variation of mechanical strength well. However, trabecular separation and trabecular number were mildly correlated with mechanical strength (R(2) of 0.31 and 0.35, respectively). Compression was the loading mode most strongly correlated to micro CT indices. Material properties adapted from the proximal femur reduced the CT index correlations by up to 58% indicating that bulk density from a near proximity is a poor representation of specific localised density. Substituting the 3D micro CT indices with 2D histomorphometric data decreased correlations by at least 33% indicating that structural identification on a plane is not representative of the full 3D architecture necessary for a complete bone strength analysis. The presented computational framework may be used to assess the roles that bone architecture and loading modes play in bone quality, and which micro CT indices are good surrogate measures for mechanical strength.

Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella enteritidis and other salmonellas in the eggs and egg-storing trays from retail markets of Coimbatore, South India.

A study was conducted to determine the incidence of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis and other Salmonella serovars on eggshell, egg contents and on egg-storing trays. A total of 492 eggs and 82 egg-storing trays were examined over a period of 1 year from different retail outlets of a residential area of Coimbatore city, South India. Salmonella contamination was recorded in 38 of 492 (7.7%) eggs out of which 29 was in eggshell (5.9%) and 9 in egg contents (1.8%). Around 7.5% of the egg-storing trays were also found to be contaminated with Salmonella. Serotyping of the Salmonella strains showed that 89.7% of the strains from eggshell, 100% of the strains from egg contents and 71.4% of the strains from egg-storing trays were Salmonella Enteritidis. Other serovarvars encountered were S. Cerro, S. Molade and S. Mbandaka from eggshell and S. Cerro from egg-storing trays. Seasonal variations in the prevalence pattern were identified with, a higher prevalence during monsoon months followed by post-monsoon and premonsoon. Further examination of the Salmonella strains was carried out by testing their antimicrobial sensitivity against 10 commonly used antimicrobials. Results revealed high prevalence of multiple antimicrobial resistance among these strains suggesting possible prior selection by use of antimicrobials in egg production.