Effect of Intraoperative Imprint Cytology Followed by Frozen Section on Margin Assessment in Breast-Conserving Surgery.

PURPOSE: Intraoperative margin assessment can reduce positive margins in patients undergoing breast-conserving surgery. However, reports on intraoperative margin assessment have described only the use of either imprint cytology or frozen section. This study was designed to elucidate the effect of intraoperative margin assessment using imprint cytology followed by frozen section. METHODS: Overall, 522 patients were enrolled. First, the entire surgical margin was subjected to imprint cytology. Frozen section was performed only in cases with "positive" or "suspicious" imprint cytology results. An additional intraoperative excision was performed in patients with frozen section-positive lesion sites. All margins were evaluated using postoperative permanent sections after excision. RESULTS: Among 522 patients, 136 (26.1%) were imprint cytology-positive, and 386 (73.9%) were imprint cytology-negative. Among the 386 imprint cytology-negative patients not subjected to frozen section, 11 (2.1%) were permanent sections-positive (imprint cytology-false-negative). In 47 of the 136 imprint cytology-positive patients, additional intraoperative excision was unnecessary due to the frozen section-negative diagnosis. Moreover, these patients could avoid reoperation, because they were permanent section-negative. The false-positive rate of imprint cytology alone was 13.4%, but adding frozen section to imprint cytology decreased the overall false-positive rate to 2.5%. After undergoing excision, four patients still had positive margins. The overall positive margin rate in the final pathology based on permanent sections was 2.9% (15/522). CONCLUSIONS: Imprint cytology followed by frozen section led to a markedly decreased positive margin rate. This is considered the best method for intraoperative margin assessment, as it can overcome the limitations of cytology and histology performed individually.

Comparison of daily glucose excursion by continuous glucose monitoring between type 2 diabetic patients receiving biphasic insulin aspart 30 or biphasic human insulin 30.

UNLABELLED: Aims/Introduction: Biphasic insulin aspart 30 (BIAsp 30) has an earlier and stronger peak effect with a similar duration of action to biphasic human insulin 30 (BHI 30). However, direct comparison of daily glucose excursion during treatment with these two types of insulin has not been carried out. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We carried out continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and evaluated the 48-h glucose profile during twice-daily injections of BIAsp 30 or BHI 30 at the same dosage in 12 hospitalized patients with type 2 diabetes who participated in a randomized cross-over trial. RESULTS: The 48-h average glucose level and mean amplitude of glucose excursion (MAGE) were lower during BIAsp 30 treatment than with BHI 30. The average glucose level during 2-3 h after breakfast and 2-4 h after dinner, and the incremental postprandial glucose from just before to 4 h after dinner were lower with BIAsp 30 treatment than with BHI 30. Furthermore, BIAsp 30 treatment reduced the SD from 30 min before to 4 h after breakfast and lunch compared with BHI 30. The average glucose level and SD during the 30 min before each meal and during the night were not different between the two insulin preparations, and hypoglycemia was not observed with either treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Twice-daily BIAsp 30 reduced the 48-h average glucose and MAGE, the postprandial glucose (after breakfast and dinner), and the SD of glucose excursion (after breakfast and lunch) compared with the same dosage of BHI 30, without causing hypoglycemia or deterioration of glycemic control before meals and at night. This trial was registered with UMIN (no. UMIN000005129). (J Diabetes Invest, doi: 10.1111/j.2040-1124.2011.00123.x, 2011).

Relationship between clinical markers of glycemia and glucose excursion evaluated by continuous glucose monitoring (CGM).

In order to evaluate the relationship between clinical markers of glycemia and glucose excursion, we performed 48-hour continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in 43 diabetic patients. For the clinical markers, HbA(1c), glycoalbumin (GA), and 1,5-anhydroglucitol (1,5-AG) were measured, and for the parameters of glucose excursion from CGM, average glucose (AG), standard deviation of glucose (SD), the area under the curve for glucose levels >180 mg/dL (AUC(>180)), and the difference between the maximum and minimum glucose levels during 48 hours (DeltaG(48hr)) were analyzed. All patients were treated without any changes of the dosages of oral anti-diabetic agents or insulin for at least the previous 3 months with coefficient of variation (CV) of HbA(1c) less than 4 %. In results, while HbA(1c) did not show any single correlation with AG, SD, AUC(>180), or DeltaG(48hr), both GA and 1,5-AG were significantly related to all these parameters. Furthermore, GA significantly correlated to all CGM parameters, and SD significantly correlated to GA in multiple regression analyses. These results suggest that GA may be a different marker from HbA(1c) for diabetic complications, because GA, but not HbA(1c), may reflect not only short-term average glucose but also fluctuation of glucose.

Metaplastic breast carcinoma with chondrosarcomatous differentiation: fine-needle aspiration cytology findings. A case report.

Metaplastic carcinoma (carcinoma with pseudosarcomatous metaplasia) of the breast are high-grade carcinomas in which much of the tumor undergoes metaplastic change producing a pseudosarcomatous pattern. We report a case of metaplastic breast carcinoma (MBC) in whom fine-needle aspiration (FNA) cytology was performed with later histological confirmation. The lesion affected a 68-yr-old woman, with a tumor measuring 6.4 x 5.3 cm well demarcated mass located in the upper outer quadrant of the right breast. FNA cytology revealed a variety of markedly atypical cells, mainly spindle-shaped, and mitotic figures sporadically distributed against a severely necrotic background. Atypical chondrocytes were observed against a background of myxomatous substance that displayed metachromasia with May-Giemsa stain that resembled chondrosarcoma cells. Clusters of markedly atypical carcinoma cells that exhibited epithelial junctions were also seen, and immunostaining confirmed the presence of both mesenchyme-marker-positive sarcomatous and epithelial-marker-positive carcinoma cells. Careful attention to the precise cellular composition such as sarcomatous cells, chondrosarcomatous cells and carcinoma cells should allow the recognition of these neoplasms. Therefore, MBC seems to be very a characteristic tumor in which accurate cellular diagnosis may be achieved by FNA cytology.