Objective
The treatment of follicular lymphoma (FL) depends on its grade. The current World Health Organization (WHO) 2008 Classification of Tumours of Haematopoietic and Lymphoid Tissues recommends ...the grading of FL on histological samples according to the Mann and Berard method, taking into consideration the number of centroblasts. There is no generally accepted method for the grading of FL in fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) samples. The aim of the present study was to devise a grading system for FL in cytological samples.
Methods
Flow cytometry (FC) was performed on 60 FNAB samples of patients with primary FL. We assumed that FL cells larger than reactive T lymphocytes on FC histograms corresponded to centroblasts. The percentage of large cells was calculated and compared with histological grade, proliferative activity and number of centroblasts per high‐power field (HPF) on histological slides, and with survival.
Results
The histological analysis of lymph nodes revealed 20 patients with high‐grade and 40 patients with low‐grade FL. The percentage of large cells in FNAB samples correlated significantly with histological grade (P = 0.02), MIB1 status (P < 0.001) and the number of centroblasts per HPF (P < 0.001). An age over 60 years and a percentage of large cells over 50% in FNAB samples were found to have a statistically significant impact on survival by univariate analysis (P = 0.001 and P = 0.006, respectively).
Conclusions
The percentage of large lymphoma cells in FNAB samples of FL determined by FC can be used as a reliable method for FL grading, as it is comparable with the histological grading system.
To evaluate the expression of E-cadherin, its association with various clinicopathological features and its possible relation with distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) in follicular carcinoma of ...the thyroid.
E-cadherin expression was assessed immunohistochemically in sections from paraffin embedded tissues in a group of 54 patients with follicular carcinoma and its variants who were followed for a median of 7.25 years.
Reduced E-cadherin expression, defined as <90% of cells showing membrane positivity, was found in 15 tumours and was significantly associated with widely invasive growth, insular morphology and lesser degree of differentiation, but was not related to patient sex and age or tumour size. In univariate analysis, DMFS was significantly worse in male patients (P<0.03), widely invasive tumours (P=0.0002), moderately/poorly differentiated tumours (P<0.05) and tumours showing reduced E-cadherin expression (P=0.0001). In multivariate analysis, the degree of invasiveness and E-cadherin expression were the only independent prognostic factors. Among widely invasive cases, those with reduced E-cadherin expression had significantly worse DMFS than those with preserved expression.
Our findings suggest that E-cadherin expression could be used as a prognostic marker in widely invasive follicular carcinomas of the thyroid. Larger studies are needed to assess its prognostic value in the group of minimally invasive carcinomas.
Belle II Conditions Database Ritter, M; Wood, L; Kuhr, T ...
Journal of physics. Conference series,
09/2018, Volume:
1085, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The Belle II experiment at KEK is preparing for taking first collision data in early 2018. For the success of the experiment it is essential to have information about varying conditions available to ...systems worldwide in a fast and efficient manner that is straightforward for both the user and maintainer. The Belle II Conditions Database was designed to make maintenance as easy as possible. To this end, a HTTP REST service was developed with industry-standard tools such as Swagger for the API interface development, Payara for the Java EE application server, and the Hazelcast in-memory data grid for support of scalable caching as well as transparent distribution of the service across multiple sites. On the client side, the online and offline software has to be able to obtain conditions data from the Belle II Conditions Database in a robust and reliable way under very different situations. As such the client side interface to the Belle II Conditions Database has been designed with a variety of access mechanisms which allow the software to be used with and without an internet connection. Different methods to access the payload information are implemented to allow for a high level of customization per site and to simplify testing of new payloads locally. Changes to the conditions data are usually handled transparently but users can actively check whether an object has changed or register callback functions to be called whenever a conditions data object is updated. In addition a command line user interface has been developed to simplify inspection and modification of the database contents.
Aims: To determine the prognostic usefulness of the Nottingham histological grade (NHG) and its components in a series of 270 patients with stage pT1N0M0 breast cancer with a median follow up of 12.5 ...years. Methods: Microscopic slides were re-examined and the degree of tubule formation, nuclear pleomorphism, and mitotic counts were assessed and scored according to the suggested guidelines. The association with cancer specific survival (CSS) was evaluated by univariate and multivariate analyses. Results: Whereas tumour size, patient age, menopausal status, type of surgery, or adjuvant treatment were not related to prognosis, histological type (p < 0.01) and NHG (p < 0.005) were associated with CSS. When evaluating the components of NHG separately, survival was not related to the score for pleomorphism, but was significantly better in tumours with score 1 or 2 for tubule formation (p < 0.007) and in those with score 1 for mitotic counts (p < 0.006). The two components retained independent significance in multivariate analysis. When the proposed cut off points for mitotic counts were replaced by lower ones based on tertile values, the mitotic index became the strongest prognostic factor (p = 0.0001) and histological type was the only additional factor of independent prognostic significance. Conclusions: These findings confirm the prognostic value of NHG in pT1N0M0 breast carcinoma, show that the evaluation of tubule formation and mitotic rate provides independent prognostic information, and suggest that the proposed cut off points for mitotic counts may be too high for this particular group of tumours.
We have developed a metadata service for the Belle experiment which provides a mechanism to locate files using descriptive information. However, for the Belle II experiment, we will have 50–60 times ...more data. This metadata service may have problems with performance, scalability, and durability when employed at Belle II. These issues are compounded when metadata searches are extended to the event-level. Accordingly, we have designed a new metadata scheme for Belle II which significantly reduces disk space and propose a new metadata service which provides good performance and scalability based on AMGA (Arda Metadata catalog for Grid Application). We find that the use of event-level metadata provides an efficient scheme for processing events with many tracks.
The purpose of this study was to compare skating performance and on-ice fitness of elite and non-elite women's ice hockey players. Twenty-three players who were participants in an organized women's ...hockey training program were tested. Seven of the elite players were members of the 1996/ 1997 Canadian National Team and 1 was from the Finnish National Team. Skating tests included (a) agility cornering S turn (AGL), (b) 6.10-m acceleration (ACC), (c) 47.85-m speed (SPD), (d) 15.20-m full speed (FSPD), and (e) Reed repeat sprint skate test (RRS). Elite players were older (25 +/- 5.34 vs. 19 +/- 2.65 years) and had better performance in the following variables: FSPD (1.88 +/- 0.11 vs. 1.96 +/- 0.86 seconds); RRS, drop-off percent (23.25 +/- 5.85% vs. 34.98 +/- 8.45%), drop-off time (3.43 +/- 0.78 vs. 5.35 +/- 1.23 seconds); sum of 6 repeats (101.96 +/- 2.74 vs. 112.78 +/- 4.61 seconds); and anaerobic capacity (AnCap; 5.35 +/- 0.14 W x kg(-1) vs. 4.87 +/- 0.19 W x kg(-1)) as calculated by the formulas of Watson and Sargeant (23). These results suggest that elite women's ice hockey players are older, faster skaters; have a better drop-off percent, drop-off time, and sum of 6 repeats in a repeat skate test; and have greater on-ice anaerobic capacity than non-elite players.
Single photon sensitive detectors used in high energy physics are, in some applications, required to cover areas the size of several m2, and more specifically in very strong demand with15 an ever ...finer imaging and timing capability for Cherenkov Ring Imaging Detector (RICH) configurations. We are evaluating the Large Area Picosecond Photo-detector (LAPPD) produced by INCOM company, as a possible candidate for future RICH detector upgrades. In this work we perform tests on the second generation device, which is capacitively coupled to a custom designed anode back plane, consisting of various pixels and strips varying in size, that allows for connecting various readout systems such as standard laboratory equipment, as well as the TOFPET2 ASIC from PETsys company. Our aim is to evaluate what can be achieved by merging currently available technology, in order to find directions for future developments adapted for specific uses.
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