Aim: To report a case of a female patient with hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) and to systematically review the available cases of the association between HLH and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Methods: In accordance to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines, retrieval of studies was based on Medical Subject Headings and Health Sciences Descriptors, which were combined using Boolean operators. Searches were run on the electronic databases Scopus, Web of Science, MED-LINE (PubMed), Biblioteca Regional de Medicina, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature, Cochrane Library for Systematic Reviews and Opengrey.eu. Languages were restricted to English, Spanish and Portuguese. There was no date of publication restrictions. The reference lists of the studies retrieved were searched manually. Results: The search strategy retrieved 223 references. In the final analysis, 28 references were included, with the report of 35 cases. The most common clinical finding was fever, 57% of patients had a cytomegalovirus infection and 30 patients were on thiopurines previously to HLH diagnosis. Most patients were treated with steroids and antiviral therapy. All-cause mortality was 22%. Conclusion: These findings suggest that there might be a connection of HLH to IBD, opportunistic viral infections and the use of thiopurines. Due to the severity of such disease, the clinical suspicion is paramount to early diagnosis and therapy.

Delta-aminolevulinate dehydratase (δ-ALA-D) enzyme is sensitive to pro-oxidant agents, including molecular oxygen. Here, we tested whether hyperoxygenation after total intravenous (i.v.) anesthesia could interact with the type of anesthesia (dexmedetomidine, continuous infusion; 0.5 μg/kg/h or remifentanil, continuous infusion; 0.3 μg/kg/min) plus propofol using blood δ-ALA-D activity and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) levels as ending points of toxicity. In absence or presence of dithiothreitol (DTT), δ-ALA-D activity was reduced after hyperoxygenation in the group treated with remifentanil and was not modified in dexmedetomidine group. TBARS increased considerably in the blood of both groups of patients after oxygenation. The results obtained here suggest that the hyperoxygenation was associated with a marked increase in TBARS production regardless of the type of anesthesia. δ-ALA-D activity was only inhibited in remifentanil group, which indicates a possible interaction between oxygenation and the type of anesthetic. This is the first demonstration that dexmedetomidine may protect blood δ-ALA-D from oxidation. However, further studies are necessary to establish a possible antioxidant role of dexmedetomidine against hyperoxygenation in human blood.

Background: The PD-1/PD-L1 signaling axis is currently the most elucidated mechanism for tumor evasion of T-cell-mediated immunity. Nevertheless, few data are available regarding its impact on cervical cancer and the relationship with lymphocytic infiltrates. Methods: A retrospective assessment of all cases of cervical neoplasia treated in Caxias do Sul General Hospital, Brazil, between 2012 and 2016 was performed. Clinical and pathological data were collected from electronic records and analyzed. Original slides were independently reviewed by three pathologists to confirm diagnoses and to assess the immunohistochemical expression of PD-L1 and FoxP3 in tumor cells and lymphocytic infiltrates. Results: PD-L1 staining was present in 32.2% of the 59 cervical samples. Median overall survival time of the PD-L1-negative group was 47.8 months, a time point not yet reached by the PD-L1-positive group ( p =0.968). Median progression-free survival was 24.3 months for PD-L1-negative and 11.5 months for PD-L1-positive patients ( p =0.263). PD-L1 staining was found in 27.1% of the lymphocytic infiltrates, and survival analysis revealed no difference between PD-L1-positive and PD-L1-negative samples. There was no impact on survival related to FoxP3 staining in neither tumor samples nor lymphocytic infiltrates. Conclusion: Although the median progression-free survival times differed, the difference was not statistically significant. Our study corroborates the rationale that PD-L1 expression in cervical neoplasms has no impact on survival. PD-L1 expression in peritumoral lymphocytes revealed no impact on infiltration volume nor survival. Keywords: uterine cervical neoplasms, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, cancer, tumor microenvironment, survival

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