Background: Thyroid cancer is one of the most common malignant neoplasm worldwide. Among Indians, thyroid cancer constitutes 3.96% of total cancers. Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is a malignant epithelial tumor with distinctive nuclear features. PTC represents, about 85% of all malignant thyroid neoplasm. Though histopathological diagnosis is the gold standard for PTC diagnosis, pathologists usually face difficulty due to morphologic overlap between follicular neoplasms and PTC, especially the follicular variant of PTC. CD56 is a neuroendocrine marker and an antigen important for the follicular epithelium differentiation. Recent studies have reported low or absent expression of CD56 in PTC and its presence in normal thyroid tissue, benign thyroid lesions, and most follicular non-PTC tumors. Aims: This study aimed to assess the diagnostic utility of immunohistochemical marker, CD56 in distinguishing PTC from benign thyroid lesions and follicular neoplasms. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective and retrospective case control study conducted at department of Pathology of our institute. All 125 thyroidectomy specimens received during a study period from January 2017 to December 2019 were studied and any already established recurrent case of PTC was excluded. After routine histopathological examination, the expression of CD56 was studied and statistically analyzed. Results: The difference between expression of CD56 antibody in differentiating PTC from other thyroid lesions was found to be statistically significant (p=<0.001). The sensitivity of CD56 was 94.6%, and its specificity was 97.7%. Conclusion: Thus, CD56 was found to be a valuable and sensitive biomarker even when used individually.

Introduction: Malaria is an endemic, tropical protozoan infection caused different Plasmodium species. A study was conducted to find the correlation between the peripheral blood smear and antigen demonstration for the detection of malaria. Materials and Methods: Study was conducted in the Department of Microbiology, GSL Medical College for 6 months. Peripheral blood smear stained by Giemsa technique ad commercially available rapid antigen detection kits were used for the diagnosis of malaria. Smear preparation and staining were carried as per WHO guidelines and manufacturer guidelines were followed to perform the test. Results: Among 98 the clinically diagnosed malaria cases in this study, 69 (70.4%) cases were identified as malaria positive. Out of these, 68% (47) were positive by blood smear examination and 87% (60) were positive by kit method and in the positive cases 35 were male and 34 were female participants. Conclusion: Rapid diagnostic tests were more sensitive in the diagnosis of malaria. However, other confirmatory tests such as PCR should be considered because some clinically proved cases were missed.