No abstract

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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of normal hepatic vascularization and variations in the common hepatic arteries using multidetector computer tomography angiography. These variants should be acknowledged before any surgery of the upper abdomen. The aim of our work was to analyze the variations in the hepatic arteries and their possible clinical and surgical implications. Materials and methods: This study was carried out on 4192 patients who underwent 64-slice MDCT angiography, from August 2015 to December 2021. We used surface and volume-rendering techniques in order to post-process images of the vascular components in the desired area. Results: We highlighted 76 cases with replaced common hepatic arteries, which are characterized by the origin of the common hepatic artery trunk located outside the classical composition of the celiac trunk. We identified three levels of origin: the abdominal aorta, the superior mesenteric artery and the left gastric artery. We observed six different aspects of the morphological variability of the celiac trunk and the superior mesenteric artery. The trajectory of the artery trunk, between the aortic origin and the hepatic pedicle portion of the hepatic portal vein, is variable and we analyzed the pancreatic trajectory accordingly. Conclusions: The prevalence of hepatic arterial variants found during this study was similar to that in other specialized studies. We came across variants that have not been described in the well-known classification of Michels and even described extremely rare variations. The study of abnormal hepatic vascularization plays an important role in the surgical planning of hepatic transplantation, liver and pancreatic resection and extrahepatic upper abdominal surgeries.

Background: Conventional cervicovaginal Papanicolaou (Pap) stained smears are a common investigation in gynaecological practice for detecting cancerous and precancerous cervicovaginal lesions, as well as infections and inflammatory processes. Although Candidiasis is the most common fungal infection detected on Pap smears, cytopathologists sometimes also have to deal with the challenge of fungal contaminants. The aim of this study is to present and discuss the findings of two rare fungal organisms in the context of previous literature reports. Methods: Over a period of one year, 4496 smears were submitted to the cytopathology laboratory for analysis. These were sampled from women aged 16–72 years. Slides were processed using the conventional Papanicolaou stain (Pap stain) method. The current available literature was reviewed using relevant key words. Results: Of the 4496 smears examined, the most frequently detected fungal species was Candida species spp. (523 cases), followed by Gardnerella Vaginalis (450 cases) and Trichomonas Vaginalis (50 cases). Also identified were 20 cases with Actinomyces spp. and 18 cases with unusual contaminants belonging to Penicillium and Alternaria spp. A literature search found that five previous articles reported cervical cytology cases with Penicillium and Alternaria spp. Conclusions: Papanicolaou smears are useful for the detection of vaginal microorganisms. Usual pathogenic flora need to be distinguished from contaminants such as Penicillium and Alternaria spp., as observed in this and previous studies.