Pilonidal sinuses usually occur in the sacrococcygeal area in young men, and occasionally can be found in other ectopic sites. We present a retrospective case review on unusual locations of pilonidal sinuses in the past 4 years. The lesion sites were as follows: one on the penis, two on the scalp, two on the abdomen, one on the neck, two in the groin and two in the axilla. Abdominal and penile lesions are uncommon, but the other locations reported are unusually rare. To our knowledge, the groin has not been reported previously as a site of a pilonidal sinus, although the histological appearance of hidradenitis suppurativa may well resemble it. When trying to clarify the pathogenesis of these occurrences, we found that recurrent hair removal was a common characteristic of the patients we contacted, and this may have been the initiating trauma.
We propose to disclose first degree analogous features between cancer and infectious diseases and to find out whether these similarities are superficial and negligible, due to the use of the same bodily pathways by the two categories of disease or if they represent significantly parallel characteristics. We have found several primary analogous features, predominantly regarding pathways of spread, but to some extent also concerning the interaction with the immune system. Some of the implications to our hypothesis are probably available in the recent literature, at the experimental or clinical levels. For example endostatin, an angiogenic inhibitor has been used to prevent promotion of metastasis in cancer and to reduce granulomas formation in schistosomiasis. An ECFR antagonist employed to restrain bronchial vessels proliferation in pseudomonas infection, has also been used for the treatment of lung cancer.
Objectives: The European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) 2012 guidelines, enabled for the first time, a nonbiopsy approach in the diagnosis of celiac disease (CD). We aimed to prospectively assess 4 tissue-transglutaminase (tTg) IgA assays of 4 random-access analyzers and examine their accuracy in diagnosing CD without a biopsy. Methods: We enrolled 186 consecutive children referred to upper endoscopy and intestinal biopsy. One group included 109 patients with positive tTg that was referred for suspected CD. Another group included 77 patients with negative tTg referred because of other indications. All participants had a blood sample taken at the time of endoscopy. Samples were tested with 4 tTg IgA assays on automated analyzers and 1 Elisa kit. All intestinal biopsies were evaluated by a local pathologist, a central pathologist, and a CD expert blinded to each other. CD was diagnosed when full agreement was reached. Analytical performance of the assays included precision with controls and samples, lot to lot variation, and carryover. Results: In our cohort, all tested tTg IgA-automated assays showed sensitivities above 98% and specificities above 99%. ROC analysis demonstrated AUC (area under the curve) >0.99 for all 4 analyzers. The positive-predictive values (PPV) were all >0.99 and negative-predictive values (NPV) were >0.97. The Elisa kit had sensitivity of 95%, specificity of 96%, AUC of 0.96, PPV of 0.98 and NPV of 0.93. Conclusion: CD can be accurately diagnosed without biopsy based on tTg IgA levels at least 10 times the ULN using the 4 high-volume random-access analyzers used in our study.
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