Fatty acid composition of triglycerides (TGs) and phospholipids (PLs) in breast adipose tissue was analyzed in 73 female breast cancer patients and 55 patients with benign breast disease. No differences were observed in the dietary intake of the major fatty acids (i.e., palmitic, stearic, oleic, and linoleic acids) or in the proportion of TGs and PLs in breast adipose tissue between the two groups. In postmenopausal women, however, the dietary intake of eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n-3) and docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3) was significantly lower in the breast cancer patients than in patients with benign breast disease. Accordingly, the percentage of docosahexaenoic acid of PLs in breast adipose tissue was significantly lower in breast cancer patients than in patients with benign breast disease among postmenopausal women. The stage of the breast cancer did not contribute to the observed alterations of fatty acid composition of PLs. Consonant with the previous epidemiologic data, the present results suggest that intake of the long-chain n-3 fatty acids (mainly derived from fish) may have a protective effect against breast cancer, particularly in postmenopausal women.

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Background/Aim: Although, acute appendicitis (AA) and nonspecific abdominal pain (NSAP) are the most common diagnoses among secondary care patients with acute abdominal pain, the diagnostic performance of leucocyte count (LC) in DS (Diagnostic Score) model is rarely considered. Patients and Methods: As an extension of the World Organisation of Gastro-Enterology Research Committee (OMGE) acute abdominal pain study, 1,333 patients presenting with acute abdominal pain were included in the study. The clinical history and diagnostic symptoms (n=22), signs (n=14) and tests (n=3) in each patient were recorded in detail, and the collected data were related with the final diagnoses of the patients. Results: In the ROC comparison test, there was no statistically significant difference in the performance of DS LC-(DS without LC) and DS LC+ (DS with LC). The highest sensitivities of the DS LCand DS LC+ tests for detecting AA were 86% (95%CI=81-90%) and 87% (95%CI=82-91%), respectively. The highest specificities of the DS LC-and DS LC+ tests for detecting AA were 98% (95%CI=97-99%) and 98% (95%CI=96-99%), respectively. Conclusion: DS could assist the clinician in differentiating AA from NSAP and other causes of acute abdominal pain. Importantly, LC does not improve the diagnostic performance of a DS in AA.We have studied acute abdominal pain in connection with the survey on acute abdominal pain by the Research Committee of the World Organization of Gastroenterology (OMGE) (1) and investigated the diagnostic performance of history-taking and clinical examination in acute appendicitis (AA) (2), nonspecific abdominal pain (NSAP) (3), acute small bowel obstruction (4) and acute renal colic (5). Given that AA and NSAP are the most common diagnoses among secondary care patients with acute abdominal pain, the diagnostic performance of history-taking, clinical examination and possible diagnostic score (DS) is extremely important. However, the differential diagnosis of AA and NSAP is not always easy due to many similarities in the clinical presentation at the onset and many cases may be misdiagnosed in the initial diagnostic setting. Although, there is some DS models available (2, 6-10) in the diagnosis of acute abdominal pain (AAP) there is continuing debate on the shortcomings of the DS models and we thus aimed to examine the performance of our DS model i) without leucocyte count (DS LC-) and ii) with leucocyte count (DS LC+ ). Patients and MethodsCriteria for inclusion in this study and the diagnostic criteria were those set out by the OMGE Committee (1). There were 636 males (47.7%) and 697 females (52.3%) with a mean age (±SD) of 38.0±22.1 years (Table I).The clinical findings in each patient were recorded in detail (Tables II and III), using a predefined structured data collection sheet. The disease history was recorded and categorised as shown in Tables II and III. The examination of the clinical symptoms, signs and tests were conducted using a standard technique and the results were graded positive or negative (Tables II and I...

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