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Background:Early pathological classification of retroperitoneal masses is important for pin-point diagnosis and timely management.Aims:This study was done to evaluate the usefulness and drawbacks of guided fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of retroperitoneal masses covering a period of two years with an intention to distinguish between neoplastic and non-neoplastic lesions and to correlate with histologic findings.Materials and Methods:FNAC was done under radiological guidance in all cases using long needle fitted with disposable syringe. Appropriate staining was done and cytology was correlated with histology which was taken as the gold standard for comparison.Results:Fifty-one patients who presented with retroperitoneal masses were studied. Forty-four lesions were malignant cytologically and 7 were inflammatory (tuberculous). According to radiological and cytologic findings, we classified our cases into four groups: renal tumors, retroperitoneal lymphadenopathy, germ cell tumors, soft tissue tumors. Except for cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and metastatic lesions, we had sensitivity and specificity of 100%. In NHL the sensitivity and specificity were both 50%. In cases of metastatic adenocarcinoma, the sensitivity and specificity were 84.6% and 81.8%, respectively.Conclusions:Ignoring the pitfalls, guided FNAC is still an inexpensive and reliable method of early diagnosis of retroperitoneal lesions.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a devastating fatal neurodegenerative disease. An alternative to the amyloid cascade hypothesis is that a viral infection is key to the etiology of late-onset AD, with β-amyloid (Aβ) peptides playing a protective role. In the current study, young 5XFAD mice that overexpress mutant human amyloid precursor protein with the Swedish, Florida, and London familial AD mutations were infected with one of two strains of herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), 17syn+ and McKrae, at three different doses. Contrary to previous work, 5XFAD genotype failed to protect mice against HSV-1 infection. The region- and cell-specific tropisms of HSV-1 were not affected by the 5XFAD genotype, indicating that host–pathogen interactions were not altered. Seven- to ten-month-old 5XFAD animals in which extracellular Aβ aggregates were abundant showed slightly better survival rate relative to their wild-type (WT) littermates, although the difference was not statistically significant. In these 5XFAD mice, HSV-1 replication centers were partially excluded from the brain areas with high densities of Aβ aggregates. Aβ aggregates were free of HSV-1 viral particles, and the limited viral invasion to areas with a high density of Aβ aggregates was attributed to phagocytic activity of reactive microglia. In the oldest mice (12–15 months old), the survival rate did not differ between 5XFAD and WT littermates. While the current study questions the antiviral role of Aβ, it neither supports nor refutes the viral etiology hypothesis of late-onset AD.

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of high water temperature on survival and growth performance of Nile tilapia. Two age groups of female Nile tilapia (9 and 50 days after hatching) were reared at 27, 32, 35 and 37°C water temperatures for 45-60 days. At the end of treatment, the mean survival, total weight, total length, daily growth rate and food conversion ratio of both age groups of fishes were significantly reduced at 35 and 37°C compared to 27 and 32°C (p<0.05). It was concluded that water temperature ranging from 27-32°C seemed to be the most effective for rearing of Nile tilapia juveniles and fries, and higher temperature (>32°C) results in slow growth, reduce feeding efficiency and increase mortality. This study also demonstrated the possible impact of global warming on natural fishery resources.