BackgroundDetection of vascular invasion by hematoxylin and eosin staining is the current pathological assessment practice to diagnose breast carcinoma. However, conventional hematoxylin and eosin staining failed to distinguish between blood vessel invasion and lymphatic vessel invasion. Both are important prognostic criteria however with different outcomes. The aim of this study is to distinguish between blood vessel invasion and lymphatic vessel invasion using conventional assessment and immunohistochemical markers. The prognostic significance of both circulatory invasions in invasive breast carcinoma was also investigated.MethodsConsecutive sections of breast carcinoma samples from 58 patients were stained with CD34 and D240 to stain blood and lymphatic vessels respectively. Hematoxylin and eosin staining was carried out on another consecutive section as conventional staining.ResultsAlthough blood vessel density is higher in the sections (median = 10.3 vessels) compared to lymphatic vessel density (median = 0.13), vessel invasion is predominantly lymphatic invasion (69.8 and 55.2% respectively). Interestingly, peritumoral lymphatic vessel density and peritumoral lymphatic invasion was significantly associated with distant metastasis (p = 0.049 and p = 0.05 respectively). The rate of false positive and false negative interpretation by hematoxylin and eosin was 46.7 and 53.3% respectively.ConclusionsLymphatic vessel invasion is a strong prognostic markers of breast carcinoma invasion and the use of immunohistochemical markers increase the rate and accuracy of detection.

Johor as one of the states of Malaysia is a good geographic location for meliponiculture activity. In this study, ten samples of stingless bee honey from each regions of Johor and one sample obtained from Institute Bioproduct Development, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai were analyzed for the physicochemical properties of stingless bee honey. The physicochemical analyses were including moisture, total soluble solids, ash, pH, free acidity, conductivity, hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) content, protein, carbohydrate, fat, dietary fibre, total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), and DPPH radical scavenging activity. Trigona sp. sample from Kluang have the highest value of phenolic content (778.23 ± 2.011 mg GAE/100 g) while Trigona sp. sample from Mersing have the highest value of flavonoid content (194.98 ± 0.350 mg RE/100 g). Among eleven samples tested for radical scavenging activity, Trigona sp. sample from Kota Tinggi have the highest scavenging activity (23.37 ± 0.36 mg/ml), but the value of HMF content exceeded the limit of Malaysian standard for stingless bee honey. All parameters were significantly different (p < 0.01) except for ash. This study showed a strong correlation between moisture and acidity (r = 0.601). However, low correlation was obtained between TPC and TFC with DPPH radical scavenging activity (r = -0.235, 0.011). The data obtained from this study could help for a better subsequent of Malaysian stingless bee honey industry.