No abstract

Background: The diagnostic accuracy of frozen section is an important source of information and a high risk procedure in surgical pathology. This is an important tool, not only in the management of surgical patients but also has a pivotal role in institution’s quality assurance in histopathology. Aims and objectives: To analyze indications, efficacy, accuracy, limitations, deferrals and turnaround time for all frozen sections in correlation with histopathology. Materials and methods: A retrospective analysis of all the frozen samples was done in correlation with permanent sections from June 2016 till July 2017. The diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, turnaround time, deferrals and limitations were analysed. Results: A total of 45 specimens for frozen sections were sent to the department of Pathology during the time period. Out of these, 97.8% (n=44) were accepted and 2.2% (n=1) were deferred. Of the remaining 44 specimens, 1 (2.3%) was discordant and 43 (97.7%) were concordant to permanent diagnoses. Specimens were primarily from the ovary, breast and lymph nodes. The overall sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of the frozen section compared to formalin fixed paraffin embedded sections (as gold standard) were 97.7%, 100%, 100% and 100% respectively. The average turn-around time for frozen section diagnosis was 23 minutes. Conclusion:  Frozen section diagnosis is an efficient, rapid, reliable and highly accurate tool in surgical diagnosis and management. The multidisciplinary approach helped avoiding limitations ensuring optimal patient care.

Background: Reticulocytes are the youngest erythrocytes released from the bone marrow. Their increase or decrease can be an indicator of erythropoietic activity or failure. Manual reticulocyte count is an assay traditionally used to evaluate the status of erythropoiesis. Reticulocyte parameters could be cost effective methods to guide the clinician in treating anaemias. Aim of current study was to evaluate the role of routine red blood cell parameters and reticulocyte parameters in differentiating various anaemias.Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted by retrieving the laboratory parameters of patients admitted at Yenepoya medical college hospital from January 2021 to July 2021, duration of 6 months. Fifty cases of anaemia were included. These included records of patients with anaemia based on Serum Ferritin levels, Vitamin B12 levels, and beta thalassemia cases confirmed using electrophoresis. Other various parameters like mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular haemoglobin and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration were also taken into consideration for descriptive statistics.Results: Statistically significant correlation was observed for reticulocyte count, reticulocyte production index and other red blood cell parameters like MCV, MCH and MCHC between iron and vitamin B12 deficiency anaemias. No statistically significant correlation was observed in the beta thalassemia group but specifically showed significance in MCV.Conclusions: Reticulocyte count and reticulocyte production index and good markers apart from the routinely used traditional red blood cell parameters in differentiating between iron deficiency and vitamin B12 deficiency anaemias. However, in beta thalassemia minor cases, the mean corpuscular volume is a better marker. Present study showed male gender predominance in anemia which could be due to ethnic and topographical variations

A 5-year-old female child presented with easy fatiguability, fever and chest pain of 2 months' duration, prior to which she was asymptomatic. This rare way of presentation of the child made us document the data. The child was immunised for age. She was active, alert and had attained developmental milestones for her age. On systemic examination, shape of the chest appeared normal with no precordial bulging. On palpation, Apex beat was palpable at left 5 th intercostal space at the midclavicular line. There was no evidence of parasternal heave and thrill on examination. First and second heart sounds were heard in all the four cardiac areas and were of normal intensity. Ejection systolic murmur was heard in the 2 nd left intercostal space. Echocardiography revealed dilated, well-circumscribed, homogeneous mass attached to the right ventricular outflow tract causing mild obstruction. Cardiac fibroma, also known as Fibrous hamartoma is a rare primary tumour encountered in infants and children without gender predilection. Fibromas are solitary tumours that are derived from fibroblasts and connective tissue with a matrix containing collagen, located mainly in the ventricular septum. [1] Macroscopically, they present as rounded, white fibrous masses whorled on cut surface. The margin may be either circumscribed or infiltrative. Histologically, fibromas are composed of bland appearing spindle shaped cells arranged in loose intersecting fascicles, which may extend into the surrounding myocardium. A 5-year-old child was referred to the tertiary care hospital, presented with chest pain of 2 months' duration. Echocardiography revealed dilated, homogeneous, well-circumscribed mass attached to the right ventricle with mild right ventricular outflow obstruction. Diagnosis of cardiac fibroma requires a high index of suspicion and correlation with physical and echocardiographic findings. Following surgical excision and histopathological confirmation, the prognosis was excellent.