Introduction:Leiomyomas are benign tumors composed of smooth muscle cells and varying amounts of fibrous connective tissue commonly encountered in women of reproductive age group. Leiomyomas need hormonal milieu for their growth and maintenance. Unopposed estrogenic stimulation manifests as leiomyomas undergoing secondary changes, endometrial proliferation or hyperplasia, and other associated pathological findings.Objective:To study and analyze various histopathological changes within uterine leiomyomas in hysterectomy specimens. And also, to analyze the associated endometrial and adnexal structures pathology.Materials and Methods:A 4 years retrospective study from June 2010 to June 2014 conducted in the Department of Pathology and Obstetrics and Gynecology, ESIC Medical College and PGIMSR, wherein 820 hysterectomy specimens clinically diagnosed as uterine leiomyomas were subjected to histopathological examination and relevant clinical data were analyzed.Results:Leiomyomas occurred mostly in women aged 31-50 years (90.23%). Menorrhagia (49.36%) and pain abdomen (30.6%) were the chief clinical manifestations. Endometrial patterns commonly seen were proliferative and hyperplastic endometrium together accounting for 73.4% and dual pathology with adenomyosis was 29.1%. Four cases of tubercular etiology and a single case of granulosa cell tumor of ovary was noted.Conclusion:Though hysterectomy is a routine procedure in the management of uterine leiomyomas, occasional cases of tumor or infective pathology may be missed. Therefore, histopathology is mandatory and conscientious quest must be done for confirmed diagnosis and ensuring optimal management.

BACKGROUND:P16/INK4a and Ki-67 have emerged as important biomarkers for the detection of high-risk human papilloma virus (HR-HPV) associated dysplastic changes in the cervical biopsy samples. The increasing inter- and intra-observer variability in the diagnosis of dysplastic lesions and immature squamous metaplasia on histopathology has led to the advent of these biomarkers. This study was taken up with an aim to study their role in increasing the diagnostic accuracy in equivocal cases on histopathology.MATERIALS AND METHODS:Fifty cervical biopsy specimens were stained with p16/INK4a and Ki-67 consisting of 10 cases each of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN I/II/III) along with five cases of squamous metaplasia. Histopathological diagnosis was considered as the gold standard. Statistical analysis was done by kappa statistics, and P value was calculated.RESULTS:The sensitivity and specificity of p16/INK4a and Ki-67 were 76.2%, 87.5%, 90.5%, and 87.5%, respectively. The overall agreement of both the immunostains with histopathological diagnosis was statistically significant (P < 0.05) and the diagnostic accuracy improved when both the stains were used in conjunction.CONCLUSION:Ki-67 and p16/INK4a can be used as complimentary tests in differentiating dysplastic and nondysplastic lesions and help in confirming the histopathological diagnosis. They aid in recognition of dysplasias caused by HR-HPV, which have higher tendency to progress to neoplasia. However, further research is advocated before the widespread use of these markers for screening of dysplasias.

We present two unusual cases of carcinoma of palatine tonsil in elderly patients. Both the cases were initially diagnosed as squamous cell carcinoma of the tonsil, second case, in addition, showed lung metastasis. On subsequent follow-up, the first case developed cutaneous metastasis in the right frontoparietal region while second case showed granulocytosis as paraneoplastic manifestation. The association of cutaneous metastasis and paraneoplastic granulocytosis with carcinoma of tonsil is rare. Cutaneous metastasis has been described only once in the literature while paraneoplastic granulocytosis is being reported for the first time. Both the conditions need long-term follow-up as they manifest at the extreme edges of the neoplastic process.

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Background Early and accurate diagnosis followed by timely treatment are the key prerequisites to fight tuberculosis (TB) and reduce its global burden. Despite scientific advances, the rapid and correct diagnosis of both pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis remains a challenge due to traditional reliance on detection of the elusive bacilli. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb)-specific host immune activation and cytokine production have shown significant promise as alternative means of detecting and distinguishing active disease from latent infection. We queried the diagnostic ability of phenotypic markers on Mtb-specific cytokine-producing immune cell subsets for identifying active tuberculosis. Methods Subjects belonging to the following groups were recruited – pulmonary and extrapulmonary TB, latent TB, cured TB, sick controls and healthy controls. Polychromatic flow cytometry was used to identify host immune biomarkers in an exploratory cohort comprising 56 subjects using peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Clinical performance of the identified biomarker was evaluated using whole blood in a blinded validation cohort comprising 165 individuals. Results Cytokine secreting frequencies of Mtb-specific CD4 + T cells with CD38 +CD27 – phenotype clearly distinguished infected individuals with active tuberculosis from those without disease. TNF-α secretion from CD38 +CD27 –CD4 + T cells upon stimulation with ESAT6/CFP10 peptides had the best diagnostic accuracy at a cut-off of 9.91% [exploratory: 96.67% specificity, 88.46% sensitivity; validation: 96.15% specificity, 90.16% sensitivity]. Additionally, this subset differentiated treatment-naive TB patients from individuals cured of TB following completion of anti-tuberculosis therapy. Conclusions Mtb-specific CD38 +CD27 –TNF-α +CD4 + T cell subset is a robust biomarker both for diagnosing tuberculosis and assessing cure.