Volume 3 Issue 1
Authors: Mariam Amrani; Lorenzo Memeo; Habiba Kadiri; Hind Charhi; Mohamed Alaoui Belabbas; Mahesh M. Mansukhani
Abstract: Aim of the study: Immunohistochemical evaluation of WT1, E-cadherin, beta-catenin, EGFR and p53 on Tissue MicroArray (TMA) of 43 Moroccan benign, borderline and invasive epithelial ovarian tumours. Materials and methods: All 43 cases were collected from the pathology department of the Institut National d’Oncologie in Rabat, Morocco, and comprised 34 carcinomas, 4 borderline serous and mucinous tumours and 5 benign tumours. Patients were between 20 and 74 years old with a mean age of 50 years. TMAs and the IHC study were supported by a grant from the IAAE (International Agency of Atomic Energy) and prepared in the pathology department of Columbia University in New York. 3 cores were selected from each case, and the peroxydase-anti peroxydase technique was used for the study of the different markers (DAKO Cytovision, Carpinteria CA). Results: 23.25% of the cases (10/43) were WT1 positive and were serous tumours (including one poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma). 72% of the cases (31/43) showed reduced (19/43) or no (12/43) membranous expression of E-cadherin, and all the tumours showed reduced membranous expression with cytoplasmic expression (5/43) or no expression (38/43) of beta-catenin. p53 overexpression (13/43) was exclusively observed in 58% (11/19) of the serous carcinomas and 2/3 poorly to moderately differentiated adenocarcinomas, of which 9/13 were EGFR + and 6/13 were E-cadherin +. 70% of the cases (30/43) showed EGFR membrane staining, and 2 cases were not interpretable. Conclusion: TMA is a feasible tool to study a large number of cases allowing comparative analysis of the expression of different biomarkers. To our knowledge, this is the first study of 5 biomarkers to be done on TMAs from 43 moroccan benign, borderline and invasive epithelial ovarian tumour samples. This would allow for larger studies with the aim of analyzing the significance of these biological markers and their impact in clinical trials.
Keywords: Ovarian Epithelial Tumours; Tissue Microarray; EGFR Protein Marker; Suppressor Protein Markers; Wnt Protein Markers
Authors: Donald J. Brown; Dongyul Chai; Philip Ngai; Bryan E. Jester; Korey M. Reid; Tibor Juhasz; James V. Jester; Don S. Minckler
Abstract: The mechanical behavior of the optic nerve head (ONH) and the surrounding sclera play important roles in the development of optic neuropathy. We assessed the indentation behavior of the ONH and the surrounding sclera in unfixed human autopsy eyes from individuals between 27 and 87 years of age. Our testing device utilized a round-tipped 250 µm diameter stainless steel probe to measure the force applied in discrete 50 µm steps from the surface of the tissues to a depth of 400 µm. Thirteen eyes from eight individuals were indented in various locations within and around the ONH and the posterior sclera. Tissue thickness, force and depth were recorded at each position tested. Data was analyzed by evaluating the recorded force as a function of the depth of indentation. The data showed that, for both the sclera and the ONH, the force rose exponentially with increased depth of indentation. Apparent stiffness values were estimated using 2 different equations that assess soft biologic tissues. Results showed that significantly higher levels of force were required with aging to indent the posterior sclera, with a corresponding increase in stiffness values. However, no significant increase in indentation force as a function of age was noted for the ONH. Interestingly, the data suggests that some individuals have relatively large differences in the stiffness between the ONH and the posterior sclera, while others show less difference regardless of age. This data supports the notion that some individuals have relatively softer ONH tissue, and as the sclera becomes stiffer with age, this difference is magnified. This difference may be important in understanding the biomechanical contribution to the individually different susceptibility to glaucoma.
Keywords: Optic Nerve Head; Sclera; Biomechanics; Lamina Cribrosa; Aging
Authors: Ralph Deters; Richard Lomotey
Abstract: The use of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, as well as other Information and Communications Technology (ICT) tools, to facilitate healthcare delivery in the medical landscape, known as mHealth, has risen phenomenally. In most mHealth systems, mobile devices are employed as services and health information client consumers. Meaning, physicians use these devices to access the Electronic Health Record (EHR) which resides on back-end platforms. However, in a research collaboration with the Geriatrics Ward of the City Hospital in Saskatoon, Canada, we have identified a huge potential for facilitating the mobile device as a medical data hosting node. Our approach is beneficial for collecting the EHR remotely and pushing it to the Health Information System (HIS). For instance, Geriatrics’ patients who are home can be attended to outside of the health facility since their medical data is being retrieved from or pushed to the HIS remotely. However, mobile devices communicate over wireless mediums, which can experience intermittent loss of connectivity. It is also possible to visit the patient’s home, and there not be any connectivity. These situations can cause an inconsistency between the data that is on the physician’s mobile device and the data on the HIS. Our work therefore proposes a cloud-powered middleware architecture that facilitates the synchronization of the data between the mobile devices and the HIS in soft real-time. The middleware employs the propagation of deltas and timestamp to determine which of the data is the newest update in any direction and ensures that all the operations are in sync. The evaluation of our proposed system shows minimal latency.
Keywords: REST; Mobile Cloud Computing; Middleware; Healthcare Information Systems; Resources State Change; Mobile Hosting/Provisioning