Orofacial Clefts (OFC) are common congenital facial anomalies. The study seeks to determine the status of care for OFC patients in Ghana. Currently, in addition to the Ministry of Health, there are six Non-Governmental Organizations, which are dedicated to the provision of logistics for the management of cleft patients. As it is possible there could be OFC endemic areas in Ghana, sensitization ...

The epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) is a type I glycoprotein located on the surface of epithelial cells. It is strongly expressed in many neoplasms and already used in the diagnosis and distinction of various tumour subtypes. Comparative studies about EpCAM expression in cystic sellar lesions are lacking. Therefore, we analysed its distribution pattern in adamantinomatous (aCP) and pa...

The tumor-suppressor protein p53 belongs to a small gene family that includes p63 and p73. While p53 and p73 regulate cell cycle progression and apoptosis, the major role of p63 appears to be in promoting ectodermal proliferation and differentiation. In this report we describe the cloning of a Xenopus orthologue of mammalian p63 that is extraordinarily conserved in sequence. The major sites of ...

A 59-year-old woman presented to her general practitioner with a lump in the left neck. She was a non-smoker, non-daily drinker and had no significant past medical history. Fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) was performed and led to the diagnosis of a branchial cleft cyst. The mass collapsed after aspiration and the patient was managed conservatively by observation. In the year after diagnosi...

BACKGROUND Patients with bilateral cleft lip-cleft palate have nasal deformities including reduced nasal tip projection, widened ala base, and a deficient or absent columella. The authors compare the nasal morphology of patients treated with presurgical nasoalveolar molding followed by primary lip/nasal reconstruction with age-matched noncleft controls. METHODS A longitudinal, retrospective r...

We present a unique and challenging case of a remnant foreign body that presented to us in a child disguised as a strongly suspected congenital branchial cleft anomaly. This case entailed oropharyngeal trauma, with a delayed presentation as a retroauricular cyst accompanied by otorrhea that mimicked the classic presentation of an infected first branchial cleft anomaly. During surgical excision ...

We report a case of symptomatic Rathke's cleft cyst with ossification. CT scans showed curvilinear calcification on the wall of the cyst. MR images revealed a cystic sellar lesion with a nodular solid mass extending to the floor of the third ventricle. This case shows that calcification of the suprasellar cyst does not always suggest craniopharyngioma. Rathke's cysts should be histologically di...

Goldfish (Carassius auratus) acclimated to 7 degrees C and exposed to hypoxia ( approximately 10 mmHg) for 7 days exhibited a pronounced remodeling of the gill consisting of the removal of an interlamellar cell mass (ILCM). Subsequent experiments were designed to assess the impact of gill remodeling and the associated increase in functional lamellar surface area on the distribution of branchial...

Pituitary adenoma (PA) concomitant with Rathke cleft cyst (RCC) is extremely rare. The risk of recurrence of both PA and RCC necessitates post-operative follow-up. Here we describe a 22-year-old woman was admitted for headache and hypopsia. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed a sellar mass. During surgery, a small RCC was incidentally found inside the PA. Both tumors were completely resec...

Perineural or Tarlov cysts were first described by Tarlov [1] in 1938 during his autopsy studies of the filum terminale [1]. Studies have shown the prevalence of these cysts to vary from 4.6% in some to upto 9% in others [2,3]. Although most of these lesions are asymptomatic, on rare occasions, they may cause local or radicular pain, dysesthesia or paresthesia, paresis and bladder or bowel dysf...