BACKGROUND Recent publications have described an important role for cross talk between PI-3 kinase and sonic hedgehog signaling pathways in the pathogenesis of medulloblastoma. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We crossed mice with constitutive activation of Smoothened, SmoA1, with Pten deficient mice. Both constitutive and conditional Pten deficiency doubled the incidence of mice with symptoms ...

BACKGROUND Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is marked by its difficult diagnosis and poor prognosis. Medical thoracoscopy (MT) is an effective and safe procedure for the diagnosis of exudative pleural effusions and many factors associated with poor prognosis of MPM. We conducted this study to investigate the value of MT for diagnosing of MPM and to identify prognostic factors for MPM patien...

OBJECTIVES To describe the imaging features of the central airway pathology, correlating the findings with those in pathology and virtual endoscopy. To propose a schematic and practical approach to reach diagnoses, placing strong emphasis on multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) findings. METHODS We reviewed our thoracic pathology database and the central airway pathology-related literatur...

Amyloidosis is a disease caused by improper three-dimensional folding of precursor proteins, which results in formation of protein aggregates, amyloid fibrils, that cause cell and organ damage. Amyloidosis localized to the respiratory tract is considered rare, with a spectrum of clinical symptoms. We report a case of a 72 year old man who presented with a laryngeal mass, found to be an amyloido...

ANDI (Aberration of normal development and involution) classification covers most of the benign breast conditions as a result of hormonal influence. Prolactin plays an important role in normal proliferation and differentiation of breast epithelium. The objective of this hospital based study was to find out clinical presentation and prolactin level of ANDI patients. Total 330 patients with diffe...

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS  Diagnosis of nonampullary duodenal low grade adenoma (Vienna classification category 3, VCL 3) and high grade adenoma/carcinoma (VCL 4 or higher) is important for clinical management decisions. However, there are no criteria based on which endoscopic diagnosis can differentiate between VCL3 and VCL4 or higher. This study aimed to establish simple diagnostic criteria t...

BACKGROUND/AIM Increasing evidence is available about the role of prolactin in the development of various cancers. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the frequency of thyroid cancer in patients with prolactinoma followed at a single site. MATERIALS AND METHODS The medical records of 182 patients diagnosed with prolactinoma were reviewed retrospectively. Serum prolactin, antithyroglobuli...

Esophageal endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) can be attempted in superficial esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SESCC) invading the upper submucosal layer (SM1: invasion < 200 μm). This study aimed to determine endoscopic predictive features associated with beyond SM1 invasion in SESCC and establish a predictive model using the identified features. This study retrospectively analyzed 203 ...

Gastroscopy and biopsy for the rapid urease test and histopathological examination have been still standard diagnosis for H. pylori infection. Many studies have been attempted to classify the gastroscopic findings of H. pylori related gastritis. In 2002, Japanese endoscopist found that collecting venules, seen as numerous minute red dots in the gastric corpus, where a characteristic finding in ...

This study was aimed to describe the endoscopic picture and laboratory findings in children with chronic abdominal pain and to determine the utility of nodular gastritis in diagnosing HPI in these patients. This prospective study was done between November, 2004 and May, 2007. A total of 70 patients (36 male and 34 female) aged 3-14 years, underwent upper endoscopy. H-pylori infection was diagno...