Summary
Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia. 2008;30(2):80-86
06-03-2008
DOI 10.1590/S0100-72032008000200006
PURPOSE: to describe the clinical and laboratorial profile of HELLP syndrome patients admitted at an Obstetric Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and included in a randomized clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of dexamethasone in this clinical setting. METHODS: the present study is a secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial design to evaluate the efficacy of dexamethasone in patients with HELLP syndrome. This sample of patients was composed of patients in the puerperium, with the diagnosis of HELLP syndrome (diagnosis made before or after delivery) who were not chronic corticosteroid users and not carriers of any chronic disease which could modify HELLP syndrome's laboratorial parameters. Patients who were too critical or whose condition did not allow them to consent to participate were not included. Data were extracted from the records used in the randomized clinical trial. Age, parity, gestational age at admission and delivery, time of diagnosis (before or after delivery), HELLP syndrome classification (partial or complete), arterial blood pressure, and diuresis at admission were considered for analysis. Among laboratorial findings, hemoglobin, platelet count, liver enzymes, LDH, and serum bilirubin were analyzed. Complications presented by the patients were also analyzed as well as need of blood transfusions and duration of hospitalization. Analysis was made by the Epi-Info 3.3.2 program. RESULTS: one hundred and five patients were analyzed. Age varied from 14 to 49 years (means of 26.7). Regarding parity, 56 patients (53.8%) were primiparas. Analyzing the timing of the diagnosis, 47 patients (45.2%) had the diagnosis before delivery. The mean gestational age in these patients was 32.4 weeks. Hemorrhagic manifestations were observed in 36 patients (34.3%), oliguria was present in 49 patients (46.7%) and criteria for acute renal failure were seen in 21 (20%) of the cases. Hemotransfusions were necessary in 35 (33.3%) patients. Seven patients (6.7%) had pulmonary edema and four patients died, corresponding to 3.8% of the cases. The mean time from diagnosis of HELLP syndrome to discharge or death was 10.3 days, varying from 1 to 33 days. CONCLUSIONS: HELLP syndrome is an ominous diagnosis, which implicates in elevated maternal morbimortality. Among complications, oliguria and hemorrhagic manifestations were the most common findings and hemotransfusions were frequently required. Lethality reached 3.8%.
Summary
Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia. 2008;30(2):67-74
06-03-2008
DOI 10.1590/S0100-72032008000200004
PURPOSE: to compare the epidemiologic and clinical characteristics, and the follow-up of breast cancer in women diagnosed under and over 40 years of age. METHODS: a retrospective study, case-control type, with analysis of information obtained from medical records of patients attended from January 1994 to June 2004. Cases of intraductal carcinoma and at stage IV were excluded. Three groups were formed: patients under 40 years old at the diagnosis (n=72); patients between 40 and 50 (n=68) and patients over 50 (n=75). Data about age at the moment of diagnosis, lesion largest diameter, clinical stage, type, histological grade, presence of hormonal receptors and state of the lymph nodes were collected and analyzed. The chi2 test was used for qualitative variables. For quantitative variables without normal distribution (such as number of axillary nodes with metastasis and follow-up duration), the Kruskal-Wallis' test was used. For delineating the curves of free-of-disease and global survival, the log-rank test was used. RESULTS: there was no difference among the groups in the stage distribution, concerning the tumoral differentiation grade or in the distribution of histological types, and in the estrogen receptor and c-erb-B2 expression. Difference was found in the RP expression, which was less frequent in the group of patients under 40, than in the group of patients over 50 (36.2% versus 58.4%) respectively. There was no difference among the groups in the mean tumoral diameter (5.1, 4.7 and 5 cm, respectively). There was also no difference among the groups, concerning the rate of axillary lymph node metastasis (63.9, 46.9 and 50%, respectively). The average follow-up was 54 months for all the groups. Disease recurrence occurred in 22.6% of patients under 40 years old, in 60% of patients between 40 and 50, and in 22.6% of patients over 50, with a significant difference among groups (p<0.0001). Death caused by the disease was higher among patients under 40 (46.9%) than among patients between 40 and 50 (26.9%) and over 50 (22.6%), p=0.0019. The logistic analysis showed that "age under 40" and the "presence of more than one metastatic axillary node" were independent death risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: age under 40 is an independent risk factor for breast cancer. The traditional prognostic indicators, such as stage, tumoral diameter, axillary involvement and presence of hormonal receptors are not associated with the disease evolution.
Summary
Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia. 2008;30(1):42-47
04-07-2008
DOI 10.1590/S0100-72032008000100008
Breast cancer is the principal cause of death from cancer in women. Molecular studies of breast cancer, based in the identification of the molecular profiling techniques through cDNA microarray, had allowed defining at least five distinct sub-group: luminal A, luminal B, HER-2-overexpression, basal and " normal" type breast-like. The technique of tissue microarrays (TMA), described for the first time in 1998, allows to study, in some samples of breast cancer, distinguished by differences in their gene expression patterns, which provide a distinctive molecular portrait for each tumor and the basis for and improved breast cancer molecular taxonomy. Another important implication is that genetic profiling may lead to the identification of new target for therapy and better predictive markers are needed to guide difficult treatment decisions. Additionally, the current pathology classification system is suboptimal, since patients with identical tumor types and stage of disease present different responses to therapy and different overall outcomes. Basal breast tumor represents one of the most intriguing subtypes and is frequently associated with poor prognosis and absence of putative therapeutic targets. Then, the purpose of this review was to resume the most recent knowledge about the breast carcinoma classification and characterization.
Summary
Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia. 2008;30(3):107-112
02-29-2008
DOI 10.1590/S0100-72032008005000005
PURPOSE: to evaluate which method is the best to determine pre-surgically the size of breast cancer: clinical examination, mammography or ultrasonography, using as a reference the anatomopathological exam. METHODS: this study has included 184 patients with palpable-or-not breast lesions, detected by mammography and ultrasonography, that were submitted to surgical resection of the tumor, with histopathological diagnosis of breast cancer. The same examiner evaluated clinically the largest tumoral diameter, through clinical examination, mammography and ultrasonography, and the measurements obtained by each method were correlated with the maximum diameter obtained by the anatomopathological exam. The comparative analysis has been done by Pearson's correlation coefficient (r). RESULTS: Pearson's correlation coefficient between the anatomopathological and the clinical exams was 0.8; between the anatomopathological exam and the mammography, 0.7; and between anatomopathological exam and ultrasonography 0.7 (p<0.05). Pearson's correlation coefficients among the methods evaluated were also calculated and r=0.7 was obtained between clinical exam and mammography, r=0.8 between clinical examination and utrasonograhy, and r=0.8 between mammography and ultrasonography (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: clinical examination, mammography and ultrasonography have presented high correlation with the anatomopathological measures, besides high correlations among themselves, what seems to show that they may be used as equivalent methods in the pre-surgical evaluation of the breast tumoral size. Nevertheless, due to specific limitations of each method, clinical examination, mammography and ultrasonography should be seen as complementary to each other, in order to obtain a more accurate measurement of the breast cancer tumor.
Summary
Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia. 2007;29(11):575-579
02-27-2007
DOI 10.1590/S0100-72032007001100005
PURPOSE: the villoglandular adenocarcinoma (VGA) of the cervix has been identified as a variant of cervical adenocarcinoma that occurs in young women, which has an excellent prognosis. Considering the scarcity of studies related to the subject, we report six cases of VGA of the cervix. METHODS: we followed the development of six cases of VGA in the period from 1995 to 2006 at Hospital São Lucas of Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUC-RS). We collected clinical and histologic information of the patients and submitted all the surgical specimens to histological review. RESULTS: mean age at diagnosis was 43.5 years (range 27-61 years). Four patients were submitted to Wertheim-Meigs radical hysterectomy and bilateral pelvic lymphadenectomy, one to conization and subsequent radiotherapy and one to pelvic lymphadenectomy followed by radiotherapy. All the patients were alive and well at the time of this writing, without evidence of recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: the implications of therapy are discussed. We propose here the inclusion of the study of the pattern of lymphovascular involvement in determining the diagnosis of VGA. Thus, in referring to this diagnosis, we will be able to opt, with caution, for conservative therapy, except for particularities of each case.
Summary
Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia. 2007;29(5):253-259
10-05-2007
DOI 10.1590/S0100-72032007000500006
PURPOSE: to evaluate the insulin therapy protocol and its maternal and perinatal outcome in patients with clinical or gestational diabetes in a high risk reference service. METHODS: descriptive and prospective study including 103 pregnant women with gestational or clinical diabetes treated with insulin and attended by the reference service from October 2003 to December 2005. Gemellarity, miscarriages, unfinished prenatal care and deliveries not attended by the service were excluded. The gestational age at the beginning of the treatment, dosage, doses/day, increment of insulin (UI/kg), glycemic index (GI) and perinatal outcomes were compared. ANOVA, Fisher’s exact test and Goodman’s test considering p<0.05 were used. RESULTS: multiparity (92 versus 67.9%), pre-gestational body mass index (BMI) >25 kg/m² (88 versus 58.5%), weight gain (WG) <8 kg (36 versus 17%) and a high increment of insulin characterized the gestational diabetes. For the patients with clinical diabetes, despite the highest GI (120 mg/dL (39.2 versus 24%)) at the end of the gestational period, insulin therapy started earlier (47.2 versus 4%), lasted longer (56.6 versus 6%) and higher doses of insulin (92 versus 43 UI/day) were administered up to three times a day (54.7 versus 16%). Macrosomia was higher among newborns from the cohort of patients with gestational diabetes (16 versus 3.8%), being the only significant neonatal outcome. There were no neonatal deaths, except for one fetal death in the cohort of patients with clinical diabetes. There were no differences in the other neonatal complications in both cohorts, and most of the newborns were discharged from hospital up to seven days after delivery (46% versus 55.8%). CONCLUSIONS: the analysis of these two cohorts has shown differences in the insulin therapy protocol in quantity (UI/day), dosage (UI/kg weight) and number of doses/day, higher for the clinical diabetes cohort, and in the increment of insulin, higher for the gestational diabetes cohort. Indirectly, the quality of maternal glycemic control and the satisfactory perinatal outcome have proven that the treatment protocol was adequate and did not depend on the type of diabetes.
Summary
Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia. 2006;28(5):298-303
08-28-2006
DOI 10.1590/S0100-72032006000500006
PURPOSE: to assess p53 protein expression in infiltrating ductal breast carcinoma and to analyze its association with histological and nuclear grade. METHODS: sixty-five consecutive females who were diagnosed with primary infiltrating ductal breast tumor from July 1999 to July 2001 were included in the present study. Mean patient age at diagnosis was 69.2 years (range 41 - 90). All patients were first treated with surgical therapy, conservative surgery or mastectomy. None of the patients received any preoperative adjuvant therapy. Resected breast tumor specimens were fixed in 10% formalin, paraffin embedded, and conserved for immunohistochemical analysis. p53 protein expression was evaluated. Primary monoclonal anti-human p53 antibody DO-7 (DAKO) was used. Frequency distributions were tested by the chi2 test. A level of p<0,05 was considered significant. RESULTS: p53 expression was detected in 24 (36,9%) of 65 carcinomas. Of the cases with protein expression, 13 (54,2%) were high or histological grade III, 8 (33,3%), were grade II, 3 (12,5%) were grade I. On nuclear grade analysis, of the cases with protein expression, 13 (4,2%) were nuclear grade III, 9 (37,5%) were grade II and 2 (8,3%) were grade I. p53 expression was frequent in carcinomas with high histological and nuclear grades. CONCLUSIONS: p53 expression was significantly associated with the histological grade. On the other hand, nuclear grade was not significantly related to p53 expression.