Tanja Jozic

Myocardial reinfarction in a patient with coronary ectasia.

A 47-year-old male patient was admitted to our Emergency Hospital’s coronary unit with an acute myocardial infarction, localized inferolaterally. He had been hospitalized 2 months before this occurrence because of persistent chest pain accompanied by elevation of the ST segment in precordial and inferior leads, for which he received thrombolytic therapy. Selective cardiac catheterization was then also effected, and showed diffuse ectasia of coronary arteries with no significant stenoses. Since streptokinase had been applied recently, the patient was given standard therapy as well as electroshocks because of chamber fibrillation. Two hours after admission, the infarct pain ceased and rapid ECG improvement occurred. Repeated coronarography showed a situation identical to the previous one. The patient was sent home to proceed with drug therapy.

TNF α (-308G>A) And TNF-R1 (36A>G) Single nucleotide polymorphisms are strong risk factors for odontogenic keratocystic tumor development.

BACKGROUND Polymorphisms in genes encoding tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and its receptor TNF-R1 have been shown to affect one persons susceptibility to develop certain neoplastic diseases. The aim of the present association study was to investigate whether single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in TNF-α (-308G>A) and TNF-R1 (36A>G) genes modulate the susceptibility for keratocystic odontogenic tumors (KCOTs) development in Serbian patients. METHODS Genotyping was performed in 60 KCOT patients and 125 healthy individuals, using polymerase chain reaction/restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. RESULTS A significant difference in genotype and allele frequencies was found between patients and controls for both SNPs (P < 0.05). Carriers of the TNF-α A variant had an eightfold increase of KCOT risk (OR = 8.12, 95% CI = 3.98-16.56, P < 0.0001), while carriers of the TNF-R1 G variant had approximately a fourfold increase of KCOT risk (OR=3.65, CI: 1.60-8.40, P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that the two polymorphisms are strong risk factors for KCOT development in Serbian population.