Themistoklis Mikos

Uterus-sparing operative treatment for adenomyosis

OBJECTIVE To review systematically the literature on uterus-sparing surgical treatment options for adenomyosis. DESIGN Systematic literature review. SETTING Tertiary academic center. PATIENT(S) Women with histologically proven adenomyosis treated with uterus-sparing surgical techniques. INTERVENTION(S) Conservative uterine-sparing surgery for adenomyosis classified as (1) complete excision of adenomyosis, (2) cytoreductive surgery or incomplete removal of the lesion, or (3) nonexcisional techniques, with studies selected if women with adenomyosis were treated surgically without performing hysterectomy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) The cure rate after interventional strategies, the rate of symptom (dysmenorrhea and menorrhagia) control, and pregnancy rate in each group of intervention. RESULT(S) A quality assessment tool was used to assess the scientific value of each study. In total, 64 studies dealing with 1,049 patients were identified. After complete excision, the dysmenorrhea reduction, menorrhagia control, and pregnancy rate were 82.0%, 68.8%, and 60.5%, respectively. After partial excision, the dysmenorrhea reduction, menorrhagia control, and pregnancy rate were 81.8%, 50.0%, and 46.9%, respectively. CONCLUSION(S) Uterine-sparing operative treatment of adenomyosis and its variants appear to be feasible and efficacious. Well-designed, comparative studies are urgently needed to answer the multiple questions arising from this intriguing intervention.

A prospective comparison of transvaginal ultrasound, saline infusion sonohysterography, and diagnostic hysteroscopy in the evaluation of endometrial pathology

OBJECTIVE To compare the diagnostic performance of saline infusion sonohysterography (SIS), transvaginal ultrasound (TVS), and diagnostic hysteroscopy (DH) in the detection of endometrial lesions in symptomatic women. DESIGN Prospective, comparative study. SETTING Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of a tertiary academic hospital. PATIENT(S) A total of 105 consecutive women presenting in an outpatient clinic with symptoms of menorrhagia, postmenopausal bleeding, and infertility. INTERVENTION(S) Each patient had TVS, SIS, and DH. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative likelihood ratios (LR+ and LR-) for TVS, SIS, and DH were determined for the diagnosis of endometrial pathology. More specifically, the diagnostic performance of each of these three methods was compared after receiver operating characteristic analysis. RESULT(S) By comparative analysis of the area under the curve, DH was found to have a significantly better diagnostic performance compared to SIS and TVS. In addition, after comparing the receiver operating characteristic curves, DH was found to be significantly more precise in the diagnosis of intracavitary masses than TVS and SIS. However, SIS was more accurate compared to TVS. CONCLUSION(S) Saline infusion sonohysterography appears to be more valuable than TVS in the diagnosis of intracavitary masses (both polyps and myomas).

Endometriotic Uterocutaneous Fistula after Cesarean Section

Endometriosis outside the pelvis is rare and most cases occur in surgical scars after operations involving the female genital tract. Fistulae involving the uterus are also very rare, usually being the result of postpartum and postoperative complications. In the present report, a case of a 44-year-old patient with an endometriotic uterocutaneous fistula is described. The patient presented 6 years after her fourth cesarean section with a painful nodule on the cesarean scar, which was bleeding during menstruation. The lesion extended to the uterine fundus, connecting the endometrial cavity with the skin. This is merely the second case of a uterocutaneous fistula to be reported in the literature and the first case developed on grounds of endometriosis.

Value of magnetic resonance imaging in diagnosis of adenomyosis and myomas of the uterus.

STUDY OBJECTIVE To estimate the diagnostic performance of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in detection of myomas and adenomyosis of the uterus. DESIGN Prospective cohort observational study (Canadian Task Force classification II-2). SETTING Department of obstetrics and gynecology, tertiary academic hospital. PATIENTS One hundred fifty-three consecutive women with an enlarged uterus accompanied by gynecologic symptoms and/or with an asymptomatic pelvic mass. INTERVENTION Total abdominal hysterectomy. All patients underwent MRI before the operation. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS The sensitivity, specificity, positive, and negative predictive value of MRI for the diagnosis of uterine pathology was calculated using histologic findings as the standard criterion for final diagnosis. Receiver operating characteristics curves were constructed to describe the diagnostic performance of MRI. In the diagnosis of myomas, MRI demonstrated sensitivity of 94.1%, specificity of 68.7%, PPV of 95.7%, and NPV of 61.1%. In the diagnosis of adenomyosis, MRI demonstrated sensitivity of 46.1%, specificity of 99.1%, PPV of 92.3%, and NPV of 88.5%. The area under the curve (AUC) for the diagnostic performance of MRI in the detection of myomas and adenomyosis was 0.81 and 0.73, respectively. Uterine sarcoma was diagnosed in 5 patients; in these cases, MRI demonstrated sensitivity of 60.0%, specificity of 99.2%, PPV of 75.0%, and NPV of 98.4%. The AUC for MRI in the diagnosis of uterine sarcomas was 0.80. CONCLUSIONS MRI exhibits a high AUC for the diagnosis of both adenomyosis and myomas. The PPV of MRI in the diagnosis of adenomyosis and myomas of the uterus is high as well. MRI seems to be a useful technique in everyday clinical practice in the diagnostic approach of these common conditions, enabling clinicians to select the most appropriate management.

Prevalence and distribution of high-risk human papillomavirus in Greece.

As knowledge of regional human papillomavirus (HPV) type distribution is essential for the optimization of prevention strategies, this study was carried out to explore the prevalence and type distribution of high-risk HPV in a screening population across Greece. Cervical samples were collected by local physicians and nurses in hospitals and health centers across the country from 4139 women attending for cervical cancer screening. High-risk HPV-DNA was detected by using Hybrid Capture-2 (HC2) and positive samples with adequate cellular content were further typed by restriction fragment length polymorphism-polymerase chain reaction. Almost six percent (5.9%) of women tested positive in HC2. The most common type was HPV16 (1.4% in the whole sample and 32.4% of the typed samples), followed by HPV53 (0.6 and 14.0%, respectively), HPV31 (0.6 and 12.9%, respectively), HPV35 (0.5 and 12.3%, respectively), HPV51 (0.4 and 7.8%, respectively), HPV18 (0.3 and 7.3%, respectively) and 22 more types. Almost 15% of the typed samples showed a coinfection with two HPV types and 2.1% with three types. There was a bimodal distribution by age, with the highest peak in women 20–29 years old and a lower peak in women 50–59 years old. Apart from the types originally included in HC2 cocktail, PCR analysis identified 15 more types (HPV6, HPV11, HPV34, HPV37, HPV38, HPV42, HPV53, HPV54, HPV55, HPV61, HPV62, HPV66, HPV73, HPV82, HPV83). Eleven percent of HC2-positive results arose from single-type infections with HPV53 (10%) and HPV66 (1%), which are potentially high-risk types. In conclusion, HPV16 is the most common type in the largest Greek screening sample used to date and, together with its related types, accounts for more than half of high-risk HPV infections. Approximately 10% of positive HC2 results arise from HPV53, which is not normally detected by the test, but may be clinically significant.

Case report: Laparoscopic treatment of a ruptured interstitial pregnancy

Interstitial pregnancy is a rare but life-threatening condition. A case of a 28-year-old woman with a partially ruptured interstitial pregnancy treated with operative laparoscopy is presented. A laparoscopic cornual resection and a left salpingectomy were performed uneventfully. Serum beta-human chorionic gonadotrophin concentrations were measured serially at weekly intervals until resolved on day 20 postoperatively. It seems, therefore, that laparoscopic treatment is still an effective option for management even in ruptured interstitial pregnancy, preserving the anatomical integrity of the uterus and future fertility, and that rupture of interstitial ectopic pregnancy is not a contra-indication for laparoscopy.

Semantic Integration of Cervical Cancer Data Repositories to Facilitate Multicenter Association Studies: The ASSIST Approach

The current work addresses the unification of Electronic Health Records related to cervical cancer into a single medical knowledge source, in the context of the EU-funded ASSIST research project. The project aims to facilitate the research for cervical precancer and cancer through a system that virtually unifies multiple patient record repositories, physically located in different medical centers/hospitals, thus, increasing flexibility by allowing the formation of study groups “on demand” and by recycling patient records in new studies. To this end, ASSIST uses semantic technologies to translate all medical entities (such as patient examination results, history, habits, genetic profile) and represent them in a common form, encoded in the ASSIST Cervical Cancer Ontology. The current paper presents the knowledge elicitation approach followed, towards the definition and representation of the diseases medical concepts and rules that constitute the basis for the ASSIST Cervical Cancer Ontology. The proposed approach constitutes a paradigm for semantic integration of heterogeneous clinical data that may be applicable to other biomedical application domains.

Glutathione-S-transferase M1 and T1 and cytochrome P1A1 genetic polymorphisms and susceptibility to cervical intraepithelial neoplasia in Greek women.

The aim of the study was to determine the importance of genetic polymorphisms of glutathione-S-transferase T1 and M1 and cytochrome P1A1 genes in the development of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia in Greek women. This was a prospective, case–control study conducted by the Cervical Pathology and Colposcopy Unit of a University Ob/Gyn Department from 1999 to 2003. Cervical smears from 114 controls without any cytological and/or colposcopical evidence of cervical pathology and from 166 women with history of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (56 CIN I, 54 CIN II and 56 CIN III) were examined with polymerase chain reaction for the above-mentioned genetic polymorphisms, taking also in mind their smoking attitudes. Statistical analysis was performed to detect any association between the null genotype of GSTM1 and GSTT1 genes and the CYP1A1 m1 polymorphism and the severity of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. The distributions of the GSTT1 and GSTM1 wild-type genotypes were 57.48 and 39.75%, respectively. No woman with homozygous GSTT1 and GSTM1 null/null genotype was identified. CYP1A1 m1 polymorphism frequency was 24.49%. No woman with homozygous CYP1A1 m1/m1 genotype was detected as well. No significant difference in the frequencies of the GSTM1 and GSTT1 null alleles, and the CYP1A1 m1 polymorphism, was found between cases and controls. After application of Mantel–Haenszel χ2 procedure, there was no linear severity of the lesion and the frequency of these polymorphisms. According to our results, glutathione-S-transferase T1 and M1 and cytochrome P1A1 genetic polymporphisms do not appear to be a risk factor for cervical disease irrespective of smoking habits.

Neurodevelopmental fetal assessment using KANET scoring system in low and high risk pregnancies.

Objective: To assess and compare fetal behavior and neurodevelopment (KANET) between low and high risk pregnancies. Methods: Prospective, comparative, cohort study. One hundred and fifty-two consecutive pregnant women presenting for routine 2nd trimester and 3rd trimester scan had four dimensional ultrasound examinations (4D US) in order to assess fetal behavior and neurodevelopment. This was achieved by the study of: (1) isolated head movements, (2) isolated hand movements, (3) isolated leg movements, (4) cranial sutures, (5) hand to face/head movements, (6) finger movements, (7) yawning – mouthing, (8) facial expressions, (9) isolated eye blinking, (10) “Gestalt” perception. According to the maternal background risk, the population of the study was classified in low risk pregnancies (n = 78) and high risk pregnancies (n = 74) with IUGR fetuses (n = 12), diabetes mellitus (n = 24), and pre-eclampsia (n = 38). Results: The neurodevelopmental score was statistically significant higher in the low risk group compared to the high risk group (p < 0.0004). The diabetes subgroup score was statistically significantly higher compared to the IUGR and the pre-eclampsia subgroup (p = 0.0001). Conclusions: The neurodevelopment fetal assessment by 4D ultrasound appears to be a feasible technique in the evaluation of high risk pregnancies. Further studies where any association between KANET score and neurological outcome of the childhood are warranted.

Mucocele of the Vermiform Appendix with Sonographic Appearance of an Adnexal Mass

Mucocele of the vermiform appendix is caused by mucus retention in its lumen, due to obstruction or hyperproduction. Appendiceal malignancy can be the underlying cause, making accurate preoperative diagnosis imperative. In women, it can sometimes present as an adnexal mass. A rare case of an appendiceal mucocele is presented, mimicking a cystic tumor of the right adnexum, both clinically and ultrasonographically. In addition, serum levels of CA-125 were increased. This is the first case of a mucocele of the appendix simulating an adnexal mass on ultrasound with increased levels of CA-125 to be reported. This clinical entity should be considered in patients presenting on ultrasound with a right-sided adnexal mass as a rare potential diagnosis.