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Eosinophilic fasciitis (EF) remains a diagnostic challenge due to its rarity and resemblance to scleroderma. This case report aims to provide a cohesive exploration of EF's clinical nuances, emphasizing the importance of accurate diagnosis and effective management. A 52-year-old male developed bilateral forearm and calf hardening, along with erythema, pruritus, and pain four months prior to the presentation in our Clinic. The symptoms initially debuted bilaterally in the forearms and progressed to involve the calves, distal arms, and thighs. Clinical examination revealed symmetrical plaques on forearms and calves, featuring erythematous, hyper, and hypopigmented elements extending proximally, a positive "groove sign" and a moderate difficulty in knee joint flexion. Despite these findings, the patient was generally in good condition, without any other notable clinical signs. Initial laboratory findings showed slightly increased percentual eosinophil levels, elevated C-reactive protein (CRP), normal erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and negative antinuclear and scleroderma specific antibodies. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated enhanced fascial signal and thickening while the fascia-muscle biopsy revealed marked edema and inflammatory lymphoplasmacytic infiltrate, consistent with the diagnosis of EF. The patient showed a favorable response to systemic corticosteroids. EF predominantly affects males aged 30 to 60 and is characterized by a sudden onset and unclear etiological factors. Differential diagnosis requires careful exclusion of scleroderma and other mimicking conditions. Diagnostic modalities such as skin-muscle biopsy and MRI reveal characteristic findings like inflammatory infiltrate and fascial thickening. Accurate diagnosis and differentiation from scleroderma are crucial, with early intervention involving glucocorticoids and immunosuppressive agents improving long-term outcomes.

Holoprosencephaly (HPE) is a dramatic human brain malformation sequence with an extreme variable phenotypic spectrum and genetic heterogeneity, variable degree of severity and unknown etiology, in many cases. HPE is classified into syndromic, chromosomal, and non-syndromic, non-chromosomal. The most cases of HPE are syndromic. We present an atypical case of syndromic alobar HPE associated with digynic triploidy fetus, prenatally diagnosed, early at 18 weeks of gestation, by ultrasound (US) and complex genetic investigations. The US examination was performed with a specialized US machine, General Electric Voluson E10 OLED BT18, using two-dimensional (2D) scanning, three-dimensional (3D) image reconstruction, four-dimensional (4D) spatiotemporal image methodology and the highest power Doppler US technology. A detailed US examination of the fetus revealed several major abnormalities of the fetal head and severe facial malformations. Based on the antenatal US findings, the fetus was diagnosed with alobar HPE. After a careful examination and genetic counseling, additional cytogenetic investigations and molecular genetic analyses were performed, which revealed an abnormal number of 69 chromosomes, digynic triploidy (69,XXY). Two days later, the parents choose to interrupt the current gestation because of major fetal malformations. The pathological examination of the embryo reaffirmed the antenatal diagnostics.

Patients with serious mental illness are a high-risk category of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Patients with schizophrenia are not participatory and have increased mortality and morbidity, patients with dementia cannot be cared for while depression, anxiety, bipolar tubing are associated with low immune status. Social stress is amplified by social isolation, amplifying depression and the mechanisms of decreased immunity. Hygiene measures and prophylactic behavior are impossible to put into practice in conditions of chronic mental illness. In coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the risk for severe development is associated with the presence of comorbidities and immune system deficiency. Prothrombotic status, cytokine storm and alveolar destruction are mechanisms that aggravate the evolution of patients, especially in the context in which they have dysfunction of the autonomic system. The activity of proinflammatory cytokines is accentuated by hyperglutamatergia, which potentiates oxidative stress and triggers the mechanisms of neural apoptosis by stimulating microglial activation. Activation of M1-type microglia has an important role in pathogenesis of major psychiatric disorders, such as major depression, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, and may associate hippocampal atrophy and disconnection of cognitive structures. Memantine and Amantadine, N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor inhibitors, have demonstrated, through their pharmacological profile, psychotropic effects but also antiviral properties. In the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, based on these arguments, we suggest that they can be associated with the therapy with the basic psychotropics, Memantine or Amantadine, for the control of neuropsychiatric symptoms but also as adjuvants with antiviral action.

Systemic involvement in autoimmune diseases is often unclear and organ changes are confounding, thus making it difficult to have an early accurate diagnosis. In those situations, both clinical and paraclinical findings might orientate the diagnosis, but only histological or immunohistochemistry changes might be accurate enough. The skin histological changes are relevant and sometimes might have a tremendous role in the accurate diagnosis of autoimmune rheumatic diseases, due to the correlation with the clinical systemic manifestations of the diseases and through the accessibility of biopsy. In the same time, muscle biopsy can provide important support for physicians improving diagnosis and optimizing management of connective tissue diseases.

Hepatic steatosis is a progressive liver disease, frequently met in chronic virus C hepatitis, playing an important role in its evolution towards fibrosis, necroinflammation and the final stage the hepatocellular carcinoma. The present paper studies the correlation between clinico-epidemiological parameters and the pathology test outcome in patients with hepatic biopsies carried out before they began the antiviral treatment. We used the classical histological staining and the immunolabeling. The presence of steatosis is not directly associated with clinico-epidemiological parameters and with the degree of fibrosis and inflammation.

Myocardial fibrosis is one of the most common histopathological lesions found in chronic heart diseases. Progressive development of myocardial fibrosis will cause heart failure, an extremely debilitating and life threatening condition. The correlation between the severity of fibrosis and myocardial microcirculation is an important prognostic factor in this disease entity. In our study, myocardial microvascular density evaluation of the patients with high blood pressure (hypertension), atrial fibrillation (AF), coronary heart disease, and heart failure showed a significant decrease of the values of this parameter, which means that myocardial fibrosis is the direct result of stimulation of myocardial fibroblasts induced by local hypoxia.

The purpose of this study was in vitro evaluation and comparison of the adhesion of self-etch (SE) adhesive systems applied on normal and sclerotic dentin. For this study, Class 5 cavities were prepared on sound teeth as well as on teeth with sclerotic dentin. They were then restored by means of the SE 2-step OptiBond XTR (Kerr) and SE 1-step Bond Force (Tokuyama Dental) adhesive systems, as well as the Estelite Sigma Quick (Tokuyama Dental) composite resin. For teeth with sclerotic dentin, the hypermineralized superficial layer was removed by means of round bur on low speed, than the adhesive systems and composite resin were applied. These teeth were prepared for microscopic study according to the protocol specific to each microscope. SEM (scanning electron microscopy) examination reveals that on normal and sclerotic dentin, OptiBond XTR and Bond Force form hybrid layers with about the same thickness, greater in normal dentin, but only OptiBond XTR pervades into the dentinal tubules, both in normal and sclerotic dentin. However, TEM (transmission electron microscopy) examination of Bond Force reveals that it penetrates into the dentinal tubules as well, but only in the case of normal dentin. The thickness of the hybrid layers resulting from the application of the SE adhesive systems to sound dentin is different from the thickness of the hybrid layers obtained when the same adhesive systems have been applied to sclerotic dentin.

Hepatic steatosis is a common histological finding in chronic liver diseases. One of the pathological entities in which hepatic steatosis has been found is chronic hepatitis C. The prevalence of steatosis in these patients ranges from 40% to 86%, with an average of 55%, which is two times higher than the steatosis seen in adults uninfected with hepatitis C. Many studies have shown that hepatic steatosis is a medical condition that may progress to steatohepatitis, progressive hepatic failure, hepatic cirrhosis, and is a risk factor for development of hepatocellular carcinoma. We have proposed to evaluate the severity of steatosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C and to correlate it with necroinflammatory processes and fibrosis. We included 259 patients diagnosed with chronic hepatitis C and proven histological steatosis. Age of patients with hepatic steatosis varied from 20 to 69 years. Most cases of steatosis associated with chronic hepatitis C (47.87%) were diagnosed in the age group 50-59 years. Of 259 patients, 141 (54.44%) were female and 118 (45.56%) male. Slight steatosis was identified in 130 cases (50.19%), moderate fatty changes were present in 54 (20.85%) patients and severe steatosis in 75 (28.96%) patients. The appearance of steatosis was macrovesicular and predominantly affected the third zone of the hepatic lobe. Most cases of hepatic steatosis were associated with necroinflammatory activity and low and moderate fibrosis. Cases of marked steatosis associated with intense activity accounted for about 10%, while marked steatosis was associated with severe fibrosis in less than 5% of cases.

Study Objectives: In vitro evaluation and comparison of the adhesion of a generation-7 adhesive system to normal and sclerotic dentin., Materials and Methods: For this study, sound teeth as well as teeth with sclerotic dentin, which had been extracted for periodontal reasons, were prepared. Class 5 cavities were prepared, then restored by means of the SE 1-step Futurabond M (Voco) adhesive system, as well as the Estelite Sigma Quick (Tokuyama Dental) composite resin. For teeth with sclerotic dentin, the hypermineralized superficial layer was removed by means of round bur on low speed, then the adhesive system and composite resin were applied. These teeth were prepared for microscopic study according to the protocol specific to each microscope. For the study involving the confocal microscope, the adhesive was mixed with the Evans Blue dye before being applied to the tooth, then the same protocol was followed., Results: When applied to normal dentin, Futurabond M (Voco), the generation-7 adhesive system, forms a hybrid layer with a depth of 20-25 μm, while it can be noted that it pervades 6-8 μm into the dentinal tubules. When applied to sclerotic dentin, it was noted that the adhesive system does not pervade into the tubules, with an approximately 10-15 μm depth of the hybrid layer., Conclusions: The adhesion to sclerotic dentin shows particular aspects. When it is desired to employ generation-7 adhesive systems (SE 1-step) on sclerotic dentin, the therapeutic approach needs to include the following supplementary stages: removal of the superficial hypermineralized layer, as well as predemineralization with 37% phosphoric acid; they are the only stages that might improve the adhesion to this substrate.