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The microbial etiology of gingivitis and marginal periodontitis is unanimously accepted, but several other factors have to be considered. There are many systemic conditions with unvarying manifestations at the level of the gums and deep periodontium; leukemias have varying rates of development, and in most cases a reserved prognosis. In leukemias, periodontal lesions are caused by various microbial factors, coupled with immunological modifications characteristic of the systemic condition and sometimes exacerbated by loco-regional leukocyte infiltration. If the periodontium is free of tumoral infiltrates, then periodontal lesions are easier to treat and the results are more stable. Loco-regional tumoral infiltration requires more sustained local treatment, able to diminish the spread and delay relapse of periodontal lesions. Diagnosing tumoral infiltrates at the level of the oral cavity is therefore of great importance. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging investigations are costly, especially when conducted repeatedly, and histopathological investigations are invasive and predispose to complications. A diagnostic alternative is thermographic imaging; this is useful in inflammations, infections and tumoral infiltrates, and can therefore be used in several distinct pathological medical conditions. Inflammatory and infectious lesions of the oral cavity can be treated locally, and their healing clinically objectified. In the absence of inflammation and infection, any modifications that arise could therefore be attributed with a high probability to loco-regional tumoral infiltrates. The study was conducted on 10 patients at the Fundeni Clinical Hospital, and documented pathological changes at the level of the periodontium, based on clinical, thermographic and histopathological observations. The results suggest that thermographic imaging could be used to reveal possible oral leukemic infiltrates when performed after therapeutic remission of specific infectious and inflammatory periodontal lesions.

A 27-yr female patient was admitted to the hospital because of secondary amenorrhea and a severe and complex virilization syndrome. The urinary 17-Ks, 17 OHCS and testosterone glucuronide values were greatly increased. The plasma testosterone through very high, was within the normal limits in males (3.52 ng/ml). Urography, echography and CT scan revealed a large right adrenal tumor. Removal of the tumor brought about a considerable clinical improvement: reoccurrence of the menstrual cycle, a progressive decrease in the virilization syndrome and normalization of the urinary 17-Ks, 17-OHCS and of the plasma testosterone.

In 15 patients with a total of 22 breast macrocysts serum and intracystic T4 and T3 and intracysts TSH were concomitantly radioimmunoassayed (using a technique with polyethylene glycol (PEG) for T3, T4, and a double antibody technique for TSH). While in most cysts (17/22) the T4 values were under those in the serum, in 21 cysts T3 was 2-18 times above the serum values. Intracystic TSH was at the lower limit of the normal serum TSH values whereas prolactin (PRL) and thyroglobulin (TGL) assayed in several cysts were not different from their serum value. It suggests that breast macrocysts are able to concentrate or even produce triiodothyronine.

Initial thermic breast values recorded by contact thermography in 29 premenopausal patients with benign breast disease were compared to those recorded 4 and 24 hours after a single 20 mg tamoxifen oral administration. Programmes worked out by the thermographic Prometheus computerized system processed the thermic values. The data obtained were analyzed and compared to the clinical effects resulting from 2 or 3 tamoxifen therapeutic cycles subsequently administered to these patients. The results obtained so far are indicative of the possibility to differentiate by thermographic means the responders from non-responders to subsequent tamoxifen-therapy for breast benign disease.

Digito-palmar dermatoglyphics in 93 subjects with thyroid cancer (34 males, 59 females) of which 87.1% had folliculo-papillar adenocarcinoma were studied qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings were compared to the dermatoglyphics of 100 males and 100 females from the clinically healthy autochthonous population. The thyroid cancer subjects had a lower total digital ridge count (TDRC) and a reduced number of papillar ridges between the a-d triradii, than the control subjects. The A line showed a more marked transversality in cancer males and a more marked obliquity in cancer females. Qualitative examination showed more patterns in the second interdigital area and a higher incidence of typical and atypical form of sulcus transversus in the cancer group as against the controls. Qualitative and quantitative variations in dermatoglyphics were found with respect to the relation between the anatomo-pathologic form and the A, B, or O blood group. However, this variation is not conclusive enough to support the hypothesis of an association between dermatoglyphics and the blood groups in the A, B, O system on the one hand, and dermatoglyphics and the anatomo-pathologic form of thyroid cancer, on the other.

Given the endemic goiter in Romania, the authors sought to evaluate the morphologic prognostic factors with histogenetic implications in the development of thyroid cancer. On this purpose, the morphologic factors that correlate the type of thyroid cancer to the host stromal alterations were studied on 3 groups of 20 patients each and 2 control lots for multinodular goiter and nodular goiter. One group consisted of cases of thyroid carcinoma associated with endemic goiter, the second group included cases of thyroid carcinoma with thyroiditis and nodular goiter and the third group, the cases of thyroid sclerosing occult carcinoma. The study showed in all the cases, that thyroid cancer evoluates as an autonomic lesion, independent of the endemic goiter which is not a risk factor.

In two groups of women--one group of 12 normal-mammary-gland controls and another group of 10 idiopathic galactorrhoea patients--we determined the blood concentration of serotonin and prolactin. The obtained data show no significant differences between the studied groups either in serotonin or prolactin levels i.e., serotonin is not implied in the pathogeny of idiopathic galactorrhoea. The data are confirming our previous results concerning the functional correlations between the serotonin system and prolactin release, as well as the data obtained by other authors on the normal values of prolactin in idiopathic galactorrhoea.

A lot of over 60 atherosclerotics with clinical manifestations of senile depressive illness was studied comparatively with a lot of subjects of the same age with essential arterial hypertension (EAH). As concerns the behaviour of the catecholamine content in CSF and blood, the total catecholamines are approxiately equal in the two lots, but with a clear difference of the catecholamine fractions. The CSF catecholamines behaviour in old atherosclerotics is characterized by the presence of increased values of noradrenaline (NA) and of adrenaline (A), with increased statistical significance, but without modifications of the adrenaline percentage (A %) from the total catecholamines, comparatively to the values found in normal subjects. The serotonin (5-HT) content of the CSF in men with atherosclerotic senile depressive illness was lower even than in subjects with coronary atherosclerosis. In atherosclerosis protides modifications precede the histologic changes. In CSF, GLU, ALA, TYR increase in old subjects. In blood, GLU, ALA, TYR, HIS, LEU, SER increase in the same subjects. ARG decreases with age. THR is higher in men than in women. In the urine of all the men as well as of all the women of more than 60 years, GLN and ALA have increased values. LYS increases with age. GLN and ARG are higher in men than in women.

In order to make thyroid aspiration biopsy, a routine diagnostic and therapeutic procedure in the "C. I. Parhon" Institute of Endocrinology, the authors carried out a study on 100 patients with nodular or diffuse goiter. The results were corroborated by clinical, scintigraphic and echographic data. The cytologic diagnosis was compared with the histopathologic one in 50 operated cases and confirmed by the post-therapeutic clinical course in the remaining 50. The study of the cases classified as benign (83%), suspect (6%) and malignant lesions (11%) was made for each individual diagnosis, taking into account the specific clinical, scintigraphic, echographic, and cytologic aspects. The cytology of cold nodules showed that only 30% of the patients required surgery, the rest of them having benign lesions that benefited from puncture and drug therapy. The cytohistologic concordance in malignant tumors was 93.3% (73.3% for certain, 20% with suspicion). The proportion of false negative diagnoses was 6.6% (one case). None of the findings was falsely positive. The advantages of this procedure are discussed.