HETEROGENEITY OF CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF HYPERPROLACTINEMIA (REVIEW AND OWN OBSERVATIONS)

The article is devoted to the features of the clinical picture of hyperprolactinemia, which can be partially determined by both gender and age of patients. Along with the well-known "classic" manifestations of hyperprolactinemiс syndrome, such as clinical signs of hypogonadism and mechanical pressure of the pituitary tumor on adjacent anatomical structures, there are others that are poorly known to a wide range of practicing physicians. Less frequent manifestations of hyperprolactinemia include the development of hypopituitarism, osteoporosis or osteopenia, alopecia. The analysis of literature data is illustrated with clinical examples from our own practice. It is noted that the pronounced heterogeneity of the clinical manifestations of hyperprolactinemia determines the need to develop continuity and consistency between doctors of different specialties for timely diagnosis and adequate treatment of this pathology.

MicroRNA-based assay for differential diagnosis of mesothelioma

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Background: Malignant mesothelioma is an aggressive pleural neoplasm, strongly linked to environmental exposures such as asbestos. Mesothelioma can be difficult to differentiate from other tumors in the lung or pleura such as primary lung adenocarcinoma presenting with pleural effusion or metastatic adenocarcinoma from extrathoracic sites. We addressed the increasing need for accurate differential diagnosis of these tumors by developing a diagnostic assay based on expression levels of microRNAs, a family of small, non-coding RNAs whose tissue-specificity has proven applicability for identification of cancer tissue type and histology. Methods: We developed protocols for extraction of high-quality RNA that retain the microRNA fraction from FFPE tissue samples. Microarrays were used for initial profiling. qRT-PCR was used to validate results and to develop a diagnostic assay. Results: We identified microRNAs that are differentially expressed between mesothelioma, lung adenocarcinoma, and other confounding tumor types. A diagnostic assay (miRview™ meso) was developed, that utilizes qRT-PCR measurement of a small set of microRNAs to differentiate between mesothelioma and non-mesothelioma samples. After establishing this profile in more than 30 mesotheliomas and 200 samples of confounding tumors, the microRNA biomarkers were measured using a standardized protocol on a blinded test set. The assay had accuracy greater than 90% in differentiating mesothelioma from other confounding tumor types. More than ¾ of samples were classified with high confidence, and these samples were all correctly identified. Conclusions: MicroRNAs are emerging as effective cancer biomarkers. A robust and simple assay based on the expression level of a few microRNA biomarkers can accurately differentiate mesothelioma from other possible tumors in the lung and pleura. This assay provides an important new tool for diagnosing mesothelioma.

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