A rash diagnosis: Gemcitabine-associated pseudocellulitis

Gemcitabine is an antitumor agent with broad clinical application. The most common cutaneous toxicities are mild rash and pruritus; however, a severe ‘pseudocellulitis’ rash, which resembles infectious cellulitis in clinical presentation, has increasingly been recognized as a rare complication of this agent. Though the specific pathophysiology related to this condition is not clear, it has been observed to occur primarily in regions of significant lymphadenopathy or prior radiation exposure typically after 24–48 h following administration of gemcitabine. It is a self-limiting reaction, with most cases resolving within two to seven days of onset without any specific treatment for the rash. Treatment with gemcitabine may be safely continued in patients with this complication, though recurrence of the rash is common following repeated doses. We report a case of biopsy confirmed gemcitabine associated pseudocellulitis in a patient treated for metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Knowledge of this complication is important to avoid unwarranted hospitalizations and antibiotic use in patients treated with gemcitabine.

Trimodulatory effects of asoka extracts along with cisplatin and hyperthermia against sarcoma - 180 tumour bearing mice.

Cisplatin is the most active anticancer agents and have broad clinical application. Saraca asoca, one of the most important medicinal plants has showed potential antitumour activity and chemoprotective effects on toxicities induced by cisplatin. Purification and chemical analysis of the active compound from the bark and flower extracts of Asoka was done and observed that the plant have chemoprotective activity. The effect of administration of extracts of Saraca asoca flower and bark were studied in sarcoma-180 tumour bearing mice. Hyperthermia has been shown to enhance the antitumour activity of Chemotherapeutic drugs. So from the above observation, it is clear that the use of Ashoka extracts along with cisplatin and hyperthermia can enhance the antitumour activity. This trimodality treatment schedule with the Ashoka bark and flower extracts, hyperthermia and cisplatin significantly inhibited the growth of subcutaneously transplanted Sarcoma-180 solid tumours in mice.

Real-time clinical clutter reduction in combined epi-optoacoustic and ultrasound imaging

Flexible imaging of the human body, a requirement for broad clinical application, is obtained by direct integration of optoacoustic (OA) imaging with echo ultrasound (US) in a multimodal epi-illumination system. Up to date, successful deep epi-OA imaging is difficult to achieve owing to clutter. Clutter signals arise from optical absorption in the region of tissue irradiation and strongly reduce contrast and imaging depth. Recently, we developed a displacement-compensated averaging (DCA) technique for clutter reduction based on the clutter decorrelation that occurs when palpating the tissue. To gain first clinical experience on the practical value of DCA, we implemented this technique in a combined clinical OA and US imaging system. Our experience with freehand scanning of human volunteers reveals that real-time feedback on the clutter-reduction outcome is a key factor for achieving superior contrast and imaging depth.