[INTRODUCTION - The primary aim of the study was to investigate the possibility of a teratogenic effect of vaginal metronidazole treatment during pregnancy. MATERIALS AND METHODS - Various congenital abnormalities and all (1-3) their matched controls were analysed in the population-based database of the Hungarian Case-Control Surveillance of Congenital Abnormalities between 1980 and 1996. The study group comprised 38 151 pregnant women who had newborns without any congenital abnormalities (control group) and 22 843 pregnant women who had newborns or fetuses with congenital abnormalities. Main outcome measures were analysed in 22 congenital abnormalities groups. The use of metronidazole during the second and third trimesters being common, the secondary objective of the study was to analyse the effect of vaginal metronidazole treatment (500 mg of Klion) on gestational age and birth weight in the control group without congenital abnormalities. RESULTS - The prevalence of vaginal metronidazole treatment during pregnancy was 1.7% in the case group (n=388) and 1.5% in the control group (n=570) (odds ratio (OR), 1.1, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.0-1.3). Comparisons of cases and their matched controls showed an association between vaginal metronidazole treatment during the second and third months of gestation and congenital hydrocephaly (adjusted OR with 95% CI, 10.7, 1.1-104.5), but this was only based on five cases. The analysis of metronidazole treatment reported by the physicians did not confirm this association. After metronidazole use the mean gestational age was slightly shorter (by 0.1 week) and the mean birth weight was also slightly lower (by 40g) in the treated group. CONCLUSION - This finding should only be regarded as an indication for a possible association between vaginal treatment with metronidazole during pregnancy and congenital hydrocephalus. The results showed that vaginal metronidazole treatment alone was not able to prevent a possible vaginal infection that is associated with preterm birth, and that the prevalence of low birth weight was higher among treated women. The protective effect of metronidazole on preterm birth and low birth weight was not confirmed.]

[INTRODUCTION - The congenital absence of celiac trunk and it’s subtotal stenosis are rare abnormalities and often recognised only during digital substraction angiography (DSA). This anomaly is significant when there is a need to perform local intraarterial chemoperfusion or chemoembolisation of malignant hepatic tumours. In these cases the liver is supplied with arterial blood through the superior mesenteric artery and the gastroduodenal arch. The direction of blood flow in the common hepatic artery is changed ensuring the flow to the splenic and left gastric artery. In such circumstances it is not possible to obtain local chemotherapy. CASE REPORT - Two male patients (61 and 75 years old) are reported. Both patients were candidates for chemotherapy due to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In these two cases the planned therapy was impossible because of a stenosis of the celiac trunk in one, and atresia of the celiac trunk in the other. CONCLUSION - The recognition of vascular anomaly prior to endovascular intervention significantly affects the planning of the therapy.]

Although vertigo is one of the most common complaints, intracranial malignant tumors rarely cause sudden asymmetry between the tone of the vestibular peripheries masquerading as a peripheral-like disorder. Here we report a case of simultaneous temporal bone infiltrating macro-metastasis and disseminated multi-organ micro-metastases presenting as acute unilateral vestibular syndrome, due to the reawakening of a primary gastric signet ring cell carcinoma. Purpose – Our objective was to identify those pathophysiological steps that may explain the complex process of tumor reawakening, dissemination. The possible causes of vestibular asymmetry were also traced. A 56-year-old male patient’s interdisciplinary medical data had been retrospectively analyzed. Original clinical and pathological results have been collected and thoroughly reevaluated, then new histological staining and immunohistochemistry methods have been added to the diagnostic pool. During the autopsy the cerebrum and cerebellum was edematous. The apex of the left petrous bone was infiltrated and destructed by a tumor mass of 2x2 cm in size. Histological reexamination of the original gastric resection specimen slides revealed focal submucosal tumorous infiltration with a vascular invasion. By immunohistochemistry mainly single infiltrating tumor cells were observed with Cytokeratin 7 and Vimentin positivity and partial loss of E-cadherin staining. The subsequent histological examination of necropsy tissue specimens confirmed the disseminated, multi-organ microscopic tumorous invasion. Discussion – It has been recently reported that the expression of Vimentin and the loss of E-cadherin is significantly associated with advanced stage, lymph node metastasis, vascular and neural invasion and undifferentiated type with p<0.05 significance. As our patient was middle aged and had no immune-deficiency, the promoting factor of the reawakening of the primary GC malignant disease after a 9-year-long period of dormancy remained undiscovered. The organ-specific tropism explained by the “seed and soil” theory was unexpected, due to rare occurrence of gastric cancer to metastasize in the meninges given that only a minority of these cells would be capable of crossing the blood brain barrier. Patients with past malignancies and new onset of neurological symptoms should alert the physician to central nervous system involvement, and the appropriate, targeted diagnostic and therapeutic work-up should be established immediately. Targeted staining with specific antibodies is recommended. Recent studies on cell lines indicate that metformin strongly inhibits epithelial-mesenchymal transition of gastric cancer cells. Therefore, further studies need to be performed on cases positive for epithelial-mesenchymal transition.