4^th International Conference and Exhibition on Pathology July 13-15, 2015 New Orleans, USA

Panagiotis Zogopoulos is a resident of Neurosurgery at the General Hospital of Nikaia-Piraeus “Agios Panteleimon”, Athens, Greece. His ongoing research is in the\r\nfield of drugs and their interaction with human brain and cerebral vessels. Several of his papers have been published in reputed peer-review journals and he has\r\npresented various researches in international conferences.

Drug abuse represents a significant health issue. Most commonly abused substances are heroin, cocaine, cannabis and\r\namphetamine and addicts frequently abuse more than one substance. Since most of the drug substances injected by abusers\r\ncontain contaminants in the form of particulate foreign matter and they are usually injected without sterile precautions, a broad\r\nspectrum of changes affecting the central nervous system is observed. The major findings result from the consequences of\r\nischaemia and cerebrovascular diseases. We have conducted a post-mortem (autopsy) study on cerebral vessels of drug abusers.\r\nHistopathological changes observed include vascular lumen thrombosis, platelet aggregation, atherosclerosis, transmural and\r\nperivascular infiltration of small cerebral vessels by inflammatory cells, granulomas, dilatation of perivascular spaces with\r\nprotein exudate and fibrinoid necrosis of the medium and intima. All these histopathological changes observed on cerebral\r\nvessels of drug abusers apparently hamper neuronal function and could explain the cognitive decline and psychosocial changes\r\nthat are seen on drug addicts. This study was conducted with the support of IKY Fellowships of Excellence for postgraduate\r\nstudies in Greece – Siemens Program.

Sucheta completed her MBBS followed by Internship at the age of 23 years from Pt. B. D. Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences. Presently she is doing residency in Pathology from the same institute. She has keen interest in learning about new updates in Pathology.

Biopsy of the pleura has been an important diagnostic tool since its first description by DeFrancis et al in 1955. Pleural biopsy is of greatest value in the diagnosis of granulomatous and malignant diseases of the pleura. It is performed on patients with undiagnosed exudative effusions, with non-diagnostic cytology, and a clinical suspicion of tuberculosis or malignancy. Present study was carried out on 50 pleural biopsies over a period of three years (mid 2011 to mid 2014) out of which 40 were males and 10 were females with a male to female ratio of 4:1. Age of patients ranged from 20 - 80 years with mean age of 50 years. Majority of cases belonged to age group of 41-60 years. 90% of the pleural biopsies were adequate for opinion. Out of the adequate biopsies 33 cases (73%) revealed benign lesions (predominant inflammatory) whereas 12 cases (27%) were diagnosed as malignant comprising adenocarcinoma (4 cases), squamous cell carcinoma (3 cases), small cell carcinoma (2 cases), poorly differentiated carcinoma (2 cases) and mesothelioma (1 case). 6 cases belonged to tubercular etiology. It was concluded from the study that inflammatory lesion was the commonest finding observed followed by malignant lesion and tuberculosis. Pleural biopsies are important in diagnosing pleural lesion which were earlier missed in other investigative procedures carried for detecting respiratory lesion.