This retrospective study was undertaken to characterize the endoscopic and histopathologic pattern of patients with gastro-esophageal reflux with esophagistis. We investigated 58 patients (24 women, 34 men: mean age 44.33 years). The histopathologic pattern was classified in 3 grades: Grade 1: 19 patients, grade 2: 18 patients, grade 3: 21 patients. The sex ratio, age, endoscopic and particular histopathologic pattern was discussed. We conclude that the gastro-esophageal reflux disease is a common complaint in adult population. Despite it is not a severe damage, it can complicate to Barret’s oesophagus, a premalignant lesion of esophageal adenocarcinoma.
Gastroesophageal Reflux ; diagnosis ; Esophagitis

The authors presented 37 cases of thymomas operated at Viet Duc Hospital during 1998-2002. The results: 31 males and 6 females with medium age 46.8. The microscopic features were: medullary thymoma: 1, mixt type: 6, predominantly cortical thymomas: 4, cortical thymomas: 4, squamous cell carcinomas: 11 (4 keratinazing and 7 nonkeratinazing, basaloid carcinomas: 2, clear cell carcinoma: 1, small cell carcinoma: 6, sarcomatous carcinoma: 1 and anaplastic carcinoma: 1. Eleven cases developed the superior vena caval syndrome and most of these indicated the malignancy in the microscopic features. The relations between clinical and pathological aspects were discussed.
Thymoma

In this study, twenty-five yeast strains were isolated from soil samples collected in the gold mining ore in Gia Lai, Vietnam. Among them, one isolate named GL1 T could highly tolerate Cu 2+ up to 10 mM, and the isolates could also grow in a wide range of pH (3–7), and tem perature (10–40 ℃). Dried biomass of GL1 was able to remove Cu 2+ effectively up to 90.49% with a maximal biosorption capacity of 18.1 mg/g at pH 6, temperature 30 ℃, and incuba tion time 60 min. Sequence analysis of rDNA indicated this strain was closely related to Rhodotorula mucilaginosa but with 1.53 and 3.46% nucleotide differences in the D1/D2 domain of the 28S rRNA gene and the ITS1-5.8S rRNA gene-ITS2 region sequence, respect ively. Based on phylogenetic tree analysis and the biochemical characteristics, the strain appears to be a novel Rhodotorula species, and the name Rhodotorula aurum sp. nov. is pro posed. This study provides us with more information about heavy metal-tolerant yeasts and it may produce a new tool for environmental control and metal recovery operations.