The zinc content of cancellous bone from the iliac crest was determined by the X-ray fluorescence technique in an autopsy series of 28 women and 66 men. The bone-zinc content was statistically related to age, but there was a large variation. It reached a maximum value in the fifth decade and thereafter decreased with age in both sexes. Men with a chronic disease had a lower zinc content than those who had died suddenly. There was a significant correlation between the zinc content and the bone strength in women (p less than 0.01) and in men (p less than 0.05). Zinc is thought to play a part in osteoporosis.

A retrospective clinicopathologic study was done on 111 patients with a pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. The mean follow-up period was 6 years. By means of interactive morphometry six nuclear morphometric features were measured in biopsy specimens from the primary tumours. Volume-corrected mitotic index (M/V index) was estimated in the same sections. Histologic grading was done in accordance with the WHO. The M/V index (p = 0.002), the nuclear area of the 10 largest nuclei (NA10) (p = 0.025), the histologic grade (p = 0.0956), the nuclear area (NA) (p = 0.038), the standard deviation of the nuclear perimeter (SDPE) (p = 0.033), and the standard deviation of the nuclear area (SDNA) (p = 0.0430) predicted survival in univariate analysis. The type of surgery performed was a significant prognosticator too (p = 0.0131). A multifactor regression analysis of survival including clinical and histologic factors identified the M/V index as the most important prognosticator (p = 0.009), followed by the type of surgery performed (p = 0.022). Other histologic factors had no independent prognostic value. Our results suggest the use of morphometric features instead of the conventional histologic grading in predicting survival of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.