Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A Bittinger.
We report a patient with recurrent chronic pancreatitis who developed a pancreato gastric fistula. Maturation of a pseudocyst within the gastric wall was followed by sonography, and diagnosis was established by ultrasound-guided puncture.
Parathyroid tissue that is stored for replantation purposes is usually kept in a special tank containing fluid nitrogen at -196 degrees C. Our studies demonstrate that storage is also possible in a deep-freezer at -70 degrees C without any loss of quality. Most hospitals own such freezers for storing bone marrow cells at the same temperature. Parathyroid tissue of 11 patients who were operated on because of primary hyperparathyroidism was stored in this way. After six months the tissue showed 75.7% morphologically intact cells. The control group's tissue was stored in liquid nitrogen according to the common method; after the same period of time it showed 76% histologically normal cells.
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The purpose of this investigation is to give an introduction to a novel method in tumor pathology, namely the Ag-NOR technique. The basis of this method is the argyrophilic staining of intranucleolar, non-histone proteins which are specifically associated with transcriptionally active sites of ribosomal DNA. They can therefore be considered as a marker for the protein synthesis and thus the proliferation rate of a given cell. The morphologic basis of the argyrophilic reaction is presented by metaphasic and interphasic tissue culture cells. The applicability of Ag-NOR technique to tumor pathology is exemplified by main results of three studies dealing with tissue sections of 65 meningiomas, whole organ sections of 50 renal carcinomas, and cytospin preparations of 30 urinary washout specimens. These studies document the considerable value of the Ag-NOR content for both, malignancy diagnosis and tumor grading. With the help of image analysis it can be shown that besides the mean number of Ag-NORs the mean area per Ag-NOR dot is of diagnostic significance. In conclusion the Ag-NOR technique is a simple inexpensive and accurate method which can be applied both to formalin fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue and cytologic specimens. As a marker of malignancy it is an invaluable new tool for the diagnostic pathologist.
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A benign osteoblastoma of the spine should be considered a possible cause of painful scoliosis, especially in young adults. This report concerns a 17 year old patient with a lesion of the second lumbar vertebra where her painful progressive scoliosis was mistaken as idiopathic. Considering pain as a common presentation for the osteoblastoma, the diagnosis can be made early through X-rays, bone scan and computed tomography. The only adequate therapy is total removal of the tumor and the surgeon should make every effort to resect this lesion in sano to achieve permanent relief of pain and full alignment of the spine.
In a kidney-transplant patient, there was superinfection of the lungs by Klebsiella pneumoniae and Legionella pneumophilia with multiple necroses in the course of a primary cytomegalovirus infection. In a later phase of the disease, there was an opportunistic colonization of the necrotic cavities and the adjacent lung tissue by Aspergillus fumigatus and Candida albicans. The cytomegalovirus infection led to a pronounced cellular immunosuppression in the patient. This favored superinfections by bacteria and fungi. A poor nutritional state and a chronic lung disease are to be considered as predisposing risk factors.
Two cases of saccrococcygeal chordoma that were diagnosed on the basis of smear preparations are presented. Only one case showed typical physaliferous cells. In both cases the final diagnosis was greatly facilitated by applying peroxidase-antiperoxidase immunocytochemistry techniques to the cytologic specimens. Chordomas coexpress epithelial markers, such as intermediate filaments of the cytokeratin type, epithelial antigens (such as tissue polypeptide and epithelial membrane antigen), intermediate filaments of the vimentin type and S-100 protein. This antigenic spectrum may greatly facilitate the differential diagnosis of chordoma from filum terminale ependymoma, chondroma and chondrosarcoma, metastases of clear cell-type carcinomas and schwannomas, and neurofibromas, even when the only specimens available are from aspiration cytology.