Tissue samples from six patients suffering from lichen planus (L. P.), with oral and genital localization were examined by light and transmission electron microscopy, in order to better define the structural and ultrastructural changes that are correlated with L. P. and fit with immunologically mediated pathogenesis theory. Many of the classical histopathological features of L. P. were found: the hydropic degeneration of basal keratinocytes, presence of colloid bodies and heavy chronic chorionic inflamatory cell infiltrate. There were also observed several differences from skin localization of L. P. consisting in more frequent parakeratosis, obvious atrophy of the epithelium, pathological presence of granular layer. Ultrastructural studies confirm and clarify the light microscopic picture: basal lamina is frequently broken, basal keratinocytes are degenerated, presenting thickening, clumping and disorders of orientation of tonofilaments. There are many Langerhans cells. The inflammatory infiltrate is composed of interacting cells: many T-lymphocytes and activated macrophages, few B-lymphocites and plasma cells.

Female↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Typical and atypical carcinoid tumors of lung: two distinct clinicomorphologic entities.

Thirty-six cases of bronchopulmonary carcinoid tumor were reviewed in order to identify the clinicomorphologic criteria whereby typical and atypical carcinoids can be classified as two distinct entities. This study indicates that bronchial typical carcinoids are tumors with very low malignancy, more often centrally located and occurring in relatively young patients. The prognosis is good, with a five year-survival rate of about 73%, although regional nodal metastases may occasionally develop. Atypical carcinoids are more frequently peripheral tumors, occurring in comparatively old patients and differing from typical carcinoids by a less favourable prognosis, with a five year-survival rate of about 25% and a higher incidence of nodal metastases. The morphological study of these tumors reveals the following criteria as most reliable for distinguishing between the two types of bronchial carcinoid: increased mitotic activity, cellular pleomorphism and tumor necrosis, which are best correlated with the agressiveness of atypical carcinoids.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Congenital ichthyosiform erythroderma (C.I.E.)--ultrastructural evidences of abnormal stratum corneum retention.

Congenital ichthyosiform erythroderma (C.I.E.) is a skin disorder which has been considered as a hyperkinetic hyperkeratosis. This study was performed in order to demonstrate that C.I.E. pathogenesis includes both basal cell hyperplasia and abnormal stratum corneum retention. Electron microscopic studies were carried out on 5 cases of C.I.E., clinically and histopathologically diagnosed. The following pathological changes were found in stratum corneum and stratum granulosum: persistence of desmosomes in outer layers of stratum corneum, increased volume of intercorneocyte material, loss of lamellar pattern of Odland bodies, important variability in size and shape of keratohyaline granules, abnormal aggregation of tonofilaments. These constitute ultrastructural evidences of abnormal stratum corneum retention in C.I.E. pathogenesis.

Cytoplasm↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Disseminated Langerhans cell histiocytosis: a case report with a light microscopic and ultrastructural study.

A case of disseminated Langerhans cell histiocytosis (L.C.H.) in a 9 month-old boy is reported. The clinical picture was characterized by severe multivisceral involvement with cutaneous and bone lesions. Histological examination of the skin biopsy revealed diffuse infiltration of large mononucleated histiocytes admixed with a small number of inflammatory cells. Ultrastructural examination confirmed the Langerhans cell (L.C.) phenotype by showing intracytoplasmic Birbeck granules in the proliferating histiocytes. We report the histological and ultrastructural characteristics of our case and review the diagnostic features of L.C.H. in the light of the criteria established by the Writing Group of the Histiocytic Society in 1987.

Histiocytosis, Langerhans-Cell↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[An analysis of the articles published in Revista Medico-Chirurgicală over the last 7 years].

INTRODUCTION: As the number of medical journals is continuously increasing, their quality becomes a very reliable tool used by the editors in order to increase readership. As a consequence, the structure and the content of submitted papers are carefully revised before publication. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of our study is to describe structural aspects and the use of descriptive and inferential statistics methods in papers published by the Medical-Surgical Journal between 1990 and 1997. METHODS: Fifteen items were collected for each paper. Ten of them were related to the general structure: type of paper, number of authors, town of authors, professional environment, medical topic covered by the paper, pluridisciplinarity, the existence of a bibliography, the number of titles in the bibliography, language of publication, presence of abstract. The other five were related to data analysis and reporting: description of statistical methods, the existence of significant results without method description, presence of tables and graphics, use of descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS: A number of 477 papers were analysed. Original papers represented 57.4%, 71.5% of the authors were involved in medical/non-medical teaching, 58.3% of papers were related to clinical sciences, 29.8% were related to basic medical sciences; pluridisciplinarity was present in 26.8% of papers (significantly increasing trend, p < 0.01), the bibliography was not present in 27.3% of papers (significantly decreasing trend, p < 0.001), romanian was the language of publication in 83% of papers, followed by english (10.9%), french (4.6%) and german (1.5%). Papers without abstract represented 29.9%, the median number of authors is 3(range 1-15) and the mean number of titles in reference list 14.7(SD = 12). Eighteen papers (3.8%) reported significant results without description of methods, 51.4% used tables and graphics, 13.4% used descriptive statistics methods and only 6.9% of the papers have used inferential statistics methods. CONCLUSION: The structural problems of papers published in Medical Surgical Journal should be avoided using a more restrictive editorial policy. The use of such a policy shows positive results for the last 2 years (1995 and 1996). Statistical methods are poorly used in this Romanian medical journal and much progress is to be made before speaking about statistical assessment of submitted papers.

Periodicals as Topic↗