Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to F Lin.
Seminal vesicle cysts are uncommon, particularly when associated with ipsilateral agenesis of the kidney, ureter, and/or trigone. This entity should be considered when a cystic pelvic mass is seen in a young male. B-scan ultrasound can be of considerable aid in making the diagnosis.
Five cases with gastrointestinal histoplasmosis are presented. Gastrointestinal involvement is moderately frequent during the hematogenous dissemination of histoplasmosis. Depending on the underlying pathological changes, six roentgenographic patterns can be identified: 1. malabsorptive; 2. ulcerative; 3. polypoid; 4. granulomatous; 5. tumefactive and 6. compressive. Perforation, hemorrhage, obstruction and erroneous diagnosis for ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease or carcinoma are the major complications. Histoplasmosis should be included in the differential diagnosis of diseases presenting with a malabsorption pattern, gastrointestinal polyposis, ulcerative and granulomatous gastrointestinal diseases and carcinoma, particularly if pulmonary lesions co-exist.
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BACKGROUND: Nephroblastoma (Wilms' tumor) is the most common malignant tumor of the kidney in children but is rare in adults. The stage and histopathology of the tumor are the most important prognostic indicators. The common sites of metastasis are lung, liver and lymph nodes. Skeletal metastasis is exceedingly rare in both pediatric and adult nephroblastoma. We report an unusual case of a skeletal metastasis of adult nephroblastoma that developed nine years after the diagnosis of a typical nephroblastoma of favorable histology and that was diagnosed by computed tomography (CT)-guided fine needle aspiration cytology. CASE: Following a right radical nephrectomy for adult nephroblastoma and two local recurrences two and three years later, a 74-year-old woman presented with low back pain. CT and magnetic resonance imaging revealed lytic lesions in the 10th and 12th thoracic vertebrae. Smears prepared from specimens obtained through CT-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy were moderately cellular, with small, round cells arranged singly and in loosely cohesive clusters. These cells had inconspicuous nucleoli and scanty to moderate amounts of cytoplasm. The cells were also positive for cytokeratin and vimentin and appeared similar to areas of blastema in the original tumor. CONCLUSION: A definitive diagnosis of metastatic adult nephroblastoma in thoracic vertebrae was made possible by CT-guided fine needle aspiration cytology in conjunction with clinical and radiologic findings and by using ancillary modalities, such as immunohistochemical studies.
In this work we studied the excitable properties of cerebellar granule cells grown in primary culture in the presence of "high" KCl (25 mM). Whole cell patch-clamp records of currents were obtained from cells at 1-33 days in culture (DIC). Sodium currents, blocked by TTX, were present from the first DIC and did show slow developmental changes. Two types of potassium currents were detected at all DIC: a delayed rectifier current (IK) and an inactivating current (IA). Both IK and IA increased until 7 to 9 DIC (four and two times respectively). Most of the IA increase, however, correlated with an increase in cell size, monitored by measurements of cell membrane capacitance (Cm) and the current density thus did not change. Conversely, delayed rectifier potassium current density did increase in the initial DIC (3-6) and did not change significantly after this time. Calcium currents were not detectable at any DIC under our experimental conditions.
The cells in serous effusions from 14 cases of histologically proven ductal adenocarcinoma of the breast and from an equal number of proven adenocarcinomas of the ovary were morphologically analyzed, with quantitative values assigned to various cell parameters. The resulting data were then subjected to stepwise discriminant analysis. The presence of coarse chromatin proved to be the most significant discriminating factor, resulting in a correct classification of 100% of the mammary carcinomas (14 of 14) and 71.4% (10 of 14) of the ovarian carcinomas, for an overall rate of 85.7% correct classifications. When combined with other cell parameters, such as the presence of polygonal cells, multiple nucleoli and an isolated cell arrangement, the accuracy rate increased to 92.9% correct classifications. Ovarian carcinoma was more likely to have coarse chromatin and to occur in three-dimensional cell groups, in contrast to mammary carcinoma, which tended to have fine chromatin and more polygonal cell shapes and to occur more commonly in syncytial cell groups and as isolated cells.
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Malignant cells were found in the cerebrospinal fluid of an elderly woman with a clinically confusing neurologic disease that was recognized as gliomatosis cerebri at autopsy. The usefulness of cerebrospinal fluid cytology in the antemortem diagnosis of this unusual brain tumor is discussed.
Thirty-eight consecutive patients underwent endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration. Of 46 lesions, 34 were extraluminal (12 pancreatic masses, 8 periesophageal nodes, 6 celiac nodes, 2 pericolonic masses, 1 mediastinal mass, 1 perigastric mass, 1 liver, 1 periduodenal node, 1 perirectal mass, 1 perirectal node) and 12 were submucosal (8 gastric, 3 duodenal, 1 esophageal). One hundred sixty-three passes were made, with an average of 3.5 passes per lesion and 4.3 passes per patient (range, 1 to 8). Adequate specimens were obtained from 91% of targeted lesions. The overall diagnostic accuracy was 87%. In patients with malignant lesions, sensitivity was 91% and specificity 100%. Celiac nodes were successfully sampled and diagnostic in 5 of 6 (83%) patients. No complications occurred. Using this technique, an initial tissue diagnosis of malignancy was made in 66% of cancer patients without a previous diagnosis and the preoperative stage was changed in 44% of cancer patients. The additional information gained by this modality directly influenced the decision not to perform surgery in 26% of patients with a primary malignancy. Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration is feasible and can be safely used to evaluate submucosal and extraluminal lesions in both the upper and lower gastrointestinal tract with a high degree of diagnostic accuracy.
The peptide hormone relaxin was isolated in good yield from the ovaries of the pregnant rodent Rattus rattus using a simplified purification schedule. It was subjected to comprehensive chemical characterization to confirm both its purity and predicted composition. The peptide was also chemically synthesized by the solid phase procedure. The two chains comprising the hormone were each assembled by the Boc-polystyrene method and, following conventional purification, combined in solution to form the single intramolecular and two intermolecular disulfide bonds. Following purification, the synthetic rat relaxin was fully chemically characterized and shown to be indistinguishable from the native peptide including by secondary structure analysis using circular dichroism spectroscopy. The native and synthetic rat relaxins were shown to be equally biologically active in the in vitro rat uterine relaxation assay and had pEC50 values that were comparable to synthetic human H2 relaxin.