0000000000498183
AUTHOR
G. Campesi
Morphometric Study of the Bone Marrow in Polycythemia Vera Following Interferon-Alpha Therapy
Bone marrow cellularity and extent of fibrotic change were determined in nineteen patients with polycythemia vera, treated with interferon-alpha (IFN) for 1 year. The cellularity was evaluated with an interactive semiautomatic method using Leitz TAS plus microscope: in particular, number and size of megakaryocytes were evaluated after immunostaining with Y2/51 (CD 61); reticulin content was studied by light microscope with a semiquantitative method. Before IFN therapy mean cellularity was 80.5% (+/- 13.7). After 6 and 12 months mean cellularity was 75.4% and 68.4% respectively. Six months after cessation of IFN therapy the cellularity was 69.1%. A decrease of the number, density and morphom…
Immunohistochemical evaluation of bone marrow lymphoid nodules in chronic myeloproliferative disorders
One hundred and seventy bone marrow biopsies from patients with chronic myeloproliferative disorders (CMPDs) were evaluated for the presence of lymphoid nodules (LNs) and were immunostained using a panel of monoclonal antibodies (UCHL1, 4KB5 and L26) recognizing different lymphocyte antigens. LNs were found in 35% of cases of idiopathic thrombocythaemia, 24.6% of myelofibrosis/osteomyelosclerosis, 18.2% of polycythaemia vera 12.1% of chronic myeloid leukaemia and 19.2% of borderline cases. Varying degrees of immunohistochemical positivity for the three antibodies tested were found. LNs were always made up of variable proportions of both T- and B-lymphocytes with a prevalence of T-cells. Thi…
Barbiturate jaundice
Summary A case of barbital-induced jaundice is described. The patient, a 31-year-old woman, developed generalized skin eruption, mucosal lesions, and fever 2 hr after the ingestion of 2 tablets of a barbital-containing drug (Veramon). She then developed a deep cholestatic jaundice which lasted more than 7 months. During the remission of jaundice, a rechallenge with phenobarbital caused a recurrence of fever and skin eruption, with exacerbation of jaundice.
Intrasinusoidal bone marrow infiltration: a possible hallmark of splenic lymphoma.
A particular type of lymphomatous bone marrow infiltration defined as intrasinusoidal and occuring in seven patients with splenomegaly and mild to moderate thrombocytopenia is reported. Immunocytochemistry highlighted the intrasinusoidal pattern and showed a mature B-cell phenotype. Four patients underwent splenectomy and a diagnosis of splenic marginal cell lymphoma was made. The disease course seems to be chronic and quite indolent. All patients are alive and well ; follow-up ranges from 2 to 42 months. The value of bone marrow biopsy as a primary diagnostic tool in splenic marginal zone lymphomas is discussed.
Interactive computerized morphometric analysis for the differential diagnosis between dysplasia and well differentiated adenocarcinoma of the prostate
To distinguish prostatic dysplasia (or adenosis) from well differentiated adenocarcinoma on transrectal needle biopsy, a morphometric study was conducted on 20 cases of adenosis and 20 cases of well differentiated adenocarcinoma of the prostate. About 100 cells for each patient were analyzed by means of a computerized image analyzer, and mean nuclear diameter, mean nuclear area, mean form factor and number of cells in eight classes of nuclear diameter were studied. The best predictors of malignancy (evaluated by means of Receiver Operating Characteristics curves) were mean nuclear area greater than 28 mu2, presence of more than 5% of cells with nuclear diameter greater than 6.15 mu, and mea…
Xanthogranulomatous Cholecystitis
Summary Xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis (XC) is a chronic inflammatory lesion of the gallbladder histologically characterized by the presence of varying amounts of foamy histiocytes in the inflammatory infiltrate. In this study a review of 63 cases selected from 1207 surgically removed gallbladders is presented; the percentage found (5.2%) is slightly higher than that of previous reports showing that XC is less uncommon than generally believed. A detailed microscopic study is performed: the authors observed according to the histological features particularly the different patterns of distribution of the inflammatory infiltrate and postulate the existence of three subtypes of XC: multinodu…