Morin staining is a specific method by which to detect aluminium in the brain. In cases of Alzheimer disease, aluminium was found to occur in neurons and glial cells, dense cores of senile plaques, primitive plaques, and intracortical congophilic vessels. Findings obtained are likely to suggest concomitant presence of aluminium and amyloid. Aluminium is assumed to have high affinity for amyloid. Aluminium is thus capable of overcoming the blood-brain barrier.
Studies were conducted into 100 consecutive subjects (autopsy material), 53 men and 43 women between 31 and 70 years old, who had died a natural death. The HUDSON-procedure was used for histopathological analysis of the cardiac conducting system (CCS). About 48 microscopic slides of each subject, including sinus node (SN) tissue, were inspected by 4 pathologists in a blind study. The findings were classified by 3 different groups according to histopathological data of the SN, viz. changes and distribution of P and T cells, stroma, artery, and innervation of SN. The 3 major epicardial branches of coronary arteries were prepared for morphometric studies by WHO standards. A digitizer coupled to a microcomputer LTEL (Cuba, IBM-compatible) was used for quantitative evaluation of atherosclerotic lesions (AL), and all data were subsequently processed on the same computer, using a statistical commercial package (Number Cruncher Statistical System) for results. An atherometric system was used and proved to be a properly standardized methodology, suitable to characterize AL in any vascular sector or group of patients. The most remarkable results were as follows: Three-group classification was useful in estimating the association between pathomorphological data of SN and coronary atherosclerosis. The atherometric system proved to be a powerful tool to study and characterize atherosclerotic lesions in coronary arteries.
Biopsies obtained from 45 cases of invasive ductal carcinoma and 41 cases of cystic mastopathy were immunohistochemically investigated, with electron microscopy being used on some of them, for the purpose of clearing up presence, distribution, and ultrastructural peculiarities of the myoepithelial cells. Focal or diffuse myoepithelial proliferations were observed in all cases of cystic mastopathy, with peripheral layers of myoepithelium at the basal membrane being widely preserved. Myoepithelial cells had lost their normal position and cellular orientation in the regions with intraductal carcinoma. Actin-positive, high-microfilament myoepithelial cells were frequent findings recorded from parenchyma in cases of invasive ductal carcinoma without specific differentiation, though cells of that kind were rarely detectable from parenchyma in cases of medullary carcinoma. Particular attention should be given to the presence of tumor cells differing from each other for their morphological and functional differentiation in cases of carcinoma of the mammary gland.
Described in this paper are two cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) of the thyroid gland in women with Hashimoto's thyroiditis. NHL may be misinterpreted for its histological similarity to anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. The immunoperoxidase technique can be used with good success to confirm the lymphocytic origin of tumor cells.
Reported in this paper are two autopsy cases in which metastases were recorded from oat-cell carcinomas of the lung to other tumors. In one case, formation of metastases was extended into a hamartochondroma of the other lung, while an adenocarcinoma of the pancreas was affected in the other. Different possible explanations for the phenomenon observed are discussed, and particular reference is made to the important role played by autopsy in accurate investigation of interrelations between coexisting tumors.
Described in this paper are morphological and morphometric alterations that occurred to the remaining testicles in patients who had undergone chemotherapy or radiotherapy for malignant testicular tumours, with findings, on average, being recorded 4.5 years after treatment. Qualitative histological investigations of testicular tissue exhibited differentiated characteristics, with radiotherapy resulting in significantly stronger phenomena. Epithelial height was clearly reduced in conjunction with increase in wall thickness, especially after radiotherapy. Tubular lumens, in the wake of radiotherapy, were more often filled with hyalin than after chemotherapy. Unambiguous evidence was produced to impairment of fertility in response to both chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Reference is made in numerous recent immunological studies to immunological mechanisms which were found to play a role in acceptance of pregnancy or habitual abortions. The most important theories likely to offer explanations for these phenomena are reviewed in some detail, including hormonal immunosuppression, immunologic-anatomic barrier at the placenta as well as blocking factors and anti-sperm antibodies. Molar pregnancy is associated with a particular immunological situation. None of the theories mentioned can be preferred, for the time being, to explain acceptance of normal pregnancy or the causes of recurrent spontaneous abortions.
Reported in this paper are results obtained from morphological investigations of 200 fetal abortions which had occurred in the fourth to sixth months of pregnancy. They were spontaneous abortions and abortions induced primarily for fetal indications (31 cases). Causes are subdivided in this report by placental, fetal, and maternal factors. Fetal causes accounted for 18.5% of all cases (most of them fetal malformations, induced abortions included). Maternal causes accounted for 7.5%, among them edema-proteinuria-hypertension (EPH) gestosis and premature rupture of the amnion. No unambiguous clinical or morphological findings were established as causes in 36 cases, i.e. 18%. The majority of all causes, 55.5% was related to placental factors, among them impaired maturation of the placenta in 14.5%, disorders in maternal circulation in 17%, and inflammatory alterations in 23.5%. Early disorders in placentation accounted for a conspicuously high number of after-birth findings (complex early impairment of placental maturation in 28.6%), and so did maternal circulatory disorders, including retroplacental hemorrhage (55.2%), as well as decidual and membranous inflammations (43.4%).
35 intracranial tumours, 18 gliomas, 12 meningiomas, one neurilemmoma (neurinoma), one malignant melanoma and two metastases were successfully grown in-vitro and were submitted to immunocytochemical reactions, including cytokeratin, glial fibrillary acid protein (GFAP), vimentin, fibronectin, S-100 protein, neurofilament proteins, neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and basic myelin protein (MBP). Cytokeratin in metastases, GFAP and vimentin in gliomas, vimentin in meningiomas were consistently positive. S-100 protein was weakly and partially positive in gliomas, meningiomas, the neurilemmoma and malignant melanoma. Positive demonstration of fibronectin within cells was interpreted as a consequence of phagocytosis, except in meningiomas where fibronectin expression next to cell membranes seemed genuine. All other tested markers proved negative. The most important result seems to be that cells expressed markers irrespective of cellular shape and cytological morphology. It can be concluded that the cellular population as a whole consisted of tumour cells during the short time under observation and that supportive cell contamination during this early growth period was negligible.
An unusual variant of immunocytoma of low grade malignancy, cytologically resembling follicular cleaved-cell malignant lymphoma is described. Presence of heavy deposits of amyloid, intracytoplasmic monoclonal IgM-kappa immunoglobulin, cells with Dutcher inclusions, electron-microscopic features and negativity of T-cell markers led to diagnosis of immunocytoma. After cytostatic chemotherapy the lymphoma changed its morphology into typical lymphoplasmacytoid immunocytoma.
Classification of disorders in the peripheral nervous system has been a controversially disputed subject. A brief account, therefore, is given of basic definitions and main groups of mononeuropathies and polyneuropathies. The most common types of mononeuropathies as well as hereditary and acquired polyneuropathies are listed in four tables. Particular attention is given to toxic neuropathies.
Reported in this paper are clinical and morphological findings recorded from two sisters and one brother with familial juvenile nephronophthisis. Coherency in the basic course of the disease was not detectable by histological examinations, in the first place, though infancy developments had been almost identical, and clinical patterns were very similar to each other, with the characteristics including polyuria, polydipsia, hyposthenuria, anaemia, retarded growth, azotaemia, and progressing renal insufficiency. Some of the morphological findings were masked by secondary alterations and organ shrinkage. They were incoherently interpreted following preliminary investigations by different examiners. The pathogenesis of the disease has continued to be obscure. A disorder with tubular basal membranes as primary points of attack is discussed. Autosomal-recessive inheritance seems to be beyond any doubt, following genetic analysis of the family.
Morin staining is a specific method by which to detect aluminium in the brain. In cases of Alzheimer disease, aluminium was found to occur in neurons and glial cells, dense cores of senile plaques, primitive plaques, and intracortical congophilic vessels. Findings obtained are likely to suggest concomitant presence of aluminium and amyloid. Aluminium is assumed to have high affinity for amyloid. Aluminium is thus capable of overcoming the blood-brain barrier.
Systemic secondary amyloidosis was a post-mortem finding recorded from 24% of patients with classical chronic polyarthritis. In 80 to 100% of all cases, amyloidosis was present in heart, thyroid gland, kidneys, adrenal gland, pancreas, spleen, and gastro-intestinal canal. It was recordable, in 50 to 70% of all cases, from liver, aorta, lungs, and lymph nodes. Nerves, muscles, skin, and synovial membrane were less often affected (10 to 40% of all cases). No amyloidosis was recorded at all from the brain. Amyloid depositions differed greatly in intensity by organs. The most massive deposits were found in the gastrointestinal tract, kidneys, adrenal glands, thyroid gland, and spleen. Amyloid depositions were moderate in heart, pancreas, lungs, and liver. They were extremely low in lymph nodes, muscles, nerves, synovial membrane, and skin. The author assumes amyloid deposition to be associated with increase in arterial or venous concentrations of circulating amyloid precursors. Frequency and intensity of amyloid depositions in different organs may be linked to blood supply to the latter. The higher the minute volume of a given organ, the more strongly pronounced is the amyloidosis in it. In the context of amyloidogenesis, consideration should be given, as well, to locally delimited factors, such as organ motility.
Ultrastructural analysis was made of the ventral hippocampus in 5 Wistar rats experimentally subjected to chronic ethanol treatment (daily doses of 5 cm3 of 40% ethanol for 3 months), with a view to identifying morphological features resembling hippocampal damage in human alcoholics. Our results indicated damage of nerve cells in the investigated area, accompanied by glial reaction. The nerve cells were impaired by energetic depletion of the mitochondrial system which, in our opinion, led to pictures analogous to ischemic cell affection and, finally, to cell death. Also, features of premature involution were noted in both pyramidal and granular cells. There were signs of glial hypertrophy, glial cell divisions, lipopigment accumulation, and glial adhesion of affected neurons. We concluded that severe chronic ethanol intoxication affected first of all the mitochondrial apparatus of neurons, leading to more advanced lesion of cells and to pronounced glial reaction.
An unusual case is described of Bartholin's gland carcinoma which developed 28 years after radiotherapy for a cervical carcinoma. The tumor showed three-directional differentiation with predominance of the papillary non-invasive transitional cell pattern.
Gastric stump carcinoma with widely disseminated metastases and solitary coecal adenoma were recorded by postmortem investigation of a man who had died at the age of 69. The gastric carcinoma had spread metastases into the adenoma. This is the fourth case carcase of metastasis to a colonic polyp so far described in the literature.
Since the lathyrogen beta-aminopropionitrile is known to affect the fibrogenic and physical properties of collagen polymers, we have examined its effects on collagenous components of methylcholanthrene-induced fibrosarcoma in rat. Lathyrogen treatment reduced total collagen content of tumours from approximately 17 to 12 mg collagen/g tissue. It also proportionately increased the solubility of specific collagen fractions, the summation of all extractable solubilized collagens reflecting 37 and 67% of total collagen content for control and lathyric tumours, respectively. Although lathyrogen had no significant effect on the growth and overall size of fibrosarcoma, histological studies confirmed that changes had occurred to appearance and distribution of collagenous components of extracellular matrix.
Series of semi-thin sections were prepared of mature human placentas after immersion and perfusion fixation. Evidence was produced to the existence of syncytial bridges between neighbouring chorionic villi. Besides, syncytial knots and sprouts were present, as well as structures apparently similar to bridges which had resulted from peculiar cutting through a syncytial knot. The latter have been referred to as artefacts by other authors and are obtainable only under two conditions: 1. pre-existence of nuclear agglomeration at cutting level; 2. accidentally appropriate cutting. Such coincidence has been recordable from two thirds of all cases, but it is by no means responsible for all cases of bridge formation. Structures of that kind are never artefacts by any account of lexical meaning. The following criteria are suggested for differentiation between bridges, on the one hand, and structures resembling bridges due to tangential sections: 1. Number of nuclei relative to bridge surface; 2. Limitation of surface; 3. Appearance and arrangement of nuclei.
