Pulmonary function tests and pathological profile of the airways in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

This study was carried out on 16 patients [10 patients with RA and 6 patients with SLE] to evaluate the effects of RA and SLE on bronchial tree with special emphasis on physiological and pathological changes. All patients were subjected to routine laboratory investigations, complete pulmonary function tests using Morgan transfer apparatus with Della computer, BAL and bronchial biopsies were taken via FOB Olympus BF type B10. The results of this study revealed abnormal airway functions evidenced by reduction in FEV[1] FEF[25-75%] and PEER with consequent increase in RV and RV/TLC. BAL and bronchial biopsy showed the involvement of bronchial tree in these immune complex diseases as evidenced by different patterns of cellular infiltrations, epithelial changes and vasculitic processes

Immunohistochemical study of malignant melanoma

Formalin fixed paraffin embedded sections of 15 cases of malignant melanoma of the skin were studied immunohistochemically for the presence of vimentin, cytokeratin and neurofilament proteins. The original diagnosis of malignant melanoma was confirmed in each case based on a histologic examination. It was found that vimentin was present in the cytoplasm of the majority of all cases. However, cytokeratin immunostaining was found in three out of 15 melanoma cases. In contrast, two melanoma cases contained neurofilament positive tumor cells. It was concluded that melanomas containing exclusively vimentin intermediate filaments prove to be useful in the differential diagnosis of melanomas from other tumor types. Also, melanoma cells are considered as interconverted cells as they display both mesenchymal and epithelial phenotypes