Carcinosarcoma of urinary bladder mimicking vesical calculus: a case report.

We report a 50 year old male who presented with a short history of gross hematuria. An ultrasonogram detected a mass arising from the right lateral wall of the urinary bladder. Computed tomography of the abdomen revealed that the mass was a calcified lesion mimicking a bladder stone. Cystoscopy confirmed the presence of the calcified lesion and biopsy revealed a rare biphasic tumor of the urinary bladder comprising of osteosarcoma and a papillary urothelial neoplasm of low malignant potential. The rarity of this tumor and its associated exuberant calcification make this case an interesting one.

Histopatholgical spectrum of thymic neoplasms: twelve-year experience at a referral hospital in north India.

This study was undertaken to determine the histopathological spectrum and clinical profile of thymic neoplasms at a tertiary referral care centre. A total of 96 thymectomy specimens were received during the study period (1992-2004), which consisted of 54 neoplasms and 42 benign lesions. Among the neoplasms there were 48 thymic epithelial tumors, 3 thymolipomas and 3 thymic carcinoids. The former comprised of 36 male (75%) and 12 female patients (25%) ranging in age from 2-70 years (mean 37 years). Among paraneoplastic syndromes in thymic epithelial tumours, 27 out of 48 (56.25%) cases were associated with myasthenia gravis and one case was associated with pure red cell aplasia. The most frequent histological subtype was cortical thymoma (43.24%) followed by predominantly cortical (24.32%) and well-differentiated thymic carcinoma (18.92%). On staging, all cases of mixed and predominantly cortical subtype were stage 1 whereas one medullary and 2 cortical thymomas and 4 well differentiated thymic carcinoma (WDTC) showed pleural and pericardial invasion (stage III). This study has revealed that half of thymic epithelial tumours presented as myasthenia gravis. The cortical thymoma was the most frequently encountered histologic subtype and most commonly associated with myasthenia gravis.

Haematological profile of childhood visceral leishmaniasis.

Visceral leishmaniasis is the most severe form of the disease affecting children. Definite diagnosis relies on the demonstration of the parasite in various tissues. Bone marrow examination is a well accepted method, but has sensitivity between 60-85%. In the present study we analyzed other associated bone marrow features in 28 cases of pediatric leishmaniasis, which would help raise the suspicion level and thus bring about more positive results. Pancytopenia was observed in 54% cases and bicytopenias in another 20.5% cases. Peripheral absolute lymphocyte count did not increase in any case. Increase in plasma cells (mean 6.7%) and increase of phagocytic cells (28.5%) with haemophagocytosis (21.43%) was observed frequently in the bone marrow.