Primary meningeal melanocytoma.

Meningeal melanocytoma is an uncommon benign pigmented primary lesion that has to be distinguished as a pathological entity separate from other benign melanin containing tumours as well as its overtly malignant counterpart, melanoma. In the present study, a 58 year old lady presented with bilateral sensory and motor symptoms in the lower limbs. The MRI scan showed a dumb-bell shaped lesion in the spinal canal at 6th cervical vertebra to 1st thoracic vertebra (C6-T1) level mimicking a schwannoma and histologically proved to be melanocytoma.

Primary cardiac sarcoma.

Primary cardiac sarcomas are uncommon entities. The diagnosis of sarcoma is not made preoperatively because of the rarity of the lesion and the nonspecific nature of the signs and symptoms. This is a report of a case of primary sarcoma arising from the left atrium, in a patient who presented with acute dyspnoea; the sarcoma resembled an atrial myxoma on echocardiography.

Superficial angiomyxoma of the external ear not associated with Carney's complex: a case report.

Superficial angiomyxomas are rare tumours and multiple tumours occurring in the external ear are invariably associated with Carney's complex. In the present study, a solitary superficial angiomyxoma was found in a 20 year old lady; and there was no evidence of any of the components of Carney's complex at the time of presentation or at the end of 2 years of follow-up, after the surgical excision of the tumour.

Holoacardius acephalus-myelecephalus.

Holoacardius acephalus is a rare anomaly occurring in twin pregnancy. This case was an amorphic monstrous mass with only lower limb buds showing five digits and no definite human form unlike those reported in the Indian literature which either showed the presence of other body parts like thorax, abdomen and head and neck structures or were totally undifferentiated. The other twin had intra uterine growth retardation. This case came to the hospital in labour. As this condition can be recognised in the antenatal period, diagnosis of this anomaly is important for better perinatal outcome.

A study of the haematologic spectrum of myelodysplastic syndrome.

In 31 patients of myelodysplastic syndrome, RAEB-t was the commonest subtype (29%), and RARS, the lease common (6.4%); 19.4% were characterised as the unclassifiable (UC) group. Pallor was the dominant sign (90.3%). Low haemoglobin in RA & RARS (p<0.05), thrombocytopenia in RAEB-t (p<0.01) and high leuco/monocyte counts in CMML (p<0.001) were observed. Neutropenia occurred most frequently in RAEB & RAEB-t and circulating blasts in all cases of RAEB-t and CMML. Bicytopenia was the commonest finding (58.1%) and pancytopenia the least (16.1%). 84% of marrows were hypercellular and trilineage dysplasia was seen in 68% of patients. Megaloblastoid dyserythropoiesis was the predominant feature in all cases, dysgranulopoiesis in all cases of RAEB, RAEB-t and CMML, and micromegokaryocytes in all cases of RARS, RAEB & CMML were seen. RAEB-t and RAEB (33.3% each) were the predominant groups which progressed to leukemia, FAB AML-M2, being the commonest type (60%).

Ovarian strumal carcinoid--report of a case that matastasized.

Ovarian teratomas are known for their ability to form a wide variety of tissues. One unusual example of this potential is the strumal carcinoid in which the thyroid tissue is found in intimate association with carcinoid tumor. Although considered as a malignant transformation of struma ovarii, it is almost always benign. We report a rare case of strumal carcionid in a 44 year old lady who had metastasis in the contralateral ovary, myometrium and lungs.