Small cell carcinoma of the gall bladder: case report and review of literature.

Small cell carcinoma of the gall bladder is a very rare tumor. The neoplasm is highly lethal, metastasizes early, and may cause death shortly after diagnosis. Here we report a 56 year old male with small cell carcinoma of the gall bladder metastatic to the liver. He attained partial remission with 5 fluouracil, cisplatin based chemotherapy. However, the disease progressed after 3 months and salvage chemotherapy with docetaxel and caboplatin failed to produce any tumour response. He succumbed to the illness 13 months after cholecystectomy.

Sarcoma-like nodule in ovarian mucinous tumour (a case report).

Sarcoma-like mural nodule, a morphologically benign epulis-like tumour with osteoid formation in the wall of mucinous tumour of borderline malignancy is described. The pattern simulated those of malignant giant cell tumour of soft part and was considered to be a reactive process that has no effect on the prognosis of the patient. This case, second to be reported from India and is in addition to the other thirteen cases reviewed. The case under report had in addition osteoid-formation which have not been reported in the literature.

Fine needle aspiration biopsy--a critical investigation in thyrotoxicosis.

Four hundred and fifty two patients having clinical features of thyrotoxicosis have been studied for their hormonal (T4, T3 and TSH) content, I131 uptake levels and FNAB at repeated intervals. Four hundred and twenty seven had presented with diffuse enlargement and rest 25 cases with nodular enlargements. Of the primary hyperthyroidism cases 342 (82.4%) were of Grave's disease without exophthalmos and 73 (17.6%) with exophthalmos. T4, T3 and I131 uptake levels have correlated well with the degree of morphological changes as observed on FNAB. Degree of nuclear pleomorphism has correlated well with the duration of disease. Critical evaluation of morphological changes on FNAB has been done in all cases of primary hyperthyroidism being treated with neomercazole and radioactive iodine therapy. Treatment with neomercazole had shown, good correlation between time lag and the retrogressive changes. This was not so in cases treated with radioactive iodine therapy. Various known complications of radioactive treatment e.g. development of hypothyroidism, refractory and recurrent hyperthyroidism, exacerbation of the disease, radiation thyroiditis, and severe degree of dysplastic changes could be demonstrated in some cases on serial aspirations.

Lupus nephritis--light, electron and immunofluorescent microscopy (a clinicopathological study).

Kidney biopsy specimens from nine patients of systemic lupus erythematosus were studied for the purpose of correlating the findings of light and electron microscopy and immunofluorescent studies with the kidney functions and the presence of proteinuria. Morphologically, three were mesangiocapillary glomerulonephritis, three mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis and one membranous nephropathy. Subendothelial deposits were observed in eight cases, subepithelial deposits in seven cases and mesangial deposits in eight cases. Four cases with massive subendothelial deposits had massive proteinuria and decrease in renal functions. Most of the patients with mild subendothelial deposits were considered to be useful in assessing the prognosis and severity of lupus nephropathy, in addition to the morphologic types of lesions, as mesangial pattern had shown insignificant proteinuria. Study of semithin sections by light microscopy could demonstrate the deposits which were observed on electron microscopy and immuno-fluorescent microscopy.