Epstein-Barr virus infection and gastric carcinoma in São Paulo State, Brazil

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a ubiquitous herpesvirus, and most people have serological evidence of previous viral infection at adult age. EBV is associated with infectious mononucleosis and human cancers, including some lymphomas and gastric carcinomas. Although EBV was first reported in lymphoepithelioma-like gastric carcinoma, the virus was also found in conventional adenocarcinomas. In the present study, 53 gastric carcinomas diagnosed in São Paulo State, Brazil, were evaluated for EBV infection by non-isotopic in situ hybridization with a biotinylated probe (Biotin-AGACACCGTCCTCACCACCC GGGACTTGTA) directed to the viral transcript EBER-I, which is actively expressed in EBV latently infected cells. EBV infection was found in 6 of 53 (11.32 percent) gastric carcinomas, mostly from male patients (66.7 percent), with a mean age of 59 years old. Most EBV-positive tumors were in gastric antrum. Two EBV-positive tumors (33.3 percent) were conventional adenocarcinomas, whereas four (66.7 percent) were classified as lymphoepithelioma-like carcinomas. EBV infection in gastric carcinomas was reported elsewhere in frequencies that range from 5.6 percent (Korea) up to 18 percent (Germany). In Brazil, a previous work found EBV infection in 4 of 80 (5 percent) gastric carcinomas, whereas another study found 4.7 and 11.2 percent of EBV-positive gastric carcinomas of Brazilians of Japanese origin or not, respectively. In the present study, the frequency of EBV-positive gastric carcinomas is similar to that reported in other series, and the clinicopathologic characteristics of these EBV-positive tumors are in agreement with the data in the literature.

Síndrome de Garcin relacionada a linfoma näo-Hodgkin / Garcin's syndrome related to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

A síndrome de Garcin é rara. O objetivo deste trabalho é descrever um caso relacionado a linfoma näo-Hodgkin. Um paciente de 41 anos desenvolveu comprometimento sucessivo de múltiplos nervos cranianos. Do lado direito havia alteraçöes de todos os nervos cranianos, caracterizando a síndrome de Garcin. Exérese de linfonodo revelou linfoma näo-Hodgkin de grandes células, e observou-se infiltraçäo difusa da medula óssea. O líquido cefalorraquiano mostrou pleocitose com 100 por cento de imunoblastos. A tomografia computadorizada de crânio näo revelou massas. Esta é a primeira descriçäo clínica da síndrome de Garcin completa causada por infiltraçäo linfomatosa difusa dos nervos cranianos

Detection of infectious disease agents in tissue by immunocytochemistry

1. Immunocytochemical procedures have played an increasingly larger role in the identification of infectious disease agents in tissue sections owing to the increased availability and specificity of antibody reagents, the great sensitivity of the methods, and the relative facility with which the studies are performed. 2. Immunocytochemical methods can be applied to routine formalin-fixed tissue for the detection of infectious agents such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa among other microorganisms for diagnostic and research purposes