Primary malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor of the cauda equina in a child case report.

STUDY DESIGN: A case report of primary malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST) of the cauda equina in a child is presented, and the literature is reviewed. OBJECTIVE: To discuss the problems involved in the treatment of primary intradural MPNSTs. SETTING: A department of orthopaedic surgery in Japan. METHODS: A 4-year-old boy complained of low-back pain radiating to the left calf. MRI revealed an intradural tumor at L3-L5 level. Following laminectomy of L3, L4 and L5, the tumor was removed en bloc. Based on pathological and immunohistological findings, the tumor was diagnosed as an MPNST. RESULTS: Although adjuvant chemotherapy was administered local recurrence and cerebral and spinal metastases of the tumor were found 6 months after the operation. Following additional incomplete removal of the recurrent tumor, radiation therapy was administered. Although recurrent and metastatic tumors disappeared or diminished in size by radiation, tumors increased in size thereafter, despite additional adjuvant chemotherapy. At 21 months after the first operation, he died of pneumonia. CONCLUSIONS: Reported clinical outcomes for patients with primary intradural MPNST are very poor. Although no gold standard for the treatment of tumors has been established yet, surgical removal of tumors combined with postoperative high-dose radiation may be recommended.

[The incidences of virulence genes in Escherichia coli strains from sporadic diarrheal children].

To investigate the incidence of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli among E. coli strains screened by commercially available O-antigen antisera, we used PCR to isolate 8 virulence genes (eae, bfpA, IpaH, LT, ST, VT1, VT2, and aggR) in 184 E. coli strains sampled from sporadic diarrheal children in our district. eae and bfpA are the localized adherence factor genes of enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC). IpaH is the invasion antigen gene of enteroinvasive E. coli (EIEC), LT and ST are the toxin genes of enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC), VT1 and VT2 are the toxin genes of enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), and aggR is the adherence factor gene of enteroaggregative E. coli (EAggEC). The results were as follows: eae, 7 (3.8%); bfpA, 0 (0%); IpaH, 0 (0%); LT, 0 (0%); ST, 2 (1.1%); VT, 5 (2.7%); aggR, 8 (4.3%). Seven isolates with eae did not have bfpA, and did not show a localized adherence to HeLa cells. Seven of the 8 isolates with aggR showed aggregative adherence to HeLa cells, while their O-serotypes of them were O111:H21 or O111:HUT. Because of the low incidence of the virulence gene, the commercially available O-antigen antisera was not expected to be useful for the screening of diarrheagenic E. coli, except for EHEC and EAggEC. EAggEC may be important as a pathogen of sporadic diarrhea of children as well as EHEC.