Histopathological grading systems analysis of oral squamous cell carcinomas of young patients.

BACKGROUND: To analyze the clinicopathological profile of young patients (≤ 40 years) with oral SCC and correlate with a control group (≥ 50 years) by means of histopathological grading systems. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 14 young patients and 14 control patients were selected with similar clinical stage and tumor location. Demographic and clinical data were obtained from patient records and histological sections were evaluated according to four histopathological grading systems. Associations between categories of demographic and clinical data were performed through Chi-square test and Exact Fisher test. The survival analyzes were performed according to the Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS: The comparison between groups showed a greater association of treatment modalities in younger patients (p=0.022), they had a higher incidence of local recurrence and regional metastasis (p=0.018) and lower disease-free survival in 5 years (p=0.069). There was no difference in 5-year overall survival among the studied groups. There was no difference in histological grading between studied groups according to the four used systems. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that, despite tumors had similar histological grade and more therapeutic modalities were used in the young group, tumors in young patients had a higher incidence of recurrence/metastasis, showing tendency to a more aggressive behavior.

The prognostic value of histopathological grading systems in oral squamous cell carcinomas.

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the association of four histopathological grading systems (WHO grading system, malignancy grading of the deep invasive margins (MG), histological risk (HR) model, and tumor budding and depth of invasion (BD) model) with clinicopathological parameters and outcome of 113 oral squamous cell carcinomas to identify their roles in prognosis. METHODS: Demographic and clinical features were obtained from patients' records. Sections from all paraffin-embedded blocks were evaluated according to the four grading systems. Demographic and clinical associations were analyzed using chi-square test, and correlations between the grading systems were established with the Spearman's rank correlation test. Survival curves were performed with Kaplan-Meier method, and multivariate analysis based on Cox proportional hazard model was calculated. RESULTS: Significant associations with survival were observed for WHO grading system and BD model in the univariate analysis, but only the BD model was significantly associated with disease outcome as an independent prognostic marker. Age, tumor size, and presence of regional metastasis were also independent markers of reduced survival. CONCLUSION: A significant association between the BD model and outcome of OSCC patients was observed, indicating this new histopathological grading system as a possible prognostic tool.

Qualidade interna de ovos comercializados em diferentes supermercados na cidade de Uberlândia / Internal quality of commercial eggs in Uberlândia retail stores

Com o objetivo de avaliar a qualidade interna de ovos ao longo de sua distribuiçäo e comercializaçäo no mercado de Uberlândia foram analisados 864 ovos brancos, do tipo A, obtidos de um plantel de aves Lohmann LSL, de mesma idade, e que recebiam o mesmo tipo de raçäo. Ovos do dia foram selecionados e distribuídos aleatoriamente em 12 tratamentos com três diferentes tipos de supermercados (hipermercado, supermercado atacadista e supermercado popular) e quatro períodos de armazenamento, (dias zero, um, cinco e sete). Foram avaliados unidades Haugh (UH), índice de albúmen (IA), índice de gema (IG) e porcentagem de sólidos na gema e no albúmen. Perda significativa da qualidade foi detectada durante a comercializaçäo, mas mostrou-se ainda boa ou média em sete dias de armazenamento. Valores médios de UH apresentaram reduçäo de 77,22 para 53,51 UH; valores de IA passaram de 0,0730 para 0,0354; os de IG, de 0,3961 para 0,3363. A análise dos sólidos totais indicou reduçäo significativa da porcentagem de sólidos da gema e aumento da porcentagem de sólidos do albúmen ao longo da comercializaçäo. A qualidade variou significativamente de acordo com o tipo de supermercado. De modo geral todas as análises indicaram pior qualidade dos ovos armazenados no supermercado do tipo popular, que foram associadas às piores condiçöes de armazenamento ali encontradas

[Hemorrhagic myocardial infarct. An analysis of the distribution of the hemorrhage and of the permeability of the artery related to the infarct]. / Infarto hemorrágico do miocárdio. Análise da distribuição da hemorragia e da perviabilidade da artéria relacionada ao infarto.

PURPOSE: To study the extent of hemorrhagic myocardial infarction (HMI) and patency of the infarct related artery. METHODS: Forty seven cases of HMI diagnosed by necropsy (patient age range 30-81 years, mean 59) were studied retrospectively. Hemorrhagic extent was evaluated by microscopic analysis of myocardial sections of the infarcted areas and coronary patency was studied by angiography and by serial coronary sections at necropsy. RESULTS: In 12 cases hemorrhage extended outside the infarcted area and in the remaining cases it was restricted to the necrotic zone. Coronary patency was spontaneous in 8 of 24 cases, secondary to thrombolytic therapy or angioplasty in 8 and post coronary artery bypass in 15. Recent occlusive thrombus was diagnosed in 26 of 44 cases. Grouping all cases according to angiographic or macro and microscopic evidences of coronary patency, it was found that 35 of 47 studies cases (74.4%) had the infarct related coronary artery free of occlusion. In most cases of HMI myocardial hemorrhage restricted to the infarcted necrotic zone but in almost 25% it could reach areas beyond the infarcted necrotic zone probably resulting in deleterious consequences. CONCLUSION: Reperfusion is frequent and it plays a role in the hemorrhagic event but it was not seen in 25% of these studied cases. These findings suggest that other mechanisms could participate of the pathogenesis of HMI.

Histopathological criteria of myocarditis--a study based on normal heart, chagasic heart and dilated cardiomyopathy.

This work is a detailed study of the relevance of three sets of criteria to define myocarditis: Dallas meeting criterion, Edwards criterion and Dallas meeting criterion modified by the authors. Two groups were evaluated: normal autopsied hearts and endomyocardial biopsy from chronic chagasic patients at high risk of having myocarditis. Furthermore, endomyocardial biopsies from patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) were also evaluated. Applying the Edwards criterion, incidences of myocarditis in normal and chagasic hearts were 0% and 67% while with Dallas meeting criterion they were 0% and 42% and using our criterion the incidences were 0% and 92% respectively. In endomyocardial biopsies from DCM patients, the incidence of myocarditis was 7% with Edwards criterion, 22% with Dallas meeting and 33% with the authors own criterion. The authors concluded that their criterion, which defines myocarditis as the presence of inflammatory mononuclear cells enclosing more than 2 lymphocytes/400X aggregated to the cardiac fiber sarcolemma, is the most appropriate criterion of the three. Myocarditis was found in 33% of the 27 endomyocardial biopsy specimens from patients with DCM.

Chagas' heart disease and myocardial infarct. Incidence and report of four necropsy cases.

The authors describe the clinical-pathologic findings in four patients with myocardial infarct (MI) associated with Chagas' disease, found among 181 autopsies of chronic congestive cardiac chagasic patients. Organized thrombo-embolus was found in the epicardial portion of a coronary artery in one instance and thrombosis in the apex of the left ventricle as well as systemic infarcts were found in all cases. These data suggest thrombo-embolism, probably from the apex of the left ventricle, as a possible cause for the regional (large; transmural) MI in chronic Chagas' heart disease. The mechanism usually operative in MI, i.e. complicated atherosclerosis, was not present in the patients of this series. Moreover, our data do not support either small artery disease or heart denervation as etiologic factors for regional MI.

The role of active myocarditis in the development of heart failure in chronic Chagas' disease: a study based on endomyocardial biopsies.

The authors analyze the presence of active myocarditis in endomyocardial biopsies from 38 patients with chronic Chagas' disease diagnosed serologically. The patients were divided into three clinical groups of increasing severity. Group I: 13 patients with normal electrocardiograms, normal chest x-rays, and no symptoms; Group II: 13 patients with abnormal electrocardiograms and no cardiomegaly; and Group III: 12 patients with abnormal electrocardiograms, cardiomegaly and heart failure. In order to diagnose myocarditis activity, two sets of criteria were used: one mainly observing histopathologic aspects of inflammatory cells aggressing cardiac fibers; and the other counting the mean number of lymphocytes per high power microscopic field. The results of both methods showed a higher incidence of active myocarditis in the clinical group with heart failure. The present report clearly shows the important role played by activity of myocarditis in the development of heart failure in chronic Chagas' disease. Therefore, the possibility of using drugs to control early stages of the activity of the inflammatory process is suggested. On the other hand, endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) seems to be an adequate method to evaluate the intensity of the cardiac inflammatory process in Chagas' heart disease.

Cardiovascular involvement in human and experimental leptospirosis: pathologic findings and immunohistochemical detection of leptospiral antigen.

Twenty hearts from patients dying of leptospirosis were studied. Interstitial myocarditis was found in 50% of the cases, and a significant statistical correlation was observed between myocarditis and the inflammatory involvement of the conduction tissue. Acute coronary arteritis, affecting the main branches of the coronary arteries, was observed in 70% of the cases, and this finding also correlates significantly with interstitial myocarditis. Aortitis was found in 57.8% of the cases. When serum against L. interrogans serovar icterohaemorrhagiae was used, focal IP antigen deposits were observed in the coronary arteries and in the aorta. Experimental data from 12 guinea-pigs inoculated with L. interrogans serovar icterohaemorrhagiae showed a focal myocarditis involving mainly the subendocardial and pericoronary heart tissue, with IP antigen deposits in the same sites. Leptospirosis might be visualized as a generalized illness resembling other infectious vasculitides. The heart and main vessels are involved during the septicaemic phase of the disease, and bacterial migration, toxin(s), enzymes and/or antigenic products liberated by bacterial lysis might account for the increased endothelial permeability with antigen deposits and inflammation.

An infant with two "half-hearts" who survived for five days: a clinical and pathological report.

The case of a five-day-old boy with two "half-hearts," diagnosed at necropsy but not clinically, is presented. Each "half-heart" was totally separated from the other and each had a single atrium and ventricle. The two "half-hearts" were enveloped in a common pericardium. The left-sided atrium and the right-sided atrium had the morphologic characteristics of left and right atrium, respectively, but the morphology of the two ventricles was less characteristic. There were double truncuses and double superior and inferior venae cavae, too. Pulmonary venous drainage was totally anomalous; splenic abnormalities were not found. An embryologic lack of fusion of the primitive cardiac tubes is a possible starting point for these malformations.

Cerebral toxoplasmosis after renal transplantation. Case report.

A 19-year-old immunosuppressed male patient, after renal transplantation, developed at the 10th postoperative day (p.d.) fever, anemia hepatosplenomegaly and plaquetopenia; this condition deteriorated progressively and was complicated by drowsiness and generalized convulsions which persisted until the death at the 29th p.d. Autopsy revealed acute encephalitis characterized by multiple disseminated small lesions in the brain, containing cysts and trophozoites of Toxoplasma gondii. The diagnosis was not done during life, as occurred with most of previously reported cases, a fact that points to the necessity of preventive controlling measures of these patients before the institution of immunosuppressive measures.

Nesidioblastosis associated with congenital malformations of the heart. Morphological and immunohistochemical study of 5 necropsy cases.

Pancreatic tissue from 5 children with congenital heart disease (CHD) with morphological alterations of the endocrine components at autopsy were compared in a double-blind semiquantitative study, which included light microscopy and immunocytochemistry, to pancreatic tissue of 5 children of similar age but without CHD. Hyperplasia and hypertrophy of islets of Langerhans, scattered endocrine cells within the exocrinic acini, cluster of endocrine cells budding from ductular epithelium or within interlobular connective tissue, and hyperplasia of ductular epithelium were found to be present in the patients with congenital cardiac defects. The observed findings resembled those present in a surgically resected pancreas from a child with clinically overt nesidioblastosis. Although this study suggests a higher incidence of endocrine pancreas disturbances in certain types of CHD, the clinical significance of these morphological alterations will require further studies.

Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty--histopathological analysis of nine necropsy cases.

From 1982 to 1984 nine of 300 patients undergoing transluminal coronary angioplasty died. The nine coronary arteries and one saphenous aorto-coronary by-pass graft affected by angioplasty were studied by light microscopy. The following types of lesions were found, frequently in association: rupture of the plaque, circumscribed or reaching to the intimal layer or extending beyond it, dissections (fissures) between arterial layers, intra-plaque haemorrhage, plaque emboli and thrombosis. In two cases the therapeutic approach was considered to be clinically and pathologically successful; the patients survived 24 h (case 6) and forty days (case 4). Case 6 which presented recent lesions indicative of success showed, in contrast with the other non-successful cases, rupture affecting not only the intimal layer but also deeper structures of the arterial wall. There were also more extensive fissures. Case 4 which presented late alterations indicative of success showed a plaque fracture whose borders were kept apart by fibrous tissue. In conclusion, we believe that angioplasty allows the re-establishment of arterial blood flow by provoking deep intimal and medial rupture producing a small fissure between the arterial layers and a widening of the lumen; in cases with good late results these alterations cicatrize leaving a wider arterial lumen.