[Intra-abdominal desmoid tumors: rare but important disease]. / I tumori desmoidi intra-addominali: una patologia rara, mai importante.

Desmoid tumors are rare benign neoplasms with high tendency to local recurrence, and they can be divided into extra- and intra-abdominal types (mesenteric fibromatosis). Eight cases have been treated in our Department from 1997 to 2006. Six patients (3 men and 3 women) affected by extra-abdominal desmoid tumors have been treated with radical excision. In two patients desmoid was intra-abdominal: 1) a 55 years old man admitted for acute abdomen and submitted, in emergency, to a laparotomy with excision of a mesenteric abscess including a jejunal loop at about one meter from Treitz; 2) 52 years old man, submitted to an elective excision of a capsulated neoplasm of the little omentum, which had caused an oppressive abdominal pain. In both cases the hystological diagnosis has been desmoid tumor. Surgical treatment of desmoid tumors must aim at radical excision to avoid frequent recurrences (25-65%); these have stimulated the research of other kinds of treatments, since a new surgical operation itself can lead to a further recurrence. Radiotherapy has been investigated with results in 79-96% of cases, antiestrogenic therapy has been used with success in 51% of patients, and high dose tamoxifen seemed to obtain a stable disease in non operable cases. Non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have been experimented in association with tamoxifen and chemotherapy. Conclusive results on the efficacy of these treatments have not been obtained yet, because of the rarity of the desmoid tumors even in greater Centres.

[Recurrent intraparenchimal haemorrhages in a patient with cerebral amyloidotic angiopathy: description of one autopsy case]. / Emorragie intracerebrali ricorrenti in paziente con angiopatia cerebrale amiloidea: descrizione di un caso autoptico.

Cerebral amyloidotic angiopathy represents the most frequent cause of lobar haematoma in young patients and represents 5-10% of the non-traumatic cerebral haemorrhages. In the present work, we describe one autoptic case of recurrent cerebral haemorrhages in a 58-year-old woman. Macroscopically in the brain multiple haemorragic areas were present in the right frontal pole, right frontal and temporo-parietal lobes with homolateral ventricular inundation. The histological, histochemical, immunohistochemical, ultrastructural and biomolecular investigations confirmed the presence of amyloid deposits in the middle-size and little-size cerebral arteries. We report, moreover, a novel mutation (Leu705Val) within the Abeta sequence of a AbetaPP in a family with autosomal dominant, recurrent intracerebral hemorrhages beginning in the sixth decade of life.

[The use of a computerised system in the reading of cytological cervicovaginals smears during programming of regional screening (one year of experience using the autopap system)]. / Utilizzo di un sistema computerizzato nella lettura di preparati citologici-vaginali in corso di programma di screening regionale (esperienza di un anno di attività con sistema AutoPap).

From january to december 2001 n. 23.940 conventional Pap smears were consecuetively processed by the Autopap System. All these slides classified by AutoPap as "review" were subjected to a conventional reading by cytotechnologist using FOV areas selected by AUTOPAP and classified according to the BETHESDA System. All smears with high grade lesions were submitted to surgical biopsy and histologic diagnoses. 10%of those slides which were classified as No Further Review underwent a rescreening. Objective of our study was assess if a computerised reading of conventional cervicovaginal smears could really help manual screening, and to verify if the rank in "quintiles" given by the system to identify the lesions, correlates to the grade of morphological atypia found during manual revision. The accuracy of the results selected in the FOV areas for the manual guided revision was high. The AUTOPAP System selected as No Further Review mostly slides within normal limits, and no severe abnormalities (HSIL) were categorised by device as No Further Review. We also noted an effective reduction in the reading time: (6 minutes per smears by using the AUTOPAP compared to the 10 minutes per smears during manual conventional reading). If this date is summed up to 22% of all the smears classified as "No Further Review" (therefore it is not necessary to undergo a revision) a real redecution of the work load could be obtained.

[Comparative analysis of various biochemical and immunohistochemical methods for evaluating hormone receptors in breast carcinoma]. / Analisi comparativa di diverse metodiche immunoistochimiche e biochimiche per la valutazione dei recettori ormonali nel carcinoma della mammella.

The aim of this study was to compare the grade of concordance between three methods to evaluate and to quantify the expression of estrogen and progesterone receptors in 180 cases of breast cancer. The methods compared were dextran-coated charcoal (DCC) method, immunochemical analysis (ICA), and immunohistochemistry (IHC). The grades of concordance are so summarized: (1) 77.8% for estrogen receptors (ER) and progesterone receptors (PgR) with DCC and ICA methods (r = 0.53 and r = 0.64, respectively); (2) 83.3% for ER (r = 0.53) and 75.6% for PgR (r = 0.64) with DCC and IHC methods; (3) 87.8% for ER (r = 0.98) and 86.7% for PgR (r = 0.99) with ICA and IHC methods. Nowadays, the technique carried out on tissue sections provides the most reliable information. The IHC method performed on formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue is preferred in laboratories with a high work load because it is easy and inexpensive and can be automated.

Static and ELF magnetic fields induce tumor growth inhibition and apoptosis.

The ability of static and extremely low frequency (ELF) Magnetic Fields (MF) to interfere with neoplastic cell function has been evaluated. In vitro experiments were carried out to study the role of MF characteristics (intensity, frequency, and modulation) on two transformed cell lines (WiDr human colon adenocarcinoma and MCF-7 human breast adenocarcinoma) and one nontransformed cell line (MRC-5 embryonal lung fibroblast). Increase in cell death morphologically consistent with apoptosis was reported exclusively in the two transformed cell lines. Cell-death induction was observed with MF of more than 1 mT. It was independent of the MF frequency and increased when modulated MF (static with a superimposition of ELF at 50 Hz) were used. Based on the in vitro results, four different MF exposure characteristics were selected and used to treat nude mice xenografted with WiDr cells. The treatment of nude mice bearing WiDr tumors subcutaneously. with daily exposure for 70 min to MF for 4 weeks caused significant tumor growth inhibition (up to 50%) by the end of the treatment when modulated MF were used for at least 60% of the whole treatment period and the time-averaged total MF intensity was higher than 3.59 mT. No toxic morphological changes induced by exposure were observed in renewing, slowly proliferating, or static normal cells. A discussion on the possible biophysical mechanism at the base of the observed biological results is also offered.

Hemophagocytic syndrome in a case of splenic large B-cell lymphoma.

A case of splenic large B-cell lymphoma with hemophagocytic syndrome is reported. The difficulties of diagnosis are emphasized especially when peripheral lymph nodes or bone marrow lymphomatous infiltration are not present. Diagnostic criteria for hemophagocytic syndrome and their relationship with the pathogenesis of the disease are also stressed.

The unicum and cytobrush plus spatula for cervical cytologic sampling: a comparison.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy of the Unicum, a new ectocervical-endocervical nylon brush, with that of the Cytobrush plus wooden spatula in the collection of cervical-endocervical material. STUDY DESIGN: Thirty-eight patients who underwent routine gynecologic examinations agreed to have a smear taken with the wooden spatula plus Cytobrush and the Unicum. RESULTS: The two methods were equally effective in collecting endocervical-ectocervical smears. CONCLUSION: With our method, sampling is done with only one device; the ectocervix and endocervix are sampled simultaneously, and adequate sampling of the transformation zone must be achieved.

[Clinical usefulness of the immunophenotypic study of circulating lymphocytes in leukemic lymphoproliferative diseases]. / Considerazioni sulla utilità clinica dello studio immunofenotipico dei linfociti circolanti nelle malattie linfoproliferative leucemizzate.

The immunophenotypes (IF) on peripheral lymphocytes of 24 B-CLL in different stage, 2 PLL and 14 leukemic B-non Hodgkin lymphomas were investigated. As regard to B-CLL and PLL, the results are similar to those reported so far. In stage A and B of B-CLL the IF appear less variable than in advanced stages where a decrease of CD21+ and an increase of both CD25+ and CD38+ lymphocytes were observed. In the lymphocytic, small cleaved cell lymphomas and splenic lymphomas, the peripheral IF correspond to the theoretical ones of respective lymphoma tissues. On the contrary they disagree in three cases of large cells, mixed small and cleaved cell, immunoblastic lymphomas. These features are discussed.