Persistent hepatic venous plexus in a patient with Sturge-Weber syndrome.

A patient with extensive facial and intracranial features of Sturge-Weber syndrome was found to have a persistent primitive hepatic venous plexus, characterized by three additional vessels arising from the inferior vena cava, circulating between liver segments, which formed a common trunk in the supra-hepatic region that flowed into the right atrium. To the best of our knowledge, this hepatic finding has not been previously described in association with Sturge-Weber syndrome.

Autopsy material analysis at the Cardiology Clinic in 1999.

Clinico-pathological studies serve as a valuable source of information in everyday practice of most medical institutions. The aim of this study was to correlate the clinical and pathological diagnoses of principal disease and cause of death after autopsy in patients who died during 1999 at the Cardiology Clinic, Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Sremska Kamenica, Yugoslavia. Medical histories and autopsy reports of dead patients were analyzed: 255 (8.46%) patients died, but only 72 (28%) underwent autopsy. In 53 patients (73%) clinical cause of death was cardiac. Among these patients, consequences of coronary (atherosclerotic) artery disease prevailed in 41 patients (77%). Noncardiac cause of death was established in 19 patients (27%) and vascular causes prevailed with 17 (23%). The comparison of clinical and principal disease established by autopsy revealed a complete concordance in 62 cases, partial concordance in 1 and no concordance in 9 cases. Thus, concordance was found in 86-87.5%. The correlation coefficient was 0.48. Comparison of clinical and autopsy diagnoses of causes of death revealed concordance in 53 patients, with correlation coefficient 0.26.

Correlation between the blood pool tomoscintigraphy (SPECT) and planar scintigraphy in the diagnostic of the liver hemangioma.

The aim of the study was the estimation of diagnostic importance of the hepatic blood pool tomoscintigraphy (SPECT) and planar scintigraphy in patients investigated under suspicion of the liver hemangioma. In the diagnostic procedure the correlation between radiocolloidal scintigraphy, blood pool planar scintigraphy (early and late) and SPECT was made. Sixty-seven patients with focal lesions in the liver were investigated. The blood pool scintigraphy was made after application of traser dose of 99mTc and equilibration of tagged red blood cells in circulation. The planar scintigraphy was made 20 min after the red cells tagging and again 2 hours later (early and late scintigrams). SPECT was also applied to make the diagnostic procedure more accurate. From 31 hemangiomas detected by SPECT only 19.4% were clearly visible by planar scintigraphy. The diagnostic of very small hemangiomas is enabled by SPECT too.