[The area of focal nephritis measured by echography: useful indications in patients with unexplained back pain in comparison with other assessments]. / Le aree di nefronia focale all'ecografia: utili indicazioni in pazienti con inspiegabili dolori dorsali e confronto con altre indagini.

In some patients undergoing an U.S. study of kidney for lumbodynia, it's sometime possible to visualize hypoechoic and areas poorly demarcated without distal acoustic enhancement, localized within the cortex and disrupting the cortico-medullary junction. These findings, called focal nephritis, associated to minimal retention of urine in the bladder, reflect an inflammatory process involving the renal parenchyma, in spite of normal urine analysis. To confirm this theory, 7 patients who presented these findings at US study of kidney underwent renal scintigram with labeled granulocytes. This test revealed the presence of focal bacterial nephritis in the same hypoechoic areas. Therefore US study of kidney combined with renal scintigram is useful to diagnose inflammatory process of the kidney in patients complaining lumbodynia.

[A case of primary non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the adrenal gland]. / Su di un caso di linfoma non-Hodgkin primitivo del surrene.

The paper reports a case of non-Hodgkin's primary lymphoma of the adrenal gland which is justified by the rarity of this pathology as can be seen from the literature. Following adrenalectomy and subsequent polychemotherapy, a complete remission of the disease was obtained. The Authors report that, in the absence of particular symptoms, diagnosis is generally based on X-ray examinations performed to clarify the causes of aspecific symptoms such as, for example, fever and asthenia. Lastly, it is underlined that the disease may be diagnosed during surgery when CT reveals the presence of an adrenal mass with a diameter of more than 3 centimetres.