Liver expression of matrix metalloproteases and their inhibitors in hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Several studies have suggested the significance of some metalloproteases in the malignant behaviour of hepatocellular carcinoma. AIMS: To evaluate the liver expression of MMPs and their tissular inhibitors in patients with HCC. METHODS: An immunohistochemical study using tissue microarrays on samples obtained from 30 HCC patients, with antibodies against MMPs (1, 2, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 14) and TIMPs (1, 2 and 3) was performed. Results were correlated with various clinico-pathological findings and with overall survival. RESULTS: MMP-1 is mainly expressed by stromal cells, and MMP-13, TIMP-1 and TIMP-2 by inflammatory cells. A positive correlation between MMP-1 expression and larger size tumours (p<0.01) was found. Increased TIMP-2 expression was associated with higher preoperative serum levels of alpha-fetoprotein (p<0.01). Unsupervised hierarchical clustering for total score values designated two groups, one of them characterised by high MMPs and TIMPs expressions, including 21 cases (70%) for tumour cell clustering, 5 cases for fibroblasts (16.6%) and 6 cases for inflammatory cells (20%). All patients showing elevated MMPs and TIMPs expression in stromal cells presented a poor prognosis (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: High liver MMPs and TIMPs expressions in peritumour stromal cells are related to a poorer prognosis in HCC.

Mujer de 37 años con molestias abdominales y lesión focal esplénica / 37 year old woman with abdominal discomfort and splenic focal lesion

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[Adrenal gland myelolipoma: radiological view]. / Mielolipoma suprarrenal: una visión radiológica.

OBJECTIVE: To report a case of adrenal myelolipoma in a female patient with a history of arterial hypertension and increased plasma aldosterone levels. METHODS: Evaluation by CT and ultrasound, and anatomopathological analysis were performed. RESULTS: The CT and ultrasound scans showed a fat-containing adrenal mass. The patient underwent surgery. Histological analysis of the surgical specimen demonstrated a myelolipoma, a benign tumor composed in varying proportions of adipose and hematopoietic tissue. CONCLUSIONS: A diagnosis of adrenal myelolipoma must be considered when a fat-containing adrenal mass is demonstrated by ultrasound, CT or MRI.

Invaginación ileocecal causada por un pólipo fibroide inflamatorio / Ileocecal intussusception caused by an inflammatory fibroid polyp

El pólipo fibroide inflamatorio es una lesión poco frecuente del tracto gastrointestinal caracterizada por una proliferación celular no neoplásica compuesta por fibroblastos, vasos sanguíneos y células inflamatorias en el seno de una estroma edematosa y colágena. Presentamos el caso de una mujer de 78 años de edad en la que la enfermedad se manifestó inicialmente con un cuadro de suboclusión intestinal. El estudio histológico puso de manifiesto una estructura polipoide constituida por una proliferación de vasos de variado tamaño, algunos congestivos, y de fibroblastos, que se disponían en áreas de forma concéntrica. La estroma se acompañaba de un intenso infiltrado inflamatorio con abundantes eosinófilos. El pólipo fibroide inflamatorio podría considerarse una lesión no neoplásica de carácter reactivo e inflamatorio, y explicarse como una cicatrización hipertrófica del tejido conectivo submucoso, a modo de queloide (AU)

[Intestinal tuberculosis, a difficult suspected diagnosis]. / Tuberculosis intestinal, un difícil diagnóstico de presunción.

Intestinal tuberculosis (ITB) is an always difficult clinical diagnosis; we must keep in mind it in the diagnosis of patients with abdominal pain, even without concomitant lung involvement. Seven patients with ITB were revised. Five patients were male and two female, with a mean age of 45 years; all of them presented abdominal pain. Ileocecal region was involved in 71.4% of the cases. Only one patient showed old specific pulmonary lesions radiologically. Neoplasia was the most frequent clinical presumption. ITB diagnosis was made only in one case, as first possibility. Histopathological examination revealed caseous granulomas in all the cases, with acid-alcohol resistant bacilli in 71.4% of them. We want to underline the need of thinking about ITB, in the clinical evaluation of in specific abdominal pain, above all in immunosuppressed patients, and to emphasize the importance of histopathologic findings in the final diagnosis of this entity.

Tuberculosis intestinal, un difícil diagnóstico de presunción / Intestinal tuberculosis, difficult clinical diagnosis

La tuberculosis intestinal (TBI) es un diagnóstico clínico siempre difícil que es necesario tener en cuenta al valorar cuadros de dolor abdominal, incluso sin afectación pulmonar concomitante. Revisamos siete casos de TBI, en cinco varones y dos mujeres, con una edad media de 45 años; todos se presentaron como dolor abdominal. La localización pricipal fue íleo-cecal (71,4%). En un enfermo se documentó radiografía de tórax anormal por tuberculosis pulmonar antigua. El diagnóstico de presunción más frecuente fue el de neoplasia y sólo en un caso se pensó en TBI como primera posibilidad. Se llegó al diagnóstico final tras el estudio histopatológico, en el que se observaron granulomas caseificantes en todos los casos, con bacilos ácido-alcohol resistentes en el 71,4%. Queremos subrayar la necesidad de pensar en TBI, al valorar cuadros de dolor abdominal, sobre todo en inmunodeprimidos y destacar la importancia del estudio anatomopatológico en el diagnóstico final de estos enfermos (AU)

[An intimal sarcoma of the pulmonary artery. An immunohistochemical study]. / Sarcoma intimal de la arteria pulmonar. Estudio inmunohistoquímico.

Pulmonary artery intimal sarcomas tend to be presented with symptoms of pulmonary thromboembolism and grow regionally, with little capacity to metastasize. They probably originate from subendothelial cells, that become myofibroblasts. Knowledge of it is important to establish a presurgery diagnosis, with the possibility of a total resection, the only useful treatment until now. We report a case of a pulmonary artery primary sarcoma, in a 73 year old woman, admitted with hemoptysis and pleuritic chest pain, who died ten days after. Autopsy revealed an intraluminal mass at the pulmonary artery trunk, without regional nor distance involvement. Microscopic study showed a pleomorphic tumor with spindle and epithelioid cells, positive for actin, desmin and vimentin. All these data support the diagnosis of primary intimal sarcoma of the pulmonary artery. We want to emphasize the myogenic differentiation of the tumor, uncommon in previously reported cases.

[Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma with massive infiltration of the bone marrow as its initial manifestation]. / Rabdomiosarcoma alveolar con infiltración masiva de medula ósea como manifestación inicial.

We report a case of alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (AR) with massive infiltration of bone marrow at presentation, and initial diagnosis in bone marrow aspirate. A 35 year old man presented with a submandibular mass, and hematomas after mild traumatisms. Peripheral blood showed thrombocytopenia and a normocytic anaemia. Bone marrow film showed diffuse involvement by undifferentiated blasts with rhabdomyoblastic features. Subsequent biopsy of submandibular lymph node confirmed the diagnosis with positivity for specific muscle actin and desmin, and negativity for lymphoid markers. Initial presentation of AR with extensive bone marrow involvement is extremely rare, and it could lead to wrong diagnosis and treatment of acute leukaemia, with the serious consequences that this would have. Immunohistochemical study and morphologic differential features can be of great diagnostic help.

[Extramedullary anaplastic plasmacytoma]. / Plasmocitoma anaplásico extramedular.

A case of extramedullary plasmacytoma of the maxillary sinus, locally aggressive, in a 65 years old man is presented. Clinical diagnosis of adenocarcinoma was suspected but the pathological study showed an anaplastic morphology, with little plasmacytic differentiation and lack of stain with cytokeratins and epithelial membrane antigen (EMA), immunohistochemical marker of plasmatic cells, among others. Definitive diagnosis was based on light chain restriction and lack of multiple myeloma.

[Primary round-cell liposarcoma of the bladder]. / Liposarcoma de células redondas primario de vejiga urinaria.

OBJECTIVE: To report a rare case of primary round cell liposarcoma of the urinary bladder. METHODS: A case of primary round cell liposarcoma of the urinary bladder in an 80-year-old female with hematuria is presented. The patient had a large, solid, non-circumscribed bladder tumor of 6.5 cms. The radiological, histological and immunohistochemical findings are discussed. RESULTS: The neoplasm was composed of isolated lipoblasts among numerous small round cells that were positive for S-100 and vimentin, and a high proliferation rate was demonstrated by Ki-67. The patient died 10 months after the histologic diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Primary liposarcoma of the urinary bladder is a very rare tumor with a poor prognosis that usually presents as a large tumor mass.

[Cytological diagnosis of malignant melanoma of the esophagus]. / Diagnóstico citológico de melanoma maligno de esófago.

Malignant melanoma of the esophagus is an extremely rare neoplasm. We presented a case of this neoplasm diagnosed on a cytologic smear from a 84 year-old women. The smear was characterized by scattered dissociated cells with hyperchromatic irregular nuclei, prominent nucleoli and occasional cytoplasmic brown pigment. The immunohistochemical study revealed positivity for HMB-45 and S-100 protein.

[Miliary tuberculosis. Autopsy study of 29 cases]. / Tuberculosis miliar. Estudio autópsico de 29 casos.

A retrospective anatomoclinic study of 29 cases of miliary tuberculosis, selected from 2.808 necropsies carried out at Hospital Central de Asturias between 1971 and 1994, is described. Fifty eight per cent of the patients were older than 50 years. Predisposing factors were identified in 80%: diabetes, alcoholism, chronic hepatopaty, silicosis, chronic renal failure, immunessupresive treatment and malignant neoplasms. A premorten correct clinical diagnosis were done in 8 cases (27.5%) and were suspected in 4 (13.7%). Typical miliary radiologic pattern was established in 17%. The more frequently affected organs were lungs (100%), liver (82%), spleen (75%), lymphatic nodes (55%) and bone marrow (41%). Early diagnosis and treatment is nowadays more difficult because of increasing of cryptic tuberculosis, involvement of resistant organs (pancreas), new predisposing factors (chronic renal failure), new risk groups (AIDS) and lack of demonstrative clinical and radiologic findings, so is necessary to maintain suspect of this disease always in mind.