Lymphomatoid granulomatosis: a practical review for pathologists dealing with this rare pulmonary lymphoproliferative process.

Lymphomatoid granulomatosis (LYG) is a rare B-cell lymphoproliferative disorder predominantly involving the lungs, but poorly-recognized among clinicians and pathologists. It is an Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-driven disease mimicking several other diseases on clinical and radiological grounds, generally showing multiple, bilateral nodular, ill-defined infiltrates of the lungs tending to coalescence and/or cavitation. LYG often affects middle-aged males with an underlying immunodeficiency and commonly involves skin and central nervous system during disease progression. Diagnosis requires a generous biopsy and careful histologic examination with immunohistochemical staining and molecular demonstration of EBV genome in large atypical B-cells. LYG is graded as I to III based on the number of large EBV-positive B-cells; grades II/III are now considered as a peculiar variant of T-cell rich diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. In this brief review, clinical, radiologic and pathologic features of LYG will be analyzed with focus on differential diagnosis, the most appropriate treatment and prognosis.

When histologic diagnosis of pulmonary adenocarcinoma becomes difficult.

The differential diagnosis between pulmonary adenocarcinoma and several benign mimics can be a formidable challenge for the surgical pathologist, particularly in frozen sections and in small biopsies but sometimes in surgical specimens as well. In this review we will provide a practical guide to help the pathologist facing these problematic cases.

NMR determination of total carbonyls and carboxyls: a tool for tracing the evolution of atmospheric oxidized organic aerosols.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is used to investigate the chemical composition of organic aerosol in terms of functional group distribution with a special focus on secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. The knowledge of the functional group composition is a benchmark for understanding how SOA components partition into the particulate phase and undergo chemical transformation. The paper presents a new chemical derivatization procedure coupled to proton NMR (1H NMR) analysis for the specific determination of total carbonylic groups in atmospheric aerosol samples, which couples with the procedure for determination of total carboxylic acid groups described in a previous work. A first deployment of the combined techniques for the analysis of PM10 samples collected in the Po Valley in the warm season shows that the concentration in the particulate phase of total carbonyls varies and covaries with respect to those of carboxylic acids and of less-oxidized functional groups. The proposed methodology provides the breakdown of the oxygenated fraction of the organic aerosol into major functional groups through well-established chemical methods and can be used to benchmark the more sensitive and widely used aerosol mass spectrometric techniques.

Zirconium tetrachloride-formaldehyde sigma-complexes: A computational and spectroscopic investigation

We have carried out a combined theoretical-experimental study of the structures and energies of ZrCl(4)-aldehyde complexes using (13)C NMR spectroscopy and a DFT (B3LYP) computational approach. The computational investigation has demonstrated the existence of different types of complexes: a 1:1 complex (H(2)CO-ZrCl(4)), various 2:1 complexes ((H(2)CO)(2)-ZrCl(4)), and several dimeric species. The analysis of the energies involved in the formation of the various complexes has indicated that the dimeric species should correspond to the only adduct observed in the (13)C NMR spectra (carbonyl resonance at 226.96 ppm) when a 1:1 ZrCl(4)/aldehyde molar ratio is used, while the 2:1 complex should be responsible for the signal at 224.30 ppm that is recorded when this molar ratio is 1:2.