Light and electron microscopic study of the thyroid gland and an enlarged cervical lymph node in a 75-year-old woman with Hashimoto's thyroiditis disclosed immunoblastic proliferation in the lymph node, marked by collections of striking round cells positive to periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) staining, immunoblasts and plasmacytoid elements in a vascular, fibrous framework. The PAS-positive cells ("macaroni cells") were distended with whorls of angulated tubular material resembling endoplasmic reticulum. Parafollicular-cell hyperplasia and an atypical plasmacytoid focus were noted in the thyroid. Hashimoto's disease is known to be associated with malignant lymphoma, as are autoimmune and malignant diseases with immunoblastic lymphadenopathy. This is the first report of the association of Hashimoto's disease and immunoblastic lymphadenopathy. The atypical plasma cells have not previously been described.
A 58-year-old woman presented with pericarditis and pericardial effusion. Investigation revealed that she was suffering from a thrombocythemic myeloproliferative disorder; she died of massive pulmonary embolism 10 days after admission. Histologic study verified epicardial and pericardial trilineage hematopoiesis. Pericarditis is an unusual feature of essential thrombocythemia and it may occur in direct relation to the abnormal cellular proliferation.
Abstract An anatomic and radiologic study of a normal and acardius twinning with a single placenta is presented with literature review. The fetus was unusually well‐developed with an almost normal skeletal and brain formation, a normal genito‐urinary tract, and an absence of liver, spleen, lungs, and pancreas. The heart was absent but the great arteries, single aorta, and veins were present. The placentation is described as funiculopagous with insertio funiculi furcata, fusion, forking and interpositio velamentosa, and the latter may account for the fusion of the two circulations in this instance with the possibility that the heart was never present. The present and other observations of funiculopagous twins with two amniotic sacs suggest that the forked cord twin anomaly may occur earlier than generally recognized.
AD7C-NTP (neural thread protein) is a approximately 41-kD brain protein that is selectively elevated in Alzheimer disease (AD). AD7C-NTP is associated with the pathologic changes of AD, and overexpression of the AD7C-NTP gene is associated with cell death similar to that found in the AD brain. A newly developed competitive ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) was tested in urine samples from patients with AD, patients with non-AD dementia, and healthy normal individuals. Mean assay measurement in the AD group (30.1 +/- 10.8) was significantly higher than in the non-AD dementia control group (13.4 +/- 3.4) and in the nondementia control group (14.8 +/- 5.2) (P <.001). Mean assay measurement in early-AD cases (25.3 +/- 7.6) was significantly lower than in other AD cases (33.9 +/- 11.4). Levels of more than 18 units were found in 89% of overall AD cases and in 10% of overall controls. The results further validate urinary AD7C-NTP as a biochemical marker for AD and indicate that the competitive ELISA-format AD7C-NTP test in urine is an accurate method for determining AD7C-NTP levels in AD.
Histopathological study of 130 cases of Huntington's chorea revealed in 102 cases microscopic foci of acute cell loss associated with an inflammatory reaction in otherwise normal areas of the affected regions of the brain. Hemi-striata of 12 consecutive cases all showed these areas of acute death when examined by serial section. The neuroanatomic topography and microscopic size of the findings were not found in 53 control cases and appear specific for this disease. It is suggested that these lesions represent the sites of active atrophy within the brain.
This paper reviews our research studies during the past 17 years on the relationship of cerebral protein dense microspheres (DMS), termed spherons, and senile plaques (SP) in the aged human brain and in AD. Initially, correlative anatomical and pathological data suggested that spherons may evolve into SP. This led to morphometric studies which strongly supported the theory. Biochemical studies were undertaken which showed that spherons could be isolated to homogeneity from brain tissue and contained the markers associated with SP. Experiments in vitro with spherons, and with inoculation of spherons into animals, reproduced SP lesion characteristics. To test the validity of using spherons for drug screening, experimental drugs were tested, a few of which are capable of blocking the formation of spheron-induced experimental SP.
We have read the recent paper by Best, Green, Smith, and Perry (2010) and wish to point out deficiencies and inaccuracies in the report. The authors employed urine samples spiked with cotinine and analyzed by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) with the useful purpose to assess whether NicAlert and TobacAlert immunochromatographic dipsticks were suitable for use in detecting secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure. In fact, TobacAlert is indicated for use in the detection of SHS exposure at levels of ≥6 ng/ml urinary cotinine, and NicAlert is not indicated for SHS testing. The substantial discrepancies between the expected cotinine-spiked urine samples values and the LC/MS results for the respective samples are troubling and render the study's data uninterpretable. If the authors’ own preparations fail to match the LC/MS results, then either the samples or their LC/MS results or both are invalid. The authors write (p. 553) “After the LC/MS results for the first validation exercise were reported; we noted substantial differences between LC/MS-determined cotinine levels and our intended ‘spike’ levels. We suspect that the spiking process was not correctly performed. We therefore ran a second validation exercise. We reported the results of both exercises since the LC/MS-determined levels, not the “spiked” levels, were considered to be the ‘gold standard’.”
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