Seminal vesicle cysts are uncommon. Most often they are benign unilateral and associated with anomalies of the ipsilateral kidney. The clinical picture is characterized by a retrovesical cystic tumor which may be asymptomatic or cause nonspecific symptoms. A case report of most probably bilateral occurrence of seminal vesicle cysts accompanied by unilateral hydronephrosis is presented.
The aim of this study was to investigate various approaches to the grading of malignancy in pre-treatment biopsies from patients with supraglottic laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma. The prospects of objective malignancy grading based on stereological estimation of the volume-weighted mean nuclear volume, nuclear Vv, and nuclear volume fraction, Vv(nuc/tis), along with morphometrical 2-dimensional estimation of nuclear density index, NI, and mitotic activity index, MI, were investigated and compared with the current morphological, multifactorial grading system. The reproducibility among two observers of the latter was poor in the material which consisted of 35 biopsy specimens. Unbiased estimates of nuclear Vv were on the average 385 microns3 (CV = 0.44), with more than 90% of the associated variance attributable to differences in nuclear Vv among individual lesions. Nuclear Vv was positively correlated with MI, negatively with NI, whereas no correlation with Vv(nuc/tis) was found. No relationship between nuclear Vv and the morphologically interpreted degree of nuclear dedifferentiation was demonstrated. Nuclear Vv showed no differences between lesions in different clinical T-stage of disease. None of the investigated categorical and quantitative parameters (cutoff points = means) reached the level of significance with respect to prognostic value. However, nuclear Vv showed the best information concerning survival (2p = 0.08), and this estimator offers optimal features for objective malignancy grading. Further analyses of larger series of patients are needed to establish the prognostic value of nuclear Vv for objective malignancy grading of supraglottic laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma.
The study evaluates the morphology of frozen tissue sections treated by microwave-stimulated fixation compared with unfixed cryostat sections. Furthermore, microwave fixation has been compared with fixation at room temperature. Improved preservation of nuclear structures (chromatin pattern and nucleoli) was found with the microwave combination, while other parameters were indistinguishable from the unfixed cryostat sections. Fixation at room temperature showed no difference compared with the unfixed cryostat sections. The combined method might be useful in rapid diagnosis of mesenchymal tumors, lymphoid proliferations and tumors of the CNS.