To refine the case selection process for the 'cucumber' mounting system for laryngeal biopsies.We conducted a retrospective audit of cucumber technique specimens taken between January 2002 and December 2008. We analysed the clinical indications for biopsy and the pathological diagnosis, for each specimen, in order to inform our case selection process.The cucumber technique was used for 125 laryngeal specimens. 60 specimens were taken for diagnostic sampling, 46 were taken during endoscopic laser resection, and 19 for overtly benign pathology. The cucumber technique was most useful for the interpretation of margins in endoscopic laser resection specimens.The cucumber technique is most useful for endoscopic resection cases in which tumour, dysplasia or suspicious lesions have been excised. Detailed information on resection margins is invaluable during multidisciplinary team discussions on patient management. Detailed photography of mounted specimens enables both laryngologist and pathologist to orientate and interpret specimens accurately.
Dilated cardiomyopathy is a primary disease of the heart muscle that has been reported in Holstein‐Friesian cattle worldwide in the past 20 years. Nine cases of the condition were compared in terms of their clinical and pathological characteristics with nine unaffected animals matched for age, sex and breed. Their clinical signs included right‐sided heart failure with severe subcutaneous oedema, ascites and/or hydrothorax and distended jugular veins. There were no characteristic biochemical or haematological changes. Postmortem, the affected hearts were enlarged with all the chambers dilated and walls of variable thickness. In most cases the kidneys were pale with a pitted surface. Histologically there was marked perimysial and endomysial fibrosis, extensive loss of cardiomyocytes by coagulative or colliquative necrosis, increased variation in the cross‐sectional area of the myocardial fibres, and multifocal disarray and vacuolation of myocytes. Scanning electron microscopy showed that in all cases there was a mild myocardial inflammatory infiltrate, either diffuse or multifocal, which was identified by immunohistochemical labelling as T cells.
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