A British Second World War veteran with disseminated strongyloidiasis.

A case is described of a 78-year-old British veteran of the Second World War (1939-45) who was stationed in Southeast Asia and who developed a recurrent pneumonia with blood eosinophilia. He was treated with steroids, and eventually died with a severe Pseudomonas pneumonia. Just prior to death, larvae of Strongyloides stercoralis were identified in his sputum, and a specific serum ELISA test was later positive. At autopsy no other organs were involved, but bronchoalveolar carcinoma was found. Longstanding (57 years) chronic strongyloidiasis in a veteran who served in Southeast Asia but who was not a prisoner of war is very unusual. The pattern of dissemination was also not that of a true hyperinfection syndrome, and the case demonstrates the continued need for diagnostic vigilance amongst former soldiers who were based in the Far East.

A rare case of intramuscular haemangioma in a six-year-old boy--a diagnostic dilemma.

Intramuscular haemangiomas are uncommon tumours of the head and neck, occurring mainly in adults and usually located in the region of the masseter muscle and parotid gland. We report the case of a child with an intramuscular haemangioma over the left maxilla, which caused some diagnostic confusion in view of its atypical location combined with the unusual age and inflammatory mode of presentation.

Acute ischaemic lesions in death due to ischaemic heart disease. An autopsy study of 333 cases of out-of-hospital death.

The frequency of acute coronary artery thrombus and myocardial infarction in subjects dying suddenly or unexpectedly from ischaemic heart disease (IHD) is still unclear, with previous autopsy studies reporting an incidence between 4% and 100%. In this study of 333 randomly selected out-of-hospital deaths, detailed autopsy showed IHD as the sole cause of death in 206 (62%). One hundred and seventeen acute coronary thrombi were present in 96 cases whilst four had an established acute infarct without an identifiable coronary thrombus. Thus 100 (48.5%) IHD deaths had evidence of an acute ischaemic lesion. Acute lesions were equally prevalent among males and females, but the incidence declined with increasing age and they were less frequent among those with a prior clinical history of heart disease. One hundred and forty-seven IHD deaths were witnessed. The proportion of cases with an acute ischaemic lesion increased with the duration of pre-morbid symptoms. Of those with an acute lesion, only 17% died without symptoms compared to 63% of those without an acute lesion. All cases with symptoms lasting more than 3.5 h had an acute lesion. Overall, almost half out-of-hospital IHD deaths in this study were related to an acute ischaemic lesion. Differences in the detail of the pathological examination and examination of differing sub-groups of the out-of-hospital death population probably account for the differing results of previous studies.

Glomus tumour of the palate: case report and review of the literature.

Glomus tumours are benign vascular tumours, usually located in the skin. Intra-oral glomus tumours are rare. A glomus tumour of the palate is reported, only the fifth such case out of a total of 14 intra-oral glomus tumours in the world medical literature.

Audit of necropsies in a British district general hospital.

A comprehensive study was made of the value of necropsies carried out over a six month period in Peterborough Health Authority, using a modification of the format proposed by Schned et al in Vermont, United States of America. Cause of death, clinical correlation, clinical factors contributing to death and clinical evaluation of the necropsy were recorded. The principal diseases were cardiac (33%), and neoplastic (29%). The pathologist disagreed with the clinical cause of death in 13% of cases and major unsuspected diagnoses were found in 30%. Seventy nine per cent of necropsies provided additional information, including feedback on clinical investigations. Clinicians' questions were answered fully in 87%. Necropsies were rated as "very valuable" in 44% of cases, "valuable" in 54%, and "of no value" in only 2%. In 14% of cases the clinical consultant stated that the results of the necropsy would affect future clinical practice. These findings underline the essential place of necropsies in both audit and postgraduate education. The format described could conveniently be used by other pathology departments as part of an audit program.

Bipolar diathermy treatment of long saphenous vein varicosities.

A new technique of endoluminal diathermy of the long saphenous vein using a bipolar electrode is described. This is safer than conventional unipolar diathermy and histological examination of the diathermied veins shows similar appearances using unipolar and bipolar diathermy. Clinical assessment of both techniques yields similar results. Endoluminal bipolar diathermy is simple and relatively painless compared with conventional stripping of the long saphenous vein and can be recommended.

Widespread crystallisation of paraprotein in myelomatosis.

Two patients with myelomatosis leading to acute renal failure were found at autopsy to have extensive crystalline deposits of paraprotein within the capsular space of the glomeruli, renal tubules and renal blood vessels. In one case, crystalline deposits in the renal arteries had caused infarction of both kidneys. Both patients had extensive paraprotein deposits in the heart and in other tissues, leading to myocardial infarction in one case. This patient also had extensive pulmonary deposits of paraprotein without a local plasma cell infiltrate, an appearance which has not been described before. Crystalline deposition does not appear to be specifically associated with a single class of paraprotein. This type of disease, affecting many organs, may be more common than has generally been appreciated and should be considered as a cause of otherwise unexplained organ failure in patients with myelomatosis.