Giant uterine tumor and miscarriage: how to proceed?

Expanding uterine masses can be the cause of pregnancy loss and add technical difficulties to uterus evacuation due to the intense anatomical distortion of the endocervical canal and uterine cavity. The literature is scarce in the peculiarities of the management of missed abortions in uterus with important distorted anatomies. We report a case of a primigravida patient who presented a rapid and expressive increase of abdominal volume due to a giant uterine mass, evolving to miscarriage. Ultrasound can be a useful tool, allowing visualization of the endocervical path and uterine cavity, helping to perform uterine evacuation in the presence of anatomical distortion without compromising the reproductive future. To the best of our knowledge, no such case has been previously reported.

Pancreaticoduodenectomy as treatment of adenocarcinoma of the papilla of Vater diagnosed during pregnancy. A case report.

BACKGROUND: Papillary adenocarcinomas are rare tumors of the gastrointestinal tract. There are few reports of this neoplasm diagnosed during pregnancy. CASE: A case of adenocarcinoma of the papilla of Vater was diagnosed by sonographically guided biopsy during pregnancy. The patient underwent radical resection of the tumor at 25 weeks' gestation; pregnancy termination was not indicated. At 39 weeks' gestation, a cesarean-section was performed. The postoperative period entailed total parenteral nutrition until intestinal motility stabilized. This ensured the mother and fetus' well-being until delivery. CONCLUSION: Papillary adenocarcinoma is associated with good prognosis since it is totally removed by radical resection, and pancreaticoduodenectomy can be performed successfully during pregnancy, but the patient must receive special prenatal care.

Photocontrol and processing of LHCP II apoprotein in Euglena: possible role of Golgi and other cytoplasmic sites.

Like other green photosynthetic eukaryotes, cells of Euglena gracilis var. bacillaris and strain Z contain a light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b complex associated with photosystem II. In Euglena, the formation of the 26.5 kDa principal light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b binding protein of photosystem II (LHCP II) has a number of unusual features. The precursors to LHCP II are large polyproteins containing multiple copies of LHCP II, and photocontrol of their formation is largely translational. Under conditions favoring LHCP II accumulation in the thylakoids, a reaction with anti-LHCP II antibody can be observed in the Golgi by immunogold electron microscopy. The timing of the immunoreaction in the Golgi in synchronous cells and in cells undergoing normal light-induced chloroplast development suggests that the nascent LHCP II passes through the Golgi on the way to the thylakoids. The compartmentalized osmiophilic structure (COS) also shows an immunoreaction. These observations, and other discussed in this paper, suggest that light permits translation of polyprotein LHCP II precursors on cytoplasmic ribosomes of the rough endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and that these pass through the ER to the Golgi where, presumably, further modifications take place. Since an LHCP II immunoreaction is found in Golgi vesicles, these may transport the nascent LHCP II to the plastid and facilitate its uptake.