Russell body gastritis associated with Helicobacter pylori infection in an HIV-positive patient: case report and review of the literature.

In 1998 Tazawa and Tsutsumi described for the first time a case of Helicobacter pylori (HP)-related gastritis characterized by the presence of a conspicuous plasma cell infiltrate with Russell bodies, and coined the term Russell body gastritis (RBG). A 59-year-old HIV-positive man complaining of recurrent epigastric pain underwent an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy revealing in the stomach only hyperemia in the antral portion. Histology showed a moderate glandular atrophy associated with an expansion of the lamina propria due to an infiltration of monomorphous cells with eosinophilic cytoplasm inclusions and eccentric nuclei, somewhat resembling plasma cells. A diagnosis of HP-related RBG was made, after excluding, by means of histochemical, immunohistochemical stainings and molecular studies, a neoplastic process. A review of all cases of RBG previously described in the English literature is reported in order to examine the clinical, endoscopic and microscopic features of this histopathological entity and the possible pathogenetic mechanisms.

Early syphilitic hepatitis in an immunocompetent patient: really so uncommon?

The incidence of syphilis has increased substantially over the past years, particularly in men who have sex with men. The clinical manifestations of syphilis are variable and liver involvement is uncommon, but may occur at any stage of the disease. We report a case of early syphilitic hepatitis (ESH) in an immunocompetent patient referring multiple bisexual exposures, who presented at admission with jaundice, tiredness, an ulcerated genital lesion and an increase of liver aminotransferases. During his hospital stay, he developed a skin rash, and serology for syphilis was found positive. Our case report strengthens the need to take into consideration the diagnosis of ESH in all patients with unexplained liver enzyme increase and epidemiological data of unsafe sexual exposures. Indeed, an early recognition of the clinical manifestations of syphilis can lead to a prompt treatment, and allows the prevention of the transmission of this disease to other individuals.

Simultaneous occurrence of metastasizing carcinoid tumour of the gallbladder and chromophobe renal cell carcinoma in a young man.

Carcinoid tumour is an endocrine neoplasia described for the first time in 1888 and rarely observed in the extrahepatic bile ducts. Gallbladder carcinoid tumour was first reported by Joel in 1929. An endoluminal gallbladder lesion, with a bizarre echogenicity, and a mass in the upper pole of the left kidney were found in a 27 year-old man. The patient underwent a cholecystectomy with partial hepatectomy and a polar renal resection. Histological examination revealed a typical gallbladder carcinoid tumour with regional lymph nodal metastasis and a renal cell carcinoma, with morphological and histochemical features of the chromophobe type. This is a distinctive, rare variant, often described in the literature in association with other neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases. To our knowledge, this is the first report of gallbladder carcinoid tumour with an unexpected aggressive behaviour in a very young patient, with concurrent renal cell carcinoma, chromophobe variant.

[Benign metastasizing pulmonary leiomyoma: description of a case and review of the literature]. / Leiomioma metastatizzante benigno nel polmone: descrizione di un caso e revisione della letteratura.

We report the case of a 48-year-old woman with multiple benign metastasizing leiomyomas in both lungs and a single retroperitoneal leiomyoma. The patient underwent surgical resection of the lesions 15 years after total hysterectomy for uterine myomas. Immunohistochemical studies performed on the retroperitoneal and pulmonary neoplasms showed them to be of mesenchymal derivation with smooth muscle differentiation; the samples were negative for HMB-45. Some histogenetic hypotheses for the multiple leiomyomas are presented.