A rare presentation of histologically proven sarcoidosis of the knee: A case report and brief review of the literature.

We here report a patient with histologically proven sarcoidosis of the knee, a rare localization of sarcoidosis, which usually presents itself as a pulmonary disease. Case reports of radiological images that suggest osseous sarcoidosis of the appendicular skeleton are not so rare, however few are histologically proven. Since in our patient MRI could not distinguish between sarcoidosis and another (possibly malignant) disease, histological proof was obtained through a CT-guided biopsy. Imaging and treatment guidelines for extrapulmonary sarcoidosis are inexistent, due to lack of randomized trials.

A comparison between Moroccan and Belgian type-2 diabetic patients.

The aim of this study was to compare diabetes parameters and complications among Moroccan and Belgian type 2 diabetic patients living in Belgium. In two general practices 62 Belgian and 95 Moroccan diabetic patients aged between 40 and 70 were included. The mean fasting plasma glucose (FPG) was 31% higher in the Moroccan group (186 mg/dL) than in the Belgian group (142 mg/dL) (p < 0.001). Compared with 7.6% in the Belgian group, mean HbA1c was also significantly higher in the Moroccan group (8.7%) (p < 0.001). In the Moroccan group 43% showed at least one of the four major diabetic complications compared to 33% in the Belgian group (p = 0.21). Among Moroccan patients retinopathy occurred in 15%, nephropathy in 32%, neuropathy in 21% and foot problems in 18%.

[Accuracy of intraoperative diagnosis in central nervous system tumors: report of 1315 cases]. / Place de l'examen extemporané dans les tumeurs du système nerveux central. A propos de 1315 observations.

Clinicians order neurosurgery frozen sections in order to answer three questions: is the specimen tumor tissue? is it benign or malignant? what is its histological type? We studied the diagnostic accuracy of 1 315 frozen sections of central nervous system tumors, performed between 1988 and 1999, and compared it with data in the literature. Agreement between intraoperative and paraffin-section diagnosis was 96.6% (rate of error: 3.4% for the question tumor tissue or not). The answer was concordant in 92.6% with a 7.4% rate of error for tumor malignancy or benignity. Exact histological concordance was 87.6%. The most frequent errors in histological typing concerned gliomas, hemangioblastomas and metastasis. Our results emphazise the reliability of intraoperative frozen sections in Neurosurgery and the importance of close collaboration between clinicians, radiologists and pathologists.

[Benign granular cell anal tumor]. / Tumeur anale bénigne à cellules granuleuses.

INTRODUCTION: Granular cell tumors (GCT) are rarely located in the perianal area. OBSERVATION: Over the past 3 years, a 56 year-old man presented a papule of the right margin of the anus that had progressively increased in size (1.5 cm). Cell proliferation was located in the dermis and strongly expressed the S100 protein. It was covered by a pseudo-epitheliomatous hyperplasia of the overlying epidermis. Forty months after local surgical excision, there was no sign of recurrence. COMMENTS: Granular cell tumors are rare and usually benign. When cutaneous or mucosal, the pseudo-epitheliomatous hyperplasia of the overlying epithelium may, on superficial samples, be mistakenly diagnosed as squamous cell carcinomas. Malignant GCT may, histologically, appear identical to a benign GCT and only the appearance of metastases (generally after local recurrence) permits the subsequent diagnosis of malignancy.