Small cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder: a rare, aggressive neuroendocrine malignancy.

Small cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder is a rare, often fatal, disease. Its presenting symptoms and gross morphology are similar to those of conventional urothelial carcinoma, whereas its prognosis is much poorer with frequent metastasis. Small cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder shares similar histology with its counterparts in other organs; however, its immunoreactivity to conventional neuroendocrine markers is low. Its diagnosis is thus considered permissible on morphologic grounds alone. Multimodal treatments are often employed, although no definite treatment algorithm has been established. For this extremely aggressive malignancy with an as-yet inconclusive etiology, further studies are needed to clarify its molecular pathogenesis to serve as a basis for diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets. The clinical, morphologic, immunoreactive, molecular, and therapeutic features of bladder small cell carcinoma are reviewed, including a detailed discussion on the utility of immunohistochemical markers.

Schistosomiasis: an unusual finding of the cervix.

BACKGROUND: Schistosomiasis remains a major threat to women's health in many resource-poor countries and is being seen with increasing frequency in developed countries among immigrants and tourists who have a history of freshwater exposure in endemic areas. CASE: A 28-year-old asymptomatic African immigrant presented with an abnormal Pap test result showing rare atypical squamous cells. Colposcopy examination showed pale-yellow, finely granular cervical lesions. Calcified Schistosoma hematobium eggs were identified by histology but were absent in urine and stool specimens. Praziquantel treatment was initiated promptly, avoiding significant morbidity. CONCLUSION: The differential diagnosis of female genital schistosomiasis should be considered for patients who have a history of residence in or travel to endemic areas, including asymptomatic patients and patients presenting a long time after exposure.

Is specific gravity a good estimate of urine osmolality?

CONTEXT: Urine specific gravity (USG) is often used by clinicians to estimate urine osmolality. USG is measured either by refractometry or by reagent strip. OBJECTIVE: We studied the correlation of USG obtained by either method with a concurrently obtained osmolality. DESIGN: Using our laboratory's records, we retrospectively gathered data on 504 urine specimens on patients on whom a simultaneously drawn USG and an osmolality were available. Out of these, 253 USG's were measured by automated refractometry and 251 USG's were measured by reagent strip. Urinalysis data on these subjects were used to determine the correlation between USG and osmolality, adjusting for other variables that may impact the relationship. The other variables considered were pH, protein, glucose, ketones, nitrates, bilirubin, urobilinogen, hemoglobin, and leukocyte esterase. The relationships were analyzed by linear regression. RESULTS: This study demonstrated that USG obtained by both reagent strip and refractometry had a correlation of approximately 0.75 with urine osmolality. The variables affecting the correlation included pH, ketones, bilirubin, urobilinogen, glucose, and protein for the reagent strip and ketones, bilirubin, and hemoglobin for the refractometry method. At a pH of 7 and with an USG of 1.010 predicted osmolality is approximately 300 mosm/kg/H(2)O for either method. For an increase in SG of 0.010, predicted osmolality increases by 182 mosm/kg/H(2) O for the reagent strip and 203 mosm/kg/H(2)O for refractometry. Pathological urines had significantly poorer correlation between USG and osmolality than "clean" urines. CONCLUSION: In pathological urines, direct measurement of urine osmolality should be used.

Is the QuantiFERON-TB blood assay a good replacement for the tuberculin skin test in tuberculosis screening? a pilot study at Berkshire Medical Center.

The QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube method (QFT-GIT; Cellestis, Carnegie, Australia) is a recently US Food and Drug Administration-approved interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) for the detection of tuberculosis infection, which has been screened for by the tuberculin skin test (TST) for nearly a century. We report a pilot study comparing the QFT-GIT and TST results for screening health care workers (HCWs) at Berkshire Medical Center (BMC; Pittsfield, MA), the second hospital in Massachusetts to use QFT-GIT. For the study, 40 BMC HCWs, 20 TST+ and 20 TST-, were screened with the QFT-GIT test. All 20 TST- subjects were also QFT-GIT-, while only 10 of 20 TST+ subjects were QFT-GIT+. The overall agreement between the QFT-GIT and TST results was 75% (kappa = 0.5; 95% confidence interval, 0.268-0.732). The suboptimal agreement was partially due to a higher specificity of QFT-GIT. Confounding factors (eg, bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccination status and birthplace) are discussed, and literature regarding IGRAs and their comparison with TST is reviewed.