A rare intramuscular osteolipoma: A case report.

INTRODUCTION: Lipomas are frequently presented in adults and account for almost 50% of all soft-tissue tumors. Osteolipomas are rare and usually located in the intraosseous region or adjacent to bone. It is very unusual for osteolipomas with no connection to bony structures. We report a rare intramuscular osteolipoma independent of bone tissue. PRESENTATION OF CASE: We report a case of a 58-year-old man with painful and progressively enlarging mass in the right lower leg. A plain X-ray and computed tomography (CT) scans revealed a large homogeneous, low-fat density mass containing an oval shape calcification without bone connection. MRI showed a circumscribed mass in the peroneus muscle with a large calcified component. The patient underwent surgical excision of the mass. Histologically, benign osteolipoma was the final diagnosis. No recurrence was observed at six months follow-up. DISCUSSION: Lipoma is a common benign soft tissue neoplasm but osteolipoma is rare. Most cases osteolipomas are connected with bone. independent of bone tissue has been reported in very few cases. Most of them occurred in the head and neck area. The pathogenesis of osteolipoma is still not clear. Although CT and MRI are useful for differential diagnosis, care should be taken because sometimes they are indistinguishable from well-differentiated liposarcomas. Excisional biopsy is useful for definitive diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Although ossifying lipomas are very rare, it is important to keep them in mind when a lesion with adipose tissue in combination with ossification is encountered.

A 9-month-old phosphaturic mesenchymal tumor mimicking the intractable rickets.

Phosphaturic mesenchymal tumor is an extremely rare disease and is frequently associated with oncogenic osteomalacia showing paraneoplastic syndrome, which is characterized by phosphaturia, hypophosphatemia, normocalcemia, and decreased levels of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 associated with a tumor. A 2-year-old boy, who had a soft tissue tumor on his right thigh and previously diagnosed as myositis ossificans at 9-months-old, was presented with rachitic rosary and mildly enlarged tumor. Biochemical investigations showed hypophosphatemia, hyperphosphaturia, and an increased alkaline phosphatase level of 440 U/l (25-100 U/l), suggesting rickets, which was resistant to vitamin D dietary supplementation. We were certain of intractable rickets because of oncogenic hypophosphatemia and thus decided to excise the soft tissue mass. We observed laboratory improvement of rickets after 2 weeks. On the basis of surgical and histopathological examinations, the tumor was finally diagnosed as the phosphaturic mesenchymal tumor.

[A case of sclerosed hemangioma mimicking intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma].

Hemangioma is one of the most frequently encountered benign hepatic neoplasm which can develop secondary degeneration. Sclerosed hemangioma is a rare disease histologically characterized by large amount of collagen and elastic fibril between sclerosed small vessels. Its differential diagnosis is very difficult. It should be included in the differential diagnosis of other hepatic lesions such as hepatocellular carcinoma, intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, and metastatic hepatic tumor. A 77-year old male was admitted with upper abdominal discomfort. Abdominal ultrasonography revealed GB stone, dilated common bile duct with bile duct stone, and a 4.6 cm sized hyperechoic mass at segment 5 and 6 of the liver. Abdominal dynamic computed tomography demonstrated dilated intrahepatic bile ducts and a 5 x 5 cm sized mass which showed minimally delayed enhancement. Abdominal magnetic resonance imaging revealed the mass with low signal intensity in T1 weighted image, high signal intensity and focal low signal in T2 weighted image which showed minimal enhancement. We removed common bile duct stone with endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography then decided to undergo right lower segmentectomy of liver due to possibility of cholangiocarcinoma. Histopathological examination of hepatic mass showed large amount of fibrous tissue with occasional residual vascular channels. We describe one case of sclerosed hemangioma mimicking cholangiocarcinoma.

Thermo-optically tunable band-rejection filters using mechanically formed long-period fiber gratings.

We present tunable mechanically formed long-period fiber gratings whose resonance peaks are shifted by the thermo-optic effect of a medium surrounding the fiber cladding. A novel grating formation method and tuning principles that use periodically arrayed metal wire are described. The performance as an active gain equalizer of an erbium-doped fiber amplifier is also reported.

Prognostic significance of bcl-2, bax, and p53 expression in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLCL) exhibits heterogeneous clinical features and varies markedly in response to treatment and prognosis. Because apoptosis-related proteins may play an important role in predicting the prognosis of DLCL, the current study investigated the prognostic significance of a high level of bcl-2, bax, and p53 expression in relation to clinical characteristics in patients with DLCL. Paraffin-embedded specimens from 94 patients with de novo DLCL were analyzed immunohistochemically for bcl-2, bax, and p53 gene expression. Cases with a positive immunohistological stain in more than 50% of the tumor cells were considered to have DLCL-positive expression. Patients were treated optimally, i.e., with radiotherapy including brief cycles of CHOP or CHOP-like regimens for patients with stage 1-2A diseases and with at least 6 cycles of CHOP or CHOP-like regimens for stage 2B-4 diseases. The responses to therapy and survival were then analyzed in 94 uniformly staged patients. bcl-2 expression was identified in 24 patients (26.4%), bax expression in 35 patients (37.6 %), and p53 expression in 21 patients (22.6%). bax expression proved to be a statistically significant prognostic factor in predicting the overall survival (OS) (P = 0.0015) and disease-free survival (DFS) (P = 0.0052), regardless of other clinical factors or immunohistological results. There was no significant difference in the OS (P = 0.0682) or DFS (P = 0.088) between the bcl-2-positive (n = 24) and bcl-2-negative (n = 67) groups. However, bcl-2 expression was found to be unfavorably associated with the OS (P = 0.0054) in a confined group with low (n = 51) or low intermediate (n = 22) IPI scores. The expression of p53 exhibited no statistical correlation with the OS or DFS. A multivariate analysis revealed that IPI score, bulky mass, and bax expression were all significantly associated with the DFS or OS. bax and bcl-2 should be considered as independent biologic prognostic parameters in DLCL, thereby aiding in the identification of patient risk groups. As such, bcl-2-positive patients with a low or low intermediate IPI score, or without a high level of bax expression could be candidates for more intensive therapy or alternative therapeutic approaches.

Double primary mucoepidermoid carcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma of the liver--a case report.

Double primary mucoepidermoid-hepatocellular carcinoma of the liver is extremely rare, and only one case has previously been reported in the literature, although there have been about 14 cases of primary mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the liver. Most of the reported hepatic mucoepidermoid carcinoma showed a poor prognosis. We presently report the second case of a double primary mucoepidermoid carcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma with a brief review of the published literature. A 52-year-old man was admitted because of epigastric pain that lasted for 2 months. A computed tomography of the abdomen revealed a 7-cm, ill-defined mass with irregular marginal enhancement in the left lobe of liver. Another 2-cm nodular tumor was found in segment 8 of the right lobe. The two separate nodules in the patient's liver demonstrated clearly different histologic and immunohistochemical features. The pathological diagnoses were mucoepidermoid carcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma for the larger and the smaller tumors, respectively. The patient died of liver failure 6 months after a left lobectomy of the liver.