Intravesical adipose tissue: a quantitative study of its presence and location with implications for therapy and prognosis.

Accurate pathologic staging of carcinomas of the urinary bladder involves assessment of invasion by the tumor into the bladder wall and beyond into perivesical soft tissue. The presence of tumor within perivesical soft tissue implies pathologic stage pT3 (AJCC/UICC system, 1997). In traditional textbooks of histology, anatomy, pathology, and in the literature, other than a single case report and a brief reference in another paper, there is no information on the presence of adipose tissue in the lamina propria or muscularis propria of the urinary bladder. Nine hundred forty-three sections from 139 cystectomy specimens were evaluated for the presence, location, and quantity of adipose tissue within the lamina propria and muscularis propria. The histology of the perivesical soft tissues and the nature of its delineation from muscularis propria were also analyzed. Adipose tissue was seen within the lamina propria in 53% (74 of 139) of cystectomies and in 17.6% (166 of 943) of the examined sections. It was located predominantly in the deep lamina propria (at or below the muscularis mucosae) in 81.1% (60 of 74) of the cystectomies and in 91% (151 of 166) of the sections. Within the lamina propria it was predominantly seen as small localized aggregates in 92% (153 of 166) of sections. All cases showed adipose tissue within the muscularis propria. Adipose tissue was identified within the superficial (inner) muscularis propria in 54% (512 of 943) of sections and was predominantly in small aggregates in 80.5% (412 of 512) of sections. It was in moderate to abundant quantities within the deep (outer) muscularis propria in 60.7% (572 of 943) of sections. The perivesical soft tissue was almost exclusively composed of adipose tissue with variable vascularity. Delineation of the perivesical adipose tissue from the deep (outer) muscularis propria was typically indistinct because muscle bundles of the latter haphazardly merged with the perivesical adipose tissue. Based on these findings, we conclude that adipose tissue is frequently present in the lamina propria and muscularis propria of the urinary bladder wall, and is usually scant in the former location and frequently abundant in the latter. Awareness of the high frequency of adipose tissue within the urinary bladder wall has prognostic and therapeutic implications. In transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT) specimens, misinterpretation of tumor infiltrating adipose tissue within lamina propria (pT1) as perivesical soft tissue involvement (pT3) may potentially result in unwarranted aggressive management. Substaging of muscle invasive tumors should be performed in cystectomy specimens only, because the junction of muscularis propria and the perivesical adipose tissue is typically ill-defined. Muscularis propria adipose tissue in TURBT specimens may be erroneously assumed to be perivesical adipose tissue, potentially leading to overstaging of the primary tumor.

Intrarenal schwannoma: a report of four cases including three cellular variants.

Renal schwannomas are extraordinarily rare neoplasms; only six have been reported, the majority of which occurred in the renal pelvis. We report the clinical and pathologic features of four additional cases. The resected kidney in all patients contained a well-demarcated, yellow-tan, smooth, and bulging intraparenchymal tumor (mean size, 9.7 cm; range, 4 to 16 cm). Microscopically, three cases were classified as cellular schwannomas, and one was a usual-type schwannoma, with degenerative nuclear atypia. By immunohistochemistry, all tumors were strongly S-100 protein positive and negative for pan-cytokeratin, CD57, smooth muscle actin, desmin, and CD34. Epithelial elements were not noted in the tumors, and there was no history of any clinical syndromes in these patients. Analysis of the four cases showed the mean age at presentation to be 47 years (range, 18 to 84 years), with no sex predisposition (two men, two women). Most patients were asymptomatic, and all received a diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma and treated as having such. Recognition and awareness of these rare, benign tumors will assist in the differential diagnosis of spindle cell tumors of the kidney and prevent their misdiagnosis as sarcomatoid carcinomas of the kidney or renal sarcomas. Our study, the largest series to date of renal schwannomas, demonstrates a predilection for the cellular variant in the kidney, documents that these tumors may present in the nonhilar region of the kidney, and provides clinical evidence of their benign biologic behavior.

Thyroid transcription factor-1 is expressed in extrapulmonary small cell carcinomas but not in other extrapulmonary neuroendocrine tumors.

Thyroid transcription factor-1 (TTF-1) is a nuclear homeodomain transcription factor that is expressed in the developing thyroid, respiratory epithelium, and diencephalon. TTF-1 is thought to be expressed specifically in pulmonary or thyroid neoplasms, and it is expressed in a significant subset of pulmonary non-small cell carcinomas, small cell carcinomas, and carcinoids but not in nonpulmonary, non-small cell carcinomas. Neuroendocrine tumors from sites other than the lung have not been evaluated for TFF-1 expression. We examined TFF-1 expression using immunohistochemistry on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded sections of 49 gastrointestinal carcinoids; 15 pancreatic islet cell tumors; 21 paragangliomas; 8 medullary thyroid carcinomas; 7 small cell carcinomas of the uterine cervix; 4 prostate, 4 bladder, and 6 Merkel cell (primary cutaneous neuroendocrine) carcinomas; and 1 renal carcinoma No gastrointestinal carcinoid tumor, pancreatic islet cell tumor, paraganglioma, or Merkel cell carcinoma expressed TFF-1. All of the medullary thyroid carcinomas strongly expressed TTF-1. However, 44% of nonpulmonary small cell carcinomas were also TTF-1 positive, including four of four prostate, two of four bladder, and one of seven cervical small cell carcinomas. We conclude that TTF-1 expression is not specific for small cell carcinomas of pulmonary origin and should not be used to distinguish primary from metastatic small cell carcinomas in extrapulmonary sites. However, TTF-1 expression may be useful in distinguishing Merkel cell carcinomas and cutaneous metastasis of small cell carcinomas. Among well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors, TTF-1 expression seems to be present only in carcinoid tumors of the lung and medullary carcinomas of the thyroid and may be of differential diagnostic value when dealing with a metastatic well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumor.

Toxicology and adverse effects of drugs used for immunosuppression in organ transplantation.

In the first half of the 20th century, attempts at organ transplantation were tried but proved unsuccessful without the conceptual understanding of rejection. As our understanding of the process of immune response expanded, attempts were made to control or modify the reaction to ensure graft survival. It seemed initially that there was an uncircumventable limitation to effective immunosuppression, in that it could not be achieved without inducing total immunodeficiency. Cyclosporine was the first drug used to produce immunosuppression without global immunodeficiency. Cyclosporine, however, was limited by excessive toxicity. Newer drugs, some undergoing clinical trials and others in the pipeline, hold the promise of exciting developments in the field of organ transplantation.

Right-sided high origin of diaphragm associated with accessory lobe of liver, lobulated right atrial appendage, and ipsilateral phrenic nerve hamartoma: a case report.

A case of a rare condition of congenital right anterior high origin of the diaphragm in a stillborn fetus is reported. Associated findings at autopsy were a hornlike subdiaphragmatic intrathoracic accessory lobe of the liver and a lobulated right atrial appendage of the heart. At the superiormost aspect of the malpositioned right anterior diaphragmatic leaf a small phrenic nerve hamartoma was found. The phrenic nerve itself appeared small and not well developed. The phrenic nerve lesion may have been a concomitant or secondary hamartomatous change. Careful clinical and pathological search for concomitant anomalies in diaphragmatic lesions is emphasized.

Lead poisoning--Part II. Effects and assay.

This second part of the review article compiles currently available information on the effects of lead poisoning. Also examined are the available options for assay, the procedures for collection of samples, and the available methods for the estimation of lead in the collected samples.

Lead poisoning--Part I. Incidence, etiology, and toxicokinetics.

In summary, we review the recent and not so recent but lesser known information on lead poisoning. We review the incidence of lead poisoning and find that no one is really safe from its effects. We have also examined the many and varied sources of lead poisoning, and critically review the ubiquitous ways in which lead enters the body and is eventually dealt with in the body.