Epithelioid angiosarcoma arising in schwannoma of the kidney: report of the first case and review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: Schwannoma and angiosarcoma are infrequent pathologies that have been rarely reported in the kidney. Angiosarcoma is an uncommon malignant tumor presenting a recognizable vascular differentiation. It can develop in any site but the most common locations include the skin, soft tissues, breast, bone, liver, and spleen while renal localization has been very rarely reported in the literature. Schwannoma is a benign peripheral nerve sheath tumor composed of cells with the immunophenotype and ultrastructural features of differentiated Schwann cells. It has a wide anatomical distribution but the most frequent locations include subcutaneous tissues of the extremities and the head and neck region and the retroperitoneal and mediastinal soft tissues. The occurrence of an angiosarcoma in a pre-existing schwannoma is an extremely rare event with <20 cases reported in worldwide literature. In the present study, a renal case of angiosarcoma arising in schwannoma is presented with a detailed review of the pertinent literature. CASE PRESENTATION: A 56-year-old man was admitted with a few days history of lower back pain and hematuria. Abdominal ultrasound showed a mass inside the left renal medulla. Subsequent imaging investigations with computed tomography and magnetic resonance confirmed the presence of the lesion and showed a pulmonary metastasis. CONCLUSIONS: The final histopathological examination led to the diagnosis of epithelioid angiosarcoma arising in a schwannoma. The patient came to death a few months later due to a massive hemothorax. To the best of our knowledge, the present is the first case of an angiosarcoma arising in a schwannoma of the kidney.

Carcinoma of the urachus. Report of a case.

The authors report a case of urachal carcinoma of a 60 year old woman of particular interest because of the clinical history, biological behavior and histotype. The tumor presented as an umbilical mass of 25 cm which had slowly increased during 20 years without evident clinical signs or infiltration of the peritoneum and abdominal organs. Histologic findings revealed an adenosquamous carcinoma, which represents less than 5% of urachal neoplasms. Surgical excision is the treatment. The prognosis is poor because of regional recurrence and metastases. The authors review the literature analyzing the criteria for differential diagnosis between adenocarcinoma of vesical and of urachal origin.

[Idiopathic muscular hypertrophy of the esophagus. A report of a symptomatic case]. / Ipertrofia muscolare idiopatica dell'esofago. Descrizione di un caso sintomatico.

A case of idiopathic muscular hypertrophy of the esophagus in a 55 years old woman with a two months history of dysphagia is presented. Radiological, esophagoscopic and CT scanning appearance was of an infiltrating process, but intraoperative histological examination revealed the benign feature of the lesion. Thus adequate surgical treatment was performed.

[Peritoneal innervation and post-laparoscopic course. Role of CO2]. / Terminazioni nervose peritoneali e decorso post-laparoscopia. Ruolo della CO2.

BACKGROUND: 30-67% of patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery reports shoulder pain. Besides, post-surgical course of patients undergoing converted laparoscopic procedures is similar to the course of patients who received a completely laparoscopic procedure. It is supposed that there is a temporary neurotoxic damage of the peritoneal sensitive nervous fibres defined by CO2. METHODS: A prospective review has been carried out by histologically analyzing 38 peritoneal biopsies from 10 selected patients, during different laparoscopic surgical procedures (6 cholecystectomies, 2 appendectomies, 1 selective bilateral ligature of the spermatic vessles) and at different times during each operation. Patients whom anamnesis, clinical or local conditions were suggestive for peritoneal flogosis were excluded from the study: therefore only 29 biopsies from 8 patients have been considered useful to the study. RESULTS: Histological analysis has been carried out with different methods of coloration (hematoxylin eosin, argentic staining) and at different magnifications (30x, 60x, 100x), without electronical microscopy or immunohistochemical studies. No biopsy showed signs of damage of the nervous structures. CONCLUSIONS: Certainly, the realization of a pneumoperitoneum at CO2 doesn't cause damages of the peritoneal sensitive fibres. It has been demonstrated that the abdominal introduction of CO2 causes a "relative peritoneal acidosis", directly depending from the percentage of CO2 employed: the peritoneal pH decreases to 6.9 after 15 min of pneumoperitoneum with CO2 at 100% and to 7.35% with CO2 at 5% of air. Probably this condition causes a temporary biochemical change that defines reduction of the nervous impulses and, therefore, the "peritoneization" of the patient subjected to laparoscopic procedure. The "biochemical hypoesthesia", based on a change of the peritoneal homeostasis, would translate itself in a beneficial effect for the patient, persisting also when converted to laparotomic operation due the impossibility to proceed under laparoscopy, held up by the residual pneumoperitoneum.

Extraskeletal osteosarcoma: a very rare case report of primary tumor of the colon-rectum and review of the literature.

Extraskeletal osteosarcoma (ESOS) is a malignant mesenchymal tumor in which neoplastic cells produce bone osteoid in variable amounts. An 81-year-old woman presented with severe abdominal pain, tenesmus, constipation and rectal bleeding. The digital rectal exploration showed a large lesion of hard consistency, occupying the lumen, with the presence of splinters that "pierced" the endoscopist's glove. Endoscopic examination and CTscan revealed an ulcerative exophytic neoplasia of the lower rectum in which multiple calcified areas were found. The lesion showed no bone involvement. An abdominal perineal resection sec Miles was performed. The histological examination revealed a highly cellular mesenchymal lesion, with spindle and epithelioid cells with moderate nuclear pleomorphism. The calcified component consisted of widespread osteoid deposition. The immunohistochemical investigations of neoplastic cells showed strong positivity for vimentin and osteonectin. The definitive histological diagnosis of primary extraskeletal osteosarcoma arising from the colon-rectum was made. To our knowledge, only one previous case of colonic osteosarcoma was published in the literature in 2001, reported by Shimazu and other authors. The extreme rarity of the tumor at this location, also confirmed by morphological and immunohistochemical data, prompted us to present this case report and to review the literature.

Fibrous Variant of Hashimoto's Thyroiditis as a Diagnostic Pitfall in Thyroid Pathology.

Fibrous variant of Hashimoto's thyroiditis is a rare condition occurring in about 10% cases, mainly middle age people. It is characterized by an extensive fibrous proliferation without extension into the surrounding structures. A 55-year-old female was referred to our department for an unexplained onset of cervical discomfort. She presented a voluminous goiter of hard consistence, dyspnea and dysphagia. Given the compressive symptoms and the non-diagnostic result of the biopsy, a total thyroidectomy was performed. Microscopically the thyroid parenchyma was characterized by broad bands of fibrosis with severe atrophy of thyroid follicles and lymphocytic inflammatory infiltrate distributed within and around the lobules. In view of the morphological and immunohistochemical findings, a diagnosis of HTFV was made. The fibrosclerotic process is the key feature of several thyroid diseases so that the clinician and the pathologist have to consider that many diagnostic pitfalls can occur in this field. The differential diagnosis between HTFV and RD is sometimes arduous due to the partial clinical and morphological overlapping and to the poor efficacy of conventional cytology as well as pre-surgical biopsy. Considering these features, histological examination is mostly mandatory.

Fibroadenoma of the vulva. Report of a case.

A case of fibroadenoma occurring in the vulva of a 24 year old woman is presented. This rare benign tumor appears as dermal or subcutaneous well circumscribed nodule. Histologically the fibroadenoma is characterized by epithelial and stromal proliferation. Two different concepts concerning histogenesis are cited; the authors believe that this tumor arises in ectopic mammary tissue.

[Signet ring cell carcinoma of the rectum in a 15-year-old youngster]. / Carcinoma a signet ring cell del retto in un giovane di 15 anni.

Primary colonic signet ring cell carcinoma is a rare neoplasia. The prognosis is particularly poor with only very few patients surviving more than one year following diagnosis. We report a case of primary signet ring cells carcinoma of the rectum, detected in a 15 year old young male, particularly interesting for the patient young age and for good prognosis.