Thymoma presenting as nephrotic syndrome--an unusual case report and review of literature.

A 30 years male presented with nephrotic syndrome diagnosed on renal biopsy as membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis. Accidentally, chest diagram revealed anterior mediastinal mass which on fine needle aspiration cytology and later histology found to be lymphoepithelial thymoma. The case is presented for the rare coincidence of nephrotic syndrome with thymoma.

Lipoma: a rare tumour of nasopharynx.

Lipoma of nasopharynx is a rare tumour. A lipoma situated at the junction of roof and posterior wall of nasopharynx is reported. Only four cases of lipoma of nasopharynx in adults have been previously reported. Use of cytology in making a pre-operative diagnosis of lipoma at this location is discussed.

Thymolipoma--a rare mediastinal tumour--report of two cases and review of literature.

Thymolipoma is a rare mediastinal tumour. We report two cases of thymolipoma. Our first case, a woman of 60 years, presented with an extremely rare association of myasthenia gravis with thymolipoma. Second case presented with dyspnoea productive cough in a male of 62 years. The relevant literature is briefly reviewed.

Efficacy of fine needle aspiration cytology in the management of thyroid diseases.

To find out the values of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) in the management of thyroid diseases, 1123 cases have been analysed as regards clinical details, thyroid hormone levels and thyroid scans. Cytologically, 96.35% were benign, 0.98% follicular neoplasm, 1.24% malignant, 0.80% extrathyroidal and 0.63% inconclusive. One hundred twenty eight cases were selected for surgery. Correlation of cytology with histology revealed nil false positive. Efficacy as regards narrow definition was 92.3% sensitive, 100% specific with positive and negative predictive values of 92.3% and 98.9% respectively.

Fine needle aspiration biopsy in monitoring human renal transplant.

Renal transplant dysfunction poses a diagnostic dilemma. Clinical evaluation frequently is inaccurate and needle biopsy carries a significant risk of bleeding. Fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) being an easy to perform, a less traumatic, and rapid technique, was employed in 22 cases of clinically suspected renal allograft rejection. The results were described as nil rejection, mild and severe acute rejection, chronic rejection and cyclosporin nephrotoxicity. Seven of these cases were also needle biopsied. Histology confirmed the cytology findings in all. However, an additional finding of acute vascular episode was observed in a case of chronic rejection. Fine needle aspiration biopsy diagnosis helped in altering the immunosuppressive therapy in 16 graft rejections (excluding 2 cases of irreversible rejection) and 2 cases of cyclosporin toxicity. No rejection was found in 2 cases. Thus, 20 renal grafts could be brought back to normal function. Negligible incidence of complication viz. microscopic haematuria of short duration was noted in only 1 case.

TRANSTHORACIC FINE NEEDLE ASPIRATION CYTOLOGY IN DIAGNOSING NON-RESOLVING PNEUMONIAS - A STUDY OF 170 CASES.

Role of transthoracic fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) in diagnosing 170 patients of non-resolving pneumonias was studied. There were 117 males and 35 females in the age range of 3 to 72 years. The neoplastic lesions diagnosed by FNAC included 51 primary lung cancers, 6 metastatic deposits, 1 malignant mesothelioma of pleura, 1 Hodgkin's disease and 4 thymomas. Benign lesions included 56 pneumonias and abscesses of bacterial and chemical origin, 35 pulmonary tuberculosis, 2 fungal granulomas and 1 sarcoid granuloma. Aspiration cytology was inconclusive in 13 cases. The sensitivity of FNAC was 95.5 per cent in diagnosing malignant lesions accurately while the accuracy of cytological characterization was 95.3 per cent There were no false positive reports. FNAC also helped in diagnosing sputum-negative pulmonary tuberculosis. Minor complications like syncopal attacks and haemoptysis of less than 5 mL occurred in 8.2 per cent of patient.

TWO UNCOMMON CASES OF COLLOID CYST OF THE THIRD VENTRICLE.

Colloid cysts of the third ventricle of brain comprise 1-2% of all intracranial tumonrs [1]. They are increasingly being discovered incidentally, often in patients complaining of headache [2]. We came across two such cases in a large tertiary care service hospital in the past 20 years. Second case also had associated visual disturbances and seizures. Both met with fatal outcome. Autopsy revealed presence of colloid cyst in the third ventricle in both cases. It is proposed that to avoid fatal outcome in a patient reporting with frequent attacks of headache, the presence of colloid cyst in the third ventricle should be considered in differential diagnosis. In such cases, CT scan or MRI study of brain becomes an essential diagnostic tool.