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D Ferluga

Publications and source records attributed to D Ferluga.

71 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Clinical presentations and vascular histopathology in autopsied patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and anticardiolipin antibodies.

OBJECTIVE: To examine histomorphological and immunohistological changes in an autopsy series of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients with or without anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL). METHODS: Fourteen SLE patients who died at our department from 1988 to 1996 were included. The patients' medical files were reviewed for the clinical history and the presence of IgG and IgM aCL. Autopsy samples of various organs, including regularly the kidneys, heart, brain and skin, were studied by standard histological methods and the direct immunofluorescence technique. RESULTS: Thirteen of 14 (93%) autopsied SLE patients were persistently positive for IgG aCL and had common overt thrombotic complications and/or other clinical features related to the antiphospholipid syndrome. Their autopsy tissue samples showed frequent occlusive vascular changes such as bland thromboses, thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) related changes and arterial intimalfibrous hyperplasia. The immune complex related vascular changes were mostly unremarkable and present mainly in low aCL positive patients, who also had more aggressive types of lupus glomerulonephritis (GN). CONCLUSION: Increased IgG aCL were found in 13 out of 14 autopsied SLE patients who had predominant occlusive vascular histopathologic changes. The coincidence of bland thromboses with a characteristic TMA histopathology suggested two pathogenetic mechanisms associated with the presence of aCL, one related to abnormal coagulation and the other to endothelial cell injury. The extent of granular vascular immune deposits, typical of SLE, and the severity of lupus GN were inversely related to the aCL level.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Amyloidosis in saphenous vein aortocoronary bypass grafts.

A patient in whom idiopathic amyloidosis of aortocoronary saphenous vein grafts was found at autopsy two years after myocardial revascularization due to coronary atherosclerosis is reported. Idiopathic generalized immunocyte derived amyloidosis extensively studied at autopsy was obviously present at the time of surgery although it remained unnoticed macroscopically in the inserted graft. It appears that simultaneously with arterialization further deposition and also significant redistribution of amyloid within the walls of the vein grafts additionally took place after their insertion. It seems interesting that in spite of the amyloidosis the grafts functioned well and were found patent two years after surgery.

Amyloidosis↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Overexpression of p53 protein in benign and malignant laryngeal epithelial lesions.

This study investigated the immunohistochemical expression of p53 protein in various laryngeal lesions using Kambic's classification from simple hyperplasia to invasive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), and analyzed the relationship between p53 protein overexpression and the severity of epithelial abnormalities. p53 overexpression was observed in 10/19 (53%), in 9/16 (56%), and in 9/13 (69%) cases of simple, abnormal, and atypical hyperplasia respectively, and also in 8/10 (80%) cases of SCC. The proportion of immunoreactive cells and staining intensity increased with the progression of the epithelial hyperplastic lesions. Our study confirms the association of p53 protein overexpression with laryngeal epithelial hyperplastic lesions which have the potential to transform into malignancy, but considering the follow-up of the patients, p53 expression cannot be considered a reliable prognostic factor for any group of laryngeal epithelial hyperplastic lesions regardless of the severity of the lesions.

Adenocarcinoma↗