Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to F Braza.
Cytogenetic analysis of mixed lymphocyte and epithelial thymoma in a nonmyasthenic female patient revealed deletion of part of the short arm of chromosome 6. To our knowledge, this cytogenetic abnormality in a benign thymoma has not been previously described in the literature, which is reviewed.
We report on the development of a method for repeated monitoring of mucosal permeability that allows assessment of the severity of colitis and evaluation of treatment efficacy in HLA-B27 transgenic rats. We determined the extent to which intestinal permeability related to stool condition, colon weight, and histological pathology in precolitic and diseased rats up to 29 weeks old. Intestinal permeability was measured by the urinary excretion of iodixanol at 24 h after oral administration. Mean permeability values increased significantly with age in HLA-B27 rats but remained decreased in the background strain Fischer-344 (F-344) control animals. Macroscopic evaluation of HLA-B27 rat colons between 20 and 24 weeks old showed colonic thickening with colonic wet weights increased from 3.4+/-0.13 mg/kg b.wt. in F-344 rats to 6.79+/-0.73 mg/kg b.wt. (p<.05) in HLA-B27 rats. Histological examination of HLA-B27 rat colons confirmed the colonic inflammation as a chronic active mononuclear cell infiltrate. The increase in colon weight was associated with an increase in permeability: 1.16+/-0.17 mg iodixanol versus 5.37+/-1.3 mg of iodixanol in F-344 and HLA-B27 rats, respectively. Three weeks treatment of HLA-B27 rats with cyclosporin A, but not sulfasalazine, showed a dose-dependent decrease in mucosal permeability and colon weight. Neither treatment improved stool condition. We conclude that the measurement of intestinal permeability by iodixanol excretion is a useful biochemical marker that is associated with increases in colonic weight and histological evaluation of inflammation. These data indicate that this technique may be valuable for diagnostic and evaluation purposes in preclinical models of inflammatory bowel disease.
An analysis of the sexual differences in birth weights of 381 children showed that boys are heavier than girls for multiparous mothers but not for primiparous ones. The results support the current hypotheses that predict sex biases in parental investment, with higher costs of producing male offspring in some mammals.
We report a case of mammary duct carcinoma with a prominent lipid-rich, sebaceous-like component, occurring in a 55 yr old white male. The patient presented with a painless, subareolar left breast mass and the diagnosis of malignancy was made by fine needle aspiration. Subsequent modified radical mastectomy revealed an infiltrating and in situ ductal carcinoma with dermal invasion and numerous vacuolated sebaceous-like tumor cells, positive for neutral lipid by Oil Red O stain. We propose that this case represents an unusual variant of lipid-secreting breast carcinoma. To the best of our knowledge, this subtype of mammary carcinoma is unprecedented in male breast.
Cellular changes produced by viruses can be readily identified using light microscopy and Papanicolaou stain of a fixed specimen. These findings can then be confirmed by viral culture and/or electron microscopy studies. Human polyomavirus, common in transplant recipients or otherwise immunocompromised patients, is one virus that can be identified using these methods. The following is a case study of a 4-yr-old boy with no known immune impairment who exhibited human papovavirus (polyomavirus) on a routine urine examination. The diagnosis was confirmed by electron microscopy.
We describe a case of adrenal myelolipoma that occurred in a 66-year-old male with an ACTH producing oat cell lung carcinoma. To our knowledge, this is the first case in which myelolipoma has occurred in association with ectopic ACTH-induced Cushing's syndrome. The literature is reviewed and the pathogenesis of myelolipoma is discussed.
Cytomegalovirus pneumonia, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, and pulmonary and disseminated aspergillosis occurred simultaneously in a 66-year-old white man with oat cell carcinoma and ectopic corticotropin production. Hypokalemia, a recent normal chest roentgenogram, and a large left adrenal mass on a computed tomographic scan confused the initial clinical evaluation. The aspergillosis proved fulminant and lethal.
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A patient with Cushing's syndrome is described who had a metastatic medullary carcinoma of the thyroid which contained corticotropin-releasing factor. ACTH was found by an immunohistochemical method in the patient's pituitary, but not in the thyroid tumor. This is the second report demonstrating corticotropin-releasing factor in tumor tissue in this syndrome. Wider use of immunohistological methods can help distinguish this variety from other tumors associated with the ectopic ACTH syndrome when bioassays are not available.
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