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F Piscioli

Publications and source records attributed to F Piscioli.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

[Ovarian oxyphilic Sertoli cell tumor: case report and review of the literature].

Ovarian oxyphilic Sertoli cell tumor is a rare neoplasm (only three cases were reported in literature). Sometimes the rarity itself of a lesion raises some problem in the diagnostics, especially if the case is send to several consultants. An unusual case of ovarian neoplasm came to our attention, and we sent some slides of the case to two well known referees of different Departments of Pathology. Pathologist 1 made a diagnosis of endometrioid adenocarcinoma, while Pathologist 2 made the diagnosis of oxyphilic Sertoli cell tumor. He sends the same slides to Pathologist 1, who confirmed his diagnosis. The two different diagnosis set different managements of the lesion for the clinician, but overall they set the pathologist who requested the consultation in a difficult position. In fact, when a pathologist sends to two experienced consultants a case, he really thinks to solve definitely the case itself. Unfortunately, sometimes it does not happen.

Coloring Agents↗
PubMed2003

MELAS: clinical phenotype and morphological brain abnormalities.

We describe the clinical and neuropathological findings of three unrelated autopsy cases of MELAS harboring the A3243G transition in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Using immunohistochemical techniques, we studied the expression of several subunits of the respiratory chain in various brain regions from the same cases. In all three cases there was a reduced immunocytochemical staining for mtDNA-encoded subunits of the respiratory chain, confirming the presence of a defective mitochondrial protein synthesis in this disease. Mitochondrial abnormalities were mostly confined to multiple areas of different size and shape, in agreement with the focal character of the brain pathology in MELAS, and were most prominent in the cerebral cortex, providing a morphological contribution to the explanation of the cognitive regression of the patients. Immunoreactivity for mtDNA-encoded subunits was reduced in the walls of many pial and intracerebral arterioles of different brain regions but there was no clear correlation between territories of affected vessels and distribution of the histological and immunohistochemical lesions. Cerebral focal lesions in MELAS might have a metabolic nature and several pathogenetic mechanisms might be involved in the genesis of stroke-like episodes when there is a local increased ATP demand.

Adenosine Triphosphatases↗
PubMed2001

Prevalence of intestinal metaplasia in the distal oesophagus, oesophagogastric junction and gastric cardia in symptomatic patients in north-east Italy: a prospective, descriptive survey. The Italian Ulcer Study Group "GISU".

BACKGROUND: Incidence of adenocarcinoma of distal oesophagus and gastric cardia, probably arising from areas of intestinal metaplasia, has been increasing rapidly. AIMS: To define prevalence of intestinal metaplasia of distal oesophagus, oesophagogastric junction and gastric cardia and to evaluate potential associated factors, by means of a prospective multicentre study including University and teaching hospitals, and primary and tertiary care centres. PATIENTS: Each of 24 institutions involved in study enrolled 10 consecutive patients undergoing first-time routine endoscopy for dyspeptic symptoms. METHODS: Patients answered symptom questionnaires and underwent gastroscopy Three biopsies were taken from distal oesophagus, oesophago-gastric junction and gastric cardia, and were stained with haematoxylin and eosin. Specimens were also evaluated for Helicobacter pylori infection. RESULTS: A total of 240 patients (124 male, 116 female; median age 56 years, range 20-90) were enrolled in study. Intestinal metaplasia affected distal oesophagus in 5, oesophago-gastric junction in 19 and gastric cardia in 10 patients. Low-grade dysplasia was found at distal oesophagus and/or oesophago-gastric junction of 3/24 patients with intestinal metaplasia vs 2/216 without intestinal metaplasia (p<0.05). A significant association was found between symptoms and presence of intestinal metaplasia, regardless of location, and between Helicobacter pylori infection and intestinal metaplasia at oesophago-gastric junction. CONCLUSIONS: Intestinal metaplasia of distal oesophagus, oesophagogastric-junction and gastric cardia is found in a significant proportion of symptomatic patients undergoing gastroscopy and is associated with dysplasia in many cases. Although prevalence of dysplasia seems to decrease when specialized columnar epithelium is found in short segment, or even focally in oesophago-gastric junction, these small foci of intestinal metaplastic cells may represent source of most adenocarcinomas of cardia.

Barrett Esophagus↗
PubMed2001

[Telemetric intraoperative diagnosis among hospitals in Trentino: first evaluations and optimization of the procedure].

Telemetric, intraoperative frozen section diagnosis may be a useful tool for rural hospitals lacking an in-house pathology service. As a part of a Health Ministry Project on Telemedicine in Trentino (northern Italy), we developed a static telemicroscopy system (STeMiSy). This system connects the rural hospital of Cles with the main hospital of Trento. The two hospitals are 40 kilometers apart, and the road connecting the two towns runs across the mountains and has a heavy traffic. Before putting STeMiSy into practice, we tested the software and hardware on the LAN of the regional hospital system, by connecting the pathology services of Trento and Rovereto (20 kilometers apart). This test phase lasted three months and has not revealed major problems in the LAN nor in the robotic microscope, which was always precise and reliable. The quality of the images and the speed of transmission were largely sufficient for intraoperative frozen section diagnosis. Minor details of the histological slides were not always appreciated on the panoramic view. This loss of some details may be due to the quality of the panoramic view, which represents the 'surfing map' to read the cases. Nevertheless, the recognition of these small details was not so relevant as to change the surgical approaches. An audioconference system, utilizing the same transmission channel, not only slightly slowed the transmission but also caused some instability to the system. The audioconference system has therefore been abandoned, and when necessary we used the normal telephone. Macroscopic images of the whole surgical specimen, the surgeon's responsibility for the sampling, good technical quality of the slide, and good training will allow us to perform remote frozen section diagnosis in the absence of the pathologist. We believe that the main, and probably only, difficulty for this approach is not of a technical nature, but reflects the pathologist's resistance to making a remote video diagnosis.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1990

6-Methylangelicins: new monofunctional photochemotherapeutic agents for psoriasis.

The monofunctional furocoumarins, the 6-methylangelicins, were tested for their antiproliferative activity with various animal models and for genotoxicity in micro-organisms and in mammalian cells. The most active compound was 6,4,4'-trimethylangelicin, which showed a high antiproliferative effect and reduced genotoxicity in comparison with 8-methoxypsoralen (8-MOP). Some of these compounds were also tested clinically by topical application on 17 patients with psoriasis. They appeared to be more active than 8-MOP in clearing psoriasis without inducing skin phototoxicity. The methylangelicins also caused skin pigmentation.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

[Role of direct transcutaneous puncture cytology in the diagnosis of adrenal metastases of urological cancers].

The authors present their technique for the demonstration of adrenal metastases of urological cancers by direct percutaneous aspiration biopsy of the adrenal glands under ultrasound or CT control. Aspiration cytology appears to be a safe and reliable technique. The authors were surprised by the frequency of these metastases as, out of the 11 adrenal aspirations, cytology confirmed the diagnosis of metastasis in 9 cases.

Adrenal Gland Neoplasms↗
PubMed1988

[Gleason's system and pelvic lymphadenectomy in the pretherapeutic evaluation of cancer of the prostate. Apropos of 85 cases].

Accuracy of staging of prostatic cancer is related to invasive procedures since imaging methods do not allow a reliable knowledge of the nodal status. Unfortunately lymphadenectomy is adversely affected by morbidity and mortality, therefore alternative methods should be elaborated. Post-lymphographic aspiration cytology seems to be worthwhile, having proved to be a reliable, accurate, safe procedure which can provide useful information in the management of patients with prostatic cancer. Nevertheless uncertainty exists upon the clinical significance of negative cytologic findings. In this connection correlation between grading and aspiration cytology can constitute a further improvement. In our experience the Gleason grading system has shown to be the most reliable and reproducible. 85 patients classified according to the Gleason's system, underwent staging lymphadenectomy and no nodal metastases were present when the Gleason score was lower than 5. In 50 cases even aspiration cytology was accomplished before surgery. No false positive cytologic findings were seen on histologic verification. Two false negative results were obtained in patients with Gleason score higher than 5. In conclusion we believe that when prostatic cancer shows a Gleason score lower than 5 and the lymph node aspiration cytology is negative no staging lymphadenectomy should be performed. On the contrary in cases with Gleason sum from 5 to 10 negative nodal cytologic findings are inconclusive, nevertheless this rate of patients is low and the necessity of surgical staging can be really reduced.

Biopsy, Needle↗
PubMed1987

The role of aspiration cytology in the management of ureteral obstruction in patients with known cancer.

In patients with known cancer, especially in cases of genitourinary cancer, thickening of the ureteral wall secondary to irradiation, chemotherapy, or surgery may make the diagnosis of metastasis, recurrence or persistence of malignancy very difficult. Since it is impossible to determine by radiologic imaging methods, whether the stricture is benign or malignant in nature, exploratory laparotomy with direct tissue biopsy remains the only procedure for an accurate diagnosis of the cause of the obstruction. As such surgery carries a significant level of morbidity, nonaggressive diagnostic techniques should be considered. The authors investigated the usefulness of aspiration biopsy cytology under fluoroscopic guidance in establishing the true nature of ureteral stenosis in 15 patients with known primary malignancy, who had previously been treated with surgery, radiotherapy, or chemotherapy. The etiology of the primary malignancies were uterine cervix (six), bladder (two), prostate (two), uterine corpus (two), pancreas (one), stomach (one), and rectum (one). Thirteen patients had metastatic ureteral involvement. There were no false-positive or false negative cytologic findings, therefore diagnostic accuracy was 100%. In the authors' experience the success of aspiration biopsy cytology depends on the skill and experience of the physician performing the procedure. The results of this study and review of the literature demonstrate that aspiration biopsy cytology is an accurate, minimally invasive means for correct cytologic diagnosis of ureteral strictures which can complicate cancer, without resorting to more aggressive diagnostic procedures.

Adenocarcinoma↗
PubMed1987

Risk factors for cutaneous malignant melanoma in a northern Italian population.

The relationship between cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) and the colour of skin, hair and eyes, the extent of sun exposure and reaction to it, education, and the occurrence of skin neoplasms in patients and their families was evaluated in a case-control study of 103 cases of CMM and 205 control subjects hospitalized for acute conditions other than malignant or hormonal disease. A significantly higher risk was associated with fair skin as compared to dark/medium skin (RR = 4.0; 95% CI: 1.5-10.5) and positive family history for CMM (RR = 8.1; 95% CI: 1.0-200.9). CMM seemed to occur more frequently, but not significantly so, in individuals with brown or blond hair, higher education and clinically diagnosed dysplastic naevi. Outdoor occupation and heavy sun exposure in the last 20 years seemed to increase the risk of CMM in sun-exposed sites but to be negatively associated with CMM in normally unexposed sites.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Penile cancer. Aspiration biopsy cytology for staging.

Appropriate management and prognosis of patients with penile carcinoma depends on an accurate knowledge of the regional node status. The usefulness of clinical and radiologic examinations in detecting the nodal spread of the disease is limited by the high rates of false-positive and false-negative results. On the other hand, routine or prophylactic lymphadenectomy is associated with 30% to 50% of the major morbidity and 3% of the mortality rate, so that caution is advisable for its use in patients with disease-free nodes. Even bilateral sentinel lymph node biopsy, as proposed by Cabanas, does not warrant an adequate selection of patients candidates to surgical treatment. The role of aspiration biopsy cytology in the management of penile carcinoma was evaluated in a study of 29 cases from the authors' institutions. Aspiration under fluoroscopic or computed tomographic guidance was performed using a 22-23-gauge Chiba needle. The accuracy of aspiration biopsy cytology in identifying the true stage of the disease was 100%. On histologic control, only one node contained malignant cells that were not detected by aspiration biopsy cytology, but this finding did not alter the stage of the patient. Positive cytology is conclusive of Stage III disease and, in this case, a curative lymphadenectomy may be attempted. Negative aspirations do not warrant the absence of metastatic nodal involvement as can be seen in two patients in this series. In such cases, however, a policy of "wait and watch" may be adopted, with repeated aspiration biopsies or surgical biopsy of the sentinel node area.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

[Early diagnosis of cutaneous melanoma and its precursors. Importance of the clinical characteristics of thin melanoma].

The diagnosis and removal of precursor and early lesions is the only method to improve the prognosis and survival rate in malignant melanomas of the skin since the aetiology of the disease is unknown and treatment ineffective when the neoplasm is diagnosed at an advanced stage. A campaign for the prevention and early diagnosis of melanoma is based on the health education of the entire population with the distribution of illustrative material that by teaching people to examine their skin will show up suspicious pigmentary lesions that can be examined and removed by the dermatologist. Thin melanoma is always curable when removed and constitutes the basic tumour to be described to the public as it is easily identified and has constant, typical features. Among the precursors the most interesting lesions is the sporadic or familial dysplastic nevus despite the controversy over its pathogenic significance and morphological aspect. The other pigmentary neoplasias (congenital and acquired nevus) only must to be removed when they present changes resembling thin melanoma.

Dysplastic Nevus Syndrome↗
PubMed1986

Primary angiosarcoma of the gingiva. Case report with immunohistochemical study.

A case of angiosarcoma involving primarily the gingiva in an 86-year-old woman is reported. The neoplasm was strongly positive for factor VIII-related antigen, negative for cytokeratins, and positive for vimentin, confirming the vascular nature of the tumor. The patient died from heart failure 1 month after surgical excision of the lesion without clinical evidence of metastasis.

Aged↗
PubMed1986

Aspiration cytology of cutaneous metastatic melanoma and epidermoid carcinoma of the penis.

Aspiration biopsy cytology is an accurate, safe, innocuous alternative to excisional biopsy in diagnosing the nature of concomitant superficial nodules or lymphadenopathy in patients with known cutaneous malignancy. In patients with penile cancer, aspiration biopsy cytology may avoid the morbidity (30-50%) and mortality (3%) of groin dissection staging. A positive aspirate is conclusive of Stage III tumor and, in patients with occult nodal metastases, may lead to early curative lymphadenectomy. In the present study of 28 patients with known cutaneous malignant melanoma, the aspiration biopsy cytology of 31 superficial nodules resulted in a cytologic diagnosis of metastasis in 29 nodules from 26 patients. In the management of patients with known melanoma, the positive cytology of superficial nodules is conclusive of metastatic disease and requires an accurate radiologic study to establish or exclude disseminated disease. Surgical removal of a metastatic superficial nodule is indicated when the lesion is considered localized disease and the patient, having been accurately examined, is determined to be apparently free of disease in other sites and organs. When systemic diffuse melanoma is found, the excision of metastatic superficial nodules is unnecessary. Positive aspiration cytology may avoid risk from ill-judged surgical procedures and indicate appropriate palliative treatment of the disease.

Biopsy, Needle↗
PubMed1986

The value of aspiration cytology in the definitive staging of bladder carcinoma.

Aspiration cytology is a simple, accurate and minimally invasive procedure in staging urological neoplasms. Percutaneous fluoroscopy-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy of 99 lymph nodes was performed in 30 patients with bladder carcinoma and 62 lymph node chains were evaluated. Aspiration biopsy is more accurate and specific than lymphography in the pre-operative staging of the neoplasm and represents a useful diagnostic procedure for the staging of bladder carcinoma.

Biopsy, Needle↗
PubMed1986

Malignant schwannoma of the submandibular gland. A case report.

The first case of malignant schwannoma of the submandibular gland in a 23-year-old man with neurofibromatosis is reported. Light microscopy showed typical features of neurogenic sarcoma and an immunocytochemical study confirmed the schwannian differentiation of the neoplasm. The patient is still well without evidence of metastases or local recurrence of the tumor 80 months after the excision of the neoplasm.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Spindle-cell squamous carcinoma of head and neck region: a clinicopathologic and immunohistochemical study of eight cases.

Spindle cell squamous carcinoma is a highly malignant neoplasm, characterized by a biphasic appearance, due to the presence of a diffuse proliferative pattern of pleomorphic spindle cells with extremely rare foci of conventional squamous cell carcinoma. Epithelial markers in eight cases of spindle-cell squamous carcinoma of the head and neck region were studied by immunocytochemistry. Epithelial membrane antigen and cytokeratin resulted strongly positive in the spindle cells of the sarcoma-like areas demonstrating the epithelial nature of the neoplasm. In 6 of our patients who later died from widespread metastases, the neoplasm had poor prognosis with a mean survival rate of 14.7 months.

Antigens, Neoplasm↗