Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to I N Reid.
We report the ultrasound appearances, with pathological correlation, of splenic-gonadal fusion in a patient who presented with an asymptomatic scrotal swelling. Ultrasound examination showed an echo-poor 2 cm diameter lesion in the upper pole of the left testicle. Histologically the lesion was normal spleen. Splenic-gonadal fusion should be considered in the differential diagnosis of scrotal swellings.
The diverse spectrum of acquired chromosome abnormalities in a female patient with myelofibrosis and myeloid metaplasia is described. A sequence of karyotypic evolution involving a ring chromosome is postulated. The terminal clinical picture was unusual in that there was obstructive renal failure from extramedullary myeloblastic transformation and infiltration of the bladder, and this was also present in other sites. Initially neutrophils showed low alkaline phosphatases activity but latterly two distinct populations in which cells had either high activity or none.
The information returned to the hospital clinician after a necropsy was investigated in a series of 1000 patients. It was found that specific clinical queries were answered in 83% of cases, that the necropsy corrected the major clinical diagnosis in 36% of cases, and that 29% of cases were used for undergraduate or postgraduate teaching. The results demonstrate the continuing value of the necropsy as an investigative and educative procedure.
50 cases of cancer of the breast (diagnosed between 1962 and 1966) were studied retrospectively. An enzyme-bridge immunoperoxidase technique was used to demonstrate that so-called pregnancy-specific proteins were detectable in the cytoplasm of the tumour cells. Of the proteins studied, pregnancy-specific beta1-glycoprotein was present in 76% of cases, placental lactogen in 82%, and chorionic gonadotrophin in 60%. Those women with cancers negative for pregnancy-specific beta1-glycoprotein and placental lactogen had significantly longer survival-time compared with those whose cancers stained for these proteins. Pregnancy-specific beta1-glycoprotein appears to be the best indicator of prognosis. A prospective study is needed to determine whether those patients requiring adjuvant chemotherapy after mastectomy can be identified by staining tumour tissue for pregnancy-specific beta1-glycoprotein by the enzyme-bridge technique.