1/25. Ruptured primary splenic angiosarcoma into the colon. Presentation as anal bleeding.A 71-year-old woman presented with a six month history of constipation and abdominal discomfort, with anal bleeding during the last days. ultrasonography and CT-scan of the abdomen showed a large heterogeneous mass that was located in the splenic region, but the nature and origin of the tumour could not be clearly established preoperatively. The clinical diagnosis was of abdominal tumour with colonic and splenic involvement, and a left hemicolectomy and splenectomy were performed. Pathologic examination revealed a primary angiosarcoma of the spleen with penetration and fistulization of the tumour into the large bowel. The patient received adjuvant radiation therapy, but she died of extensive metastastic disease from her primary angiosarcoma of the spleen nine months after surgery. In summary, splenic angiosarcoma is very difficult to diagnose preoperatively. This highly aggressive neoplasm has an overall poor prognosis, specially if it is associated with rupture and haemoperitoneum. As this case highlights, unusual forms of rupture may lead to atypical clinical presentations, increasing even more the difficulty in the diagnosis.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = nature (Clic here for more details about this article) |
2/25. Benign vascular neoplasms of the spleen with myoid and angioendotheliomatous features.AIMS: To present the clinical light microscopic and immunophenotypic features of a distinctive vascular neoplasm of the spleen. methods AND RESULTS: Two of the splenic lesions arose in children, and one was found in an adult. They ranged from 19 to 40 mm diameter and histologically were quite similar. Sheets of large epithelioid cells with a spectrum of nuclear configurations ranging from oval and vesicular to twisted and hyperchromatic were noted in each case. Distinct or prominent nucleoli were present in many cells, and occasional cells had nuclear pseudoinclusions. In two cases, bands of basophilic, fibroblast-rich stroma with scattered chronic inflammatory cells were present. The mitotic rate ranged from 0/10 high-power fields (HPF) to 0.5/10 HPF in these epithelioid cells. The vascular nature of these tumours was manifested as a sieve-like array of round, erythrocyte-filled spaces, most with attenuated and cytologically bland lining cells. The polygonal, epithelioid cells exhibited the following phenotype: smooth muscle actin (SMA) , muscle specific actin (MSA) , vimentin , CD31-, CD34-, CD21-, CD8-, CD68- (2/3 cases), S100-, while the lining cells were CD34 , vimentin and SMA-, with variable CD31 and factor viii related antigen expression. Elongated SMA , MSA cell processes were evident in one case, reminiscent of previously characterized myoid elements of the normal spleen. An uneventful follow-up was noted for all three patients. CONCLUSIONS: The histology and immunophenotype set these neoplasms apart from classic hamartomas, haemangiomas and previously characterized (haem)angioendotheliomas of the spleen, and may represent proliferations of myoid elements native to the spleen.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = nature (Clic here for more details about this article) |
3/25. hamartoma of the spleen: a manfestation of tuberous sclerosis.An unusual case of tuberous sclerosis is presented in which splenomegaly and abdominal pain predominated. The clinical manifestations of the disease are discussed, and the generalized hamartonmatous nature of the diseases is emphasized.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = nature (Clic here for more details about this article) |
4/25. Leptomeningeal involvement in a patient with splenic lymphoma with villous lymphocytes.Splenic lymphoma with villous lymphocytes (SLVL) is an indolent hematological malignancy. Persistent lymphocytosis and splenomegaly usually last for years before patients develop infectious complications. Organ involvement other than spleen and bone marrow is rare in SLVL. We report a case of SLVL-related meningitis occurring in a patient presenting with altered mental status and seizures. CNS involvement was documented by an MRI of the head and by the presence of atypical lymphocytes in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Morphologic examination and immunophenotypic analyses were conducted to determine the nature of atypical lymphocytes in the peripheral blood, spleen, bone marrow and CSF. The patient improved after treatment with a combination of radiation and chemotherapy.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = nature (Clic here for more details about this article) |
5/25. Absence of multiple local minima effects in intensity modulated optimization with dose-volume constraints.This paper reports on the analysis of intensity modulated radiation treatment optimization problems in the presence of non-convex feasible parameter spaces caused by the specification of dose-volume constraints for the organs-at-risk (OARs). The main aim was to determine whether the presence of those non-convex spaces affects the optimization of clinical cases in any significant way. This was done in two phases: (1) Using a carefully designed two-dimensional mathematical phantom that exhibits two controllable minima and with randomly initialized beamlet weights, we developed a methodology for exploring the nature of the convergence characteristics of quadratic cost function optimizations (deterministic or stochastic). The methodology is based on observing the statistical behaviour of the residual cost at the end of optimizations in which the stopping criterion is progressively more demanding and carrying out those optimizations to very small error changes per iteration. (2) Seven clinical cases were then analysed with dose-volume constraints that are stronger than originally used in the clinic. The clinical cases are two prostate cases differently posed, a meningioma case, two head-and-neck cases, a spleen case and a spine case. Of the 14 different sets of optimizations (with and without the specification of maximum doses allowed for the OARs), 12 fail to show any effect due to the existence of non-convex feasible spaces. The remaining two sets of optimizations show evidence of multiple minima in the solutions, but those minima are very close to each other in cost and the resulting treatment plans are practically identical, as measured by the quality of the dose-volume histograms (DVHs). We discuss the differences between fluence maps resulting from those similar treatment plans. We provide a possible reason for the observed results and conclude that, although the study is necessarily limited, the annealing characteristics of a simulated annealing method may not be justified in clinical optimization in the presence of dose-volume constraints. The results of optimizations by the Newton gradient (NG) method with a quadratic cost function are reported in detail. An adaptive simulated annealing method, optimizing the same function, and the dynamically penalized likelihood method, optimizing a log likelihood function, have also been used in the study. The results of the latter two methods have only been discussed briefly, as they yielded the same conclusions as the NG method.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = nature (Clic here for more details about this article) |
6/25. T-cell-rich B-cell lymphoma presenting in the spleen: a clinicopathologic analysis of 3 cases.We review the clinical, pathologic, and molecular genetic features of 3 splenic T-cell-rich B-cell lymphomas and discuss their differential diagnosis. All patients presented with symptomatic splenomegaly and underwent diagnostic/therapeutic splenectomy. Microscopically, the spleen in all cases showed a micronodular proliferation of lymphoid cells. A proportion of the nodules demonstrated central hyalinization or sclerosis. There was also an exuberant extramedullary hematopoiesis. On immunohistochemical stain, the nodules consisted predominantly of small T cells with scattered large atypical B cells. The clonal nature of the atypical B cells was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction assays for immunoglobulin heavy-chain gene rearrangement. In the H&E sections, the differential diagnoses included Hodgkin's lymphoma, follicular lymphoma, peripheral T-cell lymphoma, and nonneoplastic granulomatous process. The presence of exuberant extramedullary hematopoiesis also raised the possibility of a chronic myeloproliferative disorder. The combined morphologic, immunohistochemical, and molecular genetic data are essential for a correct diagnosis of splenic T-cell-rich B-cell lymphoma.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = nature (Clic here for more details about this article) |
7/25. breast carcinoma diffusely metastatic to the spleen. A report of two cases presenting as idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura.carcinoma metastatic to the spleen is found at autopsy in 6% to 13% of patients who die of cancer, yet clinical symptoms referable to splenic metastases are unusual. Two cases of breast carcinoma metastatic to the spleen discovered incidentally at therapeutic splenectomy for idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura are described. On gross examination, the spleens were mildly enlarged with a homogeneous congested cut surface; rare 0.2-cm white nodules were present in one case. Microscopic examination revealed large, poorly cohesive cells that diffusely involved both the red and white pulp. Histochemical, immunohistochemical, and ultrastructural analyses confirmed the epithelial nature of the cellular infiltrate. These cases show that idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura may herald the presence of diffuse splenic metastases when metastatic disease is not otherwise clinically suspected. The lack of a discrete tumor mass in the spleen in such cases may make the diagnosis of metastatic carcinoma a challenge both clinically and pathologically. Immunohistochemical and electron microscopic examinations are useful to establish the appropriate diagnosis in such cases.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = nature (Clic here for more details about this article) |
8/25. An unusual case of indolent B-cell lymphoma with distinct chronic lymphocytic leukemia and marginal zone differentiation according to the site of involvement.The immunological profile of lymphoproliferative disorders is usually conserved whatever the involved site, thus allowing a reliable diagnosis from peripheral blood analysis, especially in small lymphocytic lymphoma/chronic lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL/CLL). Here we present a case wherein the cytology and immunophenotype of blood specimen and bone marrow argue in favor of SLL/CLL with a typical Matutes score (5/5), whereas the cyto-histology and immunophenotype of spleen specimen led to the diagnosis of splenic marginal zone B-cell lymphoma (SMZL). Moreover genomic analysis showed that the splenic cells displayed a SMZL signature. Whereas these data suggested the presence of 2 B-cell clones, the study of the mutational status of IgVH gene in blood and spleen demonstrated the presence of a single clone, which likely developed simultaneously along two distinct ways of differentiation according to the anatomic site suggesting here the predominant role of a micro-environmental factor in cell differentiation. Although rare, this kind of event must be kept in mind as a cause of discrepancies between diagnoses from different sites.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = nature (Clic here for more details about this article) |
9/25. Case report of malignant splenic tumor.Primary angiosarcoma and malignant lymphoma of the spleen are uncommon. We report such tumors in a 44-year-old-woman and a 51-year-old-man. The value of diagnostic imaging by US and CT is emphasized. These techniques can establish the solid nature of the mass and may be the first methods to suggest malignancy.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = nature (Clic here for more details about this article) |
10/25. Fine needle aspiration biopsy of a splenic hemangioma. A case report with review of the literature.A 33-year-old man was hospitalized for hyperpyrexia and pain in the left upper quadrant of his abdomen. Abdominal ultrasound showed a mass in the inferior pole of the spleen. A computed axial tomography of the abdomen and a liver and spleen scintigraphy confirmed a space-occupying lesion in the spleen but were not able to define its nature. A FNAB performed during abdominal ultrasound showed cells with elliptic nuclei and elongated pale blue cytoplasm, separated from each other by empty spaces of varying width. The presence of a hemangioma or lymphangioma of the spleen was suspected. A splenectomy was performed. The histologic findings were compatible with a cavernous hemangioma. After a review of the literature, the role of FNAB of the spleen is discussed as a reasonable diagnostic approach that assists the clinician in making therapeutic decisions in the management of the space-occupying lesions in the spleen. The possibility of differentiating benign from malignant lesions is pointed out, particularly those of endothelial nature. Finally, the differential diagnosis between hamartoma and hemangioma of the spleen is discussed. The two words, in times past, were often used for the same lesion, producing a confusion of names in literature.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 2keywords = nature (Clic here for more details about this article) |
| | Next -> |