Splenectomy influences bone marrow infiltration in patients with splenic marginal zone cell lymphoma with or without villous lymphocytes

BACKGROUND

Splenic marginal zone cell lymphoma (SMZL) is a low grade B-cell lymphoma in which patients can have circulating villous lymphocytes and can show a peculiar intrasinusoidal bone marrow (BM) infiltration. Splenectomy is the reported treatment of choice for these patients. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of splenectomy on patients with BM lymphomatous infiltration.

METHODS

BM biopsies of 16 patients with SMZL were studied morphologically and immunohistochemically. In 12 patients, BM biopsies were taken before and after splenectomy. Four patients did not undergo splenectomy, and their BM biopsies were performed with an approximately 1 year interval.

RESULTS

BM infiltration ranged from 10% to 40% of overall cellularity and was mostly of the intrasinusoidal type. After splenectomy, BM infiltration tended to become frankly nodular and showed an increase in tumor burden. Nonsplenectomized patients showed an unmodified picture.

CONCLUSIONS

Splenectomy seems to induce important changes in patients with BM infiltration, probably through the lack of microenvironmental factors on circulating cells. These effects suggest reconsidering the role of splenectomy in the treatment of patients with SMZL.

Intrasinusoidal bone marrow infiltration: a possible hallmark of splenic lymphoma

A particular type of lymphomatous bone marrow infiltration defined as intrasinusoidal and occurring in seven patients with splenomegaly and mild to moderate thrombocytopenia is reported. Immunocytochemistry highlighted the intrasinusoidal pattern and showed a mature B-cell phenotype. Four patients underwent splenectomy and a diagnosis of splenic marginal cell lymphoma was made. The disease course seems to be chronic and quite indolent. All patients are alive and well; follow-up ranges from 2 to 42 months. The value of bone marrow biopsy as a primary diagnostic tool in splenic marginal zone lymphomas is discussed.

Immunophenotypical comparison of Gaucher's and pseudo-Gaucher cells

An immunohistochemical study on bone marrow biopsies and spleens of patients with Gaucher's disease and chronic myeloid leukemia was performed to investigate the immunophenotype of Gaucher's cells and pseudo-Gaucher cells. A panel of antibodies was used which were reactive on paraffin-embedded tissues and directed against different hematopoietic lineage cells. Gaucher's cells and pseudo-Gaucher cells expressed a very similar immunophenotype and displayed an intense reaction for the monocytic antibodies tested, thus confirming their common origin and that they belong to the same system. The expression of HLA-DR antigens was much stronger in Gaucher's than in pseudo-Gaucher cells. This last finding, together with other serological data, suggests that Gaucher's cells could not behave simply as phagocytic cells but might play an active role in the chronic stimulation of the immune system that sometimes occurs in patients with Gaucher's disease.

[Anomalous origin of the right coronary from the left sinus of Valsalva. A possible cause of juvenile sudden death]

Anomalous origin of the right coronary artery from the left sinus of Valsalva is a rare congenital anomaly classified as a "minor" anomaly of no clinical importance. Recently, manifestations of myocardial ischemia (angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, nonfatal ventricular fibrillation, sudden death) have been described in patients with this anomaly in the absence of atherosclerosis or other. Sudden death occurs frequently in symptomatic patients and rarely in asymptomatic patients (sudden unexpected death). In this study we report two cases of juvenile sudden death observed in asymptomatic patients with anomalous origin of the right coronary artery from the left sinus of Valsalva. In both cases the sudden death was exertion-related. In case 1 the coronary anomaly was the cause of death, since it was the only significant anatomic abnormality at necropsy; the microscopic findings revealed ischemic lesions only in the myocardium supplied by the anomalous right coronary artery. In case 2 the coronary anomaly was connected to other cardiac and non cardiac diseases (lymphocytic active myocarditis, chronic portitis, encephalitis, medullary adrenalitis). Since these morphologic lesions were extremely slight and there was no adrenal catecholamine damage in the myocardium, we consider negligible their possible role in determining death, which in this case was induced by the congenital coronary anomaly. The cardiac microscopic findings, also in this case, revealed ischemic lesions in the myocardium supplied by the anomalous right coronary artery.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Morphometric study of the bone marrow in polycythemia vera following interferon-alpha therapy

Bone marrow cellularity and extent of fibrotic change were determined in nineteen patients with polycythemia vera, treated with interferon-alpha (IFN) for 1 year. The cellularity was evaluated with an interactive semiautomatic method using Leitz TAS plus microscope: in particular, number and size of megakaryocytes were evaluated after immunostaining with Y2/51 (CD 61); reticulin content was studied by light microscope with a semiquantitative method. Before IFN therapy mean cellularity was 80.5% (+/- 13.7). After 6 and 12 months mean cellularity was 75.4% and 68.4% respectively. Six months after cessation of IFN therapy the cellularity was 69.1%. A decrease of the number, density and morphometrical parameters of megakaryocytes was also remarked. Reticulin fibrosis was mild in 13 cases and moderate in 6 cases before IFN therapy. Reticulin content was unmodified during therapy in all cases but two, in which fibrosis changed from mild to moderate. In conclusion IFN therapy is to be considered a good method in polycythemia vera for the control of proliferative activity of bone marrow but with IFN therapy one cannot determine regression of marrow fibrosis.

Immunohistochemical evaluation of bone marrow lymphoid nodules in chronic myeloproliferative disorders

One hundred and seventy bone marrow biopsies from patients with chronic myeloproliferative disorders (CMPDs) were evaluated for the presence of lymphoid nodules (LNs) and were immunostained using a panel of monoclonal antibodies (UCHL1, 4KB5 and L26) recognizing different lymphocyte antigens. LNs were found in 35% of cases of idiopathic thrombocythaemia, 24.6% of myelofibrosis/osteomyelosclerosis, 18.2% of polycythaemia vera 12.1% of chronic myeloid leukaemia and 19.2% of borderline cases. Varying degrees of immunohistochemical positivity for the three antibodies tested were found. LNs were always made up of variable proportions of both T- and B-lymphocytes with a prevalence of T-cells. This latter observation suggests that bone marrow LNs in CMPDs could be an expression of reactivity.

[Right ventricular dysplasia and sudden death in young people]

In this study two autoptic cases of right ventricular dysplasia, observed in young and asymptomatic subjects who died suddenly are reported. In these patients, the "primary" myocardial atrophy involved the right ventricle, the right atrium and the conduction system: the sinoatrial node and the internodal pathways (in both cases) and the hisian bifurcation (only in the second case). The primary ventricular dysplasia was always associated with "secondary" transmural hyperplasia of the sub-epicardial fat tissue except for the anterior wall of the pulmonary infundibulum. According to the findings observed, we think that: 1) in all cases of right ventricular dysplasia a careful examination of the conduction system must be performed due to the fact that the lethal arrhythmias can be not only "hyperkinetic" but also "hypokinetic" arrhythmias; 2) right ventricular dysplasia is a dysplastic-congenital disease and transmural fatty hyperplasia depends both on "primary" myocardial atrophy and on the presence of sub-epicardial fat tissue; the latter is related to the age of the patient.

Xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis. Histopathological study and classification

Xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis (XC) is a chronic inflammatory lesion of the gallbladder histologically characterized by the presence of varying amounts of foamy histiocytes in the inflammatory infiltrate. In this study a review of 63 cases selected from 1207 surgically removed gallbladder is presented; the percentage found (5.2%) is slightly higher than that of previous reports showing that XC is less uncommon than generally believed. A detailed microscopic study is performed: the authors observed according to the histological features particularly the different patterns of distribution of the inflammatory infiltrate and postulate the existence of three subtypes of XC: multinodular, focal and diffuse XC. Finally, the main etiopathogenetic hypotheses are briefly discussed.

Interactive computerized morphometric analysis for the differential diagnosis between dysplasia and well differentiated adenocarcinoma of the prostate

To distinguish prostatic dysplasia (or adenosis) from well differentiated adenocarcinoma on transrectal needle biopsy, a morphometric study was conducted on 20 cases of adenosis and 20 cases of well differentiated adenocarcinoma of the prostate. About 100 cells for each patient were analyzed by means of a computerized image analyzer, and mean nuclear diameter, mean nuclear area, mean form factor and number of cells in eight classes of nuclear diameter were studied. The best predictors of malignancy (evaluated by means of Receiver Operating Characteristics curves) were mean nuclear area greater than 28 mu2, presence of more than 5% of cells with nuclear diameter greater than 6.15 mu, and mean nuclear diameter greater than 5 mu. Using these diagnostic criteria the probability of malignancy for a positive specimen rises from 14% (pre-test) to 75% (post-test).

True pubertas praecox in a girl; onset at nineteen months

The authors report a case of true pubertas praecox in a girl with onset at 19 months; they describe the principal histopathologic, clinical and laboratory features and discuss problems of etiopathogenesis and differential diagnosis, as well as the prognosis and treatment of this disorder.