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We describe a 68-year-old woman with an episode of diarrhoea, malaise and weight loss, caused by infection with Cryptosporidium. The diagnosis was hampered because this patient had a low risk of HIV infection, a two-year history of Crohn's disease, and a simultaneous candidal infection. An infection with Cryptosporidium was demonstrated with electron microscopic examination, and subsequent tests revealed positive HIV serology. AIDS was probably contracted through her husband.

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OBJECTIVE: To determine the reliability of a peroperative frozen section examinations of sentinel lymph nodes in mammary carcinoma. DESIGN: Retrospective. METHOD: In the Reinier de Graaf Hospital and Diagnostic Centre SSDZ Delft, the Netherlands, the results of frozen section from sentinel lymph node investigations of mammary carcinomas from 1997-2000 were compared with the final pathological results. If axillary dissection had been performed on these patients, the histopathological findings of the dissected lymph nodes were also studied. RESULTS: Frozen sections were made of 287 sentinel lymph nodes from 275 patients. A tumour was found in the sentinel lymph nodes of 64 patients and these patients immediately underwent a complete axillary lymph node dissection. For 31 of these patients a tumour was also found in the other lymph nodes. In 29 of these 31 patients, histological examination had shown extranodal extension. The frozen sections from the sentinel nodes of the remaining 211 patients were considered negative. However, in 13 of these patients, the paraffin sections of the sentinel node nevertheless showed a tumour and the remaining axillary lymph nodes were removed in a second operation. In the last 89 patients studied, the sentinel lymph nodes were cut at four levels and stained immunohistochemically at one level for cytokeratins. Accordingly micrometastases were found in the sentinel lymph nodes of 4 of the 13 patients with (false-)negative frozen sections. False-positive results did not occur. CONCLUSION: The major advantage of the sentinel node method in breast cancer is that for women without metastasis present in the sentinel node, axillary dissection is avoided. By means of a peroperative examination of frozen sections, 83% of the patients with a metastasis in the sentinel lymph node (or about one quarter of all patients) were spared from having a second operation for axillary dissection at a later stage.

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A 28-year-old woman developed puerperal sinus sagittalis superior thrombosis that caused hemorrhagic cerebral infarction and death by cerebral herniation.

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Parailiacal lymph node metallosis in a 62-year-old man with a hip prosthesis who had lymph node resection at prostate cancer operation.

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A 44-year-old male Somalian immigrant was admitted to hospital for evaluation of upper abdominal pain and painful joints (neck and shoulders). Chronic active hepatitis caused by hepatitis C virus was diagnosed. Further examination was instituted because of the simultaneous finding of granulomas in a liver biopsy. In hepatitis C liver granulomas may be found. Infection by Mycobacterium tuberculosis was established, however, after extensive investigation. Treatment was started with tuberculostatic drugs, after which the complaints of the patient disappeared, liver enzyme levels decreased and granulomas in the liver disappeared. No side effects of the tuberculostatic treatment were seen on the course of the hepatitis C.

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Peptidoglycan (PG) is the major component of the cell wall of gram-positive bacteria. In vitro, PG isolated from conventional bacterial cultures can induce secretion of proinflammatory cytokines by human monocytes, indicating that PG may be involved in immune responses against infections by gram-positive bacteria. To investigate the biologic activity of PG in human tissues, an improved method was developed to isolate significant amounts of PG from sterile human spleen tissue. Biochemical analysis demonstrated that PG isolated from human spleen is largely intact. Human whole blood cell cultures were able to produce the proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-1 and -6 after stimulation with PG isolated from human spleen. Cytokine induction was not sensitive to inhibition by polymyxin B, in contrast to lipopolysaccharide. Collectively, the data show that intact PG in sterile human tissue is biologically active and may induce local proinflammatory cytokine production.

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Ankylosing enthesopathy is a spontaneously occurring progressive stiffening of the ankle and/or tarsal joints in mice of C57Black background. In C57BL/10 mice and mice of the same genetic background that had been made transgenic for HLA-B27, the start of the disease was detected by weekly testing for decreased mobility in the ankle/tarsus region. Ankylosing enthesopathy was found to begin with a short phase of proliferative inflammation of the joints and adjacent tissues, with some fibrinous exsudation, some leucocytic infiltration and slight bone erosion. This inflammation is soon accompanied and followed by proliferation of cartilaginous cells at the bone insertions of joint capsule ligaments (entheses). Ossification of the cartilage proliferations and some desmal ossification lead to large osteophytes that inhibit mobility. Fusion of osteophytes occasionally leads to marginal ankylosis. The histopathology of the successive stages of murine ankylosing enthesopathy and the preponderance in males and HLA-B27 transgenic mice are reminiscent of ankylosing spondylitis in man. The spine, however, was not affected.

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A hepatic epithelioid hemangioendothelioma leading to almost complete calcification of the right and left liver lobes in a 75-year-old female is reported. Over a period of 16 years the liver progressively calcified, but its function remained normal by compensatory hypertrophy of the caudate lobe. Multiple partially calcified metastases were present in the lungs, peripancreatic region and along the left principal bronchus. Extreme liver calcification has only rarely been reported. The case presented here reflected slow tumor growth and subsequent long disease course. The vascular nature of the tumor was confirmed by immunohistochemical and ultrastructural analysis.

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A 86-year-old woman hospitalized for analysis of persistent abdominal discomfort died, apparently of myocardial infarction, shortly after admission. Autopsy revealed extensive myocarditis caused by infection with Clostridium septicum. As a portal of entry a carcinoma of the colon was found. The association of colon carcinoma and bacteraemia with C. septicum is well established while colon carcinoma can lead to cardiac hypoxia through blood loss and anaemia. However, myocarditis caused by this organism is extremely rare.

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OBJECTIVES: To redefine and comment on terms on a pathological basis, in order to avoid the confusion due to the use of terms with different meanings, to standardise usage among clinicians, radiologists and pathologists, and to facilitate literature searches. METHODS: Within the Committee of Pathology of the European League against Rheumatism, a study group was set up to analyse the medical literature and common practice concerning the nomenclature of rheumatic spinal diseases. The group tried to amalgamate the main trends in the field, to reconcile etymology, historical background, morphology, and common practice. RESULTS: The group warns against use of the terms 'acquired hyperostosis syndrome', '(von) Bechterew's disease', 'Kümmel's disease', 'pseudospondylolisthesis', 'rheumatoid spondylitis', 'spondylarthropathy' in the sense of spondarthritis, and 'spondylosis'. It recommends intercorporal or interapophyseal rather than intervertebral (osteo) chondrosis, zygapophyseal diverticulum rather than cyst, disc hernia rather than prolapse, spondyloarthritis rather than spondyloarthropathy, marginal rather than anterior spondylitis, and discarthrosis. It proposes 'zygarthrosis' to designate zygapophyseal osteoarthrosis. CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge of the pathological basis of diseases and an understanding of the original definitions given by those who coined new terms make it possible to avoid most of the confusion arising from improper use of spinal terms.

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In previous studies, we showed that peptidoglycan polysaccharides from anaerobic bacteria normally present in the human gut induced severe chronic joint inflammation in rats. Our hypothesis is that peptidoglycan from the gut flora is involved in perpetuation of idiopathic inflammation. However, in the literature, the presence of peptidoglycan or subunits like muramyl peptides in blood or tissues is still a matter of debate. We were able to stain red pulp macrophages in all six available human spleens by immunohistochemical techniques using a monoclonal antibody against gut flora-derived antigens. Therefore, these human spleens were extracted, and after removal of most of the protein, the carbohydrate fraction was investigated for the presence of muramic acid, an amino sugar characteristic for peptidoglycan. Using three different methods for detection of muramic acid, we found a mean of 3.3 mumol of muramic acid with high-pressure liquid chromatography, 1.9 mumol with a colorimetric method for detection of lactate, and 0.8 mumol with an enzymatic method for detection of D-lactate per spleen (D-lactate is a specific group of the muramic acid molecule). It is concluded that peptidoglycan is present in human spleen not as small muramyl peptides as were previously searched for by other investigators but as larger macromolecules probably stored in spleen macrophages.

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