Inflammatory pseudotumour (inflammatory myofibroblastic tumour) of the pancreas: a report of six cases associated with obliterative phlebitis.

Aims: To describe in detail an uncommon pancreatic condition, which generally presents with cholestasis and a mass lesion suspicious of malignancy, and which is characterized histologically by proliferation of fibrous tissue with associated moderate or marked inflammation, as well as obliterative phlebitis.

Methods And Results: Out of a consecutive series of 23 pancreaticoduodenectomy specimens which on histological evaluation were found to contain no malignant tumour, six cases characterized by the features mentioned above were identified and investigated further. Poor circumscription, firm consistence, histology of dense sclerosis with scattered round cell infiltrates and associated obliterative phlebitis and often perineural accentuation of inflammation were the distinguishing features.

Pretransplantation assessment of renal viability with NADH fluorimetry.

Background: A pathophysiologic feature possibly involved in ischemic injury in transplant kidneys is mitochondrial dysfunction caused by disintegration of oxidative metabolic pathways. Because the ability to synthesize ATP by respiratory activity determines the organ's capacity to recover from ischemic injury, an assessment of respiratory activity may provide information related to graft viability.

Methods: NADH fluorimetry can be used to monitor kidney cortex metabolism noninvasively.