Frozen section diagnosis in donor liver biopsies: observer variation of semiquantitative and quantitative steatosis assessment.

Donor livers are not generally accepted for liver transplantation if intraoperative frozen section histology on wedge biopsies provides evidence for more severe steatosis. In this reliability study, assessment of steatosis in donor liver biopsies by different approaches (frozen sections vs. paraffin sections; macrovesicular steatosis vs.

Klatskin tumour: meticulous preoperative work-up and resection rate.

Background: Surgery represents the only potentially curative treatment of hilar cholangiocarcinoma (hilCC). It may be suggested that meticulous preoperative work-up in Asian countries leads to higher resection rates.

Method: One hundred and eighty-two patients treated in our department between 1998 and 2008 were included in an analysis based on our prospectively recorded database.

Expression of E-selectin and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 in so-called 'negative' appendices: first results to support the pathological diagnosis in borderline cases.

Background: Since the rate of histologically 'negative' appendices still ranges between 15 and 20%, appendicitis in 'borderline' cases remains a challenging disease. As previously described, cell adhesion molecule expression correlates with different stages of appendicitis. Therefore, it was of interest to determine whether the 'negative' appendix correlated with the absence of E-selectin or vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1).

CT-guided percutaneous core needle biopsy in oncology outpatients: sensitivity, specificity, complications.

Background: Inpatient CT-guided core needle biopsies are an integral diagnostic method to obtain a histology from lesions of unknown dignity in oncology. The purpose of this study was to evaluate feasibility, sensitivity, specificity, and complication rate of diagnostic CT-guided percutaneous core needle biopsies in oncology outpatients.

Patients And Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data of all oncology outpatients who received CT-guided core needle biopsies between August 2001 and March 2005.

Primary human coculture model of alveolo-capillary unit to study mechanisms of injury to peripheral lung.

In order to delineate individual pathomechanisms in acute lung injury and pulmonary toxicology, we developed a primary coculture system to simulate the human alveolo-capillary barrier. Human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (HPMEC) were cocultivated with primary isolated human type II alveolar epithelial cells (HATII) on opposite sides of a permeable filter support, thereby constituting a bilayer. Within 7-11 days of coculture, the HATII cells partly transdifferentiated to type-I-like (HATI-like) cells, as demonstrated by morphological changes from a cuboidal to a flattened morphology, the loss of HATII-cell-specific organelles and the increase of HATI-cell-related markers (caveolin-1, aquaporin-5, receptor for advanced glycation end-products).