[Pseudothrombocytopenia: clinical comment on 37 cases].

Background: Pseudothrombocytopenia (PTCP) is characterized by in vitro EDTA-, pH-, temperature- and time-dependent clumping which gives rise to spurious piastrinopenia at platelet count in automatized analyzers. It is caused by serum immunoglobulins recognizing some cryptoantigens on the platelet surface membrane. Aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of PTCP in a series of patients and its clinical significance.

[Gastrointestinal cancer-associated antigen (GICA) and intravascular hemolysis. Report of 2 cases and review of the literature].

GICA or CA 19-9, monosialyl Lewis (a) antigen, is a ganglioside, component of cellular wall. GICA is known as a neoplastic marker with high correlation, specificity and sensibility for the gastrointestinal neoplasms, mainly of the pancreas. Two cases of intravascular haemolysis are reported (a case in woman with Moschowitz's syndrome and a case in man with mitral prosthetic valve and mild congestive heart failure) with elevated serum levels of GICA.

[Primary empty sella syndrome. Observations on 71 cases].

Primary empty sella syndrome (ESS) is an anatomo-radiological picture characterized by the presence of an arachnoid herniation filled with liquor that compresses the pituitary against the sellar wall. ESS occurs particularly in obese, hypertensive, cephalgic women, it is often asymptomatic but it may be associated with ophthalmologic, neurologic and sometime non-characterizing endocrine disorders. We report here 71 cases of primary ESS observed and assessed during the last fourteen years.

[43 cases of primary empty sella syndrome: a case series].

Primary empty sella syndrome (ESS) is an anatomo-radiological picture characterized by the presence of an arachnoid herniation filled with liquor that compresses the pituitary against the sellar wall. ESS occurs particularly in obese, hypertensive, cephalalgic women. It is often asymptomatic but may be associated with ophthalmologic, neurologic and non-characterizing endocrine disorders.

[Celiac disease (familial) associated with sarcoidosis. Clinical case and review of the literature].

The authors report a case of a 42 year-old patient, female, already suffering in 1990 from pulmonary sarcoidosis at 0 radiological stage, together with uveitis and relapsing erythema nodosum, with dyspepsia and weight loss which benefited from corticosteroidal therapy, repeatedly applied at the relapses of Erythema Nodosum. This therapy induced clinical recovery and marked weight gain. After 3 years (in 1993), the appearance of chronic diarrhoea, weight loss, oedemas of the lower limbs and altered laboratory findings which suggested malabsorbtive syndrome, made us verify with clinical-instrumental examinations (serum AGA IgA and IgG, Xilose test, perendoscopic jejunal biopsy) the diagnosis of fully clinically expressed adult coeliac disease.