Abnormal immunothrombosis and lupus anticoagulant in a catastrophic COVID-19 recalling Asherson's syndrome.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a complex disease with many clinicopathological aspects, including abnormal immunothrombosis, and the full comprehension of its pathogenetic mechanisms is urgently required.

Methods/results: By means of a multidisciplinary approach, we here report a catastrophic COVID-19 in a 44-year-old Philippine male patient, discovered lupus anticoagulant (LAC)-positive shortly before death, occurred 8 days after hospitalization in a clinical scenario refractory to standard high acuity care recalling Asherson's syndrome (catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome).

Conclusion: A parallelism between this severe form of COVID-19 and Asherson's syndrome can be so drawn.

State-of-the-art nanopathological diagnostics.

The nanopathological diagnostics (ND) is an ultra-specialized branch of pathological anatomy aimed to identify the nanoparticles of metallic, semimetallic, or nonmetallic elements in the inorganic particulate matter present inside pathological tissues, even on the nanometer scale. ND exploits an environmental scanning electron microscope, connected to an X-ray microprobe mounted on an energy-dispersive spectrometer. The searching of nanoparticles can be performed on paraffin-embedded material, omitting emissions of black overlay and plating procedures.

In Vivo Uptake of Rare Earth Metals by Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cells.

Rare earth metals (REM) are a group of 17 chemical elements in the periodic table, namely scandium (Sc), yttrium (Y) and the lanthanides. In relation to atomic volume and geological behavior, the lanthanides are further subdivided into light, medium and heavy REM. They find many applications in the technological field; however, their impact on the human health is still conflicting and, for many aspects, unknown.

Testosterone Aromatization to Estradiol in Course of Ovarian Functioning Brenner Tumor Associated With Endometrial Carcinoma and Endometriosis (Roncati-Manenti Triad).

Objective: Aromatization is the biochemical process in which aromatase catalyzes the conversion of testosterone into estradiol, the fundamental pathway for the synthesis of estrogens. When enhanced, it can lead to hyperestrogenism, a well-known risk factor for gynecological cancers.

Methods: The surgical specimens, coming from 2 postmenopausal women with hyperestrogenism on pap smear and bioptic diagnosis of endometrial endometrioid carcinoma, were fixed in 10% neutral buffered formalin, paraffin embedded, and then submitted for routine hematoxylin/eosin staining and immunohistochemical characterization for antiestrogen, antiprogesterone, antitesterone, anti-MLH1, anti-PMS2, anti-MSH2, and anti-MSH6.

The First 5-Year-Long Survey on Intrauterine Unexplained Sudden Deaths from the Northeast Italy.

Purpose: Sudden intrauterine unexplained death syndrome (SIUDS) represents one of the main open issues in the scientific and social setting of the modern medicine, and our efforts have aimed to understand its possible causes and risk factors.

Methods: A 43-case series of consecutive unexplained fetal deaths coming from Northeast Italy, collected in a 5-year period (2011-2015), has been submitted to an in-depth investigation, based on neuropathological and cardiopathological examinations, immunohistochemistry for neuronal nuclear antigen (NeuN), genetic characterization for the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) gene polymorphisms, and toxicological environmental analyses.

Results: The overall survey from the neuropathological findings highlights one or more congenital morphological abnormalities of the autonomic nervous system in 77% of cases of sudden fetal deaths.

Loss of CDKN2A Promoter Methylation Coincides With the Epigenetic Transdifferentiation of Uterine Myosarcomatous Cells.

Leiomyosarcoma is the most common type of uterine sarcoma and usually displays typical morphology. Heterologous leiomyosarcoma is the rarest variant, in which the tumor contains liposarcomatous, osteosarcomatous, or rhabdomyosarcomatous components. We have investigated the largest series of uterine leiomyosarcoma with a rhabdomyosarcomatous component and we have disclosed a molecular finding, which coincides to the process of transdifferentiation from smooth muscle into striated muscle phenotype.

The first investigative science-based evidence of Morgellons psychogenesis.

Morgellons disease is an infrequent syndromic condition, that typically affects middle-aged white women, characterized by crawling sensations on and under the skin, associated with itchy rashes, stinging sores, fiber-like filaments emerging from the sores, severe fatigue, concentrating difficulty, and memory loss. The scientific community is prone to believe that Morgellons is the manifestation of various psychiatric syndromes (Munchausen, Munchausen by proxy, Ekbom, Wittmaack-Ekbom). Up until now, no investigative science-based evidence about its psychogenesis has ever been provided.

A Novel Forensic Investigation Applied to Bone Remains Exhumed near to Quirra Interforce Firing Range.

The need to implement novel techniques, able to support a causal link between exposure and pathology, has been emerged over the recent years. The application of scanning electron microscope coupled with probe X-ray microanalysis (by means of an energy-dispersive spectroscopy) has been developed by our research group for the bone remains investigation. It was aimed to testify the exposure to microsized and nanosized pollutions, due to military activities in the Quirra interforce firing range, of a Sardinian shepherd, died of acute leukemia.

The Uncontrolled Sialylation is Related to Chemoresistant Metastatic Breast Cancer.

Among the scientific communities, there is a convergence of results supporting a direct relationship between dysregulated sialylation and poor prognosis in many human cancers. For this reason, we have retrospectively investigated 169 cases of invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast, coming from female patients aged between 31 and 76 years old. The whole series was subdivided into two prognostic groups: the first group consisted of 138 patients, who showed a post-treatment survival time more than 5 years, while the second group was made up by 31 patients, died within 5 years despite of chemotherapy.

Prognostic Factors for Breast Cancer: an Immunomorphological Update.

The prognostic variability recorded within homogeneous groups of patients for anatomo-clinical disease stages has led to a more detailed biological characterization of breast cancer. Recently, the attention of the scientific community has focused on the role of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs). Therefore, the need of an in-depth immunomorphological characterization of TILs has been emerged.

Heavy Metal Bioaccumulation in an Atypical Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumor of the Abdominal Wall.

Heavy metals are able to interfere with the function of vital cellular components. Besides in trace heavy metals, which are essential at low concentration for humans, there are heavy metals with a well-known toxic and oncogenic potential. In this study, for the first time in literature, we report the unique adulthood case of an atypical primitive neuroectodermal tumor of the abdominal wall, diagnosed by histology and immunohistochemistry, with the molecular hybridization support.

ESEM Detection of Foreign Metallic Particles inside Ameloblastomatous Cells.

Ameloblastoma is a borderline tumor of odontogenic origin, with a high recurrence rate and possible local aggressiveness. The etiopathogenetic factors involved in its occurrence are not still defined and our study has been precisely aimed to search for novel factors associated with its development. Sections cut from paraffin blocks, containing the representative specimens of 18 different ameloblastomas, collected in a 15-year period (1999-2014), have been observed by an environmental scanning electron microscope, in order to search micro- and nano-sized particles and to identify their composition.

Pneumothorax-associated fibroblastic lesion in combination with localized pleural angiomatosis: A possible cause of juvenile spontaneous hemopneumothorax.

Spontaneous hemopneumothorax is an uncommon but potentially life-threatening condition, with a potential for a rapid ventilatory collapse and a large collection of hidden blood loss into the pleural cavity. Here, we report the first case in the literature on pneumothorax-associated fibroblastic lesion in combination with localized pleural angiomatosis in a 19-year-old Caucasian male, resulting in massive spontaneous hemopneumothorax and hypovolemic shock. Our findings support a causal link between this condition and pneumothorax.

Granular cell tumor of the appendix: a new case and review of the literature.

Granular cell tumor (GCT) is a rare and usually benign lesion of neural / schwannian origin, most frequently found in middle-age women. The appendicular involvement is extremely rare: in over half a century only twelve cases have been reported in the literature, the patients living in America and Europe. Hitherto, no cases are documented from Africa, Asia and Oceania and no cases of malignant GCTs of the appendix have been reported.

Unexpected death: anaphylactic intraoperative death due to Thymoglobulin carbohydrate excipient.

Anaphylactic shock is a life-threatening allergic response characterized by severe hypotension, inducing tissue hypoperfusion with possible multi-organ failure and death. We describe the first case of fatal intra-operative anaphylactic shock due to prolonged infusion of Thymoglobulin during Orthotopic Liver Transplantation (OLT), resulting from recruitment of both mastocytes and basophils, activated and degranulated. Post-mortem serological analysis on a preserved, pre-OLT sample of the patient's blood revealed specific IgE against carbohydrate cross-reactive determinants (CCDs), such as MUXF3 and nAna c2, proving that anaphylactic reaction was triggered by the Thymoglobulin carbohydrate excipient (sugar alcohol mannitol), rather than anti-thymocyte globulin itself.

Bilateral xanthogranulomatous funiculitis and orchiepididymitis in a 13-year-old adolescent boy.

Xanthogranulomatous orchitis is an extremely rare inflammatory nonneoplastic lesion of the testis. We report a case of a 13-year-old adolescent boy who presented a painless left hemiscrotal swelling. The subsequent ultrasonography and magnetic resonance imaging revealed the presence of abnormal expanding tissue located in both testes and spermatic cord, reaching the internal inguinal ring.