Outcome of carcinoid heart syndrome in patients enrolled in the SwissNet cohort.

Background: Carcinoid heart disease is a rare disease which develops in patients with functional neuroendocrine tumors in an advanced tumor state. Patients diagnosed with carcinoid heart disease have a poor longtime prognosis with respect to morbidity and mortality and long-term data on patient outcomes are lacking.

Methods And Results: In this retrospective study, we analyzed outcomes of 23 patients with carcinoid heart disease enrolled into the SwissNet database.

Effects of fluoride tablets on caries and fluorosis occurrence among 6- to 9-year olds using fluoridated salt.

Objective: The aim of this retrospective cohort study was to investigate the association between the use of fluoride tablets among users of fluoridated salt and the occurrence of caries and fluorosis.

Materials And Methods: We examined 583 school children aged 6-9 years in Berlin, Germany for caries-status (modified defs > or = 1; d(3)-level) and fluorosis occurrence on central incisors (TSIF > or = 1). Parents completed questionnaires about several sociodemographic and oral health related factors of the previous years.

New aspects of cell biology in osteosarcoma.

Among the solid tumors of childhood and adolescence, osteosarcoma (OS) represents the most prominent example of efficient aggressive chemotherapy with secondary surgical therapy. A specific subclassification of the tumor is indispensable and must include recent results of cell biology. The co-distribution of different collagen types I-VI reflects the diverse differentiation of osteosarcoma cells, supporting the concept of a pluripotent mesenchymal cell to be the stem cell of the tumor.

Current aspects of the pathology of osteosarcoma.

Since the introduction of standardized chemotherapy protocols of osteosarcoma a lot of new aspects in prognosis and curability of these have best developed. Current subclassification which divided osteosarcoma into a conventional type and eleven important recognizable varieties is one of the reason for this success. Cytological grading also serves as a good indicator for the prognosis and is an important criterion for application of adjuvant chemotherapy.

Autopsy as clinical quality control: a study of 15,143 autopsy cases.

The results of autopsy records at the Institute of Pathology of Münster University documented between 1961-70, 1978-87 and 1988-92 were compared with the documented clinical diagnoses of these cases. In the decade 1961-70, 23% of clinical diagnoses were found incorrect (with therapeutic relevance). In the decade 1978-87, the error rate was 18% and in 1988-92, 12%.

[Immunomodulator action of living, nonpathogenic Enterococcus faecalis bacteria from humans].

Immunomodulating Effect of Living Nonpathogenic Enterococcus faecalis Originated from Humans Symbioflor 1 is a pharmaceutical preparation, consisting of a suspension of living nonpathogenic Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis). The effect on the liberation of cytokines of E.

Adenocarcinomas of esophagus and cardia in comparison with gastric carcinoma.

Since the carcinomas of the cardia and the adenocarcinomas of the esophagus show many similarities in their histological and morphological descriptions, a detailed comparative study was attempted on the basis of 66 esophageal carcinomas in adenoid differentiation, 359 carcinomas of the cardia, 1288 gastric carcinomas in infracardial localisation, and 492 squamous carcinomas of the esophagus. The evaluation yielded no significant differences between the adenocarcinomas of the esophagus and the cardia neither in age and sex distribution nor with regard to the classifications of Borrmann, WHO, Ming, and Laurén, but a significant discrimination was possible between esophageal and cardial adenocarcinoma together, on the one hand, and infracardial gastric carcinoma on the other. Furthermore, esophageal adenocarcinomas were localized preferentially in the lower third, unlike squamous carcinomas of the same organ.

Cancer morbidity and mortality in USA Mormons and Seventh-day Adventists.

Comparison of cancer morbidity and mortality rates between Mormons and Seventh-day-Adventists and the corresponding rates in the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States, reveals that mortality from malignant neoplasms in general is much lower in Mormons and Seventh-day Adventists than in the Federal Republic of Germany. The difference concerns in particular the tobacco-dependent tumors: compared to the rate of affected males in the Federal Republic of Germany, only some 25% of Mormon males are getting lung cancer. Similar patterns are found in laryngeal carcinoma.

Metastasizing eccrine porocarcinoma. Report of two cases with fatal outcome.

The clinical, histopathological and ultrastructural features of a metastasizing eccrine porocarcinoma are described in a 75-year-old woman and a 82-year-old woman. The previously not recognized tumors were identified by its distinct pattern of metastasis. Metastatic spreading was restricted for years to a circumscribed region of the skin.

Autopsy diagnosis versus clinical diagnosis, particularly in malignant disease. Comparison of two periods: 1961-70 and 1978-87.

We present a comparison of autopsy records in the Institute of Pathology of Münster University during 1961-70 with those from 1978-87. The study was based on 11,716 autopsy cases in which reliable documentation of clinical diagnosis could be adequately correlated and compared with the respective autopsy diagnoses. In the decade 1961-70, 34% of the clinical diagnoses were correct, 15% were nearly correct and 23%, incorrect (24% had to be supplemented without relevance to therapy or prognosis, 4% side diagnoses).

The proliferation behavior of bone tumors investigated with the monoclonal antibody Ki-67.

Specimens of several tumor entities at various grades of malignancy were selected from the Bone Tumor Registry of Westphalia for an immunohistological study of their proliferation behavior. Using the monoclonal antibody Ki-67 directed against a nuclear antigen present in all active phases of the cell cycle (G1, S, G2, and M), we were able to demonstrate the growth fractions in tissues with an atypical rate of proliferation, implying an increased risk of malignant transformation. In the 97 cases examined we found a good correlation of the biological proliferation behavior with the expression of the nuclear antigen Ki-67.

Flow cytometric DNA analysis of bone tumors.

Flow cytometric DNA analysis was performed in a total of 203 bone tumors, benign and malignant. In more than 80% of cases the material studied was paraffin-embedded tumor tissue, mainly from the archives of the Bone Tumor Registry of Westphalia in Münster. Compared with ethanol-fixed fresh tumor samples, the variation coefficient in DNA histograms of the stored material was increased by a factor of 1.

The cytogenesis of macrophages and osteoclast-like giant cells in bone tumors with special emphasis on the so-called fibrohistiocytic tumors.

Recent investigations have suggested that osteoclasts and osteoblasts belong to different cell systems: osteoclasts originate from hemopoietic stem cells, most probably via precursors of the mononuclear phagocyte system. Osteoblasts, however, arise from local mesenchyme. The present classification of bone tumors issued by the WHO, however, is still based on the assumption of osteoclasts and osteoblasts being merely different manifestations or differentiations of the same basic cell type.

Flow cytometric analysis of stemline heterogeneity.

The stemline heterogeneity of malignant tumors is closely connected with tumor aneuploidy. Both features can be characterized by either chromosome analysis or DNA cytophotometry. DNA analysis may be performed either by single cell photometry or by flow cytometry, of which the respective advantages and drawbacks are presented.