Effect of long-term acid gastric inhibition on bacterial translocation in cirrhotic rats.

Background: Bacterial translocation (BT) related to intestinal bacterial overgrowth (IBO) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of bacterial infections in cirrhosis. Inhibition of acid gastric secretion promotes IBO and might favor BT. We evaluated the effect of long-term inhibition of acid gastric secretion on BT in cirrhotic rats.

Basal-Cell Carcinoma Occurring in Cutaneous Infundibular Cysts: Report of 2 Cases and Review of the Literature.

Cysts lined by stratified squamous epithelium indistinguishable from the epidermis, referred to as epidermoid cysts, epidermal inclusion cysts, and infundibular cysts, are the most common type of cyst occurring in the skin. They are invariably benign, and malignant neoplasms arising within the wall of such cysts are distinctly uncommon. Even basal-cell carcinoma, which is the most common cutaneous malignant neoplasm of the skin, has rarely been reported to occur in association with epidermoid cysts.

Clear-cell melanocytic lesions with balloon-cell and sebocyte-like melanocytes: a unifying concept.

Melanocytes may assume unique shapes and sizes but rarely have clear cytoplasm. We studied 28 melanocytic lesions that contained clear-cell melanocytes of the balloon-cell and sebocyte-like types. Clear-cell melanocytes were found more commonly in females (64%) than in males (36%), with predominance in females younger than 50 years (79%) and predominance in males older than 50 years (67%).

[Laparoscopic approach of achalasia. Long-term clinical and functional results and quality of life].

Introduction: Laparoscopic Heller myotomy has become the gold standard procedure for patients with achalasia. This study evaluates the clinical status, quality of life, and functional outcomes after laparoscopic Heller myotomy.

Material And Methods: We analyzed patients who underwent laparoscopic Heller myotomy with an associated anti-reflux procedure from October 1998 to December 2010.

Basal cell carcinoma with myoepithelial differentiation.

A lesion from the left cheek of a 48-year-old man showed a neoplasm composed primarily of cells with eccentric crescent-shaped nuclei and abundant, homogenous, eosinophilic cytoplasm resembling signet ring cells. Immunohistochemical studies showed the cells to stain positively for pan cytokeratin and smooth muscle actin, indicating myoepithelial differentiation (MED). Foci of conventional basal cell carcinoma were present, and cells with MED were also admixed within some of the aggregations of basal cell carcinoma.

[Surgical treatment of achalasia: Better than dilations?].

Achalasia is an infrequent esophageal disease that severely impairs the quality of life of affected individuals. The etiology of this entity is not well defined and its main clinical features are dysphagia and regurgitation. The treatment of achalasia continues to be palliative and is aimed at providing functional and symptomatic relief through opening of the lower esophageal sphincter.

Seasonal variation of transient acantholytic dyskeratosis (Grover's disease).

Background: Grover's disease (GD), or transient acantholytic dermatosis, is a pruritic, papulovesicular eruption characterized histopathologically by acantholysis with or without dyskeratosis. The origin of GD is unknown. Suggested causes include sweating, heat, immobilization occlusion, external beam and ultraviolet radiation, and xerosis.

Are all melanomas the same? Spitzoid melanoma is a distinct subtype of melanoma.

Background: Although the majority of melanomas demonstrate high rates of mutations in B-RAF or N-RAS that result in constitutive activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase-signaling pathway, emerging data suggest molecular differences among melanoma subtypes. In this study, the authors evaluated the contribution of B-RAF and N-RAS mutations to the pathogenesis of Spitzoid melanomas.

Methods: In total, 33 Spitzoid melanomas were analyzed for clinical and pathologic characteristics as well as for hot-spot mutations in the B-RAF and N-RAS genes.

Mohs surgical extirpation of a basal cell carcinoma in a patient with familial multiple trichoepitheliomas.

Background: The success of Mohs surgery relies on the ability to histologically differentiate tumor from the normal background tissue of the patient. In most cases of basal cell carcinoma and nonmelanoma skin cancer, this is a relatively straightforward process. However, in distinction, when only subtle histopathologic features differentiate the background tissue from the tumor of interest, the determination of a tumor-free margin becomes more challenging.

Diagnostic value of potent acid inhibition in gastro-oesophageal reflux disease.

Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) is defined as 'Chronic symptoms or mucosal damage produced by abnormal reflux of gastric contents into the esophagus'. The Genval Workshop Report defines that GORD exists when the frequency of heartburn is equal to or greater than 2 days/week and that it is one of the most common gastrointestinal conditions in the general population. Endoscopy is the most recommendable exploratory procedure in a patient with symptoms of GORD, fundamentally heartburn and regurgitation.

Granular parakeratosis: pathologic and clinical correlation of 18 cases of granular parakeratosis.

Background: Granular parakeratosis (originally termed axillary granular parakeratosis) is an idiopathic, benign, nondisabling cutaneous disease that manifests with intertriginous erythematous, brown or red, scaly or keratotic papules and plaques. It presents in all age groups and has no established clinical associations.

Objectives: We wanted to assess the following: (1) the incidence of granular parakeratosis in biopsy specimens; (2) the differential diagnosis submitted with specimens requisition of granular parakeratosis; and (3) variations in its histopathology.

Genetic similarities between Spitz nevus and Spitzoid melanoma in children.

Background: Melanoma in children is rare. Diagnosis of the subtype of melanoma known as Spitzoid melanoma can be extremely challenging in this age group. Spitzoid melanoma clinically and histopathologically resembles a benign melanocytic proliferation referred to as Spitz nevus.

"Atypical" blue nevus, "malignant" blue nevus, and "metastasizing" blue nevus: a critique in historical perspective of three concepts flawed fatally.

The same errors that spawned, sustained, and continue to spur the notions of "atypical" Spitz's nevus, "malignant" Spitz's nevus, and "metastasizing" Spitz's nevus are animating of 3 other concepts flawed equally, namely, those of "atypical blue nevus," "malignant blue nevus," and "metastasizing blue nevus." Our intention here is to compel to the conclusion, by way of critique in historical perspective, that all neoplasms claimed to be "malignant blue nevus" and "metastasizing blue nevus;" in fact, are melanomas, that all "atypical blue nevi" are either a nevus or a melanoma, and that the trio of curious designations that serve as title of this work are mere evasions transparently from a diagnosis, straightforwardly, of 1 of only 3 possibilities, to wit, "blue nevus," melanoma, or melanoma in association with a "blue nevus." Rather than admit uncertainty forthrightly, those who employ circumlocutions that we deplore, such as those under scrutiny here, resort to linguistic maneuvers that, at first blush, seem to have the cachet of scholarship (the jargon used being in keeping with a slew of other well-accepted, but equally bogus diagnoses in [dermato]pathology, among those being "minimal deviation melanoma," "borderline melanoma," "nevoid melanoma," "potentially low-grade melanocytic neoplasm," and "melanocytic proliferation of uncertain biologic potential").

"Atypical" Spitz's nevus, "malignant" Spitz's nevus, and "metastasizing" Spitz's nevus: a critique in historical perspective of three concepts flawed fatally.

Our purpose in undertaking this Arbeit was to review all articles published about "atypical" Spitz's nevus, "malignant" Spitz's nevus, and "metastasizing" Spitz's nevus, to criticize them in a fashion that illuminates, and to come to conclusions compellingly about those subjects. We found that an overwhelming majority of neoplasms that claimed to be "atypical Spitz's nevus," "metastasizing Spitz's nevus," and "malignant Spitz's nevus" were, in fact, melanomas ( Table 1). Moreover, in our estimation, those designations, and variants of them, like "atypical Spitz's lesion," "atypical dermal melanocytic lesion with features of Spitz's nevus," "atypical Spitzoid melanocytic neoplasm," and "problematic Spitzoid melanocytic lesion," are mere evasions from a diagnosis, straightforwardly, of either Spitz's nevus or melanoma.

Melanomas in prepubescent children: review comprehensively, critique historically, criteria diagnostically, and course biologically.

Our series was comprised of 11 children age 10 years or younger (6 were younger than age 5) with primary cutaneous melanoma. All of the melanomas occurred de novo and all metastasized; one child died. In no instance was melanoma a clinical consideration, and in none did the histopathologist who first "signed out" the case make a diagnosis of melanoma.