Case report: lupus nephritis with autoantibodies to complement alternative pathway proteins and C3 gene mutation.

Background: Glomerulonephritis is one of the most severe complications of lupus, a systemic disease with multi-organ involvement, with tissue damage produced mainly by complement activation. As a result of this activation, patients with active lupus present hypocomplementemia during disease flares, but C3 and C4 levels are recovered between episodes.

Case Presentation: We present a patient who suffered two lupus nephritis episodes in 5 years, achieving complete remission with treatment after both of them, but with C3 levels persistently below normal range.

Micropapillary carcinoma of the urinary tract: a cytologic study of urine and fine-needle aspirate samples.

Objective: Micropapillary carcinoma (MPC) is an aggressive variant of urothelial carcinoma that needs early and specific recognition. In order to determine whether this tumor variant can be recognized with cytology, we evaluated a large cytohistological series.

Study Design: It was a retrospective cytohistological correlation study including 20 patients with MPC.

Molecular staging of prostatic cancer with RT-PCR assay for prostate-specific antigen in peripheral blood and lymph nodes. 5 year follow-up.

Objective: Thirty percent of patients with localized prostate cancer undergoing radical prostatectomy experience biochemical recurrence with rising serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA). More than 50% of these develop distant metastases.

Methods: Presence of PSA mRNA in pathologically normal pelvic lymph nodes from 154 patients undergoing radical prostatectomy was investigated with non-quantitative PSA reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

Expanding the clinical spectrum of Frasier syndrome.

Frasier syndrome is an uncommon genetic disorder featuring progressive glomerulopathy, male pseudohermaphroditism, and gonadal dysgenesis with increased risk of gonadoblastoma and malignant germ cell tumors. It is caused by mutations in the donor splice site in intron 9 of the WT1 gene. However, because of its rarity there is limited literature available on the precise spectrum and recommended treatment modalities of this syndrome.

Molecular staging of prostatic cancer with RT-PCR assay for prostate-specific antigen in peripheral blood and lymph nodes: comparison with standard histological staging and immunohistochemical assessment of occult regional lymph node metastases.

Background: About 30-40% of men with localized prostate cancer undergoing radical prostatectomy will have cancer recurrence. It is estimated that one third recur locally and two thirds develop distant metastases with or without local recurrence.

Methods: In the present study we investigate the detection of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) mRNA in peripheral blood samples (n=200 patients) and pelvic lymph nodes (n=154 patients) by PSA reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and compare these results to standard histological and immunohistochemical staging.