Pelvic lipomatosis is a rare disease of unknown cause, characterised by overgrowth of benign mature fat cells commonly located in the perivesical and perirectal spaces. The disease is rare amongst Asian population and has a wide range of presenting symptoms varying from lower urinary tract symptoms to bowel symptoms. However, this disease can be easily diagnosed based on certain characteristic radiological imaging techniques. We report a case of pelvic lipomatosis in an asymptomatic Chinese gentleman, who presented with classical radiological features of pelvic lipomatosis but provided us with challenging therapeutic scenario. (JUMMEC 2010; 13(2): 111-114)

Foreign body reaction of tissues is frequently encountered in routine surgical pathology, whether they contain foreign body or not. Though their presence or identification may be the important clue for the legal problems as in malpractice, and the identification of foreign body will give us the chance for reconstruction of patients' medical history, pathologists often overlook or neglect what they are. Besides curiosity, the description of individual foreign body and common site for its occurence will be of great help. Therefore, we classify and describe the features of 182 foreign bodies collected in practice of surgical pathology during 1979~82.

Body stalk anomaly represents an extreme maldevelopment of embryonic body folding and is characterized by absence of the umbilicus and umbilical cord. The failure of complete obliteration of the extraembryonic coelom is responsible for the absence of the umbilical cord formation and the wide-based insertio of the amnioperitoneal membrane onto the placental chorionic plate. We have analyzed 10 autopsy cases of various midline anomalies of the body that could best be classified into body stalk anomaly. All cases were either stillborns or dead immediately after birth. The pregnancy was interrupted due to this anomaly in 6 cases, and their gestational ages varied from 17 weeks to 37 weeks. The affected fetuses were characterized bt absent or vestigial umbilical cord, and ruptured amnion with direct amnioperitoneal connection without the mediation of the umbilical cord. Exomphalos with abdominal wall defect and serve scoliosis were characteristic components of this anomaly, that provided important clues in differentiating other similar anomalies. Other associated anomalies included neural tube defect, intestinal atresia, genitourinary and skeletal defects, pulmonary hypoplasia, single umbilical artery and narrow-spaced chest and abdomen, etc. These findings strongly suggest that anomaly of body stalk represents mechanical teratogenesis due to early amnion repture and subsequent effect, and should be categorized into amniotic band disruption syndrome.
Pregnancy ; Female ; Humans ; Teratogens

Three autopsy cases of arthrogryposis multiplex congenita are studied. They were two deadborns and one neonatal death. All of them had characteristic abnormalities involving multiple joints. Neither primary myopathy nor abnormalities of anterior horn cells of the spinal cord were detected in our cases. However, two cases had minor central nervous system anomalies. All four cases showed pulmonary hypoplasia of varying degree. Two of three cases showed facial dysmorphism such as micrognathia and low set ears, and one showed cleft lip and palate. Ventricular septal defect, umbilical hernia and ureteral anomalies were also associated.
Infant, Newborn ; Humans

Surgical Technique: The technique involves creating a central crater, flipping the nucleus out into the supracapsular space, and creating another crater through the posterior surface that will eventually connect with the anterior crater to produce a central hole. The donut-shaped nucleus is then chopped and the fragments are aspirated with greater ease. Results: The technique was performed successfully in seven eyes of six patients with only minor problems. Phacoemulsification times were longer than usual because of the additional sculpting, but clinical results were not adversely affected. Conclusion: For dense or hard cataracts for which the surgeon anticipates a tough posterior plate, this technique is a safe alternative to the usual chopping techniques.
Human ; Male ; Female ; Aged ; Middle Aged ; CATARACT ; PHACOEMULSIFICATION ; SCLEROSIS

Five fetal maxillas were obtained from the autopsy file of fetal postmortem examination, and were examined by serial micro-sections of frontal plane and horizontal plane. Especially the area around the incisive canal of the maxilla was carefully observed. The results are as follows. 1) In 5 fetal maxillas extra-dental laminas and supernumerary tooth germs which are severely malformed in shape are found in the dilated incisive canal, where prominent vessels and nerves are distributed. 2) The supernumerary tooth germs disclose almost normal histo-differentiation of odontoblast and ameloblast, and there shows relatively abundant perifollicular fibrosis in the place of perifollicular bone. 3) It is observed that the over-growth of the extradental lamina from the dental ridge of deciduous central incisor frequently tends to direct toward the incisive canal that includes prominent vessels and nerves.

This study is aimed to observe the expressions of different genes, including the extracellular matrix proteins, growth factors, and transcription factors during different developmental stages of mouse submandibular gland. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and the antisense inhibition in organ culture system were performed using mouse embryos and newborns. Total 140 mouse embryos (E14(80), E15(20), E16(20), E18(20)) and 30 newborn mice (D2(10), D3(10), D6(10)) obtained from 60 pregnant mice and 3 adult mice (3 weeks old) were used for the cDNA production and the salivary gland organ culture. Syndecan, perlecan, laminin alpha1 chain, TGF beta1, beta 3, and sonic hedgehog mRNAs were expressed in the early stage (E14~E16) of the submandibular gland development, whereas transglutaminase C (TGase C), E-cadherin, epimorphin, laminin beta2 and gamma1 chains, and HGF mRNAs were expressed in the middle and late stages (E16~E18, D2~D6). Antisense inhibition of different genes in the organ culture of E14 mouse embryos of submandibular gland showed specific growth retardation in the development of ductal and acinar cells. Especially, the antisense inhibition of perlecan, E-cadherin, laminin alpha1 chain, laminin beta2 chain, and syndecan mRNA arrested the growth of ductal and acinar cells. While the antisense inhibition of integrin beta5 greatly affected the acinar cell differentiation and also produced cystic dilatation of salivary ducts, the antisense inhibition of fibronectin showed aberrant growth of ectomesenchymal tissues of the mouse submandibular gland.
Acinar Cells ; Adult ; Animals ; Cadherins ; Dilatation ; DNA, Complementary ; Embryonic Structures ; Extracellular Matrix Proteins ; Fibronectins ; Gene Expression* ; Hedgehogs ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins ; Laminin ; Mice* ; Organ Culture Techniques* ; RNA, Messenger ; Salivary Ducts ; Salivary Glands ; Submandibular Gland* ; Syndecans ; Transcription Factors

VATER association represents vertebral defects, anal atresia, tracheo-esophageal fistula with without esophageal atresia, renal defects and radial limb dysplasia. The probability of the simultaneous occurrence of any three of these defects is so unlikely that it suggests a sporadic non-random association. This non-random association appears to be related to some chromosomal anomalies, the caudal regression syndrome, mesodermal defects in early developmental period or the matemal use of sex hormones during embryogenesis. We report three autopsy cases of the VATER association that showed most of the known major and minor defects as well as an unusual concurrence of other defects, i.e., scoliosis, talipes varus, absent penis, urethral agenesis and stenosis, rectourethral fistula, rib anomaly, single umbilical artery, Meckel's diverticulum, diaphragmatic hemia, absent rectum, short neck, simian crease, low set ear, and hypoplastic lung.

We examined sixty-three human embryos ranged from three weeks to eight weeks of fertilization age and 117 human fetuses from eleven weeks to fourty weeks of gestational age. Anatomical structure of developing tongue could be classified into eight developmental stages. The first is the sgage of mesial swelling of tongue primordium in the fertilization age of 28~40 days (Streeter stage 13~16), the second is the stage of lateral swelling of tongue primordium in the fertilization age of 41~46 days (Streeter stage 17~18), the third is the sgage of vertical positioning of tongue in the fertilization age of 47~53 days (Streeter stage 19~21), the fourth is the transitional stage of tongue from vertical position to horizontal position in the fertilization age of 54~56 days (Streeter stage 22~23), the fifth is the stage horizontal positioning of tongue in the gestational age of 11 weeks, the sixth is the stage of protrusion of tongue in the gestational age of 12 weeks, the seventh is the stage of maturation of tongue muscle in the gestational age of 7-10 months. The development of tongue papilla characteristically progresses into three stages. The first stage is the epithelial ingrowth for the crypt formation, the second stage is the anatomical formation of vallate, fungiform and filiform papillae, and the third stage is the differentiation of taste buds in the vallate and fungiform papillae or the formation of thick spike-like keratinization at the tip of filiform papilla. We observed that the tongue primordium mainly derived from occipital myotome developed more repidly than other oro-facial structures, so it transitionally occuied the spaces of the pharynx and the posterior nasal cavity, and directly affected the formation of palate and the growth of maxilla and mandible. Whereas the tongue papilla development showed continuous developmental sequences during the fetal period.
Humans

In order to elucidate the developmental stages of human tooth germ during prenatal period, we examined 254 normal fetuses ranging in gestational age from six weeks to fourty weeks old histologically. Lim's developmental pattern of prenatal tooth germ was divided into three groups, the first group consisting of five grades (I, II, III, IV, V) was for the development of enamel epithelium the second group of three grades was for the deposition of dentin matrix and enamel matrix, and the third group of three grades (A, B, C) was for the growth of perifollicular bone. Some developmental progress between enamel epithelium and dental papilla could be identified by observation of the sequential development of deciduous and permanent tooth germs histologically. The following results were made. 1) The prenatal development of tooth germ showed similar weekly stages in both the maxilla and the mandible. The initial deposition of dentin matrix and enamel matrix (III-1 stage) started at 12-14 weeks of gestational age in the deciduous incisor and canine, and at 16-20 weeks of gestational age in the deciduous molars. And the initial deposition of dentin matrix and enamel matrix in the permanent first molar was at 20-22 weeks of gestational age, and that of the permanent incisor was at 34-36 weeks, and that of the permanent canine was 36-38 weeks, and of the permanent premolar was at 38-40 weeks. 2) The S-shaped curvature was characteristically found where the reciprocal induction of odontoblast and amelobast occurred actively in the developing tooth germ. Primarily pre-ameloblasts which abutted on the dental papilla differentiate the condensed mesenchymal cells into odontoblasts, and secondarily matured odontoblasts which bulged into enamel epithelium produced dentin matrix and differentiated the shrunken pre-ameloblasts into ameloblasts. 3) The mandible grew more rapidly than the maxilla during the early prenatal period. The trabecular bone from both jaws proliferated initially into labial side of developing tooth follicle and gradually circumscribed the tooth follicle lingually and mesio-distally, to form perifollicular bone resultantly.
Humans