The prognosis of transitional cell carcinoma(TCC) of the urinary bladder is related to histopathologic parameters, among which the clinical stage and histopathologic grade are most important prognostic determiantors. Recently the immunohistochemical assessment of proliferating cell nuclear antigen(PCNA) and nucleolar organizer region number(AgNORs) can obtain the PCNA, and AgNORs stainings were studied in 55 the sequential biopsies of 22 recurrent TCCs of the urinary bladder. 6 cases showed the increased changes of grade, of which 5 cases was independently to the change of grade. The AgNORs in 18 cases showed increase in 10 cases. The comparison between PCNA count and AgNORs score according to grade was performed in the changes between grade II and III, both PCNA count and AgNORs score were increased with in crease of grade. However, The change of the PCNA count was stastically significant, but not AgNORs score.
Biopsy

A total of 66 cases of thymoma(57 surgically resected cases and 9 incisional biopsy cases) were reviewed with an attempt to correlate pathomorphologic features and clinical presentations. Criteria of benign or invasive thymoma were primarily determined by operative clinical and pathologic findings. Of them, 21 cases were invasive thymomas. The mean age of patients at the time of surgery was 47 years and it occurred largely in the sixth decade. Myasthenia gravis was accompanied in 29 cases(43%). One patient died during folow-up period, and five of the remainder suffered from recurrence. Microscopically, mixed type was the most common one(33 cases), being followed by predominantly epithelial type(17 cases) and predominantly lymphocytic type(16 cases). Thirty four cases of thymomas were cortical type, 29 mixed type, and the remaining 3 medullary type. None of the histologic type were significantly correlated with tumor invasiveness, Myasthenia gravis was more frequently associated with mixed and cortical type, respectively.
Biopsy

Routine use of commercially available antisera against hepatitis B core antigen(HBcAg) has permitted a reevaluation of the histochemical distribution of the antigen in liver tissue. HBcAg, classically described almost exclusively in the nucleus, was found with a very high frequency in the cytoplasm of liver cells as well. To elucidate the biologic significance of HBcAg expression and its relation to the natural course of hepatitis B virus(HBV) infection, the patterns of activity in 33 needle liver biopsies of HBsAg carriers were analysed. A good correlation of liver HBcAg with disease activity was demonstrated. HBcAg was present in the hepatocyte nuclei(nHBcAg) or cytoplasm(cHBcAg), or in both(mixed). Pure nHBcAg was seen mainly in non-aggressive reactive liver tissue and cHBcAg was predominantly associated with chronic active hepatitis(95%). The results suggest that expression of HBcAg correlates with the liver pathology and the possibility of HBcAg to be an immunological target for T cell mediated hepatocyte damage.
Biopsy

The specialist system of hospital pathology in Korea has adopted the American system in its start, and divided its categories into anatomical pathology(AP), clinical pathology(CP), and combind anatomic and clinical pathology(AP +CP). Since 1975 the society eliminated the category of combined AP and CP specialist. The first qualifying examination took place in 1963. It started out as a written examination and later changed to have two parts, written and practical. One year of internship and 4 years of anatomic pathology were required for AP specialist. CP required the same period of training in CP to be eligible for the specialist qualifying examination. The training period was shortened to 3 years from 4 years, 1981~1990 and then returned to 4 years in 1991. There has been considerable confusion during the adoption period of the pathologist specialist system in Korea, mainly because of an incorrect concept of the term "clinical pathology" in the modern hospital. Many people understood "clinical pathology" to mean "hospital pathology" as an opposing concept of "basic or experimental pathology" at medical school. The misconception arose from the fact that Pathology Department in a Hospital has not been realized under Japanese hospital system that prevailed Korean hospital system until 1950. In old Japanese style, the laboratory examinations including some histopathological examination had been conduced in corresponding clinical departments. And Pathology Department in medical school was responsible only for autopsy and not for making diagnosis of biopsy or operative specimen necessarily. Therefore, there has been a conflict between traditional Pathologists(most of them anatomic pathologists) at medical school and so-called "clinical pathologists" in the hospital, as the Korean medical delivery system adopted American system particularly after the Korean war. Now in Korean, in the great majority of hospitals, clinical pathology is clearly defined from anatomic pathology, and the two-services are at work in separate programs. However, there are still a few university hospitals, where histopathological examination and reporting are done in the Clinical Pathology Department. It is hoped that a combined AP and CP program can be started again in near future for the pathologists who work in community hospitals or most smaller general hospitals where the pathologists with adequate knowledge on both AP and CP at work supervising clinical laboratory technicians and technologists. However, it is fully realized the specialists in subspecialty field such as neuropathology, dermatopathology, hematopathology, clinical microbiology, clinical chemistry, etc. are also needed. For future prospect both the Korean Society of Pathologists and Korean Society of Clinical Pathologists should collaborate with each other in full scale in spite of painful past experiences.
Biopsy

The patient was presented characteristic clinical, histopathological and X-ray findings, in cluding generalized edema, petechial rash, lymphadenopathy, bone lesions, pulmonary infiltration and hepatomegaly with anemia. Most of these signs developed soon after birth. Diagnosis was confirmed by microscopic examin ation of lymph node biopsy and clinical X-ray findings. The patient was received antibiotics, corticosteroid and vinblastine and discharged against doctors order without improvement.
Biopsy

Forty eight skin biopsies obtained from 24 patients were reviewed, and clinical, histological and immunohistochemical findings were analyzed. Results obtained are as follows: 1) Skin manifestation was plaque, erythroderma, scale and hyperpigmentation in mycosis fungoides, and subcutaneous nodule, mass and ulcerated patch in cutaneous lymphoma. The skin of lymphomatoid papulosis revealed hemorrhagic ulcerated and erythematous papules which healed spontaneously. 2) Histologically, mycosis fungoides showed epidermotropism in most cases. Pautrier's micro-abscesses were present in one-fourth of the cases. Malignant lymphoma was different in histology from mycosis fungoides. As compared with mycosis fungoides, it showed less frequent epidermotropism, more compact and diffuse infiltration of atypical lymphocytes, more often association with ulcer and necrosis, and more frequent mitotic figures. Lymphomatoid papulosis showed striking hemorrhage and edema of the papillary dermis. 3) Based on the results of immunohistochemical study, mycosis fungoides and lymphomatoid papulosis were considered as a T cell proliferative disorder of the skin. According to these findings, lymphoproliferative disorders of the skin occurred predominantly in the elderly and males. Clinical and histopathologic findings overlapped and were similar each other. It was difficult to make a definite diagnosis in early lesions, and a sequential follow up biopsy was required. It is concluded that strict criteria such as marked atypia and clustering of atypical cells are necessary for a histologic diagnosis of malignant lymphoproliferative disorder of the skin.
Biopsy

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of the use of external radiation therapy (ERT) in terms of survival and compliance in patients with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The medical records of 17 patients with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma treated with ERT between 1993 and 2002 were retrospectively reviewed. ERT was administered after surgery in 14 patients and after a biopsy in three patients. Among the 14 patients who had undergone surgery, nine underwent a curative resection and five underwent a palliative resection. Six patients had associated well-differentiated thyroid carcinomas and 14 patients were diagnosed with a tumor size exceeding 5 cm. The radiation dose ranged from 6~70 Gy (median dose, 37.5 Gy). Eleven patients completed the planned course of ERT, whereas six patients did not. The follow-up period ranged from 1~104 months (median, 5 months; mean, 20 months). RESULTS: Five patients started the ERT without the presence of a gross mass and all of the patients completed ERT without a re-growth of tumor. Twelve patients (four patients after a curative resection, five patients after a palliative resection and three patients after a biopsy) started ERT with a gross mass present and only six patients were able to complete the planned course of ERT. Among the six patients who completed ERT, two patients showed a marked regression of the tumor mass, whereas two patients showed slight regression and two patients showed no response. The median survival was five months (range, 1~104 months) and the mean survival was 21 months. The overall survival was 41% at 1-year, 24% at 2-years and 12% at 5-years. Significant prognostic factors included the number of primary tumors present, tumor size, whether surgery was performed and completion of ERT as planned. Long-term survivors showed a tendency of having smaller sized initial tumors and smaller sized pre-ERT tumors than the short-term survivors. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that patients with a small initial tumor (< or =5 cm), which was treated by surgery (curative resection or palliative resection) before ERT, and without rapid re-growth of the mass seen at the surgical site at the beginning of the ERT course, would be the best candidates for postoperative ERT. In contrast, patients with a large initial tumor (>5 cm) and did not undergo surgery before ERT or that rapid re-growth of the mass was observed at the surgical site are likely to have a short survival time, along with the interruption of ERT. In these cases, the role of ERT is very limited and the omission of ERT could be considered.
Biopsy

Diabetic nephropathy is a clinical syndrome characterized by persistent albuminuria, a relentless decline in GFR and raised arterial blood pressure, and usually diagnosed on clinical grounds without a renal biopsy. Their renal injuries are irreversible and they become eventually end-stage renal disease. Recently, it has been reported that proteinuria are also induced by other causes, and some of the renal diseases was treatable. The detection of non-diabetic renal disease in diabetic patients by renal biopsy has the prognostic and therapeutic importance. We report a case of type II diabetic mellitus with minimal change nephrotic syndrome, and no evidence of diabetic glomerulosclerosis.
Biopsy

No abstract available.
Biopsy*

BACKGROUND: Pseudoepitheliomatous hyperplasia (PEH) is a reactive proliferation of surface epithelium and can be confused with invasive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in head and neck biopsy specimens. To distinguish PEH from invasive SCC, immunohistochemical staining for claudin-1, E-cadherin and p53 was performed. METHODS: Eighteen cases of PEH and 29 invasive SCC from head and neck lesions were immunostained and examined. RESULTS: The invasive SCC showed increased staining of claudin-1 (p<0.001) and p53 (p<0.001) and decreased staining of E-cadherin (p=0.005) compared to the PEH specimens. The combined score calculated by adding the positive sum of claudin-1 and p53 and subtracting E-cadherin was useful for the differentiation of SCC from PEH (89.7% sensitivity and 88.9% specificity, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The combined immunostaining for claudin-1, p53 and E-cadherin may help differentiate PEH from invasive SCC. The results of this study suggest that the increased expression of claudin-1 and p53 and the decreased expression of E-cadherin maybe markers for the aggressive growth of invasive SCC.
Biopsy