Annals of diagnostic pathology
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Historical Article
Case studies in pathology from the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.
The National Museum of Health and Medicine was founded as the Army Medical Museum during the American Civil War to document the effects of war wounds and disease on the human body. Since then, the Museum has created a collection of documented pathologic specimens that can be used to study the gross and microscopic appearance of disease conditions. The Museum's collections are a vital link to the past and the future of medical research and form a unique national medical repository that is used continuously for research, education, and exhibit purposes. ⋯ These specimens allow the unique opportunity to re-examine historical classification systems and disease diagnoses. The case of subacute chronic osteomyelitis with cortical sequestration of Private J. Potter from the Civil War is presented here.
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Constrictive bronchiolitis (CB) (or obliterative bronchiolitis) designates inflammation and fibrosis occurring predominantly in the walls and contiguous tissues of membranous and respiratory bronchioles, with resultant narrowing of their lumens. It differs from bronchiolitis obliterans-organizing pneumonia in its histopathology and clinical course. Most cases of CB occur in the setting of organ transplants, particularly lung and heart-lung transplants, but also in bone marrow transplants. ⋯ Increasingly, clinical grounds, including pulmonary functions studies and high-resolution computed tomography findings, are proving to be relatively sensitive methods of detecting CB. Finally, the progressive airway destruction in chronic transplantation rejection appears to be a T-cell-mediated process. The "active" form of constrictive bronchiolitis, with attendant lymphocytic inflammation of the airways, likely precedes the "inactive" or scarred form of constrictive bronchiolitis.
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Biography Historical Article
Arthur Purdy Stout (1885-1967), a pioneer of surgical pathology: a survey of his Notes on the Education of an "Oncological" Surgical Pathologist.
Arthur Purdy Stout (1885-1967) started his medical career as a surgical intern and house surgeon at institutions that were to join the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. With virtualy no formal training in pathology and little supervision, he was given the opportunity to work in a laboratory of surgical pathology. He focused his attention on neoplasms and tumor-like conditions, and authored Human Cancer in 1932. ⋯ This manuscript of 427 typewritten pages offers candid details on his development as a surgical pathologist from rather primitive and chaotic beginnings, and on the post-World War II rise of surgical pathology. Notes provides interesting glimpses of his rapidly changing world, particularly of New York, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, and other pathologists. It also portrays an individual absorbed by his work and intent on leaving behind the legacy of a pioneer in the field of surgical pathology.
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Twenty-one cases of nonneoplastic pineal cyst are presented. The patients were 13 women and 8 men, with a median age of 33 years. Sixteen patients were symptomatic. ⋯ One symptomatic patient who did not have surgery died suddenly of causes related to the cyst. The present study supports the role of surgical excision for the treatment of symptomatic pineal cysts to obtain adequate tissue for diagnosis and relief of symptoms. The use of histochemical and immunohistochemical studies may prove useful in the distinction of these lesions with astrocytomas and cystic pineal parenchymal tumors.