Background The definitive pathologic diagnosis of cardiac sarcoidosis requires observation of a granuloma in the myocardial tissue. It is common, however, to receive a “negative” report for a clinically probable case. We would like to advise pathologists and clinicians on how to interpret “negative” biopsies.
Methods Our study samples were 27 endomyocardial biopsies from 25 patients, three cardiac transplantation and an autopsied heart with suspected cardiac sarcoidosis. Pathologic, radiologic, and clinical features were compared.
Results The presence of micro-granulomas or increased histiocytic infiltration was always (6/6 or 100%) associated with fatty infiltration and confluent fibrosis, and they showed radiological features of sarcoidosis. Three of five cases (60%) with fatty change and confluent fibrosis were probable for cardiac sarcoidosis on radiology. When either confluent fibrosis or fatty change was present, one-third (3/9) were radiologically probable for cardiac sarcoidosis. We interpreted cases with micro-granuloma as positive for cardiac sarcoidosis (five of 25, 20%). Cases with both confluent fibrosis and fatty change were interpreted as probable for cardiac sarcoidosis (seven of 25, 28%). Another 13 cases, including eight cases with either confluent fibrosis or fatty change, were interpreted as low probability based on endomyocardial biopsy.
Conclusions The presence of micro-granuloma could be an evidence for positive diagnosis of cardiac sarcoidosis. Presence of both confluent fibrosis and fatty change is necessary for probable cardiac sarcoidosis in the absence of granuloma. Either of confluent fibrosis or fatty change may be an indirect pathological evidence but they are interpreted as nonspecific findings.
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Background The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical significance of Quilty lesions in endomyocardial biopsies (EMBs) of cardiac transplantation patients.
Methods A total of 1190EMBs from 117 cardiac transplantation patients were evaluated histologically for Quilty lesions,acute cellular rejection, and antibody-mediated rejection. Cardiac allograft vasculopathy wasdiagnosed by computed tomography coronary angiography. Clinical information, including thepatients’ survival was retrieved by a review of medical records.
Results Eighty-eight patients(75.2%) were diagnosed with Quilty lesions, which were significantly associated with acute cellularrejection, but not with acute cellular rejection ≥ 2R or antibody-mediated rejection. In patientsdiagnosed with both Quilty lesions and acute cellular rejection, the time-to-onset of Quilty lesionsfrom transplantation was longer than that of acute cellular rejections. We found a significant associationbetween Quilty lesions and cardiac allograft vasculopathy. No significant relationship wasfound between Quilty lesions and the patients’ survival.
Conclusions Quilty lesion may be an indicator of previous acute cellular rejection rather than a predictor for future acute cellular rejection.
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BACKGROUND The weight, shape and consistency of the heart, and the thickness of the ventricular wall are used as parameters for evaluating postmortem heart and diagnosing cardiomyopathy at autopsy. METHODS The weight and volume of the ventricles and the thickness of the left ventricular wall of 58 hearts were measured and analyzed. RESULTS In the group of dilated hearts, the ventricular weight, ventricular volume, ventricular volume/ventricular weight, and left ventricular volume/right ventricular volume increased, whereas ventricular wall thickness decreased. In the group of hypertrophied hearts, the ventricular weight, ventricular volume, and thickness of the ventricular wall increased but ventricular volume/ventricular weight and left ventricular volume/right ventricular volume did not change significantly. In the group of undetermined hearts, it was later found that four of the cases should have been included in the dilated heart group and another two cases in the hypertrophied heart group. CONCLUSIONS In addition to conventional methods, the measuring ventricular volume is useful for evaluating a postmortem heart and may suggest postmortem differential diagnoses of dilated or hypertrophied forms of secondary cardiomyopathies.
Heart transplantation was first performed in 1967. It is now regarded as a well-established treatment modality for end-stage cardiac diseases. Once the transplantation is performed, endomyocardial biopsy(EMB) is the examination of choice in monitoring the transplanted heart. We analyzed the pathological findings of follow-up EMB of 6 heart transplant patients. All patients have been suffered from severe heart failure. Four patients were adult male and two were adult females. All the hearts, except for one, displayed characteristic features of dilated cardiomyopathy. The remaining heart was diagnosed as having giant cell myocarditis. Post-transplantion EMBs were performed according to the protocol and standard cardiac biopsy grading of ISHT (1990). The standards were applied for grading of cellular rejection. In five patients, there were one or two episodes of biopsy proven acute rejection, grade II or IIIA without any clinical symptoms of rejection.
Immediate "pulse therapy" was performed and follow-up biopsies were done. All episodes of rejection were cleared in subsequent biopsies. All patients are doing well without evidence of cardiac problem. The postoperative monitoring of acute rejection is critical since clinical signs of rejection are usually absent. At present, EMB is regarded as the most reliable method for diagnosis and grading of acute rejection and is an efficient guide to the monitoring of the cardiac recipients. Our experience of post-transplantation EMB corresponds with previously published reports.
It is well documented that cardiac myxomas are associated with immunologic features that can simulate systemic autoimmune diseases. Recently, it was reported that cardiac myxomas produce IL-6 constitutively, which could partly explain the immunologic features observed in these patients.
However, only a few investigators have studied cytokines in regards to symptoms they may cause in patients with cardiac myxoma. Also there is very little information in the literature on the immunohistochmical localization of IL-6.
We performed immunobistochemical stains for IL-4, TNF, and IL-6 on paraffm embbeded tissue of cardiac myxoma tissue. A bioassay of IL-6 activity in patient's serum and in cultured cells from fresh myxoma tissue was performed to ascertain the role of these cytokines in myxomas. In this study, we demonstrated inununohistochemically that there was a local overproduction of IL-4, TNF, and IL-6 in cytoplasm of the tumor cells in about half cases. Bioassays of the serum and cultured tumor cells revealed elevated IL-6 activities. Also these findings correlate to production of patient's constitutional symptoms with statistical significance (P<0.05). In conclusion, these results are of considerable importance in understanding the role of IL-4, TNF, and IL-6 in cardiac myxoma patient with constitutional symptoms, and have an impact on strategies for diagnosis and therapy of cardiac myxoma.
Primary cardiac tumors in infancy and childhood are rare, with fibromas being the second most common tumor after rhabdomyomas. Although cardiac fibromas are characteristically benign intramural tumors, they may exhibit exhibit expansile growth resulting in obstruction, valvular dysfunction, as well as other problems so early diagnosis and successful surgical excision are important. We report a case of cardiac fibroma in a 2 month-old male infant. He presented with generalized cyanosis from birth.
Echocardiography showed oval round large mass filing the right atrium and ventricle which infiltrated into the lateral wall of the ventricle. Partial excision of the tumor was done after another echocardiogram showed a pericardial effusion and restriction of blood flow to the right ventricle due to the tumor. The resected tumor was ovoid, gray-tan, slightly firm and measuring 5x3x2.5 cm.
Histologically, the tumor was composed of spindle-shaped fibroblasts and hyalinized fibrous tissue interdigitating with the surrounding myocardium.
Endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) is a valuable diagnostic procedure for the surveillance of cardiac allograft rejection. Interpretation of individual cases is still problematic due to variations of findings for grading of rejection and other associated lesions. We reevaluated an experience on endomyocardial biopsies to develop better diagnostic criteria for rejection and other complications.
Immunohistochemical studies against cytokines were performed to assess the usefulness of the method for the diagnosis or researches. A total of 249 EMBs taken from 33 cardiac allograft recipients were reviewed. There were 25 males and 8 females. Dilated cardiomyopathy was present (24 cases) and valvular heart disease (4 cases), restrictive cardiomyopathy (3 cases) were also common conditions. We applied the grading system of the International Society for Heart Transplantation (ISHT) for the assessment of acute cellular rejection. Grades of 0, 1A, 1B, 2, 3A and 3B were 39.0%, 28.1%, 11.2%, 11.5%, 12.4% and 1.6% respectively, but 3.2% were inadequate. Thirty five episodes of grade 3A or 3B were present in 17 patients. The response to therapy was assessed using a next follow up biopsy, which revealed resolving or resolved rejection in 85% of patients. The intensity of immunohistochemical stains for IL-6 and TNF-alpha was increased in proportion to the histologic grade but Quilty lesion and cardiomyopathy also showed a positive reaction.
The other pathologic findings were ischemic change, previous biopsy site, interstitial edema and fibrosis, and Quilty lesion. These findings showed usefulness of endomyocardial biopsy not only for the evaluation of cardiac allograft rejection but also for the diagnosis of associated cardiac lesions. Immunohistochemical study of the cytokines was related to the degree of inflammation rather than degree of rejection.
The computerized image analysis is a useful tool for the quantitative assessment of histopathologic findings. In contrast to the usual microscopic examination by pathologists, the computerization should be accompanied with the standardization process of the image. We developed an algorithm to standardize images and to determine the optimal gray level threshold, using a myocardial fibrosis model.
Sirius red staining was more convenient for the image analysis than Masson's trichrome staining because of a better contrast with the surrounding structures. To get an optimal measurement, light intensity was standardized at each of the fibrosis, myocardium and background. In this study, the most promising method to determine the degree of fibrosis was that of revising the background without tissue to a gray level of 200, obtaining a green component of the color image, revising the myocardial fiber to 163, and defining a partial ratio as fibrosis index when the gray level threshold was 120. These threshold levels and parameters were determined after drawing the binarization index curves according to the change of the gray level threshold and by the morphological examination of the actual binarization figures overlaid to the original color image.
Through these processes we could get a consistent result on the myocardial fibrosis and we expect a similar principle applies when we analyze color images in the histopathologic quantitation by computerized image analysis.
A rare case of mesothelial/monocytic incidental cardiac excrescences (cardiac MICE) is described in the aspect of pathological interest. This cardiac lesion is pathologically characterized by exuberant proliferation of mixed mesothelia and monocytes and might be misdiagnosed as metastatic carcinoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, and histiocytoid hemangioma, if the disease is not in the minds of pathologists. The reactive nodular hyperplasia due to irritation to mesothelia by various causes is a most prevailing pathogenetic mechanism. About 20 cases have been reported in the worldwide literature.
A 67-year-old female patient presented with cough and dyspnea for 2 months, without any history of previous cardiac operation. 2D echocardiography of the heart revealed moderate amount of pericardial effusion with posterior wall thickening. Under the impression of metastatic malignancy, pericardiostomy was performed. Grossly, the tissue was dark hemorrhagic and friable and the histologic sections revealed the solid tumor-like proliferation of round to polygonal histiocytic cells admixed with small cuboidal mesothelial cells which formed strips and tubular arrays. They were found within the fibrinous network and there were scattered empty vacuolar spaces.
Immunohistochemical staining confirmed their biphasic nature with the CD68 positivity of the histiocytes and the cytokeratin positivity of the cuboidal cells. Factor VIII positivity was not detected in any cell components. The lesion was considered the monocytic and mesothelial proliferation of reactive nature, so-called cardiac MICE in the pericardial cavity. We report a typical case of so-called MICE first in the Korean literature.
Sarcoidosis, in general, has a low mortality rate. But cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) is a serious condition which may lead to death. Here, we report a rare case of CS that was treated by heart transplantation. A 47-year-old male had occasional syncopes and atypical chest pain. Ventricular tachycardia with right bundle branch block was noted by electrocardiogram. Multiple fixed myocardial perfusion defects in the interventricular septum and both the inferior-posterior ventricular walls were observed by thallium scan. Coronary angiography was unremarkable.
Neither perihilar nor mediastinal lymphadenopathy was noted.
The patient also suffered three times from tonic-clonic generalized seizures in 3 years, but no neurologic abnormalities were detected. The explanted heart displayed multiple white patches on the endomyocardial surface, measuring up to 8x7 cm. On microscopic examination, the lesion consisted of multiple well-formed and confluent granulomas with numerous scattered multinucleated giant cells, CD68-positive epithelioid histiocytes, and T-lymphocytes. Neither microorganisms nor foreign material was identified on special stain and culture study. It has been six months since the heart transplant, and the patient has been doing well.
BACKGROUND It has been believed that there is a pure mucus-secreting cardiac mucosa (CM), about 2 cm in length, below the gastroesophageal junction. However, recent reports suggest that CM might not be located at the most proximal portion of the stomach. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between the types of proximal gastric mucosa and patients' age, sex, their condition regarding the Helicobacter pylori infection, and severity of chronic gastritis. METHODS Two pieces of mucosal tissue from the most proximal portion of the stomach and the antrum of 44 pediatric and 85 adult patients were examined using a light microscope. A rapid urease test was performed on the other antral specimen from each patient. RESULTS In 46 (90.2%) out of 51 patients with aged 30 or under, only the pure acid-secreting oxyntic mucosa (OM) was present at the most proximal portion of the stomach. The cardiac or mixed oxyntocardiac mucosa (OCM) increased in prevalence with age. The CM or OCM was found more frequently in patients with H. pylori infection or severe gastritis than in those without H. pylori infection or those with mild gastritis. However, there were no statistically significant differences within the same age groups. CONCLUSIONS Although the OCM is sometimes present at the most proximal portion of the stomach, the CM is absent or rare in individuals under the age of 30. The OCM or CM increases in prevalence with age. There are no direct relationships between the type of proximal gastric mucosa and a patient's gender, his/her condition regarding the H.
pylori infection, and severity of chronic gastritis.
Nocardia, aerobic members of the order of Actinomycetaceae, produces infections in human lung. Nocardial infection is associated with underlying diseases of immuno-suppression or treatment with corticosteroid. It is difficult to detect Nocardia by sputum examination or histologic sections and it has rarely been diagnosed by fine needle aspiration of the lung. We describe a case of pulmonary nocardiosis in a 72 year-old man. diagnosed by fine needle aspiration, which was confirmed by culture of aspirates. The aspirates showed neutrophil-predominant inflammatory cells with microoganisms demonstrated by Gomori methenamine silver and Gram stain.
The organisms had characteristic long branching filamentous strucutres. The lesions on chest x-ray were in resolution with antimicrobial therapy.
Sarcoidosis is a systemic granulomatous inflammation with an unknown cause. The commonly involved sites are the lymph nodes, lungs, skin, eyes, and heart. Although cardiac involvement in sarcoidosis is rarely detected clinically, it is reported in 20-50% of autopsied sarcoidosis patients.
Cardiac involvement is one of the most severe conditions of sarcoidosis and may cause sudden death. We report a case of a sudden death due to a massive cardiac sarcoidosis in a 43-year-old man. The microscopic examination revealed an extensive noncaseating granulomatous inflammation in the mediastinal lymph nodes and the heart with no evidence of myocyte necrosis. A special stain and molecular study excluded the possibility of other causes such as fungi or mycobacterium. The authors concluded that the cause of death was attributed to arrhythmia due to a cardiac sarcoidosis with massive involvement of the conduction system.
Cardiac myxoma is the most common primary tumor of the heart. The tumor contains a variety of cell types that are thought to arise from a focus of primitive pluripotential mesenchymal cells in the area of the fossa ovalis.
Throughout the myxoid stroma, there are variable amounts of reticular fivers, collagen, elastic fibers and smooth muscle cells. A 38-year-old female had right atrial myxoma with multiple pulmonary infarcts. In this case, we experienced an unusual degenerative change in the tumor of granulomatous lesion consisting of hemosiderin pigments, foreign body giant cells and peculiar, spheroid, semilunar or bamboo-shaped degenerated elastic fibers. Microscopically it resembles Gamna-Gandy nodule seen in the spleen of chronic passive congestion.
This is an autopsy case of a 6 month old girl who suddenly died of respiratory distress during sleep. She had suffered from mild but frequent episodes of common cold and was treated for eczema for several days. At autopsy, the heart was enlarged and weighed 100 gm. A firm and gray-white tumor, measuring 4.5 x 3.8 x 2.8 cm, was located in the interventricular septum and encroached upon the wall of left ventricle. The mass was well demarcated but was not encapsulated. Neither necrosis nor calcification was present. Microscopically the tumor was composed of haphazardly arranged bundles of collagen fibers and fibroblasts. Myocardial cells are intermingled with the fibroblasts at the margin of the tumor. Massive edema of the lung and congestion of the liver and spleen were pronounced.