The clinical, biochemical and pathological features of 31 patients with thyroid carcinoma managed at Hospital Universiti Sains Málaysia, Kubang Kerian from 1985 to 1989 were analyzed. There were 25 females and 6 males. The types of carcinoma were: papillary-17 cases; follicular-10 cases; medullary-2 cases and anaplastic-2 cases. For papillary carcinoma the mean age of the patients was 52.9 years. For follicular carcinoma the mean age was 48.3 years, for medullary carcinoma, 48.5 years and for anaplastic, 74.5 years. All patients had pre-existing goitre except for 2 and most presented with advanced disease. The mean duration of symptoms for papillary carcinoma was 3.7 years, follicular carcinoma 1.6 years, medullary carcinoma 13.5 years and anaplastic carcinoma 6 months. 12 patients presented with goitre of increasing size; 9 had compression symptoms; 4 presented with cervical lymph node enlargement and 6 presented with bony pains of whom 2 had paraplegia. None of the patients were ever thyrotoxic or hypothyroid. Treatment in general was unsatisfactory because of patients' non-acceptance of surgery and/or radioactive iodine.
A case of an adenoid cystic carcinoma of the minor salivary glands of then nasal cavity is reported. The tumour had spread locally and by perineural spread to the internal auditory mentus, causing facial nerve palsy.
Three patients presenting with distinct clinical variants of porokeratosis are reported. This article discusses the etiology, classification and response to different modalities of treatment.
A 37 year old female who presented with a history of foreign body ingestion ten months previously was found on examination to have a retropharyngeal swelling. An initial differential of foreign body granuloma or retropharyngeal tuberculous abscess was considered. The usefulness of the lateral neck radiograph in demonstrating retropharyngeal pathology and the supplementary role of the computed tomography scan in confirming and elucidating the identity of the radio-opacity is highlighted. This presentation is a timely reminder of the need for a simple inexpensive lateral neck radiograph in situations of doubt as to persisting foreign body impaction.
One hundred and six prostatic tissue samples obtained from transurethral resection were analysed for androgen and estrogen receptors. In 62 of these, progesterone and glucocorticoid receptors were also assayed. Steroid receptors were assayed using single saturation dose 3H-labelled ligand assays. Ninety percent of the 97 prostatic hyperplasia tissues and six of the nine prostatic carcinoma tissues were positive for androgen receptors. Estrogen receptors were only present in 19% and 33% respectively. Progesterone receptors were present in 70% of the tissues, but glucocorticoid receptors were present in only 16% of prostatic hyperplasia and none in prostatic carcinoma.
Between 1980-1986, 219 renal biopsies were performed on patients with lupus nephritis (LN) presenting at the General Hospital, Kuala Lumpur. There were 172 (78.5%) females and 47 (21.5%) males. The ethnic distribution of 48.4% Malays, 46.1% Chinese and 5.5% Indians reflected their proportional composition in the general population. Peak incidence (40.6%) of cases occurred in the third decade of life (20-29 group) followed by 26.5% and 20.1% in the second and fourth decades respectively. The median age was 24 for females and 27 for males. In both sexes, nephrotic syndrome was the commonest mode of presentation (62.2%) followed by proteinuria (20.5%). Acute oliguric renal failure occurred in 11 patients (5%) and 8 of these showed crescentic glomerulonephritis with more than 50% crescents. The commonest histological picture was diffuse proliferative LN (WHO Stage IV-44.7%) which included 70% (19/27) of those with crescentic disease. This was followed by membranous LN (28.8%) of which 6 (all males) had crescentic disease. 7 (12.3%) of our patients had crescentic nephritis with a female to male distribution of 14: 13, suggesting either more aggressive disease or delayed diagnosis in males.
Key words - Renal biopsies, lupus nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, proteinuria.
Retrograde ureteroscopy, using the 12.5 French Storsz Perez-Castro Ellendt operating ureteroscope provides excellent visual access to the whole of the ureteric lumen in most instances. A total of 41 ureteroscopies were performed on a similar number of patients over a period of 12 months since April 1986. Majority of them were for ureteric calculi. Success rate for patients with ureteric calculi below the pelvic brim was 77.4%. A lower success was noted for calculi above the pelvic brim (50%). Retrograde ureteroscopy will eventually make blind basketing of lower ureteric stones an unnecessarily risky procedure and perhaps even obsolete. Ureterolithotomy nevertheless will still have a place in the management of stones that cannot be extracted either due to acute bullous oedema of the ureteric mucosa or in previously explored rigid non-yielding ureters not suitable for ureteroscopy.
Thirty-four patients with intracranial arteriovenous malformations seen in the University Hospital, Kuala Lumpur, over a is-year period were reviewed. A VM was found to be more common in young, male patients with preponderance Chinese origin. The advent of the Cl-scan has increased the detection of small A VMs and intracerebral haematomas proportionally. The majority of the lesions were situated in the posterior half of the brain unlike the distributions in patients in the West and in Singapore. On the other hand, most of the intracranial bleeding were subarachnoid haemorrhage; a presentation similar to the western community, but unlike that reported from Singapore. The treatment policy is not unlike the western community with good results in 82% of patients selected for surgery.