INTRODUCTION:Transfusion transmitted infections (TTIs) can cause threat to bloody safety as blood transfusion is an important mode of transmission of TTI to the recipient, hence, to prevent transmission of these diseases, screening tests on blood bags is an important step for blood safety.AIM:This study was undertaken with the aim of determining the seroprevalence of TTI in healthy blood donors in a tertiary care blood bank.MATERIALS AND METHODS:A retrospective study was carried out over a period of 5 years from January 2007 to December 2011. Serum samples were screened for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), antibodies to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) Type 1 and 2, hepatitis c virus (HCV) and syphilis using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays with the third generation kits and venereal disease research laboratory test, respectively.RESULTS:A total of 76,653 healthy donors were included out of which majority of donors were male (91.79%). The overall seroprevalence of HIV, HBsAg, HCV, and syphilis were 0.26%, 1.30%, 0.25%, and 0.28%, respectively.CONCLUSION:Methods to ensure a safety blood supply should be encouraged. For that, screening with a better selection of donors and use of sensitive screening tests including nucleic acid testing technology should be implemented.

Primary salivary gland-type tumors of the lung and airways being unusual, they pose a diagnostic challenge on small biopsies and are usually consigned as non-small cell lung carcinomas. Since the clinical behavior of these tumors is different from the conventional lung tumors, it is important to accurately diagnose them. Among this category of tumors, adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) of the lungs and airways is exceedingly rare. Few large studies and maximum case reports have been reported in literature on ACC of the lungs and trachea so far. We herein report a rare case of primary ACC of the trachea diagnosed on bronchoscopic biopsy.

Background: India accounts for the highest number of TB cases globally (almost one-fifth of the global burden and almost two-thirds of the cases in South East Asia. Furthermore, the development of drug resistance of varying levels such as multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB), extensively-drug resistance TB (XDR-TB) and total-drug resistant TB (TDR-TB) has been on the increase, and now India also features in the 27 high-MDRTB-burden countries. Almost parallel to these developments, in the last few years, we have been encountering less common morphological forms of pulmonary TB (PTB) at autopsies. With these less common manifestations of the disease, we undertook this study to examine the changing trends in the morphological pattern of pulmonary TB over the recent years. Methods: In this 3-year retrospective study, adult autopsy cases of PTB (that significantly contributed to the final cause of death) were studied in detail. HIV-positive cases were excluded from the study. The clinical details, gross appearances of the pulmonary lesions, microscopic pattern and Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) staining were studied. Extrapulmonary involvement and causes of death were documented. Results: Pulmonary tuberculosis as a cause of death at autopsy was seen in 130 adult patients over 3 years. The age range was between 12 to 70 years. Anti-tuberculous therapy had been administered in 33 of them, but only one patient had taken complete therapy. Dyspnea was the commonest respiratory symptom seen in 51 cases (39.2%). Tuberculous bronchopneumonia was the commonest lesion (45.3%), miliary lesions (including localized miliary) accounted for 26% while fibrocavitary lesions (including the ones not involving apex) were seen in 13% cases. Other morphologies included nodular forms of TB (13%), localized miliary lesions (11.9%), and fibrocavitary lesions, not necessarily involving the apex (11.7% of all fibrocavitary cases), and predominant pleuritis with underlying lung involvement by TB in 1 case. Many cases of TB bronchopneumonia had a bronchocentric pattern of distribution (14.7%). On microscopy, caseating granulomas were seen in 93% cases, only caseation necrosis was seen in 4.6% cases, and necrotizing granulomas with abscess-like reaction in 11.5% cases. ZN staining was positive in 92 cases (70.7%). All the extrapulmonary lesions showed caseating granulomas histologically. The final cause of death was found to be primarily tuberculous in 106 cases (81.5%), whereas in 24 cases (19.5%) pulmonary TB was attributed to the secondary cause of death. Conclusion: The typical apical involvement of secondary TB was not seen in most of our cases. This could indicate a difference in the morphology and the pattern of lung involvement in recent years. The difference in gross morphology does not affect the pattern of involvement of the lung. In our study, we have observed both; a change in morphology, i.e., more cases of TB bronchopneumonia, and a change in the pattern of involvement like nodular forms, localized miliary forms, and fibrocavitary lesions not nece...

Context: In this autopsy study, the various morphological patterns of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) have been analyzed and compared along with their etiopathogenesis. Aims: We aimed to study the prevalence and clinicopathological correlation of ARDS based on age, gender, hospital stay, symptoms, clinical diagnosis, gross, and microscopy findings. Subjects and Methods: Total 130 cases of ARDS were studied over a period of 5 years. Age, gender, hospital stay duration, symptoms, clinical diagnosis, gross and microscopic lung finding, clinicopathological correlation, and cause of death were documented and analyzed. Special stains were done whenever required. Statistical Analysis: This is an observational study, and simple statistics such as mean, median, and standard deviation have been used for continuous variables. Results: The prevalence of ARDS among the adult autopsy was 6.05%. Majority of the cases were in the age group of 18–30 years (36.9%), with a male: female ratio of 1.7:1. Chief complaints were fever (71%), breathlessness (54.6%), and chills (43.8%). The main clinical diagnoses were ARDS (41.6%), sepsis (28.3%), acute febrile illness (17%), and lower respiratory tract infection (12.5%). Most of the patients had a hospital stay of <1 day. Associated conditions mostly included chronic alcoholism (16.1%), pregnancy (16.1%), and chronic smoking (10.7%). Major findings on gross examination were intrapulmonary hemorrhage (38.5%), ARDS (33%), pulmonary edema (13%), and pneumonia (15.3%). On microscopy, major findings were hyaline membrane (84.6%), intrapulmonary hemorrhage (76.1%), pulmonary edema (75.3%), organizing fibrin (55.3%), and bronchopneumonia (36.2%). Conclusion: Infections were one of the major predisposing causes of ARDS. Due to the short interval, the underlying cause for ARDS often goes undiagnosed.

Extragonadal germ cell tumors are rare and comprise 2-5% of all germ cell tumors. Seminoma/dysgerminoma, teratoma, yolk sac tumor (YST) and mixed germ cell tumors are few of the extragonadal germ cell tumors arising within the brain. Of these, primary pure YSTs arising in the brain are extremely rare and arise in the pineal (62%) and suprasellar (31%) regions. Primary YST occurring in the cerebellum is exceedingly rare, associated with a very poor prognosis and has been reported in less than 10 cases in literature. We herein report a case of primary pure yolk sac tumor in the cerebellar vermis in a 2-year-old child.

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Pulmonary ossification is a rare phenomenon which has been observed in the lungs of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pulmonary fibrosis, and tuberculosis. It has also been observed as a part of aging process. Approximately 130 cases of pulmonary ossification have been reported in literature so far. We report here an unusual autopsy case of bone and bone marrow metaplasia in the bronchial wall and discuss theories related to the development of metaplastic ossification.