Abscesses in the gastric wall are extremely rare. As the mucosa remains intact in most cases, clear differential diagnosis is required in order to distinguish the condition from the more frequent intramural mesenchymal tumors. Endoscopic ultrasonography provides a valuable tool for imaging intramural tumors, but this approach does not allow a definitive assessment of malignancy. We report about two patients with intramural abscesses in the gastric wall. Endosonography showing eccentric tumors from the gastric wall in the two patients. The endosonographic image was inhomogenous, the wall layer structure of the gastric wall was not preserved. A laparotomy was carried out on the first patient. In the second case, the diagnosis was easy, as pus was emptying from a small opening in the mucosa, which had already been detected at gastroscopy. Endoscopic intervention was carried out based on the endosonographic findings. In one patient, mucosa and submucosa were opened by a needle knife. These cases show that gastric wall abscesses do not have a typical endoscopic ultrasound appearance. However, endosonography is an essential method prior to endoscopic interventional therapy.
We investigated the implications of early maturation in a central Ontario population of pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus) by comparing the growth trajectory, body condition, lipid to body weight ratio and past growth history of mature and immature females through the 1992 growing season. Pumpkinseeds were sampled from Beloporine Lake from May 28 to July 24 and on November 20, just prior to freeze‐up of the lake. Prior growth history and length at age were determined by backcalculation from scale annuli. Nearly all females age 3 and older had matured in 1992, so we focused on age 2 females (22% mature). Females that matured at age 2 were significantly larger at the end of their first year of life than those that did not mature at age 2, although there was no significant difference between groups in the prior year's growth rate. The mature age 2 females were significantly larger than immatures, at the beginning and end of their third growing season, but not during the June 2 ‐ July 19 breeding season. The condition factor of mature females was higher than that of immature females on all but one collection date. However, the mean somatic lipid‐to‐body weight ratio was higher in immature females on all sample dates and significantly higher over the grwing season. We conclude that the costs of early maturation include lack of length and weight gain during the breeding season, and loss of stored lipid. The latter may be associated with increased overwinter mortality.
Gastric cysts are a rare disease and their diagnostic work-up often produces inconclusive results. We report on four gastric stromal tumors, in part huge, with cystic degeneration where the diagnosis and organ of origin remained unclear until operation. Considering these tumors as examples we discuss means and limits of differential diagnosis, taking into account further diseases with cystic formations in the gastric wall, such as other soft tissue tumors, pancreatic pseudocysts and gastric duplication cysts. In conclusion, every cystic tumor in the upper abdomen for which a diagnosis and origin cannot be established should be explored by surgery.
Malignant fibrous histiocytoma (MFH), arising in combination with a sacral chordoma in a 70-year-old men, is described. Intermediate spindle-shaped cells demonstrating keratin positivity, showed a gradual transition between the areas of conventional chordoma, and the spindle cell areas, lending credence to the theory of a multipotential neoplasm. We chose the descriptive term "chordoma with malignant spindle cell component" in the sense that high malignant sarcomatous components exists in conjunction with chordomas in the primary tumor and the local recurrence. A review of literature is undertaken chronicling the documented associations of chordoma and sarcoma, followed by a discussion of the various causes proposed to explain this phenomenon.
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