We present the first case of cerebral splenosis, occurring in a 20-year-old man 15 years after posttraumatic splenectomy. He became symptomatic through seizures and was operated on for suspected meningioma of the right occipital pole. Histologic evaluation of the lesion revealed splenic tissue with matching immunohistochemical results. Because no penetrating head injuries were reported at the time of trauma, a hematogenous spread of splenic tissue has to be assumed.

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Using single-photon emission tomography (SPET), the radiopharmaceutical l-3-iodine-123-alpha-methyl tyrosine (IMT) has been applied to the imaging of amino acid transport into brain tumours. It was the aim of this study to investigate whether IMT SPET is capable of differentiating between high-grade gliomas, low-grade gliomas and non-neoplastic brain lesions. To this end, IMT uptake was determined in 53 patients using the triple-headed SPET camera MULTISPECT 3. Twenty-eight of these subjects suffered from high-grade gliomas (WHO grade III or IV), 12 from low-grade gliomas (WHO grade II), and 13 from non-neoplastic brain lesions, including lesions after effective therapy of a glioma (five cases), infarctions (four cases), inflammatory lesions (three cases) and traumatic haematoma (one case). IMT uptake was significantly higher in high-grade gliomas than in low-grade gliomas and non-neoplastic lesions. IMT uptake by low-grade gliomas was not significantly different from that by non-neoplastic lesions. Diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 71% and 83% for differentiating high-grade from low-grade gliomas, 82% and 100% for distinguishing high-grade gliomas from non-neoplastic lesions, and 50% and 100% for discriminating low-grade gliomas from non-neoplastic lesions. Analogously to positron emission tomography with radioactively labelled amino acids and fluorine-18 deoxyglucose, IMT SPET may aid in differentiating high-grade gliomas from histologically benign brain tumours and non-neoplastic brain lesions; it is of only limited value in differentiating between non-neoplastic lesions and histologically benign brain tumours.

Synovial fluids drawn from joints of patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis were investigated for their concentrations of proteins and activation markers of the complement, coagulation and fibrinolytic systems. A broad spectrum of plasmatic inhibitors and other hemostatic proteins were detectable by immunologic assays. Compared to normal plasma concentration ranges, levels of α₂-antiplasmin, antithrombin III, heparin-cofactor II, factor H, α₂-macroglobulin, inter-α-trypsin inhibitor, fibrinogen and particularly high molecular weight kininogen were found to be decreased when corrected for total protein content. However, highly elevated levels of C-reactive protein, factor XIII, PMN-elastase, prothrombin fragment F₁₊₂ thrombin-antithrombin III, plasmin-antiplas-min and terminal complement-complexes as well as C5a were determined. Eight and 24 hours after induction of chemical synoviorthesis, a general increase in most of the parameters was observed. Statistically significant alterations were found for C1-inhibitor, factor H, α₁-antitrypsin, inter-α-trypsin inhibitor, factor XIII, protein C, thrombin-antithrombin III complexes and C5a.