NEET MDS Lessons
General Pathology
Cryptococcosis
An infection acquired by inhalation of soil contaminated with the encapsulated yeast Cryptococcus neoformans, which may cause a self-limited pulmonary infection or disseminate, especially to the meninges, but sometimes to the skin, bones, viscera, or other sites.
Cryptococcosis is a defining opportunistic infection for AIDS, although patients with Hodgkin's or other lymphomas or sarcoidosis or those receiving long-term corticosteroid therapy are also at increased risk.
AIDS-associated cryptococcal infection may present with severe, progressive pneumonia with acute dyspnea and an x-ray pattern suggestive of Pneumocystis infection.
Primary lesions in the lungs are usually asymptomatic and self-limited
Pneumonia usually causes cough and other nonspecific respiratory symptoms. Rarely, pyelonephritis occurs with renal papillary necrosis development.
Most symptoms of cryptococcal meningitis are attributable to brain swelling and are usually nonspecific, including headache, blurred vision, confusion, depression, agitation, or other behavioral changes. Except for ocular or facial palsies, focal signs are rare until relatively late in the course of infections. Blindness may develop due to brain swelling or direct involvement of the optic tracts. Fever is usually low-grade and frequently absent.
A dermatofibroma is a benign tumor of the dermis, MC located on the lower extremity, where it has a nodular, pigmented appearance.
- composed of benign histiocytes.
Paget Disease (Osteitis Deformans)
This unique bone disease is characterized by repetitive episodes of exaggerated, regional osteoclastic activity (osteolytic stage), followed by exuberant bone formation (mixed osteoclastic-osteoblastic stage), and finally by exhaustion of cellular activity (osteosclerotic stage). The net effect of this process is a gain in bone mass; however, the newly formed bone is disordered and lacks strength. Paget disease usually does not occur until mid-adulthood but becomes progressively more common thereafter. The pathognomonic histologic feature is a mosaic pattern of lamellar bone (likened to a jigsaw puzzle) due to prominent cement lines that haphazardly fuse units of lamellar bone. (Fig. 12-5) The axial skeleton and proximal femur are involved in the majority of cases. In patients with extensive disease, hypervascularity of the marrow spaces can result in high-output congestive heart failure. Cranial nerves impingement also occurs and can lead to head ache and auditory disturbances. Rarely Paget disease is complicated by bone sarcoma (usually osteogenic).
Post viral (post hepatitic) cirrhosis (15-20%)
Cause:- Viral hepatitis (mostly HBV or HCV)
Acute hepatitis → chronic hepatitis → cirrhosis.
Pathology
Liver is shrunken. Fatty change is absent (except with HCV). Cirrhosis is mixed.
M/E :-
Hepatocytes-show degeneration, necrosis as other types of cirrhosis.
Fibrous septa -They are thick and immature (more cellular and vascular).
- Irregular margins (piece meal necrosis).
- Heavy lymphocytic infiltrate.
Prognosis:- - More rapid course than alcoholic cirrhosis.Hepatocellular carcinoma is more liable to occur
Adrenocortical Hyperfunction (Hyperadrenalism)
Hypercortisolism (Cushing Syndrome) is caused by any condition that produces an elevation in glucocorticoid levels. The causes of this syndrome are
A. Exogenous through administration of exogenous glucocorticoids; the most common causeB. Endogenous
1. Hypothalamic-pituitary diseases causing hypersecretion of ACTH (Cushing disease)
2. Adrenocortical hyperplasia or neoplasia
3. Ectopic ACTH secretion by nonendocrine neoplasms (paraneoplastic)
Pathological features
- The main lesions of Cushing syndrome are found in the pituitary and adrenal glands.
- The most common change in the pituitary, results from high levels of endogenous or exogenous glucocorticoids, is termed Crooke hyaline change. In this condition, the normal granular, basophilic cytoplasm of the ACTH-producing cells in the anterior pituitary is replaced by homogeneous, lightly basophilic material. This is due to accumulation of intermediate keratin filaments in the cytoplasm.
- There is one of four changes in the adrenal glands, which depends on the cause.
1. Cortical atrophy
2. Diffuse hyperplasia
3. Nodular hyperplasia
4. Adenoma, rarely a carcinoma
1. In patients in whom the syndrome results from exogenous glucocorticoids, suppression of endogenous ACTH results in bilateral cortical atrophy, due to a lack of stimulation of the cortex by ACTH. In cases of endogenous hypercortisolism, in contrast, the adrenals either are hyperplastic or contain a cortical neoplasm.
2. In Diffuse hyperplasia the adrenal cortex is diffusely thickened and yellow, as a result of an increase in the size and number of lipid-rich cells in the zonae fasciculata and reticularis.
3. Nodular hyperplasia, which takes the form of bilateral, up to 2.0-cm, yellow nodules scattered throughout the cortex.
4. Primary adrenocortical neoplasms causing Cushing syndrome may be benign or malignant. The adrenocortical adenomas are yellow tumors surrounded by capsules, and most weigh < 30 gm .
Acne vulgaris is a chronic inflammatory disorder usually present in the late teenage years characterized by comedones, papules, nodules, and cysts.
- subdivided into obstructive type with closed comedones (whiteheads) and open comedones (blackheads) and the inflammatory type consisting of papules, pustules, nodules, cysts and scars.
- pathogenesis of inflammatory acne relates to blockage of the hair follicle with keratin and sebaceous secretions, which are acted upon by Propionibacterium acnes (anaerobe) that causes the release of irritating fatty acids resulting in an inflammatory response.
- pathogenesis of the obstructive type (comedones) is related to plugging of the outlet of a hair follicle by keratin debris.
- chocolate, shellfish, nuts iodized salt do not aggravate acne.
- obstructive type is best treated with benzoyl peroxide and triretnoin (vitamin A acid)
- treatment of inflammatory type is the above plus antibiotics (topical and/or systemic; erythromycin, tetracycline, clindamycin).
Thalassaemia. Genetic based defect in synthesis of one of the normal chains.
Beta thalassaemia ---> reduced Hb A and increased HbF (α2, Y2) HBA2(α2)
Alpha thalassaemia ---> reduced Hb-A, Hb-A2 and Hb-F-with formation of Hb-H(β4) and Hb Barts (Y4).
Thalassaemia may manifest as trait or disease or with intermediate manifestation.
Features:
• Microcytic hypochromic RBC is in iron deficjency.
• Marked anisopoikilocytsis with prominent target cells.
• Reticulocytosis and nucleated RBC seen.
• Mongoloid facies and X-ray findings characteristic of marrow hyperplasia
• Decreased osmotic. fragility.
• Increased marrow iron (important difference from iron deficiency anaemia).
• Haemosiderosis, especially with repeated transfusions.
Diagnosis is by Hb electrophoresis and by Alkali denaturation test (for HbF).