Sanshin Hara

Prostatic caruncle: a urethral papillary tumor derived from prolapse of the prostatic duct.

Tiny papillary tumors of the prostatic urethra in and around the verumontanum were demonstrated by urethroscopy in 21 patients who presented with hematuria. Histopathologic study revealed evagination of prostatic glands with polypoid, papillary and angiectatic patterns in varying degrees. We suggest that these lesions may be called prostatic caruncles because of their close similarity to female urethral caruncles. The mild inflammatory changes noted in our patients were considered secondary reactions to the local circulatory disturbance and erosion.

The Value of Transrectal Ultrasonography in Preoperative Assessment for Transurethral Prostatectomy

Transrectal ultrasonography was done in 19 healthy men and 236 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia to elucidate the pathomorphology of the prostate and to determine preoperative prostatic size in patients who underwent transurethral prostatectomy. We found that the ultrasonographic examination allowed for an accurate estimation of the prostatic weight and a good assessment of the completeness of resection of the prostatic adenoma.

Intratumoral Heterogeneity in DNA Ploidy of Bladder Carcinomas

In order to investigate whether DNA ploidy in a single area of a tumor could be representative of the entire tumor, flow-cytometric DNA analysis was performed for multiple samples (an average of 7 samples) obtained from the same tumor in 9 cases of transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder. The incidence of DNA aneuploidy was 88.9% (8 out of 9 cases) and, furthermore, in 7 of these, intratumoral regional heterogeneity in DNA ploidy was evident. With high frequency, bladder carcinoma consisted of heterogeneous cell populations with different ploidy. There were 2 cases in which the tumor consisted of mixed subpopulations of diploid and aneuploid clones which were located in different parts of the same tumor. In such cases, an aneuploid line could not have been detected in a single specimen from the tumors.

LEIOMYOSARCOMA OF THE SPERMATIC CORD: A Case Report and a Brief Review of Literature

A case of leiomyosarcoma of the spermatic cord, occurring in a 79‐year‐old male patient, is reported. The tumor was resected with high inguinal ligation and orchiectomy. It was located at the scrotal part of the spermatic cord on the left side and was shown to have originated from the spermatic duct using the dissecting method. Histologlcally, it was identical to leiomyosarcoma showing a typical morphological appearance of smooth muscle cell tumor in the conventional histochemical preparations as well as a focal positive reaction to antidesmin antibody, a marked nuclear pleomorphism, and abundant mitotic figures. The patient had been untroubled for six months after the resection of the tumor. Leiomyosarcoma arising in spermatic cord is quite rare.