Yousuf Husen

Calcifying fibrous pseudotumor in association with hyaline vascular type castleman's disease.

Calcifying fibrous pseudotumor is a recently described rare entity. It is considered as sclerosing end stage of inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor. An association with hyaline vascular type Castlemans disease has also been described. We report a case of a 13-year-old boy who presented with pain in epigastrium. Computed tomography scan of abdomen revealed a circumscribed mass arising from the gastric wall along the greater curvature. Histology revealed a tumor composed of spindle cells present within the dense hyalinized collagenous tissue. Lymphoplasmacytic infiltrate was seen along with lymphoid follicles, dystrophic and ossifying calcification. Tumor cells were focally positive for alpha smooth muscle actin and negative for anaplastic lymphoma kinase protein.

Impact of bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccination on neuroradiological manifestations of pediatric tuberculous meningitis.

The authors conducted this study to identify whether bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination leads to an altered spectrum of neuroimaging findings outcome in pediatric patients with tuberculous meningitis. This retrospective study was conducted through chart review and review of computed tomography (CT) scans and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of patients with confirmed central nervous system tuberculosis from the year 1992 to 2005, at a large tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. A total of 108 pediatric patients with tuberculous meningitis were included in the analysis. Of the 108 patients, 63 (58.3%) were male and 45 (41.7%) had received bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccination. There was no difference in terms of severity of clinical presentation and outcome between vaccinated and unvaccinated group. There were no significant differences in CT or MRI findings between the 2 groups except for tuberculomas on MRI, which were significantly higher in the non—bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccinated group (52.2% vs 22.7%, P = .042). Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccination appears to translate into less tuberculoma formation on MRI.

Squamous cell carcinoma of tongue in an 11-year-old girl.

We report the case of an 11-year-old girl with squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue. This is a very rare disease in children with only a few cases reported in the literature. There is a great need to create awareness of the harmful and potentially lethal effects of chewing paan and betel nut not only in adults but also in children. Pediatricians and family physicians should also be aware of the possibility of this disease entity occurring at an earlier age so as to decrease delay in diagnosis and initiation of treatment.