case 17
DESCRIPTION
Diagnostic Challenge Pathology for Neurosurgery & Neurology Residents Department of Pathology University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK, U.S.A. Case 17 - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Diagnostic ChallengePathology for Neurosurgery & Neurology
ResidentsDepartment of Pathology
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center,Oklahoma City, OK, U.S.A.
Case 17
History: A 12 year-old girl presented with a pineal mass and mild hydrocephalus. Other than headache, the patient does not have fever or other constitutional symptoms and the patient is immunocompetent. The followings are representative images.
Contributor: Kar-Ming Fung, M.D., Ph.D., [email protected] Last updated: 3/9/2009
Cytologic Preparation Cytologic Preparation
Frozen Section Frozen Section
Paraffin Section Paraffin Section
CD68 (macrophages) CD3 (T-cells)
CD117 (c-kit) Placental alkaline phosphatase (PLAP)
What is your diagnosis?
Diagnosis: Pineal germinoma with extensive granulomatous changes.Discussion: • In contrast to Case 16, this cases is very challenging.• First, there are many macrophages (arrow) in the frozen
section cytologic preparation. Very few lymphocytes are present and there is no definitive large, atypical cells characteristic for germinomas.
• Second, the substantial amount of tissue is composed of granuloma as illustrated below (white arrows on the left, high magnification on the right).
CD117 PLAP
• On detailed high magnification examination of the submitted tissue, scant large atypical cells (arrows) are present within the granulomatous inflammatory tissue. Typically, biopsy specimen obtained by endoscopic biopsy from the pineal is minute and with crush artifacts. These artifacts are quite unavoidable but they make interpretation difficult.
• Immunohistochemistry demonstrated positive reactivity for both CD117 and PLAP. CD117 is usually more sensitive but it is not as specific for the diagnosis as PLAP or OCT 4, another antibody that could recognizes germinoma cells.
• The granulomatous reaction highly suggest infection. However, the clinical information is very helpful. It is hard to believe that an immunocompetent child of this age with an ongoing infection in the brain and without constitutional symptoms. In the end, one must recognize that germinoma, regardless their location, are prone to develop a variable amount of granulomatous changes. A small biopsy that contains mostly granulomatous changes can be mistaken as infectious rather than neoplastic. The consequence of this mistake can be serious.