Epithelial-myoepithelial carcinoma of the palate

A case of epithelial-myoepithelial carcinoma (EMC) of the palate in a 72-year-old Japanese man is described. The patient had noticed swelling of the palate commencing about 20 years previously. Histologically, the tumor consisted of a proliferation of double-layered duct-like structures with two distinctive cell types. The inner layer was composed of eosinophilic epithelial cells, while the outer layer was composed of clear cells. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that reaction products for total keratin were predominantly found in the cytoplasm of the inner epithelial cells, while those for S-100 protein and smooth muscle actin were observed only in the outer cells. Immunoreactive products for secretory component and lysozyme were found in some of the luminal contents and the inner cells of the tumor nests. These findings indicated this tumor to be an EMC of the palate, which had shown no aggressiveness over a twenty-year period prior to surgical excision.

Prospective study on maternal, intrauterine, and perinatal infections with cytomegalovirus in Japan during 1976-1990

Since 1976, sera obtained serially from 10,218 pregnant women during the first, second, and third trimesters of gestation and cord sera were tested for CMV complement-fixing (CF) and immunofluorescent (IF) antibodies. CMV IgG-IF antibody was positive in 9,735/10,218 (95%) in the first trimester, and a significant rise of CF antibodies during pregnancy was found in 70/9,206 (0.76%) of the seropositive group and in 5/438 (1.14%) of the seronegative group. IgM antibody was found in 6/9,206 (0.06%) of seropositive women during the first trimester and in 7/70 (10.0%) of seropositive mothers with CF antibody rise and in 4/5 of seroconverted mothers of the seronegative group, suggesting that the incidence of primary infection with CMV during pregnancy was approximately 1% of susceptible women. All the mothers with immune response had infants with neither viruria nor IgM antibody in the cord blood, whereas seropositive mothers without an immune response had infants with viruria (7/1,826; 0.4%) or with IgM antibody in the cord blood (6/9,136; 0.06%). None of these 13 babies, shedding CMV or with IgM IF antibody, had physical or mental retardation. CMV IgG-IF antibody was present in almost 80% of infants between 7 and 12 months of age in 1988, suggesting that perinatal or postnatal CMV infection may occur in infants born to seropositive mothers in 70-80% of pregnancies.