In a survey of 36 histologically normal rectal biopsies, plasma cell counts were recorded at different depths of the lamina propria. The necessity of surveying the lamina propria at every level from the muscularis mucosae to the epithelium, in order to obtain an accurate estimate of plasma cell frequency is demonstrated. The relative accuracy of counting smaller areas of lamina propria is teste...

Experiments performed on endoscopic biopsy specimens show that when they are curved, as they often are, the inner surface of the mucosa is contracted and the outer surface is expanded. When estimating G cell numbers per unit length of mucosa from such biopsy specimens, artefacts produced by variations in shape are minimised by relating the number of G cells to the mean of the length of the musc...

Colorectal adenomas may be either protruding type or superficial type lesions. To delineate the clinicopathological characteristics of the latter, 153 superficial type adenomas (including the surrounding mucosa) obtained by endoscopic resection were studied morphologically. Superficial type adenomas were defined as flat or flat depressed adenomas with a height of </=3 mm; histologically, the tu...

Cavernous hemangiomas of the gastrointestinal tract are quite rare and, until now, have been difficult to diagnose preoperatively due their nonspecific presentations and imaging features, as well as a lack of histologic description pertaining to small superficial biopsies such as those obtained endoscopically. We report a unique case of a 4 cm transmural cavernous hemangioma in the terminal ile...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Myofibroblast hyperplasia contributes to muscularis mucosae thickening and stricture formation in Crohn's disease (CD). Protease-activated receptor-2 (PAR-2) and cytosolic phospholipase A(2) (cPLA(2)) are known regulators of cell growth, but their significance in intestinal myofibroblast proliferation remain to be elucidated. The principle aims of the present study were to i...

Superficial lesion with central depression obtained by endoscopic resection (23 carcinomas limited in the mucosa and 40 adenomas) were studied morphologically and histologically. These lesions were calculated concerning the height from the muscularis mucosa, depth of depressed central portions and the height of circumferential mucosa. Then, using the image analyzer, followings were determined w...

Esophageal leiomyomas (ELMs) are rare but described in the literature. They are usually benign and do not require resection unless they are large and symptomatic. Most of such masses arise from the muscularis mucosa. It is very uncommon to find epithelial dysplasia overlying a subepithelial leiomyoma. A review of the literature reveals only one prior case of ELM with an overlying epithelia dysp...