1/6. Ano-genital granulomatosis: the counterpart of oro-facial granulomatosis.Ano-genital granulomatosis encompasses the previously recognized clinical entities of vulvitis granulomatosa, posthitis granulomatosa, and ano-perineitis granulomatosa. We report three patients with ano-genital granulomatosis. The pathological features of the disease are lymphoedema and the presence of non-caseating giant cell granulomas. These granulomas are histologically indistinguishable from those found in both Crohn's disease and sarcoidosis, therefore, patients with ano-genital granulomatosis with accompanying gastro-intestinal or pulmonary symptoms should be investigated for the presence of Crohn's disease or sarcoidosis, respectively. The value of ano-genital granulomatosis as a unifying clinicopathologic concept is to provide a label for the affliction as well as to stimulate a careful search for possibly underlying systemic disorders, thus also permitting a more specific approach to therapy.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = giant (Clic here for more details about this article) |
2/6. Localized asymptomatic giant cell arteritis of the female genital tract.Three postmenopausal patients with giant cell arteritis involving the female genital tract are presented. None of these patients had a prior history of vasculitis. The giant cell arteritis was confined to the myometrium in one patient, involved the cervix and myometrium in another, and involved all the internal genital organs in the third patient. Based on follow-up of our patients and analysis of similar cases in the literature, we conclude that asymptomatic patients may best be managed by close follow-up and monitoring of erythrocyte sedimentation rate levels, but that treatment may be unnecessary.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 6keywords = giant (Clic here for more details about this article) |
3/6. giant cell arteritis of the female genital tract. A report of three cases.Three cases of giant cell arteritis involving the female genital tract of postmenopausal women are reported. The patients were 80, 64, and 57 years of age and presented with fatigue and anemia, fatigue and an abdominal mass, and fever and weight loss, respectively. Two of the patients had palpable pelvic masses; one had an ovarian mass visible on ultrasound examination. All three patients were anemic, and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate was elevated in the two women in whom it was tested. Exploratory laparotomy revealed ovarian tumors in two patients; one had a mucinous cystadenoma, and one had bilateral ovarian fibromas. The third patient had a cyst of the rete ovarii. Extensive giant cell arteritis of the small to medium-sized arteries was found unexpectedly in the ovaries and fallopian tubes of two patients who had prior hysterectomies and in the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and uterus of one patient. One patient was treated postoperatively with prednisone with improvement of symptoms and a decrease in the erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Of the two patients who received no therapy, one was found to have a thoracic aortic aneurysm 5 years postoperatively, and the other was alive without symptoms 17 years after the operation. giant cell arteritis of the female genital tract is a rare finding in elderly women and may occur as an isolated finding or as part of generalized giant cell arteritis.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 3keywords = giant (Clic here for more details about this article) |
4/6. giant cell arteritis of the female genital tract.In a patient who had a hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy for endometrial adenocarcinoma, a giant cell arteritis was found in many of the myometrial and tubal vessels and in a few of the small arteries of the cervix and ovaries. On subsequent questioning, a history of treatment for polymyalgia rheumatica during the preceding 12 months was elicited. Of the three previously reported patients with giant cell arteritis of the uterus, two were suffering from polymyalgia rheumatica whilst one possibly had disseminated visceral giant cell arteritis.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 3keywords = giant (Clic here for more details about this article) |
5/6. Isolated vasculitis involving the female genital tract: clinicopathologic spectrum and phenotyping of inflammatory cells.Isolated vasculitis involving the female genital tract (IVF) is rare. Although both giant cell arteritis (GCA) and polyarteritis nodosa (PAN) types of involvement have been documented, several clinicopathologic features of IVF are not clearly understood. We wish to report two cases of IVF (one GCA and one PAN) and compare them with previously reported cases. Including our two cases, we found a total of 33 reported cases of IVF, which included 18 GCA and 15 PAN. In cases of GCA, all parts of the female genital tract were involved with roughly comparable frequency, whereas in the case of PAN, the cervix is uniformly involved, with the vulva and myometrium being affected once and twice, respectively. In all cases of GCA and most cases of PAN, the vasculitis represented an incidental finding upon microscopic examination of the female genital tract removed for unrelated problems; however, in one case of PAN, vaginal bleeding probably related to vasculitis-induced cervical ulcer was reported. In either category, no clearcut pattern of predisposing factors was identified and, at the time of diagnosis, none of the patients had any diseases known to be associated with vasculitis, such as connective tissue disease, rheumatoid arthritis, or drug hypersensitivity. Although antineutrophilic cytoplasmic antibodies were recently described as sensitive and specific markers for systemic vasculitis, tests for these antibodies were not done on previously reported cases and were negative for both current cases. Long-term follow-up in IVF indicates that even without any specific treatment for vasculitis, systemic involvement did not occur.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = giant (Clic here for more details about this article) |
6/6. Giant-cell arteritis of the female genital tract.A 56-year-old woman with long-lasting fever of unknown origin was diagnosed as having a giant-cell arteritis of the genital tract with no evidence of temporal arteritis. diagnosis relied on pathological examination, which showed a segmental panarteritis of ovaries, myometrium, endometrium and uterus cervix. Corticosteroid therapy led to clinical cure within a few weeks. Twenty-five cases of giant-cell arteritis of the female genital tract have been published of which only four were associated with temporal arteritis. We recommend that such a diagnosis should be considered in women presenting with long-lasting fever of unknown origin, even in the absence of temporal arteritis and the clinical evidence of genital abnormalities.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 2keywords = giant (Clic here for more details about this article) |