Synthetische Cannabinoide

In recent years a flood of new psychoactive substances offered as “legal highs” appeared on the drugs market worldwide. In some parts of the world amphetamine-type stimulants are predominant but in Germany synthetic cannabinoids represent the bigger problem. The high dynamics which are maintained by the “cat and mouse game” of scheduling substances and the producers circumventing the regulations by adding new, chemically modified substances, poses a great challenge for both forensic science and toxicology.     

Endokrinologie der humanen Plazenta

The placenta, a fetal organ at the feto-maternal interface, produces an amazing array of hormones, known to be produced in fact only in the hypothalamus or pituitary gland. Its special anatomy and its functional role as a barrier between fetal and maternal blood circulations enable a selective action of placental hormones either on the mother or the developing fetus. Knowledge concerning placental hormones has increased over the past decades, but some questions still remain. One of these questions is the relevance of hormone substitution in case of a placental insufficiency, as is usually done for other endocrine organs.     

Mesotheliale Proliferate bei Rektumkarzinom

In an epiphrenic lymph node of a 55 years old female patient who underwent surgical resection of a rectal adenocarcinoma epitheloid proliferations with papillary and solid growth pattern were seen additional to a metastasis of the carcinoma. Adjacent vessels contained similar infiltrates. Immunohistochemically a co-expression of pan-keratin, calretinin and WT1 was seen, suggestive for a diagnosis of a metastasis of a malignant mesothelioma. However, radiologic examination yielded no morphologic correlate to this suspicion. Further immunohistochemical work-up showed positivity for desmin, negativity for EMA, GLUT1, p53 and a low ki67-fraction of 2–3?%. Therefore, a final diagnosis of benign mesothelial proliferations disseminated into the lymph node and the adjacent vessels was made.