Caviar appendix

In a rare usually non life-threatening condition myxoglobulosis of the appendix, multiple small spherical mucin globules develop in the appendix's lumen. These pearl colored globules resemble caviar in look - caviar appendix. Most people with appendiceal myxoglobulosis have no symptoms. Discovery of the condition is often incidental during surgery or at postmortem. The cause of this condition is currently unknown.

The appendix is a blind ending tubular protrusion from the main alimentary tract. It can act as a store of healthy bacteria which re-populates the gut when diarrhea, for instance, distorts the balance of healthy micro-organisms within the main gut. It is also packed with many immune cells which assists with immune responses.

Reference:

Gosavi MS. Myxoglobulosis Of The Appendix: A Rare Cause Of Pelvic Pain. Current Educational Research. 2018 1(03). Go to reference

Caviar appendix, caviar

Image from Gosavi. Current Educational Research, 2018

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Herringbone pattern

Under the light microscope in classic cases of the soft tissue cancerous tumor fibrosarcoma, the cells are arranged like the way the branching spines of a herring skeleton are arranged – herringbone architecture.

An architecture in which a column of cells resembling one herring skeleton is oriented one way and another separate cell column again resembling the skeleton is disposed in a different direction. Under the microscope there can be several such columns.

Fibrosarcoma is a rare cancer typically afflicting adults and can be treated with surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. The soft tissues are those which support, connect or surround the body’s other structures.

Reference:

Folpe AL. Fibrosarcoma: a review and update. Histopathology. 2014 64(1):12-25. Go to reference

Herring, sarcoma

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Word salad

Word salad for instance, “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously”, where phrases are grammatically correct but have no known meaning is a feature of mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and dementia. Word salad is so named to highlight the apparently random mixture of words that resembles the random mixture of vegetables, fruits, meats, etc. in a salad - word salad.

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder that is difficult to define and describe, however some of its features include delusions, hallucinations and interference with speech and thinking which lead to significant social and occupational dysfunction. Delusions are fixed false firm beliefs unaltered by evidence to the contrary e.g. that everyone in the world is watching one; a hallucination is perception without a stimulus e.g. hearing voices of dead people giving one instructions; interference with speech and thinking e.g. word salad.

Dementia is not a single disease but a state characterized by overall impairment of intellect, memory and personality without loss of conscious that can be caused for example by infection, trauma, toxins, cancer, and so on.

Noam Chomsky (born 1928) an American intellectual originated the above quoted sentence for illustrative purposes.

Reference:

Portnoff LA. Schizophrenia and semantic aphasia: a clinical comparison. Int J Neuroscience, 1982 16(3-4):189-97. Go to reference

Salad

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Anchovy paste

Entamoeba histolytica is a single-celled organism, spread predominantly by ingestion of material contaminated with human feces tainted by this creature. Infection may lead to the formation of liver abscess(es) which contain a soft yellow-brown substance resembling anchovy paste.

Reference:

Pritt BS, Clark CG: Amebiasis. Mayo Clin Proc, 2008 83(10):1154-9. Go to reference

Entamoeba histolytica life cycle

Image from Wikimedia Commons