Faculty Bibliography

There are many etiologies for respiratory distress in newborns, one of the rare causes being nasopharyngeal tumors. Of that category, salivary gland anlage tumor (SGAT) is exceedingly rare. Symptoms of SGAT vary by patient, but the most common presenting symptom is respiratory distress. The rarity of SGAT and infantile nasopharyngeal tumors in general can lead to delayed diagnosis in newborns with respiratory distress. We report an unexpected and incidental finding of this potentially life-threatening condition in the neonatal population. A preterm male infant with respiratory distress, who was undergoing a neurological workup for new hypotonia, was found to have an incidental nasopharyngeal mass after brain MRI. Upon eventual minimally invasive endoscopic surgical excision and pathologic workup for the mass, the patient was diagnosed with SGAT. The patient has since been with outpatient follow-up visits with no evidence of recurrence of the mass. The purpose of this report is to present a rare and often overlooked life-threatening diagnosis of respiratory distress in the neonatal population.

We present a case of a vein of Galen aneurysmal malformation (VGAM), a rare congenital arteriovenous malformation, in one fetus of a monochorionic-diamniotic twin pregnancy. The diagnosis was made with color Doppler ultrasonography at 28 weeks and the affected fetus was found to have worsening cardiomegaly on subsequent fetal echocardiograms. She was emergently delivered at 32 weeks for abnormal fetal heart rate tracing of the affected twin. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain findings after delivery demonstrated severe neurological injury; therefore, postnatal embolization was not performed. The neonate died on day of life 9. The cotwin survived without neurological complications. This is the first case in the literature of a VGAM diagnosed prenatally in a monochorionic-diamniotic twin pregnancy and demonstrates the challenge of delivery timing with prenatal diagnosis in a twin pregnancy.

BACKGROUND:Mitral valve (MV) elongation is a primary hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) phenotype and contributes to obstruction. The residual MV leaflet that protrudes past the coaptation point is especially susceptible to flow-drag and systolic anterior motion. Histopathological features of MVs in obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (OHCM), and of residual leaflets specifically, are unknown. OBJECTIVES/OBJECTIVE:The purpose of this study was to characterize gross, structural, and cellular histopathologic features of MV residual leaflets in OHCM. On a cellular-level, we assessed for developmental dysregulation of epicardium-derived cell (EPDC) differentiation, adaptive endocardial-to-mesenchymal transition and valvular interstitial cell proliferation, and genetically-driven persistence of cardiomyocytes in the valve. METHODS:Structural and immunohistochemical staining were performed on 22 residual leaflets excised as ancillary procedures during myectomy, and compared with 11 control leaflets from deceased patients with normal hearts. Structural components were assessed with hematoxylin and eosin, trichrome, and elastic stains. We stained for EPDCs, EPDC paracrine signaling, valvular interstitial cells, endocardial-to-mesenchymal transition, and cardiomyocytes. RESULTS:= 0.08). No markers of primary cellular processes were identified. CONCLUSIONS:MV residual leaflets in HCM were characterized by histologic findings that were likely secondary to chronic hemodynamic stress and may further increase susceptibility to systolic anterior motion.

Background: In mediastinal biopsies that show fibrosis, the differential diagnosis includes fibrosing mediastinitis, immunoglobulin G subclass 4-related disease, Hodgkin lymphoma, as well as reactive fibrotic and inflammatory changes adjacent to other processes including neoplasms. Cases Description: We report two cases of incidentally detected mediastinal seminoma that contained extensive areas of paucicellular fibrosis, which precluded accurate preoperative biopsy diagnosis. The fibrosis consisted of mildly inflamed, densely scarred tissue with thin dilated vessels, and was present to a significant extent that is suggestive of spontaneous regression. These features are not currently described in the World Health Organization Classification of Thoracic Tumors. In both patients, needle and open biopsies sampled only the fibrotic areas of the tumors, and the final diagnosis was not achieved until surgical excision was performed. After surgery, both patients received chemotherapy, and were alive without evidence of disease at 3.4 years and 1 year post-operatively, respectively. Tumor fibrosis composed approximately 95% and 50% of each patient"™s tumor, respectively. In one of the patients, correlation of the needle biopsy position with the positron emission tomography (PET) scan revealed that the biopsy needle had sampled a non-metabolically active portion of the tumor. Conclusions: While pathologic spontaneous regression is well-described in gonadal germ cell tumors, it is not well-reported in extragonadal locations. Prospective knowledge of this diagnostic pitfall and targeting PET-avid regions of the tumor may increase the diagnostic yield and help to avoid non-indicated surgical interventions.

CONTEXT.—/UNASSIGNED:Perinatal death is an increasingly important problem as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, but the mechanism of death has been unclear. OBJECTIVE.—/UNASSIGNED:To evaluate the role of the placenta in causing stillbirth and neonatal death following maternal infection with COVID-19 and confirmed placental positivity for SARS-CoV-2. DESIGN.—/UNASSIGNED:Case-based retrospective clinico-pathological analysis by a multinational group of 44 perinatal specialists from 12 countries of placental and autopsy pathology findings from 64 stillborns and 4 neonatal deaths having placentas testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 following delivery to mothers with COVID-19. RESULTS.—/UNASSIGNED:All 68 placentas had increased fibrin deposition and villous trophoblast necrosis and 66 had chronic histiocytic intervillositis, the three findings constituting SARS-CoV-2 placentitis. Sixty-three placentas had massive perivillous fibrin deposition. Severe destructive placental disease from SARS-CoV-2 placentitis averaged 77.7% tissue involvement. Other findings included multiple intervillous thrombi (37%; 25/68) and chronic villitis (32%; 22/68). The majority (19, 63%) of the 30 autopsies revealed no significant fetal abnormalities except for intrauterine hypoxia and asphyxia. Among all 68 cases, SARS-CoV-2 was detected from a body specimen in 16 of 28 cases tested, most frequently from nasopharyngeal swabs. Four autopsied stillborns had SARS-CoV-2 identified in internal organs. CONCLUSIONS.—/UNASSIGNED:The pathology abnormalities composing SARS-CoV-2 placentitis cause widespread and severe placental destruction resulting in placental malperfusion and insufficiency. In these cases, intrauterine and perinatal death likely results directly from placental insufficiency and fetal hypoxic-ischemic injury. There was no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 involvement of the fetus had a role in causing these deaths.