Abdominal Wall Lesions Research Articles

Amniotic fluid macrophages from normal and malformed fetuses.

Amniotic fluid cells from normal and abnormal fetuses (neural tube defects and abdominal wall lesions) were examined uncultured and after short-term culture for macrophages. Morphology, adherence, phagocytosis, presence of Fc receptors and non-specific esterase were studied. The existence of macrophages in normal and abnormal fluids was confirmed, although the percentage and the absolute numbers varied greatly from specimen to specimen. The most marked increases in total macrophages were in cases of anencephaly. The significance of these macrophages and their value in prenatal diagnosis are discussed.

Analysis of normal and abnormal amniotic fluid cells in vitro by cinemicrography.

Time-lapse cinemicrography has been used to study cell behaviour and movement in long- and short-term amniotic fluid cultures from various types of fetus. These included several with a neural tube defect (9 anencephalics, 5 spina bifidas, 2 encephaloceles), 1 with an abdominal wall lesion (omphalocele) and 9 controls with no open lesion. In short-term (less than 3 days) amniotic fluid cultures from normal fetuses, non-adherent squamous cells dominate, but there is a small population of cells which, in the longer term (approximately 4 weeks), will form colonies of epithelioid and fibroblastic cells. In addition, there is a further group, called 'AF' by Hoehn et al. (1974), which have the ability to form syncitial strands and are often multinucleated; these cells seem to be trophoblastic in origin. In contrast to the controls, short-term anencephalic cultures contained many adherent cells; these were mainly latex-particle-phagocytosing macrophages and neural cells. In long-term cultures, the neural cells dominate and differentiate into a range of recognizable forms whose type and behaviour seem to depend on cell density, time in culture and extent of cell-cell contacts. In the spina bifida and encephalocele cultures, there were initially far fewer adherent cells than in the anencephalic ones, but, after approximately 2 weeks in vitro, a range of neural cell types could be recognized in addition to those seen in the controls. In the context of prenatal diagnosis, the presence of neural cells certainly indicates that the fetus has a NTD, but the difficulty of standardizing culture conditions implies that any differential diagnosis on the basis or morphology and movement will be difficult. If, as seems likely, the AF cells of Hoehn et al. (1974) are indeed trophoblastic, amniotic fluids from the second trimester may provide a useful source of these cells.

Tumefactions of the abdominal wall

1. 1. An orderly classification of abdominal wall masses is proposed. 2. 2. The incidence of abdominal wall lesions as regards age and sex, relative malignancy and relation to previous history of the patient is given. 3. 3. The frequency of desmoids in the female and high ratio of malignant to nonmalignant masses in children and adolescence are emphasized. 4. 4. Schloffer's foreign body (silk) tumor is either not being recognized or else not reported in the English speaking countries. 5. 5. Abdominal wall hematomas should be strongly considered in the differential diagnosis of abdominal masses. 6. 6. Forty-one cases of abdominal wall masses are reported from Charity Hospital and Touro Infirmary, New Orleans. Of these an adenocarcinoma of the gall-bladder metastasizing by direct extention to a cholecystostomy wound is reported for the first time.