Herpes virus infection, an unusual source of adult respiratory distress syndrome.

We report a patient with Herpes Simplex Virus induced diffuse interstitial pneumonia associated with ARDS. A dramatic improvement in the respiratory function seems to have followed acyclovir administration

In situ amplification of oestrogen receptor α mRNA in breast cancer cell lines and tumours

The aim of this work was to develop a direct in situ reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (in situ RT-PCR) assay for the detection of oestrogen receptor α (ERα) mRNA on in vitro cell lines and breast tumour cell smears. ERα mRNA amplification was performed on MCF-7 (ERα positive) and MDA-MB-231 (ERα negative) cell lines as well as on 51 cytological smears of breast tumour samples from patients. The in situ amplification of mRNA in cell lines and ex vivo breast tumours was successful. However, finding an equilibrium between optimal cell morphology and PCR performance varied with each tumour, leading to difficulty in standardisation for daily practice. Nonetheless, in situ RT-PCR is a useful tool for the detection of ERα mRNA in selected cases, both in vitro and ex vivo. J Clin Pathol: Mol Patho

Reliability of the tissue microarray based FISH for evaluation of the HER-2 oncogene in breast carcinoma

Aims: Tumour tissue microarray allows the analysis of hundreds of tumour samples simultaneously on a single microscope slide. However, the extremely small tissue samples taken from the original tissue may not always be representative of the entire tumour. Methods: The reliability of this new technology was investigated by analysing HER-2 oncogene amplification by fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) from representative slides of the whole tumour and small tissue core biopsies from 29 invasive breast tumours. Results: The tissue microarray method had high accuracy; in only one of 29 cases (3.4%; 95% confidence interval, 0% to 10%) were the results discordant with whole tumour analysis. Conclusion: Tumour microarray is a highly reliable method for analysing HER-2 oncogene amplification by FISH in human breast tumours