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Washington University Experience | NEOPLASMS (PINEAL) | PPTID (Pineal Parenchymal Tumor Intermediate Differentiation) | 8A PPTID (Case 8) H&E 40X
Case 8 History ---- The patient is a 33 year old male with 3 episodes of loss of consciousness over an 8 month period; each of these episodes lasted 10 - 20 minutes. There has been a 3 month history of headache. Subsequent MR imaging revealed a 2.2 cm enhancing posterior third ventricular tumor. This tumor was exerting a mass effect on the tectal plate and causing obstructive hydrocephalus. The tumor was subtotally resected and a third ventriculoscopy was performed. ---- 8A. Cell density is high and the cells are arranged predominantly in diffuse sheets. Only rare small rosettes with central neuropil are identified. There is no evidence of necrosis or mitotic activity. There is focal calcification. Both degenerative atypia and ganglionic differentiation are absent. The tumor interface with the normal pineal gland is identified; this interface is relatively discrete with only focal infiltration on routine staining. Tumor cells are generally small and they contain only limited amounts of ill-defined eosinophilic cytoplasm. Associated tumor nuclei are uniformly round and regular. These nuclei have slightly open chromatin and small nucleoli.
