No abstract

From March 1988 through March 1990, at the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office toxicology laboratory, samples from 77 decomposed human bodies were tested for the presence of cocaine, employing gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The material analyzed included decomposed soft tissue, bloody decomposition fluid, mummified tissue, maggots, and beetle feces. Twenty-two cases (28.6%) were positive for cocaine, many of these cases in states of advanced decomposition. These findings indicate the usefulness of testing decomposed tissue for cocaine in all cases where its presence is suspected. This is contrary to what might be expected, since cocaine is generally labile and rapidly broken down by both enzymatic and nonenzymatic mechanisms.

No abstract

A primary intracranial atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor was encountered in a child (age 4 years and 9 months) with Canavan disease. The tumor contained a large spindled cell component as well as classical rhabdoid morphology and focal areas resembling a primitive neuroectodermal tumor. The rhabdoid areas of the neoplasm were immunoreactive with antibodies against epithelial membrane antigen and vimentin, in the classically described pattern. Ultrastructurally these portions of the tumor displayed the characteristic perinuclear whorls of intermediate filaments reported in rhabdoid tumors of all body sites. Thought to be purely coincidental, this is also the first description of any intracranial neoplasm associated with Canavan disease.