No abstract

A 68-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of epigastric pain. An upper gastrointestinal contrast study and endoscopy revealed a II c type tumor in the posterior wall of the pyloric antrum. and computed tomography showed lymph node enlargement along the left gastric artery. Operation was performed after a presumptive diagnosis of gastric cancer with lymph node involvement. During the laparotomy, more extensive lymphadenopathy was found than was detected preoperatively, and tumor metastasis was suspected because of its firmness. Distal partial gastrectomy with D, and more extensive lymph node dissection were performed. Subsequently, the histology of permanent sections revealed not tumor metastasis but a sarcoid-like reaction in the lymph nodes. The patient recovered uneventfully: however, he was killed in an accident 38 months after the surgery. A postmortem examination was not performed, but there had been no clinical signs of either recurrence of gastric cancer or sarcoidosis.

An on-line system for the computer-assisted management of pathology data, calledPADAMS (Pathology Data Management System), was developed to construct a data base and to gam direct access to the up-to-date information in daily practice. It utilizes the time-sharing system (TSS) of FACOM M-190 and is operable from a terminal in the pathology department. By prompting data input the system leads the user to register cases and to form interrogations for data retrieval. Pathological and anatomical terms are automatically coded according to SNOP and decoded during output. In the absence of the term in the dictionary, the code is requested and filed so that the vocabulary is increased stepwise during operation of PADAMS. Additional subroutines can be called to read and to correct the dictionary. PADAMS was successfully tested on 100 samples of record. Further data are now being accumulated in the file.

No abstract

A new interactive data base management system for surgical pathology is described which was developed by modification of the previously reported system for autopsy records [23]. As the name implies, it serves as a personal memorandum. Always led by the computer, it is easy to write and read, whenever necessary, without knowledge of programming or data format. The outstanding features are its flexibility of operation and the on-line availability of simple statistical data on some items (diagnoses, topography, histology, age and sex) in response to the specification of search condition so that it provides an opportunity to expand association of ideas during the process of diagnosis and serves as a diagnostic support system. The CLIMPS has been successfully tested with over 770 surgical pathology records. Some problems to be expected in the future are discussed.