Clinicopathological features of infection of the nervous system by cytomegalovirus (CMV) in 31 patients with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) are reviewed. Neuropathology was variable, ranging from rare isolated CMV inclusions in brain without associated inflammation or necrosis, to severe necrotizing ependymitis and meningoencephalitis. In 1 patient, CMV had produced a necrotizing meningoradiculitis which presented clinically as ascending paralysis. In the brains and spinal cords of 6 patients, evidence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection of neural parenchyma was seen in close proximity to CMV infection. Both viruses individually or together were associated with low grade (microglial nodule) encephalitis. In retrospect, the diagnosis of CMV had been a difficult one to make clinically in neurologically impaired patients with AIDS. The results suggest that CMV may also localize in the nervous system without significant clinical sequelae. Imaging studies and analysis of cerebrospinal fluid revealed abnormalities in many patients, but none of them (short of culture of CMV itself in two cases) appeared to be specific to this neurological complication of the immunodeficiency.

Estrogen receptor content of breast lesions was estimated using a fluorescent cytochemical technique and a competitive protein binding assay. Of 48 cancers examined, an equal proportion contained significant quantities of receptor by either method (62.5%). The concordance between methods for individual patients was also 62.5%. A greater proportion (26%) of patients younger than 45 years of age had receptor‐positive cancers using the cytochemical method than were found by the biochemical method (10%). Benign breast disease was also studied using the fluorescent cytochemical method. A greater proportion of lesions containing estrogen receptors was found compared with that cited in the literature for the competitive protein‐binding assay. Because of the methodologic simplicity of the fluorescent cytochemical method, further study for routine use is indicated.

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The multiple classifications of histiocytic disorders, and the lack of specificity in their application, have degraded the utility of such diagnostic terms as "Letterer-Siwe Disease" and "Malignant Histiocytosis". A case is presented of a systemic histiocytic proliferation with erythrophagocytosis and giant-cell formation which does not fit into any presently accepted diagnostic niche. No similar case was found in the literature. Moreover, it appears that the entity "Adult form of Letterer-Siwe disease" has been uncritically accepted on the basis of a few poorly documented cases, and should be abandoned.

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