[Nasopharyngeal angiofibroma. Histochemical observations and hormone therapy (author's transl)]

There were carried out substrate- and enzymhistochemical reactions of the typical nasopharyngeal angiofibroma in 6 cases. In the environs of the vessels there were mainly neutral mucopolysaccharides, in the left intercellular substance and in the fibroblasts and most cells acid carbohydrates were found. The protein reactions pointed out a conspicouos strong contents of alkaline proteins in fibroblasts, mast cells and vessel environs. In the mast cells and fibroblasts tryptophan was found plentifully, in fibroblasts and vessel environs a lot of tyrosin was provable. The alakline phosphatase was traceable in fibroblasts and mast cells with great intensity. Strong reactivities of the acid phosphatases in all of the cells of the tissue refer to intensive lysosomal activities and considerable secretion transactions. The reaction of LDH as a representative of energy metabolism settles down in all of the cells and vessel environs in a strong way. The histochemical examination of a preparation of the naso-pharyngeal angiofibroma after hormone therapy showed a falling out of all the enzyme activities. The reduction of the acid phosphatases seems to be of special importance. Substrathistochemically there weren't any clear modifications concerning quality and quantity. A comparatively examined separation of an ordinary fibroma of the nasopharynx indicated similar enzymhistochemical pictures disregard the intensive reaction of the unspecific esterase, which doesn't appear concerning the nasopharyngeal angiofibroma. The carbohydrate reactions demonstrated some differences to the typical nasopharyngeal angiofibroma.