Corpora amylacea in mesothelioma of the atrioventricular node

Rounded or polyhedral, acellular, dense lamellated structures were seen within gland-like spaces in a case of atrioventricular mesothelioma. These structures exhibited many of the histochemical characteristics of amyloid, viz., pink colour with green birefringence and bright red fluorescence with alkaline Congo red; ortochromasia and red birefringence with standardised toluidine blue; positive DMAB-nitrite and diazotisation coupling reactions and spontaneous autofluorescence. It is suggested that these bodies are derived from spontaneous assembly or polymerisation of microfibrils of desquamated cells lining the cystic spaces of the tumour as occurs in prostatic corpora amylacea. The peculiar intramyofibre proliferation of tumour cells in the peripheral part of the tumour suggests that viable tumour cells can penetrate, survive and proliferate within atrial or nodal myofibres leaving an intact sarcolemmal sheath. The slow tumour cell growth and the successive degeneration of central tumour cells may explain the tubular and/or glandular pattern constantly seen in this tumour.