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Cholangiocarcinoma (CC) is a rare malignant tumour arising from cholangiocytes, and its prognosis is usually unfavourable, mostly as a result of late diagnosis of the tumour. The current incidence of cholangiocarcinoma in the Czech Republic is 1.4/100,000 inhabitants per year; in less than 30 % of patients with CC, one of the known risk factors can be identified, most frequently, primary sclerosing cholangitis. Only patients with early diagnosed and surgically amenable cholangiocarcinoma are likely to have a longer survival time; in their case, survival for more than five years has been achieved in 20 % to 40 %. From the perspective of the need for early diagnosis of CC, a significant part is played by imaging and histopathologic evaluation; the early diagnostic significance of oncomarkers is limited. The rational early diagnosis of CC consists in effective use of differentiated advantages of different imaging modalities - MRI with DSA appears to be the optimal method, endosonography is a sensitive method for the identification of malignancy in the hepatic hilum or distal common bile duct, MRCP (magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography) is used to display pathological changes in the biliary tree, ERCP (endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography) allows material removal for histopathological examination. Other new approaches are also beneficial, such as IDUS - intraductal ultrasonography of biliary tract or SPY-GLASS, enabling examination of the bile ducts by direct view with the possibility of taking targeted biopsies. Sensitivity and specificity of histology and cytology can be increased by using the molecular cytogenetic FISH method, i.e. fluorescence in situ by hybridization, with a specificity of 97 %.

Alveolar echinococcosis is a rare parasitic disease, especially of liver, caused by larval stage of tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis. At the end of the last century France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland were the most often regions with this disease, these days is this infection diagnosed also in our territory. We describe the case of the disease of the twenty-five years old male with nonspecific signs and hepatomegaly, who was diagnosed on the basis of imaging and laboratory sampling. Due to inoperability the patient is now in infectologist follow-up on a long-term treatment with albendazole. He is clinically stable, included in waiting list for liver transplantation.Key words: alveolar echinococcosis - benzimidazols - Echinococcus multilocularis - parasitic disease of liver.

The authors compared the results of two methods for the estimation of antibodies against thyroglobulin: the principle of the Thymune-T test (Wellcome) is a haemagglutination method; parallel examinations were made by the author's modification of the radiochemical coprecipitation test (RCT). The laboratory results were evaluated in a large clinical group of patients with different types of thyroid disease. It was confirmed that the haemagglutination method gives more frequently positive results than the radiochemical test, in particular in the range of low titres. The chi square test provided, however, evidence that between methods a significant correlation exists. Although the results of the two tests are not necessarily identical in individual patients, it may be stated that RCT is an adequate method of choice, as it is simpler, more rapid and cheaper, and that it can be done in large series with objective automated evaluation of data.