The hemorrhage in hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) varies from transient petechial lesions to fulminant and massive bleeding. Also in vital organ such as lung, kidney, spleen, brain and pituitary, hemorrhage occasionally occurs spontaneously or by minor trauma. We report a case of retroperitoneal hematoma by spontaneous rupture of renal capsule in HFRS presented with anuria and right flank pain. A 34-year-old male was admitted to our hospital presenting anuria and right flank pain for 3 days. He also had suffered from fever and myalgia since 5 days ago. Sonography and computed tomography were performed at the day of hospitalization and showed massive perirenal hematoma with ruptured renal capsule and spurtting subcapsular renal artery on the right kidney. He was diagnosed as HFRS and treated with hemodialysis, fluid infusion and transfusion. After conservative treatment, he recovered from HFRS without further blood loss.
Adult ; Anuria* ; Brain ; Fever ; Flank Pain* ; Hematoma* ; Hemorrhage ; Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome* ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Kidney ; Lung ; Male ; Myalgia ; Renal Artery ; Renal Dialysis ; Rupture ; Rupture, Spontaneous* ; Spleen

Background/Aims:  Rituximab is known to be associated with high hepatitis B virus (HBV) reactivation rate in patients with resolved HBV infection and hematologic malignancy. However, data regarding HBV reactivation (HBVr) in rheumatic patients receiving rituximab is limited. To assess the HBVr rate in hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-negative patients receiving rituximab for autoimmune diseases in a large real-world cohort. Methods:  From March 2006 to December 2019, 900 patients with negative HBsAg receiving at least one cycle of rituximab for autoimmune diseases in a tertiary medical center in Taiwan were retrospectively reviewed. Clinical outcome and factors associated with HBVr were analyzed. Results: After a median follow-up period of 3.3 years, 21 patients developed HBVr, among whom 17 patients were positive for hepatitis B core antibody (anti-HBc) and four were negative. Thirteen patients had clinical hepatitis flare, while eight patients had HBsAg seroreversion without hepatitis. Old age, anti-HBc positivity, undetectable serum hepatitis B surface antibody level at rituximab initiation and a higher average rituximab dose were associated with a higher HBVr rate. There was no significant difference in the HBVr risk between rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. Among anti-HBc-negative patients, subjects without HBV vaccination at birth had an increased risk of HBVr (4/368, 1.1%) compared with those who received vaccination (0/126, 0%). Conclusions In HBV endemic areas where occult HBV is prevalent, anti-HBc-negative patients, may still be at risk for HBVr after rituximab exposure. HBVr may still be considered in HBsAgnegative patients developing abnormal liver function after rituximab exposure, even in patients with negative anti-HBc.

The use of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can be complicated by severe forms of renal dysfunction. These include fluid and electrolyte abnormalities, acute renal insufficiency due to alteration in renal hemodynamics, or interstitial nephritis and proteinuria secondary to glomerular pathology, which has the histologic characteristics of minimal change glomerulopathy (MCG). While NSAID-induced nephrotic syndrome characteristically consists of MCG with interstitial nephritis, which is the most common clinical manifestation, it rarely consists of MCG without interstitial nephritis, which has been reported in a handful of patients who took fenoprofen, ibuprofen, sulindac, diclofenac, or zomepirac. We experienced a 66-year-old female patient who presented with low serum albumin, proteinuria and generalized edema and received Geworin for about 2 year before developing symptoms. She histologically had MCG without interstitial nephritis and achieved a complete remission thirty-fifth days after discontinuing the drug. A cause-and-effect relationship of this disease to Geworin administration is strongly suggested by the resolution of the proteinuria after the drug was stopped and by no evidence of any impairment in renal function after twenty eight months of follow-up.
Acute Kidney Injury ; Aged ; Analgesics* ; Anti-Inflammatory Agents ; Antipyrine ; Diclofenac ; Edema ; Female ; Fenoprofen ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hand ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Ibuprofen ; Nephritis ; Nephritis, Interstitial* ; Nephrosis, Lipoid* ; Nephrotic Syndrome ; Pathology ; Proteinuria ; Serum Albumin ; Sulindac

The 55 years old male patient, undergoing maintenance hemodialysis, was admitted on our department because of painful swelling on left knee joint. At 19th hospital day, he complained of severe dyspnea. He had a large amount of pleural effusion of the left chest that was shown to be hemothorax by thoracentesis. After closed thoracostomy, about amount of 3,000 mL of blood was drained and bleeding was sustained from pleural cavity, and then emergency thoracotomy was done. We cannot find any bleeding focus in thoracic cavity, but oozing blood was seen on entire inner thoracic cavity. He had no previous invasive procedure or history of trauma before 6 months. We think that hemothorax may be developed because of defected coagulopathy and increased bleeding tendency due to platelet dysfunction in renal failure patient. Immediately thoracotomy and cryoprecipitate were helpful for this patient. We report a rare case of spontaneous hemothorax in a maintenance hemodialysis patient with literature review.
Blood Platelets ; Dyspnea ; Emergencies ; Hemorrhage ; Hemothorax* ; Humans ; Knee Joint ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pleural Cavity ; Pleural Effusion ; Renal Dialysis* ; Renal Insufficiency ; Thoracic Cavity ; Thoracostomy ; Thoracotomy ; Thorax

Mucormycosis is an uncommon, frequently fatal, opportunistic fungal infection which usually develops in immunosuppressant patients, especially in patients with AIDS, organ transplantation, diabetic mellitus, administration of steroid, chronic illness, severe malnutrition. It is classified into four groups as clinical forms and one of its, gastrointestinal type is an unusual form, believed that infection of the gastrointestinal tract is acquired through ingestion of the ubiquitous fungal spores, the stomach being the most frequently involved site. Especially, gastric mucormycosis, vascular invasive type is frequently fatal. Recently we experienced a case of gastric mucormycosis, vascular invasive type found in a 74-year old male undergoing hemodialysis for chronic renal failure and he was in severe malnutrition. In the course of the admission, unexpectedly, hematemesis was developed. Upper gastrointestinal fiberoscopy was done and we found a ulcerative lesion, geographic in body of stomach and on histologic examination, characteristic findings of nonseptate hyphae with right angle branchings was observed in the ulcer debris with vessel invasion. The patient was treated with systemic antifungal agent, amphotericin B but expired due to massive hematemesis.
Aged ; Amphotericin B ; Chronic Disease ; Eating ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Hematemesis ; Humans ; Hyphae ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Male ; Malnutrition* ; Mucormycosis* ; Organ Transplantation ; Renal Dialysis* ; Spores, Fungal ; Stomach ; Transplants ; Ulcer

Mucormycosis is an uncommon, frequently fatal, opportunistic fungal infection which usually develops in immunosuppressant patients, especially in patients with AIDS, organ transplantation, diabetic mellitus, administration of steroid, chronic illness, severe malnutrition. It is classified into four groups as clinical forms and one of its, gastrointestinal type is an unusual form, believed that infection of the gastrointestinal tract is acquired through ingestion of the ubiquitous fungal spores, the stomach being the most frequently involved site. Especially, gastric mucormycosis, vascular invasive type is frequently fatal. Recently we experienced a case of gastric mucormycosis, vascular invasive type found in a 74-year old male undergoing hemodialysis for chronic renal failure and he was in severe malnutrition. In the course of the admission, unexpectedly, hematemesis was developed. Upper gastrointestinal fiberoscopy was done and we found a ulcerative lesion, geographic in body of stomach and on histologic examination, characteristic findings of nonseptate hyphae with right angle branchings was observed in the ulcer debris with vessel invasion. The patient was treated with systemic antifungal agent, amphotericin B but expired due to massive hematemesis.
Aged ; Amphotericin B ; Chronic Disease ; Eating ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Hematemesis ; Humans ; Hyphae ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Male ; Malnutrition* ; Mucormycosis* ; Organ Transplantation ; Renal Dialysis* ; Spores, Fungal ; Stomach ; Transplants ; Ulcer

BACKGROUNDEarly detection with screening mammography can potentially reduce breast cancer mortality rates. To achieve an efficient screening, a peer review system provides a compensatory double-check reviewing, will hopefully to prevent the omission of detectable lesions and reduce unnecessary recall.

METHODSIn 2009, 4643 initial mammographic screenings reported by 74 screening radiologists had negative results with a recall rate of less than 5%. In the same year, 2538 initial positives screened by 18 screening radiologists had a recall rate higher than 15%. Those 7181 randomized screenings were evenly distributed for reassessment by 39 reviewing radiologists. The disagreement of assessments between the reviewers and screening radiologists was recorded. The differential rate was defined as the number of the disagreements divided by the number of audited films reviewed by a screening radiologist. The equality of the differential rates for each screening radiologists with negative and positive assessments was compared by a Chi-square test. The performance of the 39 auditors was measured by the Kendall's tau statistic. P values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

RESULTSThe mean differential rate for screening radiologists of negative assessments was 6.7% (P = 0.588), while 35.0% for positive assessments were significant (P < 0.001). The result indicated that most of the initial negative assessments reported by the screening radiologists were generally accepted by the reviewers but not the positive assessments. With respect to the 39 reviewers, there was no significant evidence for the association of the difference rates between negative and positive assessments. Nine reviewers were found to have their differential rate for negative and positive assessments larger than the average of the population. Eleven reviewers were found to have their differential rates smaller than the average for both. Thirteen reviewers had their differential rates smaller than the average for negative assessments but larger than the average for positive assessments. The opposite condition was found for six reviewers. The Kendall's tau statistic was 0.038 (P = 0.735).

CONCLUSIONSReviewers usually agreed with the opinion of the initial screening doctors who reported negative findings. Therefore, a 5% recall rate as the lower range of reviewing negatives may be still too high. The recall rate of more than 15% was significantly related to improper interpretation, especially when the differential rate is 25% or higher, a warning to the underperforming screening radiologist is recommended. An ideal reviewer should interpret films independently. Reviewers with tendencies to be followers or contrarians should not be enrolled in the reviewing system.

Breast Neoplasms ; diagnostic imaging ; Early Detection of Cancer ; Female ; Humans ; Mammography ; Peer Review ; Reproducibility of Results ; Taiwan

INTRODUCTIONConstipation is a common poststroke complication. This study was designed to document the incidence and clinical course of poststroke constipation in a rehabilitation ward, as well as identify the factors independently associated with the condition.

METHODSThis retrospective study involved patients who were admitted to the rehabilitation ward of our institute due to an acute stroke between 1 August 2010 and 31 July 2011. The main outcome measured was the incidence of poststroke constipation, defined as the use of laxative after stroke, fulfilment of the Rome II diagnostic criteria for functional constipation and/or stool impaction. The variables examined were basic demographic data, presence of impairment, degree of disability (evaluated using the Barthel index), walking ability, medications taken and medical complications.

RESULTSOut of the 155 patients who met the inclusion criteria, 123 (79.4%) had poststroke constipation. All 123 patients used oral laxatives; 56 received additional rectal medications and 13 discontinued their use of laxatives at discharge. Patients with poststroke constipation were more likely to have major medical complications (p = 0.04). Those who used rectal medications had a higher risk of major medical complications than those who used only oral laxatives (p < 0.01). Infratentorial lesions were an independent predictor of poststroke constipation (p = 0.003). More severe disability increased the severity of constipation, as indicated by the use of rectal medication.

CONCLUSIONPoststroke constipation is a common complication during inpatient rehabilitation. Healthcare providers should be aware of the incidence of poststroke constipation. Further studies are required to establish standard guidelines for screening and managing bowel function in patients with stroke.

Age Distribution ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Cohort Studies ; Constipation ; drug therapy ; epidemiology ; etiology ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Incidence ; Laxatives ; therapeutic use ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Rehabilitation Centers ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Assessment ; Severity of Illness Index ; Sex Distribution ; Singapore ; Stroke ; complications ; diagnosis ; Stroke Rehabilitation ; Treatment Outcome

Inhibition of macrophage-mediated phagocytosis has emerged as an essential mechanism for tumor immune evasion. One mechanism inhibiting the innate response is the presence of the macrophage inhibitory molecule, signal regulatory protein-α (SIRPα), on tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and its cognate ligand cluster of differentiation 47 (CD47) on tumor cells in the tumor microenvironment. On the basis of a recently discovered programmed death protein 1 (PD-1) in TAMs, we discuss the potential inhibitory receptors that possess new functions beyond T cell exhaustion in this review. As more and more immune receptors are found to be expressed on TAMs, the corresponding therapies may also stimulate macrophages for phagocytosis and thereby provide extra anti-tumor benefits in cancer therapy. Therefore, identification of biomarkers and combinatorial therapeutic strategies, have the potential to improve the efficacy and safety profiles of current immunotherapies.
Antigens, Surface ; metabolism ; Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins ; metabolism ; Humans ; Immunotherapy ; methods ; Macrophages ; immunology ; Neoplasms ; immunology ; pathology ; therapy ; Phagocytosis ; immunology ; Treatment Outcome ; Tumor Microenvironment ; immunology