Medicine
-
Case Reports
Case report: an intriguing sign in a patient with an inferior rectus muscle granular cell tumor.
Occurrence of granulosa cell tumors (GCTs) in the eye are rare and may be diagnosed by imaging examination and immune-histochemical studies. Two common signs of a rectus muscle tumor are the proptosis of the eye ball and the complaint of bi-ocular diploma. ⋯ Ophthalmologists should be aware that when a patient's visual acuity is normal when looking forward but severely low when gazing upward, it may be a sign of a GCT of the inferior rectus muscle.
-
Case Reports
Acute renal failure in a patient with PR3-ANCA and monoclonal immunoglobulin deposition disease: Case report.
Acute renal failure developing over a short period of time with evidence of glomerular disease by urine sediment microscopy characterizes the clinical syndrome of rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis (RPGN), of which the most common causes are ANCA-associated glomerulonephritis (GN), immune-complex mediated GN and anti-GBM disease. ⋯ To our knowledge, the simultaneous occurrence of MIDD, PR3-ANCA and mesangial IgA has not been reported. This case highlights not only the diagnostic but also the therapeutic challenges that such a complex case presentation poses to clinicians, where the culprit may not always be what would seem most obvious (such as ANCA in a patient with RPGN) but may, in fact, be an underlying and unsuspected disease, or possibly a combination of both.
-
The term cystic breast lesions is a sonographic diagnosis, which can be categorized as simple, complicated or complex. The complex cysts are deemed as having a low risk of breast cancer. The highly aggressive invasive ductal carcinomas among complex cysts, in particular, are infrequent reported. ⋯ Meticulous ultrasound evaluation of Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) category is crucial and indispensable when a complex cyst is found. The radiologist and clinician should be fully awake to its possibility of malignancy, especially fast-growing one in post-menopausal women. Excision biopsy may be preferred for diagnosis.
-
Crystal sorting histiocytosis (CSH) is a rare disorder that is morphologically characterized by the accumulation of monoclonal immunoglobulin crystals, predominantly of a kappa light chain type, within lysosomes of macrophages. CSH may result in a variety of clinical manifestations depending on the involved organs. In this case report, we aim to describe a patient with ophthalmic manifestations which lead to the diagnosis of multiple myeloma with crystal-storing histiocytosis, crystalline podocytopathy, and light chain proximal tubulopathy. ⋯ This report, highlighting the protean presentation of paraprotein-mediated injuries, provides additional information on the ocular anomalies not previously described that may be associated with crystal-storing histiocytosis.
-
Metastatic pancreatic cancer has a dismal prognosis. Many patients seek integrative care as an add-on to their conventional cancer treatment. Viscum album extracts (VAE)-widely used as an adjunct to cancer treatment-have cytotoxic, apoptogenic, and immune stimulatory properties. A statistically significant survival benefit has been demonstrated for VAE in advanced pancreatic cancer. ⋯ This case demonstrates the favorable outcome of a patient with metastatic pancreatic cancer following treatment with chemotherapy, integrative medicine, and surgical excision. As other positive outcomes in pancreatic cancer patients are related to inflammatory events, we presume the immunologic effects of VAE to have contributed to the favorable outcome here. Based on this case, and the other positive results of VAE use in pancreatic cancer, further investigations seem highly worthwhile.