Medicine
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In an autopsy study of patients with cancer, 14.6% had pathologic evidence of cerebrovascular disease (CVD), and in 7.4% clinical symptoms of CVD had been present in life. The usual risk factors for CVD were overshadowed by pathophysiologic abnormalities related to the neoplasm, including direct effects of the tumor, coagulation disorders, infections and diagnostic or therapeutic procedures. In patients with leukemia, hemorrhages (72.4%) were much more common than ischemic infarcts. ⋯ The clinical presentation of CVD in patients with cancer is more often a diffuse encephalopathy, with or without localizing signs, than the typical acute onset of a focal deficit. This was particularly true with intravascular coagulation, septic infarction and subdural hematoma. Our study suggests that by knowing the clinical setting, neurologic features and laboratory findings, one can, in many instances, make an accurate clinical diagnosis that, in some cases, leads to effective treatment.
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Review Case Reports
Alveolar hemorrhage syndromes: diffuse microvascular lung hemorrhage in immune and idiopathic disorders.
We have reviewed the alveolar hemorrhage (AH) syndromes, defined as immune or idiopathic disorders associated with diffuse microvascular hemorrhage into the acinar portion of the lung. The disorders that are most often associated with AH include antibasement membrane antibodies (ABMA) disease, idiopathic pulmonary hemosiderosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic vasculitides, and idiopathic rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis. An approach to the recognition, diagnosis, and treatment of the AH syndromes has been outlined and several illustrative case studies have been presented. ⋯ High-dose pulse methylprednisolone appears to effectively control AH of diverse etiology. Combined plasma exchange and immunosuppression controls AH in ABMA disease and is the treatment of choice in this disorder. Cyclophosphamide is used for Wegener's granulomatosis, and sometimes in systemic necrotizing vasculitis, in an attempt to prevent irreversible damage to the kidneys.
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The presenting features, modes of treatment and clinical course were reviewed for 55 patients with pyogenic liver abscess, seen at Duke University Medical Center over a 15-year period. Thirty-three patients had a solitary abscess and 22 had multiple abscesses. Most patients were between the ages of 40 and 60 years. ⋯ Surgical or percutaneous drainage was successful when attempted in all patients with a single abscess, but the outcome was less favorable in those with multiple abscesses. Percutaneous drainage is currently replacing open operative drainage as the method of choice. Overall mortality in patients with single abscesses was 15% (5/33) and in those with multiple abscesses 41% (9/22).
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This paper reports the experiences of our group with 68 patients with progressive systemic sclerosis (PSS) admitted to hospitals of the University of Pittsburgh Health Center between 1955 and 1981 with scleroderma renal crisis (SRC). The onset of SRC was characterized by four features, namely, onset or aggravation, usually abrupt, of arterial hypertension; appearance of Grade III or IV retinopathy; elevations of peripheral renin activity to at least twice the upper limit of normal; and rapid deterioration of renal function within a period of less than one month. Over 90% of our patients in whom these criteria could be determined had at least three of them present with the onset of SRC. ⋯ Progress in the last few years seems to have been achieved primarily by the advent of pharmacologic agents that specifically block the effect of angiotensin II by inhibiting the angiotensin I converting enzyme. When diagnosis is prompt and the condition is treated as an emergency with these compounds, we and others have found that normal renal function can be restored in a number of patients. The result is a considerably brighter outlook for patients with this previously rapidly fatal complication of progressive systemic sclerosis.
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Forty-nine patients with disseminated gonococcal infection (DGI) hospitalized at Boston City and University Hospitals over a 7-year period were studied. Patients with clinical manifestations of DGI and with cervical, urethral, rectal, pharyngeal, synovial or blood cultures positive for Neisseria gonorrhoeae were separated into two groups based on the presence or absence of suppurative arthritis. There were 19 cases of suppurative arthritis (Group II) and 30 cases with only tenosynovitis, skin lesions, or both (Group I). ⋯ Eighteen of 24 Group I strains (75%) versus 9 of 19 Group II strains (47%) resisted killing by all normal human sera tested (p less than .05). Likewise, convalescent sera from Group II patients were able to kill their infecting strains more often than did sera from Group I patients (70% vs 17%) (p less than 0.01). Thus, variations in the clinical expression of disease in patients with DGI may be explained, in part, by differences in certain phenotypic and immunologic features of infecting strains.