Internal medicine
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Comparative Study
Significance of electrocardiographic right ventricular hypertrophy in patients with pulmonary hypertension with or without right ventricular systolic dysfunction.
We sought to determine the value of electrocardiographic right ventricular hypertrophy (ECG-RVH) in pulmonary hypertension (PH) patients with right ventricular systolic dysfunction defined by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR-RVSD). ⋯ The combination of ECG-RVH findings, especially in lead V(1), predicts the presence of RVSD defined by CMR. ECG might be a useful tool for estimating the presence of RVSD in patients with PH.
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Case Reports
Rhabdomyolysis in acute primary adrenal insufficiency complicated by severe hyponatraemia.
Patients with acute adrenal insufficiency may have musculoskeletal symptoms including flexion contractures, myopathy and hyperkalaemic neuromyopathy. However, the association between rhabdomyolysis and acute adrenal insufficiency is extremely rare and has only been reported infrequently in the literature. Hyponatraemia is often present in association with acute adrenal insufficiency complicated by rhabdomyolysis. We herein report the case of a patient with acute primary adrenal insufficiency and severe hyponatraemia complicated by rhabdomyolysis and acute kidney injury.
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Gitelman's syndrome (GS), an inherited disorder due to loss of function of ion channels and transporters such as Na-Cl co-transporter (NCCT) in distal convoluted tubules, is characterized by hypokalemia, hypomagnesemia, hypocalciuria, metabolic alkalosis and hyperreninemic-hyperaldosteronism. A 39-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of muscle weakness with such intractable disorders. ⋯ Based on these data, the clinical diagnosis of GS was made. Gene-sequencing analysis revealed compound heterozygous mutations of c.539C > A and c.1844C > T in SLC12A3, which is newly reported in Japanese GS.
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We herein report the histopathology of a rare case of an idiopathic internal mammary artery aneurysm in a 61-year-old asymptomatic woman. Chest radiography during an annual medical check-up incidentally revealed the aneurysm, which was initially mistaken for a mediastinal tumor. Given that a rupture of the aneurysm could have been life-threatening, it was removed surgically, and found to possess a paper-thin arterial wall with cystic medial degeneration.
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We report the case of a young woman with anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis, without tumor, who was successfully treated with rituximab. Because conventional immunotherapy, including corticosteroids, immunoglobulin (IVIg), and plasma exchange showed little improvement in our patient, we introduced another treatment using rituximab. ⋯ This case provides in vivo evidence that rituximab is an effective agent for treating anti-NMDAR encephalitis, even in those cases where conventional immunotherapies have been ineffective. Rituximab should be regarded as a beneficial therapeutic agent for this disease.