Internal medicine
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Case Reports
A Case of Autoimmune Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis that Improved after a COVID-19 Episode.
Autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (APAP) is caused by macrophage dysfunction owing to the presence of anti-granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) autoantibodies. A 77-year-old man with APAP was referred to our hospital for whole-lung lavage (WLL) due to oxygenation exacerbation and pulmonary shadows. ⋯ About three months after COVID-19 resolved, his oxygenation and shadow reflecting APAP had obviously improved, thus avoiding the need for WLL. We suspected that the improvement in APAP was due to various immunological reactions induced by COVID-19.
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Esophagogastroduodenoscopy in a 58-year-old man revealed a protruding lesion measuring 6 mm in diameter in the fornix. An endoscopic biopsy of the lesion indicated well-differentiated adenocarcinoma. ⋯ A retrospective review of the endoscopic images showed that this lesion had already been present in the images taken 16 years ago. The size and morphology of the lesion were the same as those of the first detected lesion.
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A 21-year-old woman was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. After the administration of intrathecal methotrexate (MTX), the patient experienced dysarthria and paralysis for one hour. ⋯ The patient was diagnosed with MTX-induced encephalopathy. This case suggested that MRI performed as soon as symptoms appear might show normal findings in MTX-induced encephalopathy.
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The therapeutic strategy for sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) during left ventricular assist device usage remains unclear. We encountered a patient with durable left ventricular assist device who presented sustained VT. ⋯ The three-dimensional activation map of clinically documented VT demonstrated that the propagation exited from the right ventricular apex through the critical isthmus located at the epicardium or interventricular septum, which was successfully treated by catheter ablation at the exit site. Further experiences like ours should be accumulated to establish a therapeutic strategy.