Internal medicine
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A 50-year-old man with neuro-Behçet syndrome showed truncal imbalance, dementia, palatal myoclonus, snoring and rhythmic inspiration synchronized with palatal myoclonus. Magnetic resonance imaging showed hypertrophy of the bilateral inferior olivary nuclei with slight pontine atrophy. A polysomnographic recording disclosed sleep apnea during non-REM sleep: 6% central type, 46% mixed type, and 48% obstructive type. We speculate that lesions of the respiratory center or related structures in the brainstem resulted in sleep apnea and that laryngeal myoclonus also affected the apnea.
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Comparative Study
Postoperative pneumonia in elderly patients: incidence and mortality in comparison with younger patients.
To determine whether elderly patients have an increased incidence of postoperative pneumonia and/or an increased mortality, we conducted a retrospective study of 4,380 patients who underwent thoracic, abdominal or neurosurgery under general anesthesia. Thirty of these patients developed postoperative pneumonia (incidence, 0.68%). The elderly patients aged 65 years or older who underwent thoracic surgery had the highest incidence of pneumonia. ⋯ Elderly patients did not show a higher mortality than the younger patients. The extent of pulmonary infiltrates on chest roentgenogram and the serum bilirubin level, both of which were determined at the onset of pneumonia, independently had a significant association with mortality. Our study suggests that advanced age is a risk factor for postoperative pneumonia in patients who undergo thoracic surgery.
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A 74-year-old male patient with diabetes mellitus and hypertension who had been treated for a long period was admitted to our hospital. Laboratory data on admission revealed high values for fasting blood sugar and fructosamine, 219 mg/dl and 389 mumol/l respectively, while the concentration of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) was low (3.0%). ⋯ The structural analysis indicated that this abnormal Hb was Hb Riyadh [beta 120 (GH3) Lys-->Asn]. The low value of HbA1c despite the high blood glucose level may be attributed to this abnormal hemoglobin.
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Anti-centromere antibodies (ACA) in 41 sera from patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) were analyzed by an immunoblotting method and the correlation between the presence of ACA and the clinical features in these PBC patients was studied. In 10 of 16 ACA-positive PBC patients, one or more clinical features of CREST syndrome (PBC-CREST) were found. ⋯ The 18 kD polypeptides were detected in all 16 ACA-positive PBC patients. From these results, it is suggested that ACA-positive PBC-CREST patients can be separated from ACA-negative PBC-CREST and PBC-non CREST patients.