An 85-year-old male referred to the Gastroenterology (GI) clinic with three-month history of failure to thrive and three-week history of nausea, vomiting, and melanotic stools. Ulcerative mass obstructing gastric outlet was found on endoscopy and on follow-up CT abdomen a homogeneous submucosal mass in the gastric antrum was identified. Radiological diagnosis of giant gastric lipoma was established and patient was evaluated for surgery and, however, was rendered unfit for surgery due to his comorbid conditions. Patient was taken for endoscopic resection of the mass. On endoscopy, only partial resection was achieved due to the size of the mass, but endoloops were deployed at the stalk at the end of the procedure in hope of limiting blood supply to the lesion. On six-week follow-up endoscopy, patient's mass had completely disappeared with limited scar tissue at the site.
A 47-year-old woman with a medical history of Raynaud's phenomenon presented with fever, cough and shortness of breath. She was found to have left lower lobe consolidation and pleural effusion and was treated as a case of pneumonia. During the hospital course, her respiratory status worsened, and she was intubated on the third hospital day. To investigate the high A-a gradient, a Computerized Tomographic Pulmonary Embolism (CTPE) study was done which identified a large left lower pulmonary artery embolism. She was also found to have a new murmur, and an echocardiogram demonstrated a large lesion on tricuspid valve. However, multiple sets of her blood cultures came back consistently negative. Alternative diagnoses for culture-negative endocarditis were considered, and a full set of rheumatological workup was done. Laboratory tests were suggestive of antiphospholipid syndrome, hence the diagnosis of tricuspid valve Libman-Sacks endocarditis was made.
DesCripTionA 56-year-old woman with no significant medical history was brought for evaluation of difficulty with speaking for 1 month. Family reported patient having short-term and long-term memory impairment and gradual cognitive decline over a course of 2 years. Her mother had Alzheimer's dementia in her 60s and the patient attributed her symptoms to Alzheimer's and did not seek medical attention until she developed word finding difficulty. On neurological examination, she had expressive aphasia and scored 20 on Mini-mental state examination (MMSE). Laboratory work-up showed normal haemogram, metabolic panel, thyroid function tests, vitamin B12 and folic acid levels and a negative rapid plasma reagin (RPR) test. MRI showed a giant left cerebral hemisphere arachnoid cyst with 11 mm midline shift to the right (figure 1). She underwent stereotactic craniotomy with microsurgical excision of the arachnoid cyst. Postoperative hospital course was complicated by generalised tonic-clonic seizure, controlled with antiepileptic medications. On 6-week follow-up, patient had resolution of expressive aphasia and mild improvement in her cognitive function.Arachnoid cysts are cerebrospinal fluid-filled sacs located between brain or spinal cord and arachnoid membrane.1 Primary arachnoid cysts are more common and congenital in origin whereas secondary arachnoid cyst can develop as a complication of brain surgery, head injury, tumour or meningitis.
1These comprises about 1% of all intracranial mass with approximately 50%-60% occurring in the middle cranial fossa.1 2 Males are four times more likely to have arachnoid cysts than females.2 Elderly patients with arachnoid cyst usually present with headache, nausea and vomiting, vertigo, gait disturbance and dementia, mimicking chronic subdural haematoma and normal pressure hydrocephalus.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.