Patient: Male, 20-year-old Final Diagnosis: Mediastinal yolk sac tumor • yolk sac tumor Symptoms: Chest pain • cough • sensation of fullness in the neck Medication: — Clinical Procedure: Mediastinal biopsy Specialty: Cardiology • General and Internal Medicine • Oncology • Pathology Objective: Rare disease Background: Mediastinal masses can originate from anatomical structures normally located in the mediastinum, or from structures that travel through the mediastinum during embryogenesis. Initial presenting symptoms usually vary from shortness of breath, cough, chest pain, and superior vena cava syndrome to nonspecific constitutional symptoms (eg, fever, weight loss, fatigue). However, the initial presentation of a mediastinal mass with acute pericarditis has not been reported in the literature as far as we know. Case Report: A 20-year-old man presented to the Cardiology Clinic with chest pain and new pericardial effusion on echo-cardiography, both fulfilling the diagnostic criteria of acute pericarditis. The patient also had venous engorgement on the neck, and a chest X-ray followed by computed tomography imaging showed a large mediastinal mass. The serum tumor marker α-fetoprotein (AFP) was markedly elevated. The biopsy and immunohistochemistry revealed a high-grade malignant neoplasm – yolk sac tumor, which is a type of non-seminomatous germ cell tumor. The acute pericarditis resolved after administration of NSAID and colchicine. The patient was then started on chemotherapy. Conclusions: The discussed case shows the rare presentation of an anterior mediastinal mass with acute pericarditis. This emphasizes the importance of a thorough review of systems and critical analysis of every sign and symptom at the time of initial presentation, which helps the physician to obtain appropriate imaging studies early in the course, leading to an early diagnosis and treatment of the disease, such as in this case of an extremely rare germ cell tumor.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to pose an unprecedented challenge for the entire world and the healthcare system. Different theories have been proposed elucidating the pathophysiological mechanisms attributing to high mortality and morbidity in COVID-19 infection. Out of them, thrombosis and procoagulant state have managed to earn the maximum limelight.We conducted an observational study based on data from randomly selected 349 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 infection in a community-based hospital in New York City during the first wave of the COVID-19 viral surge in March 2020. The main objective of our study was to assess the risk and occurrence of thrombotic events (both venous and arterial) among the hospitalized patients including the intensive care unit (ICU) and non-ICU admissions with confirmed COVID-19 infection. The primary outcome in our study was defined as the thrombotic events that included myocardial infarction (MI), deep venous thrombosis (DVT), cerebrovascular accidents (CVA), and pulmonary embolism (PE). The study correlated the association of thrombotic events with the level of biomarkers of interest: D-dimer >1000 ng/ml, troponin-I >1 ng/ml, or both. The association of D-dimers and troponin-I with thrombotic events was measured using both univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard (PH) regression analysis. Out of a total of 349 patients, 78 patients (22.35%) were found to have elevated biomarkers (D-dimer >1000 ng/ml and/or troponin-I >1 ng/ml) and were categorized as a high-risk group. Eighty-nine patients developed thrombotic complications (evidence of more than one thrombotic event was found in several patients). Two-hundred seventy-one (77.65%) patients had no documentation of thrombosis. The incidence of thrombotic events included myocardial infarction (MI; N=45; 12.8%), cerebrovascular accidents (CVA; N=16; 4.5%), deep venous thrombosis (DVT; N=16; 4.5%), and pulmonary embolism (PE; N=9; 2.57%).
Patient: Male, 27-year-old Final Diagnosis: Immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) Symptoms: Bleeding • purpura Medication: Azathioprine • eltrombopag • fostamatinib • intravenous immunoglobulin • IVIG • prednisone • rituximab • steroids Clinical Procedure: EGD • PET-CT • plasmapheresis • splenectomy Specialty: Gastroenterology and Hepatology • Hematology • General and Internal Medicine Objective: Unusual clinical course Background: Immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is primarily caused by antibody-mediated destruction of platelets. Alterations in immune homeostasis can induce loss of peripheral tolerance and promote the development of self-reactive antibodies. Primary ITP is the diagnosis of exclusion made after the extensive work-up rules out other possible causes of thrombocytopenia. The association between the ITP and other autoimmune disorders is well-established. In recent years, increasing attention has been directed toward the association between celiac disease (CD) and ITP. Case Report: A 27-year-old man with a history of primary ITP presented with an occasional nosebleed, 1 episode of rectal bleeding, and easy bruising. The patient was later found to have high titers of TTG-IGA and endomysial IGA levels consistent with CD. Our patient not only failed to improve with the gluten-free diet, but also failed multiple lines of treatment including steroids, IVIG, rituximab, eltrombopag, and even a non-traditional treatment for ITP (azathioprine and plasma exchange). The patient’s CD-related antibody titers remained elevated. Conclusions: It is possible that in certain cases the alteration of immune response caused by CD with a concurrent elevation of CD-related antibodies can make ITP refractory to all medical management. Whether or not this refractoriness to treatment is related to the persistently elevated antibody titers of CD or unknown genetic relationship between ITP and CD remains not entirely clear and warrants further molecular, immunologic, and genetic analysis.
e16169 Background: Surgical resection can provide an increase in survival for incurable patients with cholangiocarcinoma (CCA); Since outcomes improve significantly with more aggressive intervention liver resection (LR) should be pursued together with common bile duct resection (CBDR). We aimed to analyze the trends of surgical management of hilar CCA also known as Klatskin tumor (KT) across 15 years in the U.S. Methods: We extracted two cohorts of hospitalizations from Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) 2005-2019yy using ICD-9 and ICD-10 diagnosis and procedure codes for KT, CBDR and LR. First group of patients with KT had CBDR performed alone and the second group of KT patients received CBDR and LR during the same hospitalization. We compared mortality, performed socio-demographic analysis stratified by patient and hospital information and used length of stay (LOS) and mean charges (MC) as additional outcomes. Results: We extracted a total of 3,095 hospitalizations with KT that underwent CBDR alone or CBDR with LR. There was a transition in proportion of CBDR alone versus CBDR with LR across years, which we attribute to the change in coding from ICD-9 to ICD- 10, with the combined coding year 2015 demonstrating equalization of proportion of performed procedures prior to the flip in 2016. Since ICD-10 procedure coding was more specific for CBDR and LR, we as a result of this conclude that ICD-10 coding years 2016 and onward are more accurate and the latest trends demonstrate the increasing performance of only CBDR in KT patients rather than CBDR with LR (75% vs. 25% in 2019). Analysis of socio-demographics is presented in the Table. More than 2/3 of the patients were above age 60. Proportionally CBDR alone was more likely to be covered by public insurance than CBDR with LR (Public: 63.7% vs. 57.1%; Private: 34% vs. 40%). Even though it is a more invasive intervention, CBDR with LR had slightly less mean overall charges (MC=$223,903 for CBDR vs. $212,072 for CBDR with LR (P=0.5574)) and similar hospital resource utilization (LOS= 14 days for CBDR vs.14.7 days for CBDR with LR) compared to CBDR alone. Most of the procedures (>94%) were performed in teaching hospitals. Inpatient mortality was 5.5% for CBDR alone vs. 8.7 % for CBDR with LR. Conclusions: Our analysis demonstrated that for KT proportionally, CBDR performance is more prevalent than CBDR with LR in the latest years 2016-2019. Considering the comparable cost and hospital resource utilization with intent to cure, more aggressive surgical management should be pursued. Inpatient mortality was higher for more aggressive surgical management 5.5% for CBDR alone vs. 8.7% for CBDR with LR. Insurance type may play a role in the procedure choice. [Table: see text]
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