Pulmonary hypoplasia is a rare but usually lethal disease. We report a full-term male neonate who presented with respiratory failure immediately after birth. Chest X-ray revealed a small lung volume despite advanced ventilator support. Respiratory failure persisted and this baby died at 40.5 hours of age. The autopsy showed a lung-to-birth weight ratio of 0.69% and a radial alveoli count of 2.97. All this information confirmed the diagnosis of primary congenital pulmonary hypoplasia.
A 73-year-old woman was admitted to hospital because of progressive dyspnea on exertion. Computed tomography revealed a large hepatic tumor, which was proved to be a hepatic epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (EHE). Echocardiography demonstrated high cardiac output, for which the tumor was considered to be the leading cause. A transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) was performed sequentially at 1-month intervals to reduce the size of the hepatic tumor, and this temporarily improved the patient's cardiac condition and quality of life. In this case, we successfully used TACE in the treatment of hepatic EHE with high-output heart failure. TACE is a reasonable choice of treatment both for managing malignant hepatic tumors and resolving low systemic vascular resistance by embolization of the abnormal neoangiogenic vessels. Nevertheless, clinicians should be aware of the potential adverse effect of hepatic decompensation induced by TACE, especially when the tumor involvement is widespread and poorly preserved hepatic function is encountered.
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