Recent studies demonstrated that the expression of coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor (CAR) is implicated in the pathophysiology of myocarditis. The aim of the present study was to assess the association between active and borderline myocarditis and CAR expression in endomyocardial tissues, and analyze the association between CAR expression and treatment response. An analytic, cross-sectional, retrospective study was performed in 26 patients with myocarditis and 10 control subjects without heart disease. Myocardial biopsies were obtained and CAR transcription was measured by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis. The association between CAR mRNA levels and the response to immunosuppressive or conventional therapy (treatment responders, n=17; non-responders, n=9) or with the type of histological myocarditis (active myocarditis, n=16; borderline myocarditis, n=10) was analyzed. CAR transcription levels were significantly lower (P=0.012) in patients with myocarditis compared with controls, and a significant decrease was observed (P=0.023) in CAR mRNA levels among patients with borderline myocarditis compared with the no myocarditis group. Patients responding to therapy exhibited higher CAR mRNA levels (P=0.036) compared with patients not responding to treatment, as evaluated based on clinical and echocardiographic criteria (immunosuppressive therapy, n=8; conventional therapy, n=1). Myocarditis in non-responders was associated with fewer clinical manifestations and lower CAR mRNA levels. A significant difference was only found regarding the use of oral steroids in patients with active myocarditis who responded to treatment (P=0.02), with no difference in borderline myocarditis. In conclusion, the transcriptional level of CAR is low in the endomyocardial tissue of patients with myocarditis, and it is lower in borderline myocarditis and in non-responder patients. These findings may enable early identification of patients who may benefit from treatment and timely determination of prognosis.
Five per cent of patients presenting with choriocarcinoma develop small bowel metastasis. Tumors of the small bowel are rare and the metastases are generally from lung and breast carcinoma or from melanoma. Clinical presentation is vague and the majority of cases are autopsy findings. The main symptoms are related to the presence of abdominal tumor or hemorrhage, or bowel obstruction or perforation. We present the cases of three patients with small bowel metastasis from choriocarcinoma. A 24-year-old woman with bowel obstruction secondary to intussusception caused by a metastatic choriocarcinoma polypoid mass and two men, one 18 years old and the other 24 years old, with a history of testicular tumor, who presented with gastrointestinal bleeding due to small bowel metastasis from choriocarcinoma, 2 and 10 months after orchiectomy, respectively. Management was endoscopic in one case and surgical in the other two. Two patients died in the early postoperative period and one patient died during the first year of follow-up. Choriocarcinoma metastases are very rare and their main clinical manifestations are hemorrhage and bowel obstruction. Management can be either medical or surgical. The majority of patients with choriocarcinoma respond to chemotherapy but prognosis is worse for those patients presenting with small bowel metastasis.
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