Significantly prolonged procedure time and fluoroscopy time in overweight patients increase the risks associated with spine interventions, not only to the patients but also to the operating room staff exposed to ionizing radiation.
Acquired hemophilia A (AHA) is an uncommon complication caused by autoantibodies against Factor VIII. The main concern with these patients is hemorrhage, which is often treated with Factor VIII inhibitor bypassing activity (FEIBA). On rare occasions, treatment with FEIBA can result in thromboembolism, a potentially fatal complication. This unfortunate situation occurred in our patient, a 64-year-old female who was treated with FEIBA after being diagnosed with AHA. After initiating FEIBA, she developed clinical signs and symptoms of pulmonary embolism, which was ultimately responsible for her acute death. While pulmonary embolism may be a rare complication of FEIBA treatment, clinicians should be aware of its possibility, especially as the complete safety profile for this treatment is not well known.
An 80-year-old female with a history of osteoporosis was evaluated for sudden onset axial low back pain with bilateral lower extremity weakness, hyperreflexia, pain, urinary retention, and decreased rectal tone. Computed tomography of the lumbar spine revealed L1 compression fracture, retropulsion of bone causing spinal canal compromise with associated severe central canal stenosis. Following cement kyphoplasty of L1 with polymethyl methacrylate, the patient developed tachycardia and dyspnea. Chest radiograph and computed tomographic pulmonary angiogram revealed a large collection of hyperdense material within the right lower lobe pulmonary artery, consistent with pulmonary cement emboli. Management and imaging are discussed.
Simple hip radiographs alone are not sufficient to diagnose clinically significant hip osteoarthritis. Physical examination (hip internal rotation) was found to be more accurate than simple radiographs in the diagnosis of clinically significant hip osteoarthritis. Radiographs seem to best utilized when they are an extension of the physical examination and patient history.
Backgrounds: Despite numerous studies investigating the use of ultrasound (US) in assessing arteriovenous fistulas (AVF), there are no universally agreed threshold flow velocities in diagnosing significantly abnormal flow that are useful in predicting thrombotic flowrelated dysfunction. This study evaluates a predictive model using receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analyses to establish threshold velocities. Methods: Five hundred and eleven US scans were analysed. ROC curves were used to determine the optimal threshold time average mean velocity (TAMV), peak systolic velocity (PSV) and end diastolic velocity (EDV) of the brachial artery supplying the AVF in determining the need for intervention or thrombosis within 3 months of the scans. Estimated flow volume (FV) ROC was used as an evaluative comparison. Results: There were 356 negative and 155 positive scan results in relation to the need for intervention or thrombosis. Empirical flow velocity parameters of TAMV, EDV and PSV were analysed using ROC curves, yielding an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.95, 0.92 and 0.86, respectively. FV ROC analysis yields a comparative AUC of 0.90. A TAMV cut-off at 48.6 cm/s yielded the highest AUC. Subgroup analysis yielded an optimal TAMV cut-off of 45 cm/s for forearm and 49 cm/s for arm AVF. The EDV was also highly predictive of outcomes. PSV has the lowest accuracy.
Conclusion:The TAMV of inflow brachial artery to AVF is highly predictive of outcomes of thrombotic flow-related dysfunction. Our study confirms TAMV cut-offs of 45 cm/s for forearm and 49 cm/s for arm AVF. These results require prospective validation.
A rare cause of acute decompensated pulmonary hypertension is pulmonary tumor embolism (PTE), which is an uncommon complication of advanced lung malignancy. Patients diagnosed with PTE typically have a poor prognosis, and so patients with advanced lung tumors who present with signs of right heart failure and respiratory support should be evaluated for PTE. We present a case of a 54-year-old Hispanic female who initially presented with a one-month history of dysphagia, who was found to have acute pulmonary hypertension secondary to invasion of the pulmonary arteries by lung adenocarcinoma.
Portal vein thrombosis (PVT) is characterized by a complete or partial occlusion of the portal vein by a thrombus. The formation of the thrombus is usually attributed to an underlying condition that is causing a hypercoagulable state, such as malignancy or cirrhosis. When these causes are ruled out, a hypercoagulable workup can reveal other underlying prothrombotic etiologies. Still, some cases of PVT occur without any definitive underlying condition, leading to the diagnosis of idiopathic PVT. This occurred in our patient, a 53-year-old female who presented with PVT but had no clear underlying condition that led to her pathology after an extensive medical investigation.
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