Pregnant women are more prone to increased coagulability and, as such, venous thromboembolism (VTE) tends to occur 10 times more frequently in pregnant women than in the general population, with the rate ranging between 0.05% and 0.3% [1]. About 20% of maternal deaths are believed to be caused by VTE in the USA. Here, we report a case of a pregnant woman who developed cardiac arrest because of pulmonary embolism (PE) and subsequently underwent cesarean section. Case report A 39-year-old woman was referred to our hospital, at 23 weeks of gestation, for treatment of preterm labor. During hospitalization, she was placed on bed rest, with permission to stand and walk only for personal hygiene care and defecation without additional use of compression stockings. Four weeks later she suddenly complained of shortness of breath. Her D-dimer also increased to 5.2 mg/mL. Concerning the radiation exposure to the fetus, although agreeing to contrast computed tomography (CT) of the chest, agreement was not obtained for radiation to the uterus. We diagnosed PE. In the absence of evidence of deep vein thrombus of the lower extremities on venous echography, the patient was treated with continuous unfractionated heparin infusion. Activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) was continuously administered 1.5-2.5 times as a guide. An inferior
A 77-year-old man with symptoms of chest pain was diagnosed with immunoglobulin G4 (IgG4)-related disease. Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) revealed an intense uptake in the submandibular gland, lymph nodes and abdominal aortic wall. Diffusion-weighted imaging with background body signal suppression (DWIBS) revealed signal enhancements at the same location as those of the FDG-PET/CT findings. The DWIBS signal intensity decreased after steroid treatment, so we decreased the steroid dosage. Relapse did not occur. DWIBS makes it possible to adjust the medicine dosage while confirming the therapeutic effects and will likely be a useful method for monitoring IgG4related disease.
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