ABSTRACT
Anti-phospholipid syndrome is characterized by the occurrence of venous or arterial thrombosis in the presence of anti-phospholipid antibodies and is associated with morbidity during pregnancy. Arterial thromboses are less common than venous thromboses and most frequently manifest with features consistent with ischemia or infarction. Only a few cases of arterial thrombosis with primary anti-phospholipid syndrome have been reported in Korea. We report a 41-year-old man with anti-phospholipid syndrome who had abdominal pain due to a recurrent renal infarction, and we review the literature on anti-phospholipid syndrome.
Subject(s)
Pregnancy , Abdominal Pain , Antibodies , Antiphospholipid Syndrome , Infarction , Ischemia , Kidney , Korea , Thrombosis , Venous ThrombosisABSTRACT
Deep neck space infections usually arise from infectious conditions of the upper aerodigestive tract. Candida albicans is a normal commensal of humans but usually causes invasive infections in immunocompromised patients. We report an immunocompetent 70-year-old woman with a Candida abscess in the deep neck space. She did not have dental or oropharyngeal disease, medication use, or medical illnesses that could cause an immunocompromised condition, except stable chronic hepatitis C. She was admitted to the hospital with fever, shortness of breath, a drowsy consciousness, and swallowing difficulty. Despite empirical antibiotic therapy, her signs and symptoms did not improve. A deep neck space abscess in the retropharyngeal space was revealed by computed tomography (CT). An abscess culture yielded C. albicans. She was treated with an antifungal agent rather then antibiotics. After 5 weeks of antifungal agent treatment and external drainage, follow-up CT scans showed substantial improvement in the abscess.
Subject(s)
Female , Humans , Abscess , Anti-Bacterial Agents , Candida , Candida albicans , Consciousness , Deglutition , Drainage , Dyspnea , Fever , Follow-Up Studies , Hepatitis C, Chronic , Immunocompetence , Immunocompromised Host , Neck , Retropharyngeal AbscessABSTRACT
Thymic carcinoma is a rare but aggressive epithelial neoplasm with a strong propensity for early local invasion and widespread metastasis. It is common for thymic carcinomas to invade the lungs, pericardium, and great vessels. However, invasion of thymic carcinoma into the right atrium, right ventricle, mediastinum, and superior vena cava is very rare. There have been sporadic reports on intracardiac thymic carcinomas globally and only one case report in South Korea to date. We herein report a case of intracardiac thymic carcinoma presenting as right-sided heart failure with congestive hepatopathy.
Subject(s)
Estrogens, Conjugated (USP) , Heart Atria , Heart Failure , Heart Neoplasms , Heart Ventricles , Lung , Mediastinum , Neoplasm Metastasis , Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial , Pericardium , Republic of Korea , Thymoma , Vena Cava, SuperiorABSTRACT
A 59-year-old man visited our hospital for facial edema and muscle weakness in both lower extremities. He was diagnosed with dermatomyositis (DM) about 1 year previously, and sudden development of proteinuria was noted. Renal biopsy revealed focal global and segmental glomerulosclerosis with slight mesangial expansion. Glomerulonephritis is rare in DM. According to our review of related literature, membranous nephropathy is the main type of DM, while mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis is the most common type in polymyositis. The mechanism underlying the association between DM and glomerulonephritis remains to be elucidated. We herein report a case of DM associated with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, which has not been reported previously.