A Cause of Bilateral Chylothorax: A Case of Mesothelioma without Pleural Involvement during Initial Diagnosis.

Chylothorax is characterized by fluid accumulation in the pleural cavity containing chylomicrons due to disruption of lymphatic drainage in the thoracic ductus and development of chylothorax. A 60-year-old male patient presented to our clinic with shortness of breath and displayed bilateral pleural effusion and diffuse mediastinal lymph nodes in his computed chest tomography images. There were no thickening and nodular formation on the pleural surfaces. PET-CT showed no pathological FDG uptake. Thoracentesis showed a chylous effusion. Drainage reduced during monitoring could not be stopped; therefore, surgical intervention was considered. The patient underwent right thoracotomy. There were no pathological findings in the parietal and visceral pleura during the surgery. Initially lymphoma was considered. Perioperative samples were collected from the mediastinal lymph node. The pathology analysis reported metastasis of malignant mesothelioma. Evaluation of a repeated chest computed tomography showed nodular formations on the pleural surfaces. Mediastinal lymph nodes compressed the ductus thoracicus, resulting with chylothorax. The present case, with malignant mesothelioma, bilateral chylothorax, and mediastinal lymph node without any pleural involvement during initial diagnosis, is rare and will hence contribute to the literature.

Pulmonary Hyalinizing Granuloma Mimicking Metastatic Lung Cancer.

Pulmonary hyalinizing granuloma is a very rare benign condition, which usually manifests as solitary and sometimes as multiple pulmonary nodules. Deposition of immune complexes in the lung parenchyma due to hypersensitivity reactions is implicated in the etiology of pulmonary hyalinizing granuloma. A 59-year-old female patient who presented to our clinic with complaints of chest pain and cough had bilateral, multiple, and rounded lesions with regular margins suggesting metastatic lung disease. A transthoracic needle biopsy of the nodule was performed in the left pulmonary anterior segment. Biopsy showed no malignancy. Since no diagnosis was made by the biopsy, the patient underwent a video-assisted thoracic surgery. The wedge biopsy reported pulmonary hyalinizing granuloma. We aimed to present the diagnosis and treatment stages of our patient who was diagnosed with pulmonary hyalinizing granuloma in the light of literature review.

Importance of the cell block technique in diagnosing patients with non-small cell carcinoma accompanied by pleural effusion.

BACKGROUND: Cytological examination of pleural effusions is very important in the diagnosis of malignant lesions. Thoracentesis is the first investigation to be performed in a patient with pleural effusion. In this study, we aimed to compare traditional with cell block methods for diagnosis of lung disease accompanied by pleural effusion. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 194 patients with exudative pleural effusions were included. Ten mililiters of fresh pleural fluid were obtained by thoracentesis from all patients in the initial evaluation. The samples gathered were divided to two equal parts, one for conventional cytological analysis and the other for analysis with the cell block technique. In cytology, using conventional diagnostic criteria cases were divided into 3 categories, benign, malignant and undetermined. The cell block sections were evaluated for the presence of single tumor cells, papillary or acinar patterns and staining with mucicarmine. In the cell block examination, in cases with sufficient cell counts histopathological diagnosis was performed. RESULTS: Of the total undergoing conventional cytological analyses, 154 (79.4%)were reported as benign, 33 (17%) as malignant and 7 (3.6%) as suspicious of malignancy. With the cell block method the results were 147 (75.8%) benign, 12 (6.2%) metastatic, 4 (2.1%) squamous cell carcinoma, 18 (9.3%) adenocarcinoma, 5 (2.6%) large cell carcinoma, 2 (1%) mesothelioma, 3 (1.5%) small cell carcinoma, and 3 (1.5%) lymphoma. CONCLUSIONS: Our study confirmed that the cell block method increases the diagnostic yield with exudative pleural effusions accompanying lung cancer.

(18)F-FDG PET/CT mean SUV and metabolic tumor volume for mean survival time in non-small cell lung cancer.

OBJECTIVE: The study was designed to determine the relationship between survival time of standardized uptake value (SUVmax and SUVmean) and metabolic tumor volume (MTV) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and examine the impact of demographic, clinical, and radiological data of these patients on survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of the records of 79 patients with NSCLC who presented to our hospital between May 2010 and March 2013, received a final diagnosis, and underwent F-FDG PET/CT for staging. Clinical, radiological, and F-FDG PET/CT parameters with an impact on prognosis such as the SUVmax of the primary tumor as calculated by the volumetric region of interest in the F-FDG PET/CT scans during initial diagnosis, mean SUV of the tumor, and MTV obtained with a threshold of SUVmax greater than 2.5 were recorded and statistically analyzed. A statistical analysis was carried out based on the clinical, radiological, and PET/CT findings of the patients who were divided into 2 groups: survivors and nonsurvivors. RESULTS: Seventy patients (88.6%) were men, and 9 (11.4%) were women. The mean age was 63.65 ± 11.51 years in the nonsurvivor group (n = 40) versus 62.74 ± 10.60 years in the survivor group (n = 39) (Table 1). The mean survival time from diagnosis was 7.9 ± 6.52 months in the nonsurvivor group versus 14.09 ± 7.41 months in the survivor group. The mean survival time was 12.9 ± 7.9 months for those aged 60 or younger, whereas it was 9.9 ± 7.2 years for those aged 60 or older. According to the Cox regression analysis, higher MTV [relative risk (RR), 1.006; P = 0.03] and mean SUVmax (mSUV) (RR, 1.302; P = 0.03) had a significant impact on shortening of the mean survival time. However, no statistical significance was reached for SUVmax measurements (RR, 0.970; P = 0.39). Furthermore, there was a significant relationship between increased tumor size (<2 cm, 2-4 cm, and ≥4 cm) and shortened mean survival time (P = 0.03). CONCLUSION: The present study showed that MTV and mSUV of FDG PET/CT scans of the tumor, but not SUVmax, had a significant impact on survival time of patients with NSCLC. Based on this result, we believe that we might have more accurate information about the survival time of our patients if we also evaluate mSUV and MTV in combination with mSUV, which is frequently used for diagnosis and monitoring of patients with NSCLC during our daily practice.

Retained foreign body after chest stab wound.

Foreign bodies may occur after a thoracic trauma, but foreign bodies retained after stab wounds are rare. This paper reports the case of a 20-year-old man who was admitted with the diagnosis of haemothorax following a single stab wound on the chest. One month later, he was referred to the authors' clinic with symptoms of pain and swelling under the left scapula due to a previously overlooked foreign body on the chest wall.

Early and midterm results of single-port video-assisted thoracoscopic sympathectomy.

BACKGROUND: Video-assisted thoracoscopic sympathectomy (VATS) is the gold standard for patients with hyperhidrosis of the upper limbs. The primary aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the midterm outcome and the degree of satisfaction of patients who underwent single-port VATS. METHODS: Forty three patients diagnosed with hyperhidrosis underwent T3, T4 VATS single-port approach, between January 2009 and May 2011. Early and midterm outcome with particular emphasis on patient satisfaction were collected by hospital chart and telephonic interview. RESULTS: The mean follow-up was 14 months. No major perioperative complication occurred except for chylothorax in a case. During the immediate postoperative period, all the patients reported palmar anhydrosis. Compensatory sweating (6.9%) and recurrence of hyperhidrosis (6.9%) are responsible mainly for dissatisfaction. No patients experienced moderate or severe chronic pain. CONCLUSIONS: Single-port VATS is a feasible and minimally invasive technique with a low incidence of chronic pain for the treatment of hyperhidrosis. A few patients may experience compensatory sweating and recurrence of hyperhidrosis. The degree of patient satisfaction with the midterm surgical results is high.