RESUMO
The combination of miliary tuberculosis and tuberculous mycotic aneurysm has been described in the literature. We present the case of an 84-year-old man who was diagnosed with a mycotic aneurysm of the abdominal aorta and an adjacent soft tissue mass, after a 3- month history of fever. The patient underwent endovascular restoration of the aneurysm and was treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics. One and a half months later the fever relapsed and the chest CT scan revealed findings consistent with miliary tuberculosis and opacities of both upper lobes not present before, while the abdominal CT scan revealed an increase in the size of the para-aortic mass. Tuberculosis was documented by positive culture for M. tuberculosis of bronchial washing and by the CT-guided para-aortic mass biopsy. The patient received anti-TB treatment for 9 months leading to a spectacular improvement of his clinical condition and imaging findings. A review of the literature since 2008 revealed 28 more cases of tuberculous mycotic aneurysm. The treatment and outcome of all cases are described. Mycotic aneurysm of tuberculous etiology remains a reality and has a relatively good prognosis. Although miliary tuberculosis affects mortality even elderly patients may benefit from "aggressive" management and treatment.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) represents 85% of all lung cancers. It is estimated that 60% of patients with NSCLC at time of diagnosis have advanced disease. The aim of this study was to investigate clinical and demographic prognostic factors of long term survival in patients with unresectable NSCLC. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed data of 1,156 patients with NSCLC stage IIIB or IV who survived more than 60 days from the time of diagnosis and treated from August 1987 until March 2013 in the Oncology Department of Pulmonary Clinic of the General Hospital Papanikolaou. Initially univariate analysis using the log-rank test was conducted and then multivariate analysis using the proportional hazards model of Cox. Also Kaplan Meier curves were used to describe the distribution of survival times of patients. The level of significance was set at 0.05. RESULTS: The mean age at diagnosis was 62 years. About 11.9% of patients were women and 88.1% were male. The majority of cases were adenocarcinomas (42.2%), followed squamous (33%) and finally the large cell (6%). Unlike men, most common histological type among women was adenocarcinoma rather than squamous (63% vs. 10.9%). In univariate analysis statistically significant factors in the progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were: weight loss ≥5%, histological type, line 1 drugs, line 1 combination, line 1 cycles and radio lung. Specifically radio lung gives clear survival benefit in the PFS and OS in stage IIIB (P=0.002) and IV (P<0.001). On the other hand, the number of distant metastases in stage IV patients did not affect OS, neither PFS. In addition patients who received platinum and taxane had better PFS (P=0.001) and OS (P<0.001) than those who received platinum without taxane. Also the third drug administration proved futile, since survival (682.06±34.9) (P=0.023) and PFS (434.93±26.93) (P=0.012) of patients who received less than three drugs was significantly larger. Finally, large cell carcinoma recorded the shortest OS and PFS compared with adenocarcinoma (P=0.043 and P=0.016 respectively) and squamous cell carcinoma (P=0.021 and P=0.004 respectively). In multivariate analysis the same predictors were statistically significant except for line 1 drugs. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms the increased incidence of adenocarcinoma in women than in men and the aggressiveness of large cell carcinoma. It also underlines the vitality of factors such as weight loss, radio lung and doublet platinum-based. On the other hand, it excludes significant factors such as gender, age and smoking.
