Complete post-operative resolution of "temporary" end-stage kidney disease secondary to aortic dissection without static renal artery obstruction: a case study.

BACKGROUND: Acute kidney injury (AKI), which may progress to end-stage kidney disease (ESKD), is a potential complication of aortic dissection. Notably, in all reported ESKD cases secondary to aortic dissection, imaging evidence of static obstruction of the renal arteries always shows either renal artery stenosis or extension of the dissection into the renal arteries. CASE PRESENTATION: We present the case of a 58-year-old man with hypertension who was diagnosed with a Stanford type B aortic dissection and treated with medications alone because there were no obvious findings indicative of dissection involving the renal arteries. He had AKI, which unexpectedly progressed to ESKD, without any radiological evidence of direct involvement of the renal arteries. Thus, we failed to attribute the ESKD to the dissection and hesitated to perform any surgical intervention. Nevertheless, the patient's hormonal levels, fractional excretion values, ankle brachial indices, and Doppler resistive indices seemed to indirectly suggest kidney malperfusion and implied renal artery hypo-perfusion. However, abdominal computed tomography imaging only revealed progressive thrombotic obstruction of the false lumen and compression of the true lumen in the descending thoracic aorta, despite the absence of anatomical blockage of renal artery perfusion. Later, signs of peripheral malperfusion, such as intermittent claudication, necessitated surgical intervention; a graft replacement of the aorta was performed. Post-operatively, the patient completely recovered after 3 months of haemodialysis, and the markers that had pre-operatively suggested decreased renal bloodstream normalised with recovery of kidney function. CONCLUSIONS: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of severe AKI, secondary to aortic dissection, without direct renal artery obstruction, which progressed to "temporary" ESKD and was resolved following surgery. This case suggests that only coarctation above the renal artery branches following an aortic dissection can progress AKI to ESKD, despite the absence of radiological evidence confirming an obvious anatomical blockage. Further, indirect markers suggestive of decreased renal blood flow, such as ankle brachial indices, renal artery resistive indices, urinary excretion fractions, and hormonal changes, are useful for evaluating concomitant AKI and may indicate the need for surgical intervention after a Stanford type B aortic dissection.

Multiple primary malignant neoplasms of the glottis, renal pelvis, urinary bladder, oral floor, prostate, and esophagus in a Japanese male patient: a case report.

Owing to recent advances in diagnostic and surgical techniques for cancer, a patient diagnosed with two or more neoplasms is not rare. We report on the case of a 58-year-old male with multiple primary malignant neoplasms, who suffered from three histological types of malignant neoplasm in six organs, namely the glottis, renal pelvis, urinary bladder, oral floor, prostate, and esophagus in chronological order. The first neoplasm was a squamous cell carcinoma of the glottis diagnosed in 2006. The second and third neoplasms were urothelial carcinomas of the right renal pelvis and urinary bladder, respectively, diagnosed in 2008. The remaining three neoplasms were diagnosed in 2010, namely a squamous cell carcinoma of the oral floor, an adenocarcinoma of the prostate, and a squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus. The glottic cancer and esophageal cancer were treated by external radiation therapy. The malignant neoplasms of the oral floor and those which originated in the urinary tract were surgically resected. All neoplasms except the malignant neoplasm of the oral floor were well controlled. The patient died of cervical lymph node metastasis from the squamous cell carcinoma of the oral floor in January 2011. As far as we know, the present report is the first one on this combination of primary malignant neoplasms.

[Pyogenic spondylitis following unrelated hematopoietic stem cell transplantation].

Pyogenic spondylitis is regarded as a rare infectious disease. The incidence of this disease has been increasing recently due to an increase in the ratio of elderly people in the population as well as an increase in immunocompromised hosts complicated by cancer, diabetes mellitus and liver cirrhosis. Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is now performed widely as a curative treatment for various malignant hematological diseases. However, allogeneic HSCT causes chronic immunocompromise. There is no case report describing infectious spondylitis after HSCT. Here we describe a case of infectious spondylitis after HSCT and discuss risk factors and treatment. The patient was a 56-year-old female with AML-M1 who underwent allogeneic HSCT in our hospital. She developed back pain and fever about 150 days after HSCT and became unable to walk due to the severity of back pain. MRI T1 images showed a low intensity area, T2 images showed a high intensity area and Gd-DTPA-enhanced images showed a high intensity area at the S1-2 disk space. Clinical findings and MRI findings suggested pyogenic spondylitis. Back pain improved gradually after conservative treatment with meropenem (MEPM) for two weeks. After 4 weeks of MEPM administration, she had fully recovered and there has not been any recurrence of back pain to date. In conclusion, pyogenic spondylitis should be considered in the differential diagnoses for HSCT recipients with severe back pain.