Survival in a Case of Emphysematous Cholecystitis With Sepsis Caused by Clostridium perfringens.

A 77-year-old man presented to the Department of Internal Medicine with a chief complaint of abdominal pain. During the outpatient examination, a computed tomography (CT) scan showed gallstones. The patient developed worsening abdominal pain and fever and was admitted to the emergency department. He was diagnosed with cholecystitis and hospitalized. Treatment with antimicrobial agents was initiated. On the second day of hospitalization, the patient developed a fever of 39°C, hypotension, and oliguria. An emergency CT scan was performed, which showed gas production in the gallbladder. He was diagnosed with emphysematous cholecystitis, and emergency percutaneous transhepatic gallbladder drainage was performed. The patient was transferred to the high-care unit, and intensive care was initiated. On the eighth day, a follow-up CT scan showed an abscess in the gallbladder bed, and drainage was performed percutaneously. His general condition gradually improved, and he was discharged from the hospital on day 24. The patient was readmitted for cholecystectomy three months after the initial admission. The prognosis of sepsis caused by Clostridium perfringens is extremely poor, with a mortality rate of 70%-100%. We present a case of emphysematous cholecystitis successfully treated with multimodal treatment despite the presence of sepsis due to Clostridium perfringens and discuss the possible prognostic factors by reviewing the literature.

Differences in Ki67 expressions between pre- and post-neoadjuvant chemotherapy specimens might predict early recurrence of breast cancer.

The prognosis of breast cancer patients not obtaining a pathological complete response (pCR) with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is poorer than that of pCR patients. Identifying new prognostic factors for non-pCR patients is important because fractions of this population might benefit from novel adjuvant treatments currently under development. High Ki67 expression in remnant disease after NAC has been described as a poor prognostic factor. Studies have shown that a reduction in Ki67 expression is more often observed in good responders to chemotherapy. We hypothesized that the change in Ki67 expression might be useful for predicting patient outcomes and thus retrospectively examined pairs of biopsy and surgical specimens of breast tissue from individual patients. One hundred sixteen patients with remnant invasive disease in the breast, who received NAC and underwent surgery at our institution, were retrospectively examined. Differences in Ki67 expression between pre- and post-NAC specimens were analyzed in relation to patient outcomes. The mean Ki67 expression value after NAC was higher in patients who developed metastasis than in those without metastasis (P<.01). Tumors showing higher Ki67 expression in the surgical than in the biopsy specimen were more frequent in patients with metastasis (P<.01). This trend was more obvious in patients who developed metastasis within 1 year after surgery. Our results indicate that a difference in Ki67 expressions after versus before NAC might be an important predictor of early metastasis. Evaluating not only absolute Ki67 values, but also any changes in response to NAC, may improve the prediction of patient outcomes.

Risk factors for postoperative complications in patients on maintenance hemodialysis who undergo abdominal surgery.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Patients on hemodialysis (HD) who undergo abdominal surgery for gastrointestinal disease are at increased risk of postoperative complications. In this study, we retrospectively investigated the predictors of postoperative complications among such patients. METHODS: The study group comprised 36 HD patients who underwent abdominal surgery for gastrointestinal disease between 2003 and 2012. The clinicopathological factors of the patients who did and did not suffer postoperative complications were compared. RESULTS: The overall morbidity and mortality rates were 39% (14/36) and 14% (5/36), respectively. Physical status according to the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) classification (p = 0.0203) and intraoperative blood loss (p = 0.0013) were found to differ significantly between the groups. CONCLUSION: The morbidity and mortality rates of HD patients who underwent abdominal surgery for gastrointestinal disease were high. Physical status according to the ASA classification and intraoperative blood loss were found to be associated with postoperative complications. Therefore, patients with comorbidities, such as heart disease and diabetes mellitus, have to be treated appropriately before surgery. In addition, it is important that surgeons perform operations carefully and avoid excessive blood loss.

Application of a 70-Gene Expression Profile to Japanese Breast Cancer Patients.

BACKGROUND: As data on using MammaPrint®, a 70-gene expression profile for molecular subtyping of breast cancer, are limited in Japanese patients, we aimed to determine the gene profiles of Japanese patients using MammaPrint and to investigate its possible clinical application for selecting adjuvant treatments. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 50 women treated surgically at our institution were examined. The MammaPrint results were compared with the St Gallen 2007 and intrinsic subtype risk categorizations. RESULTS: Of 38 cases judged to be at intermediate risk based on the St Gallen 2007 Consensus, 11 (29%) were in the high-risk group based on MammaPrint. 1 of the 30 luminal A-like tumors (3%) was judged as high risk based on MammaPrint results, whereas 7 of the 20 tumors (35%) categorized as luminal B-like or triple negative were in the low-risk group. There have been no recurrences to date in the MammaPrint group, and this is possibly attributable to most of the high-risk patients receiving chemotherapy that had been recommended on the basis of their MammaPrint results. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that MammaPrint is applicable to Japanese patients and that it is of potential value in current clinical practice for devising individualized treatments.

Ki67 expression and the effect of neo-adjuvant chemotherapy on luminal HER2-negative breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: Patients with luminal HER2-negative tumours have a favourable prognosis. However, there is a subpopulation in which poorer outcomes are obtained with endocrine therapy alone. This subpopulation is considered to benefit from chemotherapy. However, the significance of chemotherapy for those with luminal tumours has decreased due to recent changes in treatment strategies. Thus, it is often difficult to determine whether we should recommend chemotherapy to such patients in clinical practice. We investigated Ki67 expression, as a means of predicting the responses of luminal HER2-negative breast cancer patients to neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (NAC), in order to identify a subpopulation that would benefit from these treatments. METHODS: We enrolled 114 luminal HER2-negative breast cancer patients undergoing surgery after NAC. Biomarkers were examined using biopsy specimens obtained prior to treatment, to avoid any chemotherapy-related effects. Chemotherapy effects were determined employing operative specimens and we defined pathological complete response (pCR) as invasive nest disappearance, based only on the primary breast tumour. We applied receiver operating characteristic curve analysis to data from our 114 patients, to investigate Ki67 expression as a predictor of pCR. RESULTS: The pCR rate was significantly higher for tumours with high Ki67 expression (p < 0.01) and all patients who obtained pCR remained recurrence-free during the median 58-month observation period. We identified 35% as the Ki67 cut-off value which distinguishes those with a pCR from other cases. Another dataset, comprised of 196 patients with a median 29-month observation period, was recruited for validation. Disease-free survival was found to be significantly (p < 0.01) lower in the patients with tumours in which Ki67 expression was higher than 35%. CONCLUSION: Our results raise the possibility of the luminal HER2-negative subpopulation with Ki67 expression higher than 35% benefiting from chemotherapy, as evidenced by improved survival.