Image-guided percutaneous biopsy is a common and safe interventional radiology procedure with the purpose of tissue sampling for patohistological evaluation. It is usually performed under ultrasound ...or computed tomography (CT) guidance for easily reachable, as well as difficult to reach, tumors in order to avoid surgical open biopsy.
Introduction: Schwannomas (Schs) are benign tumor masses that rarely occur intra-abdominally and rarely reach larger diameters. When present, they occur as rare solitary nerve sheath tumors of ...peri-neural Schwann cells. Schwannoma mostly affects the nerves of the extremities, trunk, or the head and neck region. They are more common in female patients, mostly among patients between the third and fifth decade. They occur spontaneously but could also be found in association with a group of genetic autosomal dominant disorders called type 2. When present intra-abdominally, schwannomas grow slowly without significant clinical signs and symptoms. Clinical importance is presented in cases of occupying intra-abdominal space and impingement of surrounding structures, which causes intermittent pain. Only 0.5–5% of all retroperitoneal tumors are schwannomas and their malignant transformation is very rare. Case report: The authors present a case of a large intra-abdominal schwannoma in a 70-year-old female patient. She underwent CT scanning due to refractory left-sided subcostal pain, which revealed a large tumor mass in the left-sided hemiabdomen. Preoperative cytologic biopsy confirmed Sch. The patient underwent an MRI scan upon admission to our department, which revealed the origin of the tumor at the left-sided L3 level and intra-abdominal tumor spreading with the largest diameter of 25 cm. The patient underwent multidisciplinary surgical excision, confirmed by MRI scan in a period of five months postoperatively. Conclusions: Its rare presentation leads to the necessity to adequately evaluate such patients, especially to avoid any hidden diagnosis which might lead to further complications. The goal of a multidisciplinary approach should be emphasized as maintaining a good postsurgical condition without neurological deficits.
Lemierre's syndrome refers to the septic thrombophlebitis of the internal jugular vein. The condition typically begins with an oropharyngeal infection and frequently involves inflammation within the ...wall of the vein, infected thrombus within the lumen, surrounding soft tissue inflammation, persistent bacteremia, and septic emboli. Lemierre's syndrome is a rare disease; it occurs most commonly in otherwise healthy young adults. The most common etiologic agent is Fusobacterium necrophorum. We present a case of Lemierre's syndrome in a young girl and the role of extracorporeal method of blood purification with continuous venous hemodiafiltration with the use of a highly adsorptive membrane (AN69 HeprAN), thus achieving the combined elimination of cytokines and endotoxins. The use of advanced methods, along with an antibiotic and surgical treatment, will certainly help reduce mortality in this syndrome.
Background
Percutaneous mechanical thrombectomy (PMT) is a well-established technique for treatment of acute arterial and venous thrombosis which inevitably leads to intravascular erythrocyte ...hemolysis, resulting in hemoglobinuria.
Case presentation
We present a case of 66-year-old Caucasian female with subclavian artery aneurysm causing distal embolization and hand ischemia. The aneurysm was treated with stent graft, but with a subsequent graft thrombosis 3 months later. After graft recanalisation, AngioJet PMT was performed which resulted in dialysis-requiring acute kidney injury.
Conslusion
Only several cases of acute kidney injury following AngioJet PMT have been published in literature. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of dialysis-requiring AKI after PMT for peripheral arterial thrombosis. Until there is sufficient evidence and recommendation on preventing AKI in this setting, we believe that by being aware of the risk and by monitoring of patient, one might minimize the damage in case it occurs.
Higher turnaround of urologic patients in the tertiary clinical center can lead to more accompanying complications, ranging from 1% to 55% for various procedures, with the incidence of vascular ...injuries varying from 0.43% up to 9.5%. In patients with impaired renal function, it is imperative to prevent the loss of normal kidney function and potential hemodialysis. Being minimally invasive, endovascular procedures such as renal artery embolization (RAE) can treat major and life-threatening complications, but good and prompt communication between urologists and interventional radiologist is necessary for fast and effective treatment. Absolute contraindications for RAE are the presence of acute infection and previously known anaphylactic reaction to the iodine contrast media, while previous mild or moderate allergic reactions to iodine contrast media are not contraindications for RAE. Currently used embolic agents can be divided into temporary and permanent embolization agents. While the temporary embolization agent available is a gelatin sponge that could be used as complementary material or stand-alone, for permanent embolization interventional radiologists use microparticles, microspheres, liquid embolic agents, coils, and microcoils. RAE procedures are considered to be safe with a low incidence of complications, with non-target embolization being the most serious one. Postembolization syndrome is considered to be the most common adverse effect and it involves around 90% of patients. The overall results show that RAE is a safe, minimally invasive procedure that can effectively treat significant complications caused by other urologic procedures, with the reported success rates of 87%-100%.Higher turnaround of urologic patients in the tertiary clinical center can lead to more accompanying complications, ranging from 1% to 55% for various procedures, with the incidence of vascular injuries varying from 0.43% up to 9.5%. In patients with impaired renal function, it is imperative to prevent the loss of normal kidney function and potential hemodialysis. Being minimally invasive, endovascular procedures such as renal artery embolization (RAE) can treat major and life-threatening complications, but good and prompt communication between urologists and interventional radiologist is necessary for fast and effective treatment. Absolute contraindications for RAE are the presence of acute infection and previously known anaphylactic reaction to the iodine contrast media, while previous mild or moderate allergic reactions to iodine contrast media are not contraindications for RAE. Currently used embolic agents can be divided into temporary and permanent embolization agents. While the temporary embolization agent available is a gelatin sponge that could be used as complementary material or stand-alone, for permanent embolization interventional radiologists use microparticles, microspheres, liquid embolic agents, coils, and microcoils. RAE procedures are considered to be safe with a low incidence of complications, with non-target embolization being the most serious one. Postembolization syndrome is considered to be the most common adverse effect and it involves around 90% of patients. The overall results show that RAE is a safe, minimally invasive procedure that can effectively treat significant complications caused by other urologic procedures, with the reported success rates of 87%-100%.
Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common malignancy of the brain with a relatively short median survival and high mortality. Advanced age, high socioeconomic status, exposure to ionizing radiation, and ...other factors have been correlated with an increased incidence of GBM, while female sex hormones, history of allergies, and frequent use of specific drugs might exert protective effects against this disease. However, none of these explain the pathogenesis of GBM. The most recent WHO classification of CNS tumors classifies neoplasms based on their histopathological and molecular characteristics. Modern laboratory techniques, such as matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) imaging mass spectrometry, enable the comprehensive metabolic analysis of the tissue sample. MALDI imaging is able to characterize the spatial distribution of a wide array of biomolecules in a sample, in combination with histological features, without sacrificing the tissue integrity. In this review, we first provide an overview of GBM epidemiology, risk, and protective factors, as well as the recent WHO classification of CNS tumors. We then provide an overview of mass spectrometry workflow, with a focus on MALDI imaging, and recent advances in cancer research. Finally, we conclude the review with studies of GBM that utilized MALDI imaging and offer our perspective on future research.
Tracheal measurements in the intensive care unit (ICU) are important for the choice of endotracheal tube and may correlate with patient demographic characteristics and infections. The study included ...42 surgical patients, age 60 48-71 years, who underwent diagnostic chest computed tomography (CT) scans during treatment in the ICU, Osijek University Hospital, in 2019 and 2020. CT scans were analyzed using AW Server 3.2. Measurement analysis showed that the diameters of the tracheobronchial tree, the length of the trachea and left main bronchus were significantly larger in men compared to women (p<0.05 all). The smallest tracheal upper diameter was 15.25 IQR 11.8-18.8 mm vs. 17.95 13.55-20.05 mm in septic and nonseptic patients, respectively (p=0.028). A total of 26 patients who underwent CT scans developed nosocomial pneumonia. It was right-sided in 15, left-sided in 6 and bilateral in 5 patients, and correlated significantly with the left main bronchus length (ρ=0.515, p=0.007). No correlation was observed between tracheobronchial measurements and length of ICU treatment, number of hours spent on mechanical ventilation, or survival. A larger study could provide better data on the importance of tracheobronchial tree measurements in ICU patients.
: The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on medical practice worldwide. In this study, we aimed to investigate the trends of elective spine surgery in our department before and during the ...pandemic.
: Total number of spine procedures due to disc herniation (DH) or spinal stenosis (SS) was collected during 2019-2021 in the Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Center Osijek, Croatia. In order to elucidate potential risk factors in the post-pandemic period, demographic data were collected for patients who underwent surgery during 2021.
: In 2020, there was a 22.1% decrease in the number of surgeries compared to 2019 (205 vs. 263), but during 2021 we observed an increase of 36.1% compared to 2020 (279 vs. 205). The mean age of patients in 2021 was 53.14 years (53.14 ± 13.05) with body mass index of 28.31 kg/m
(28.31 ± 4.89). There were 179 overweight patients (74%) and 103 smokers (42.6%). Although male and female patients were equally represented (121 each), there was a significant interaction of weight class and sex (
= 0.013). Patients younger than 65 were more likely to undergo surgery due to DH (
< 0.001), whereas older patients were more likely to suffer from SS (
< 0.001).
: The volume of elective spine surgeries decreased in the first year of the pandemic and increased the following year. Our results suggest that public health policies in the early pandemic period reduced elective surgical procedures, which was followed by a compensatory increase in the following period.
Measuring the quality of life (QoL) of women with breast cancer is an important aspect of measuring treatment success. In Croatia, no QoL studies have been carried out with a focus on patients after ...mastectomy. The aim of this study was to examine QoL 1 month and 1 year after mastectomy.
This cross-sectional single-center study of quality of life was conducted in 101 patients, 50 of whom had undergone a mastectomy 1 month prior, and 51 of whom had undergone a mastectomy 1 year prior. The study was conducted from July 2015 to June 2016. The questionnaires used in the study were developed by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC). The questionnaire EORTC QLQ-C30 assesses the QoL of cancer patients, and the questionnaire EORTC QLQ-BR23 is a disease-specific breast cancer module. A chi square test, Fisher's exact test, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Student's t-test and Mann-Whitney U test were performed in the statistical analysis using the statistical program SPSS (Inc. Released 2008. SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 17.0. Chicago: SPSS Inc.).
Patients who had undergone a mastectomy a year earlier placed a higher value on their health state than did those who had undergone a mastectomy a month earlier. The most affected values of functional status on the EORTC QLQ-C30 scale were emotional functioning (37.5 95% CI 33.3-61.6) and sexual functioning (16.67 95% CI 0-33.3) 1 month and 1 year after mastectomy, respectively. The most affected symptoms on the EORTC QLQ-C30 scale were hair loss 66.67 95% CI 33.3-100) and fatigue 33.33 95% CI 24-44) 1 month and 1 year after mastectomy, respectively.
In our study, both functional and symptom scales were more affected in women 1 month after mastectomy. QoL was considerably improved in women 1 year after the surgery compared to 1 month after mastectomy. The results of this study could contribute to the public awareness of the QoL of breast cancer patients.
Objectives of the study were to observe supraspinatus muscle thickness in patients with supraspinatus tendon pathology using ultrasound (US) and examining inter- and intra-rater reliability, and to ...compare muscle thickness with cross-sectional area (CSA) and occupation ratio measured by both US and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The investigation was designed as a prospective cohort study. Two groups of patients were included in the study: 43 patients with tendon rupture and 44 patients without tendon rupture as a control group. A written consent was obtained from all patients. In both groups, muscle thickness, CSA and occupation ratio were measured with US, and CSA and occupation ratio with MRI. Study results showed statistically significant between-group differences. The mean supraspinatus muscle thickness measured by US was 14.01 mm and 19.83 mm in patients with and without tendon rupture, respectively. CSA and occupation ratio measured by US and MRI also showed statistically significant between-group differences. Pearson correlation coefficient between supraspinatus thickness and occupation ratio and CSA measured by US and MRI showed strong to moderate correlation. US measurements showed moderate to strong intra- and inter-rater reliability. In conclusion, supraspinatus muscle thickness measurement by US is a reliable method for muscle atrophy evaluation and strongly correlates with other acknowledged methods.
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