Pulmonary abscess as a complication of COVID-19 associated pneumonia: a clinical case

The article describes a case of polysegmental destructive viral-bacterial pneumonia complicated with acute pulmonary abscess, pleural empyema, and pneumopleurofibrosis in a 50-year-old female patient infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The first clinical, laboratory and radiological signs of purulent-necrotic inflammation appeared only 20 days after receiving a positive RT-PCR test result with a nasopharyngeal swab. A month later, an emerging abscess in the lower lobe of the right lung was diagnosed. Subsequently, it spontaneously drained into the pleural cavity.Coagulopathy with the formation of microthrombi in small pulmonary vessels is one of the causative factors of lung abscess in patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Acute superior mesenteric artery occlusion associated with COVID-19 pneumonia: a case report

Background The novel 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which is caused by infection with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, has spread rapidly around the world and has caused many deaths. COVID-19 involves a systemic hypercoagulable state and arterial/venous thrombosis which induces unfavorable prognosis. Herein, we present a first case in East Asia where an acute superior mesenteric artery (SMA) occlusion associated with COVID-19 pneumonia was successfully treated by surgical intervention. Case presentation A 70-year-old man presented to his local physician with a 3-day history of cough and diarrhea. A real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction test showed positive for COVID-19, and he was admitted to the source hospital with the diagnosis of moderate COVID-19 pneumonia. Eight days later, acute onset of severe abdominal pain appeared with worsening respiratory condition. Contrast CT showed that bilateral lower lobe/middle lobe and lingula ground glass opacification with distribution suggestive of COVID-19 pneumonia and right renal infarction. In addition, it demonstrated SMA occlusion with intestinal ischemia suggesting extensive necrosis from the jejunum to the transverse colon. The patient underwent an emergency exploratory laparotomy with implementing institutional COVID-19 precaution guideline. Upon exploration, the intestine from jejunum at 100 cm from Treitz ligament to middle of transverse colon appeared necrotic. Necrotic bowel resection was performed with constructing jejunostomy and transverse colon mucous fistula. We performed second surgery to close the jejunostomy and transverse colon mucous fistula with end-to-end anastomosis on postoperative day 22. The postoperative course was uneventful and he moved to another hospital for rehabilitation to improve activities of daily living (ADLs) on postoperative day 45. As of 6 months after the surgery, his ADLs have completely improved and he has returned to social life without any intravenous nutritional supports. Conclusions Intensive treatment including surgical procedures allowed the patient with SMA occlusion in COVID-19 pneumonia to return to social life with completely independent ADLs. Although treatment for COVID-19 involves many challenges, including securing medical resources and controlling the spread of infection, when severe abdominal pain occurs in patients with COVID-19, physicians should consider SMA occlusion and treat promptly for life-saving from this deadly combination.

Systemic Artery to Pulmonary Artery Shunt Mimicking Acute Pulmonary Embolism, Unmasked by a Multimodality Imaging Approach

In this report, we describe the functional imaging findings of systemic artery to pulmonary artery shunt in V/Q SPECT CT imaging. A 63-year-old man with small-cell lung cancer underwent CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA) for suspected acute pulmonary embolism (PE). The CTPA showed an isolated segmental filling defect in the right lower lobe, which was initially interpreted as positive for PE but was actually the consequence of a systemic artery to pulmonary artery shunt due to the recruitment of the bronchial arterial network by the adjacent tumor. A V/Q SPECT/CT scan was also performed, demonstrating a matched perfusion/ventilation defect in the right lower lobe.

Recurrent cardiac hydatid cyst located near the root of the superior vena cava and the interatrial septum: a case report

Introduction: Cardiac localization of hydatid disease is rare (<3%) even in endemic countries. Affection characterized by a long functional tolerance and a large clinical and paraclinical polymorphism. Serious cardiac hydatitosis because of the risk of rupture requiring urgent surgery. The diagnosis is based on serology and echocardiography. The aim of this work is to show a case of recurrent cardiac hydatid cyst discovered incidentally during a facial paralysis assessment. Methods: We report the observation of a 26-year-old woman operated on in 2012 for pericardial hydatid cyst presenting a cardiac hydatid cyst located near the abutment of the SCV discovered incidentally during an exploration for left facial paralysis: NYHA stage II dyspnea. Chest x-ray: CTI at 0.48. ECG: RSR. Echocardiography: Image of cystic appearance at the level of the abutment of the SVC. SAPP: 38 mmhg, EF: 65%. Thoracic scan: 30/27 mm cardiac hydatid cyst bulging the lateral wall of the right atrium and the trunk of the right pulmonary artery with fissured cardiac hydatid cyst of the apical segment of the right lung of the right lower lobe with multiple bilateral intra parenchymal and sub pleural nodules. The patient was operated on under CPB. Intraoperative exploration: Presence of a hard and whitish mass, about 03 / 03cm developed in the full right atrial wall opposite the entrance to the superior vena cava. Procedure: Resection of the mass removing the roof of the LA, the AIS and the wall of the RA with reconstruction of the roof of the RA by patch in Dacron and reconstruction of the IAS and the wall of the RA by a single patch in Dacron. Results: The postoperative suites were simple. Conclusion: The hydatid cyst is still a real endemic in Algeria, the cardiac location is rare but serious and can constitute a real surgical emergency, hence the importance of prevention. Keywords: Hydatid cyst of the heart; Recurrence; Surgery; Cardiopulmonary Bypass; Prevention

January 2022 medical image of the month: bronchial obstruction due to pledget in airway following foregut cyst resection

No abstract available. Article truncated after 150 words. A 37-year-old woman complaining of chest pain and cough underwent resection of a mediastinal foregut duplication cyst complicated by a 10-day hospitalization with a prolonged air leak. Seven years later, she presented with worsening cough and shortness of breath, complaining of similar symptoms intermittently in the 7 years between her surgery and presentation. Chest CT showed a hyperattenuating lesion obstructing the medial basal segmental airways, with bronchoscopy revealing suture and a pledget obstructing the medial basal segmental right lower lobe bronchus. The pledget and suture were successfully removed. Repeat bronchoscopy several months later showed no residual airway foreign body, although medial basal subsegmental bronchial stenosis prevented advancement of the bronchoscope distally; this finding correlated with the CT impression of airway stenosis or occlusion in this region on the follow up CT. Bronchogenic cysts result from abnormal lung budding and development of the ventral foregut during the first trimester (1). Many …

Prevalence and Factors Associated with the Loss of PTEN Expression in Patients with Lung Cancer

Background: Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) is a major tumor suppressor gene and is involved in cell survival control. PTEN loss of expression (PTEN-) is associated with a poor outcome. Our study investigated the prevalence of PTEN- in terms of its characteristics and disease prognosis for lung cancer patients. Materials and Methods: In total, 167 tissue blocks from lung cancer patients at Chareonkrung Pracharak Hospital between January 2010 and December 2020 were studied through immunohistochemistry staining (IHC) for PTEN expression. The clinicopathological factors, IHC features, and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) status were analyzed in association with PTEN- in term of prognosis and the overall survival (OS). Result: Adenocarcinoma was the major subtype (85.6%) and most patients (90.6%) were diagnosed at stage IV of lung cancer. The prevalence of PTEN- was 66.5%. A location at the left lower lobe (LLL) location and the absence of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) were significantly associated with PTEN- (p=0.039, p=0.046), while the smoking was likely correlated but not statistically significant (p=0.09). The median OS for PTEN- was not significantly different from PTEN+ (8.88 vs 7.20 months, p=0.38). However, smoking, Eastern cooperative oncology group (ECOG) status and primary symptoms were significantly associated with poorer OS. Conclusion: The prevalence of PTEN- was higher in our studies. Absent TILs and a LLL location were independent factors associated with PTEN-. However, a right upper lobe (RUL) location with PTEN- tended to have a poor prognosis. Interestingly, better survival was found in active smokers with PTEN-. Further survival studies in cases with no TILs lesions and active smokers in associations PTEN expression and other immune-related biomarkers, such as programmed death–ligand 1 (PD-L1), are warranted.

Clinicoradiological Correlation of Covid19 Patients in Western Uttar Pradesh, India: A Descriptive Study

A pilot study of 150 patients at premier medical institute of western Uttar Pradesh, INDIA. The purpose of this pictorial review article is to describe the most common manifestations and patterns of lung abnormality on CXR in COVID-19 in order to equip the medical community in its efforts to combat this pandemic. The varied spectra of COVID-19 presentation included fever, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat etc. Diabetes mellitus, hypertension, COPD/K-Chest and CAD were found as major comorbid conditions. Symptomatic presentation of COVID-19 was observed to be higher in patients with co morbid disease, especially if multiple. HRCT chest in COVID-19 patients had a major diagnostic and prognostic importance as positive CT findings were more prominent in symptomatic patients and co-morbid patients. Clinical symptoms of patients directly correlated with CT severity index. CT imaging was found to be useful in predicting clinical recovery of patients or progression of disease. Introduction: COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) is a highly infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), declared as a pandemic on 11th March 2020. The chest imaging findings are nonspecific and most commonly show atypical or organizing pneumonia, often with a bilateral, peripheral and bi-basal predominant distribution. Our study is concerned with the data of COVID positive patients admitted in the institute for the period of March 16- May 17, 2020. Aims and Objectives 1) To correlate clinical and radiological spectra of covid positive patients and their final outcome. 2) To describe the spectrum of lung parenchyma changes in the symptomatic as well as asymptomatic in COVID- 19 patients. Review of literature: This case report series presents a summary of key findings frequently associated with COVID-19, which will assist radiologists and clinicians in preliminary clinical evaluation (PCE). Materials and Methods: The data for the study is sourced from clinically suspected patients from the Covid Ward, LLRM Medical College, Meerut,(U.P.),INDIA which were subjected to chest radiography on 60mAh portable X-Ray machine. The patients are followed up to correlate the findings with clinical outcome. The study has been conducted on a minimum of 150 patients with portable Chest X-Ray machine. Observations & Discussion: The most frequent findings encountered are airspace opacities are viz- Hazy pulmonary opacities, Bilateral lower lobe consolidations, Peripheral air space opacities, Uncommon CXR findings, Diffuse air space disease. Conclusion: Based on our study, few inferences have been deduced; A significant proportion of the clinically symptomatic cases shows characteristic radiological changes on chest X-ray and also how chest radiography can be used as a tool not to substitute but supplement RTPCR in evaluation of COVID positive cases. Keywords: Patchy areas of consolidation, shortness of breath, high resolution CT Scan, RTPCR.

Peculiarities of radiological and laboratory values in patients with community-acquired pneumonia during COVID-19 pandemic

Literature and personal data on community-acquired pneumonia during the epidemic of a new coronavirus infection COVID-19 are presented. It was found that men and patients with moderately to severe form were treated for community-acquired pneumonia more often. The most common localizations were as follows (in descending frequency): bilateral multisegmental, right-sided lower lobe, left-sided lower lobe. Men as compared to women more often had the following localization of pneumonia: right-sided lower lobe pneumonia at the age of 20–30, 51–60; right-sided multisegmental in all age groups; left-sided lower lobe pneumonia at the age of 51–60, left-sided upper lobe pneumonia at the age of 20–50; left-sided multisegmental pneumonia in all age groups; slightly more frequent bilateral lower lobe pneumonia in different age groups; bilateral multisegmental pneumonia at the age of 20–30 and over 60. Conversely, the most common localization in women was as follows: right-sided lower lobe pneumonia at the age 31–50, right-sided upper lobe pneumonia at the age 20–30, left-sided lower lobe pneumonia at the age 20–50 and over 60, left-sided upper lobe pneumonia at the age over 60, bilateral lower lobe pneumonia at the age 31–40, bilateral multisegmental pneumonia at the age 41–60. Right-sided lower lobe pneumonia was equally often registered irrespective of gender in persons older than 60 years old. Right-sided upper lobe pneumonia was not registered in patients aged 31–40 and 41–50 years, and over 60 years old. The most frequent localization of pneumonia in mild form was left-sided lower lobe (35.3 %), right-si­ded lower lobe (20.6 %), and bilateral lower lobe (14.7 %). The least frequent were upper lobe localization of pneumonia in the right, left, and both lungs (2.94 % each), and left multisegmental pneumonia was not observed at all. The most frequent localization of pneumonia in the moderate form was the lower lobes of the right lung (29.4 %), left lung (18.3 %), and multisegmental in both lungs (28.8 %). It was least frequently registered in the upper lobe of the right lung (2.6 %), left lung (3.9 %) but was not registered in the upper lobes of both lungs. The most frequent localization of pneumonia in severe form was bilateral multisegmental (37.5 %). Right-sided multisegmental, left-sided lower lung and bilateral lower lung were the least common — 12.5 % for each. Subfebrile fever was registered more frequently in almost all localizations. More often normal or subfebrile temperature was registered in all localizations, except for right-sided upper lobe pneumonia, in which higher (febrile, pyretic) temperature was registered more often. In all localizations within three days after hospitalization most patients had normal leukocyte count, leukopenia was slightly more frequent in left-sided lower lobe pneumonia, leukocytosis — in the bilateral upper lobe, bilateral lower lobe, and right-sided upper lobe. In general, leukocytosis in community-acquired pneumonia was registered in 38.8 % of patients. In the first three days after hospitalization, a normal amount of lymphocytes was registered in the majority of patients, lymphopenia was observed in one-third of patients with right-sided upper and left-sided lower lobe localization.

Thermography signs of lung inflammation

The purpose of the study was to find out if infrared thermography of the thorax is the method to select the patients with lung inflammationMaterial, methods: Thermograms were accumulated and processed in the «TVision» cloud storage («Dignosis», Russia). Special regions of interest (ROI) were automatically created: 1. on the front and back of the thorax roughly in the projection of the upper lobe (ULP) and the lower lobe (LLP) of the lung; 2.e lines on the front surface of the thorax. Two types of temperature gradients were calculated: between ULP and LLP (by subtraction mean temperature in LLP from mean temperature in ULP) (ΔT1); between both ULP and both LLP on the back of the thorax (ΔT2). Approximation confidence value for the polynomial trend line (R²) along the marked lines on the front surface of the thorax also calculated. Totally 489 thermograms, were analyzed, included 337 from healthy patients (group 1) and 152 from patients with confirmed diagnosis of lung inflammation (group 2)Results: R² value was higher in the group 1 compare to group 2 (0.58 ± 0.16 vs 0.3 ± 0.2, p < 0.05). ΔT1 value was negative only in patients from group 2, as well as ΔT1 value greater than 0.4 °C.Conclusion: three independent thermographic criteria suitable for detecting lung inflammation were found, so infrared thermography is the valuable method for screening this pathology.