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Query: UMLS:C0000737 (abdominal pain)
 31,184 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Despite the uncommon clinical diagnosis, cats frequently suffer from disorders of the exocrine pancreas. Pancreatitis is the most common feline exocrine pancreatic disorder. Pancreatitis can be acute or chronic and mild or severe. The etiology of most cases of feline pancreatitis is idiopathic. Some cases have been associated with severe abdominal trauma, infectious diseases, cholangiohepatitis, and organophosphate and other drug intoxication. The clinical presentation of cats with pancreatitis is nonspecific. Vomiting and signs of abdominal pain, which are the clinical signs most commonly observed in humans and dogs with pancreatitis, are only uncommonly observed in cats with pancreatitis. Routine laboratory findings are also nonspecific. Abdominal ultrasonography is a valuable diagnostic tool in feline patients with pancreatitis. Serum activities of lipase and amylase are rarely increased in cats with pancreatitis; however, these cats often have elevated serum fTLI concentrations. The goals of management are removal of the inciting cause, provision of supportive and symptomatic therapy, and careful monitoring for and aggressive treatment of systemic complications. Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency is a syndrome caused by insufficient synthesis of pancreatic digestive enzymes by the exocrine portion of the pancrease. The clinical signs most commonly reported are weight loss, loose and voluminous stools, and greasy soiling of the hair coat. Serum fTLI is subnormal in affected cats. Treatment of cats with EPI consists of enzyme supplementation with powdered pancreatic extracts or raw beef pancreas. Many cats with EPI have concurrent small intestinal disease. Most cats with EPI also have severely decreased serum cobalamin concentrations and may require parenteral cobalamin supplementation. Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is the most common neoplastic condition of the exocrine pancreas in the cat. At the time of diagnosis, the tumor has already metastasized in most cases, and the prognosis is poor. Pancreatic pseudocyst, pancreatic abscess, pancreatic parasites, pancreatic bladder, and nodular hyperplasia are other exocrine pancreatic disorders, that are less commonly seen in cats.
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PMID:Feline exocrine pancreatic disorders. 1020 2

Infection with toxin-producing strains of Clostridium difficile is common and potentially life-threatening. It occurs mostly in patients in the hospital or nursing home who are taking or have recently taken antibiotics. Two toxins, A and B, damage the colonic mucosa, resulting in symptoms ranging from mild diarrhea to bloody diarrhea with fever and abdominal pain, colitis, or even pseudomembranous colitis. Severe cases may involve dehydration, toxic megacolon, or colonic perforation. This article reviews the microbiology, epidemiology, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of this disease.
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PMID:Clostridium difficile diarrhea and colitis: a clinical overview. 1048 98

The authors describe a case of abdominal angiostrongyliasis in an adult patient presenting acute abdominal pain caused by jejunal perforation. The case was unusual, as this affliction habitually involves the terminal ileum, appendix, cecum or ascending colon. The disease is caused by the nematode Angiostrongylus costaricensis, whose definitive hosts are forest rodents while snails and slugs are its intermediate hosts. Infection in humans is accidental and occurs via the ingestion of snail or slug mucoid secretions found on vegetables, or by direct contact with the mucus. Abdominal angiostrongyliasis is clinically characterized by prolonged fever, anorexia, abdominal pain in the right-lower quadrant, and peripheral blood eosinophilia. Although usually of a benign nature, its course may evolve to more complicated forms such as intestinal obstruction or perforation likely to require a surgical approach. Currently, no efficient medication for the treatment of abdominal angiostrongyliasis is known to be available. In this study, the authors provide a review on the subject, considering its etiopathogeny, clinical picture, diagnosis and treatment.
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PMID:Jejunal perforation caused by abdominal angiostrongyliasis. 1060 48

A 12-year-old girl with a 2-month history of fever and abdominal pain was admitted to our hospital. Ultrasound and CT scans of the abdomen showed multiple hypoechoic lesions of liver and spleen. Screening for zoonosis revealed high positive titers to Bartonella henselae. T-cell deficiency was demonstrated and remained almost unchanged during a follow-up of 11 months. A review of the literature shows that disseminated visceral affection is a rare presentation of cat scratch disease (CSD) in childhood and adolescence. Further immunological investigations are needed in more patients with CSD to confirm whether an altered immunological state may be responsible for the atypical visceral manifestation of CSD.
Infection
PMID:Visceral manifestation of cat scratch disease in children. A consequence of altered immunological state? 1078

Mucinous peritoneal carcinomatosis from a primary gastrointestinal malignancy is a lethal condition that has few treatment options with the use of surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Recent advances in hyperthermia technology and in knowledge of the natural history of this disease has suggested the possible utility of hyperthermia in the application of aggressive local-regional therapy. Radiofrequency (RF) hyperthermia to the whole abdomen, to the hemithorax, or to an isolated mucinous tumour deposit obstructing the gastrointestinal tract was used in patients with disseminated mucinous adenocarcinoma of appendiceal origin. There were 228 hyperthermia treatments in 21 patients, with a median of 10 treatments per patient. The maximum number of treatments was 26, and minimum was one. For the first six hyperthermia treatments, escalating doses of deep hyperthermia (41-45 degrees C) was monitored with multiple sensor internal temperature probes and a single sensor subcutaneous temperature probe. After reaching a maximal hyperthermia treatment, this was maintained for all subsequent treatments. Initially, the maximal temperature allowed in tumour and subcutaneous tissue was 43 degrees C. After 50 hyperthermia treatments, this was changed to 45 degrees C. If disease stabilization or response was insufficient and maximal tolerable hyperthermia had been established, the frequency of treatment was increased from every 4 weeks to every 2 weeks, and escalating doses of mitomycin C at 8 mg/m2 were added to the regimen. Mitomycin C was infused during the hyperthermia treatment. For the first 165 treatments, patients were monitored just before and 10 days after hyperthermia with a complete blood count and a full battery of laboratory tests including amylase and lipase. Response was monitored by carcinoembryonic antigen assays on a monthly basis and CT scans on a 6 monthly basis. None of the 21 patients included in this study died, required intensive care, or required major surgical interventions as a result of hyperthermia treatments. One potentially life-endangering event was profound bradycardia and hypotension observed in a 76-year-old male receiving hyperthermia treatment to his right hemithorax. Two patients developed an enterocutaneous fistula (a frequent spontaneous event in this group of patients) while under treatment. No abnormal laboratory tests were observed in the first 165 hyperthermia treatments. Heat damage to normal tissue was limited to skin blisters in three patients and induration of the subcutaneous tissues in 10 patients. Skin pain on an analogue scale of 0-10 was scored by patients as a mean of 3.6 (range 0-8) before skin analgesia was routinely utilized. With anesthetic gel, the skin discomfort was greatly reduced. Prolonged abdominal pain for 4-20 days following treatment which required narcotic analgesia was seen in four patients. A complication rate of 62% was caused by the long-term indwelling temperature probe sheaths. Infection was observed in four patients, small bowel fistula in one, and dislodgement of the temperature probe sheath requiring repeat CT was necessary in seven patients. After maximal escalation of RF power in seven patients (33%), deep hyperthermia compatible with thermal destruction of tumour (> or = 43 degrees C for 45 min) was recorded in all subsequent treatments. In eight patients (38%), heat generation compatible with chemotherapy augmentation (41.5-43 degrees C) was consistently recorded. In six patients, non-therapeutic temperatures were recorded. There was no correlation of maximal tumour temperature, maximal subcutaneous tissue temperature and maximal RF power. With the use of skin anaesthetic there was no correlation of tumour temperature and the thickness of the subcutaneous layer of the skin. Progression was seen in 14 patients, and 11 of these patients died. No patients who showed disease stabilization have died with a minimum of 2 year follow-up. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)
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PMID:Radiofrequency hyperthermia in the palliative treatment of mucinous carcinomatosis of appendiceal origin: optimizing and monitoring heat delivery in western patients. 1100 76

A 20-year-old African female was hospitalized several times for diffuse chronic abdominal pain. The following exclusions were made: Acute adnexitis (by laparoscopy), acute appendicitis (by appendectomy), gastric ulcerations (by esophagogastroduodenoscopy) as well as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. However, once taking a closer microscopical look at the mucosa, that otherwise appeared colonoscopically to be normal, multiple eggs of schistosomiasis mansoni (S. mansoni) were found in the colon as well as the rectum. Thus, the diagnosis of an intestinal bilharziosis was finely established. In retrospect even the sample taken for the appendix could have indicated this diagnosis already earlier on. Both the antibodies (ELISA/IFAT) and the specific immunoglobulins (IgE) for S. mansoni proved significantly positive. Therapy of choice was a single oral dosage of praziquantel. Migration and tourism have considerably increased the range of tropical and infectious diseases that need to be included into differential diagnosis. This case report focuses on intestinal bilharziosis as a potential underlying cause of chronic abdominal pain in immigrants of endemically affected areas. Direct diagnosis is the most important diagnostic method. The adult worms are usually inaccessible, so the method of choice to assess both diagnosis and the degree of activity of a chronic infection is evidence of living eggs in the stool. Alternatively, in case of lack of direct evidence diagnosis can be established by endoscopy and rectal biopsy.
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PMID:[Chronic abdominal pain and eosinophilia in a young African patient]. 1107 77

Typhoid fever, a systemic infectious disease caused by Salmonella typhi, is classically characterized by fever, paradoxical bradycardia, abdominal pain, and a rose colored rash. This was a retrospective review of 21 confirmed cases over a 5-year period. Mean age was 32.6 years (range 2-60 years), and Mexico (7/21) and El Salvador (3/21) represented the most common countries of origin. Recent travel to an endemic area was noted in 14 patients. The most common complaints were fever (15/21), headache (10/21), abdominal pain (9/21), and diarrhea (6/21). Average duration of symptoms before presentation to the Emergency Department (ED) was 7.9 days. High fever associated with bradycardia was noted in 12 patients. Leukopenia was present in 7 patients. Blood culture was the most sensitive confirmatory test while the Widal test was positive in 7 out of 11 cases. Fever of unknown origin (12/21), followed by presumed typhoid fever (3/21) were the most common ED diagnoses. It is important to recognize that patients with typhoid fever may present to EDs in the US and this disease should be included in the differential diagnosis of febrile patients from Latin America or those with a history of recent travel to endemic countries.
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PMID:Emergency department presentations of typhoid fever. 1107 22

Observing pediatric patients in an OU (whether a pediatric or combined or hybrid unit) has many advantages: better patient care, a decrease in missed diagnoses and acuity, better risk management, decreased malpractice liability, cost effectiveness, increased patient and family satisfaction, and psychosocial benefits. Key principles of observation medicine (purpose, time frame, general patient inclusion and exclusion criteria, administration, CQI, and so forth) are equivalent for pediatric and adult observation patients, but there are important differences. Unique characteristics of pediatric observation patients include specific diagnosis, decreased length of stay, less need for cardiac monitoring, a highly variable admission rate, and a decreased percentage or admission rate to the OU from the ED. Whereas the adult OU is primarily a cardiac-monitoring unit, the pediatric OU is a respiratory and infectious disease unit with a frequent need for an i.v. therapy and hydration. Types of pediatric patients commonly treated in an OU include respiratory illnesses (asthma, croup, bronchiolitis, pneumonia), gastrointestinal disorders (gastroenteritis, abdominal pain), dehydration, infections (fever, cellulitis, lymphangitis, pyelonephritis or UTI), overdoses or poisonings, and seizures.
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PMID:Pediatric observation medicine. 1121 2

Plesiomonas shigelloides is often regarded as a non-pathogenic bacterial species that is occasionally isolated from patients with diarrhoea. However, a review of travellers returning to Japan with diarrhoeal illness through Kansai Airport revealed that the incidence of P. shigelloides from microbiologically confirmed cases increased from 23.2% in 1987 to 77.8% in 1999. We carried out a descriptive epidemiological study to identify patterns associated with diarrhoea due to this organism. Selected P. shigelloides isolates from this patient group were compared by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of SpeI total chromosomal DNA digests to determine their genetic heterogeneity. Over the study period (whole of 1996 and first 2 months of 1999), 1149 of 1659 (69.3%) patients with microbiologically confirmed gastroenteritis yielded P. shigelloides. Infection was characterized by watery diarrhoea five times per day that persisted for 3 days. No statistically significant association was found between factors such as age, gender, destination, length of trip, but multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed an association between additional symptoms (vomiting, fever, abdominal pain) age and gender. The molecular fingerprints of a selection of 39 isolates and 3 reference strains of P. shigelloides were highly variable and each had a unique profile. We conclude that although P. shigelloides infections are usually mild and self-limiting, this organism may contribute to a significant proportion of travellers' diarrhoea in the Orient. The species is characterized by great heterogeneity at the DNA level.
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PMID:An epidemiological study of Plesiomonas shigelloides diarrhoea among Japanese travellers. 1121 2

A 44-year-old male Somalian immigrant was admitted to hospital for evaluation of upper abdominal pain and painful joints (neck and shoulders). Chronic active hepatitis caused by hepatitis C virus was diagnosed. Further examination was instituted because of the simultaneous finding of granulomas in a liver biopsy. In hepatitis C liver granulomas may be found. Infection by Mycobacterium tuberculosis was established, however, after extensive investigation. Treatment was started with tuberculostatic drugs, after which the complaints of the patient disappeared, liver enzyme levels decreased and granulomas in the liver disappeared. No side effects of the tuberculostatic treatment were seen on the course of the hepatitis C.
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PMID:[Tubercular granulomas of the liver in a Somalian patient notwithstanding a chronic hepatitis C]. 1141 77


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