Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0000737 (abdominal pain)
 31,184 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A case is reported of a previously healthy 52-year-old African American male who presented with acute onset of abdominal pain. Progressive increase in his abdominal symptoms led to an exploratory laparotomy; however, no pathology was discovered. Postoperatively, the patient became hypoxemic which progressed to diffuse infiltrates on chest x-ray, suggestive of adult respiratory distress syndrome. He had a rapidly fatal course. Autopsy showed bone marrow infarction, fat embolism, splenomegaly, and widespread congestion with sickle erythrocytes. Hemoglobin electrophoresis done postmortem showed hemoglobin (Hb) SC disease that was undiagnosed antemortem. To the best of our knowledge, it is unusual for Hb SC to be diagnosed postmortem in adults. This case suggests that sickle cell disorders should be ruled out in patients at risk for hemoglobinopathy in the presence of signs and symptoms compatible with the disease, irrespective of age.
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PMID:Postmortem diagnosis of hemoglobin SC disease complicated by fat embolism. 964 54

Psittacosis, also referred to as ornithosis, is a disease primarily of birds, which may be transmitted to humans. Psittacosis is caused by Chlamydia psittaci, an obligate intracellular parasite found worldwide. Humans are infected with C. psittaci when the organism enters the blood stream, usually through inhalation of dried excrement from diseased birds or through wound contamination with infected avian secretions. C. psittaci replicates in the liver and spleen and infects the lung and other organs hematogenously.1 The clinical manifestations of human psittacosis range from a mild respiratory infection to a severe systemic illness.1,2 Symptoms are frequently described as flu-like with fever, headache, body aches, and dry or productive cough. Sore throat, chest pain, abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea are variably present. Physical findings may include a pulse-temperature dissociation, localized lung crackles, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, and a pale macular skin rash. Chest radiographs may demonstrate lesions that are atelectatic, patchy, miliary, nodular, or consolidated in one or both lungs. White cell counts, erythrocyte sedimentation rates, and liver function tests are usually normal. In severe illness, signs and symptoms of liver dysfunction, neurological impairment, and respiratory and renal failure may be present. Since 1879 when psittacosis was recognized as a disease entity, cases have been reported in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. However, reports of psittacosis in Africa have been rare. An Ethiopian group, studying community-acquired pneumonia, published what they claimed to be the first report of psittacosis in Africa in 1994.3 The report published here is believed to be the first documented case of human psittacosis in Egypt.
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PMID:Psittacosis in Egypt: A Case Study. 981 79

We report a case of severe portal hypertension due to a post-traumatic hepatic arterioportal fistula. A 77-year-old male patient was admitted for abdominal pain, inappetence and weight loss. Further clinical signs were ascites and splenomegaly. Sonography showed a marked enlargement of an arterioportal fistula, which was diagnosed some years before as a consequence of abdominal trauma during the Second World War. Angiography demonstrated an imposing dilatation of the right hepatic artery filling an intrahepatic pseudoaneurysmatic cavity with fistula formation to the portal vein. By means of selective hepatic artery embolization, complete occlusion of the right hepatic artery and the arterioportal fistula was achieved. Within 4 weeks the patient recovered and sonography showed disappearance of ascites and splenomegaly.
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PMID:Portal hypertension due to traumatic hepatic arterioportal fistula: report of successful embolization. 989 55

Splenic angiosarcoma is a rare malignant vascular tumour with about 100 reported cases to date. The presentation of splenic angiosarcoma is highly variable, frequently causing diagnostic difficulty. It usually presents with splenomegaly, abdominal pain and occasionally with a microangiopathic type of anaemia. Here we report an additional case of primary angiosarcoma of the spleen presenting as a problem of bleeding from the gastrointestinal tract.
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PMID:Splenic angiosarcoma--an unusual cause of bleeding gastrointestinal tract. 1041 70

Despite the prevalence of splenomegaly as a sign in many disorders, there have been no studies that correlate the degree of organomegaly with the symptoms generally ascribed to splenic enlargement. The degree of splenomegaly was compared with five overt symptoms of mechanical displacement, i.e. chronic abdominal pain, abdominal discomfort, early satiety, pain while lying on the side, or attacks of acute (colicky) left upper quadrant pains. We have also employed splenomegaly as seen in Gaucher disease as a paradigm to determine whether there is a correlation between the degree of splenomegaly and the parameters of hypersplenism. Although there was a statistically significant correlation between degree of splenomegaly and blood counts, this proved to be clinically negligible. Surprisingly, there was also no correlation between degree of splenomegaly and any of symptoms investigated.
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PMID:Is there a correlation between degree of splenomegaly, symptoms and hypersplenism? A study of 218 patients with Gaucher disease. 1046 78

We describe a case of Niemann-Pick disease type B. A 13-year-old female adolescent of Turkish origin suffered from abdominal pain for several months, finally leading to hospitalisation. The investigations revealed splenomegaly and interstitial pneumopathy. The bone marrow contained giant foam cells typical of Niemann-Pick disease. Enzymatic analysis of a fibroblast culture confirmed the diagnosis of Niemann-Pick disease type B, with reduced activity of acid sphingomyelinase. Niemann-Pick disease is an inherited autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disorder of sphingolipids, resulting in an accumulation of sphingomyelin in the cells of the reticulo-histiocytic system due to an enzymatic defect. In Niemann-Pick disease type B the spleen and lung are the main organs affected. At present no treatment exists for this disorder.
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PMID:[A female patient with splenomegaly, interstitial pneumopathy and giant foam cells in bone marrow]. 1051 6

Morbidity from myeloid metaplasia and myelofibrosis arises from progressive anemia and abdominal discomfort related to massive splenomegaly, which may be associated with hypercatabolic symptoms. To date, no therapy, other than allogeneic bone marrow transplantation, has been shown to cure or to prolong the survival of these patients. Thus, current management strategies are palliative and include red cell transfusional support and androgen therapy for anemia; chemotherapeutic agents for control of thrombocytosis, leukocytosis, and hypermetabolic symptoms; and splenectomy or splenic irradiation for symptomatic splenomegaly. The major indication for splenic irradiation is left upper quadrant discomfort related to massive splenomegaly, usually in patients for whom splenectomy is contraindicated or has been declined. In most patients, it provides relief from abdominal pain and a moderate reduction in splenic size. Although responses are transient, some patients may experience prolonged relief. Splenic irradiation can result in prolonged myelosuppression in certain patients. This calls for cautious dosing, because individual sensitivity is variable and cannot be predicted. The use of splenic irradiation does not preclude subsequent splenectomy; however, the increased risk of postoperative hemorrhage should discourage consideration of splenic irradiation as an alternative or a temporizing measure before splenectomy when indicated.
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PMID:Splenic irradiation in myelofibrosis with myeloid metaplasia: a review. 1052 68

In this article, we report the case of a 16-month-old German boy who was admitted to the Children's Hospital of Stuttgart with a 4-week history of intermittent fever, decreased appetite, weakness, fatigue, and difficulty sleeping. He was healthy at birth and remained so for the first 15 months of his life. On admission, physical examination showed enlarged cervical, axillary, and inguinal lymph nodes, as well as hepatosplenomegaly. Laboratory data revealed pancytopenia, elevated liver function tests, and hypergammaglobulinemia. Blood, stool, and urine culture results were negative. Viral infections and rheumatologic and autoimmune disorders were ruled out, but a positive titer for Leishmania antibodies was noted. In a liver and bone marrow biopsy, the amastigote form of the parasite could not be seen in cells. The promastigote form of Leishmania was found and the diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis was made by combining the cultures of both the liver and the bone marrow biopsy material in 5 mL 0.9% saline on brain heart infusion agar, supplemented with defibrinated rabbit blood and incubated at 25 to 26 degrees C for 5 days. The parasite was identified by Southern blot analysis as Leishmania infantum. Specific therapy with the antimonial compound sodium stibogluconate with a dose of 20 mg/kg body weight was begun immediately. Within 4 days, the patient became afebrile. The side effects of treatment, including erosive gastritis, cholelithiasis, worsening hepatosplenomegaly, elevation of liver enzymes, pancreatitis, and electrocardiogram abnormalities, necessitated the discontinuation of treatment after 17 days. On discharge 4 weeks later, the patient was stabilized and afebrile with a normal spleen, normal complete blood count, normal gammaglobulins, and decreasing antibody titers to Leishmania. During the next 24 months, the patient experienced intermittent episodes of abdominal pain, decreased appetite, recurrent arthralgia, and myalgia. But at his last examination in January 1998, he was well; all symptoms mentioned above had disappeared. Because the child had never left Germany, nonvector transmission was suspected and household contacts were examined. His mother was the only one who had a positive antibody titer against Leishmania donovani complex. She had traveled several times to endemic Mediterranean areas (Portugal, Malta, and Corse) before giving birth to the boy. But she had never been symptomatic for visceral leishmaniasis. Her bone marrow, spleen, and liver biopsy results were within normal limits. Culture results and polymerase chain reaction of this material were negative. A Montenegro skin test result was positive, indicating a previous infection with Leishmania. Western blot analysis showed specific recognition by maternal antibodies of antigens of Leishmania cultured from the boy's tissue. Visceral leishmaniasis is endemic to several tropical and subtropical countries, but also to the Mediterranean region. It is transmitted by the sand fly (Phlebotomus, Lutzomyia). Occasional nonvector transmissions also have been reported through blood transfusions, sexual intercourse, organ transplants, excrements of dogs, and sporadically outside endemic areas. Only 8 cases of congenital acquired disease have been described before 1995, when our case occurred. In our patient, additional evaluation showed that the asymptomatic mother must have had a subclinical infection with Leishmania that was reactivated by pregnancy, and then congenitally transmitted to the child. Visceral leishmaniasis has to be considered in children with fever, pancytopenia, and splenomegaly, even if the child has not been to an endemic area and even if there is no evidence of the disease in his environment, because leishmaniasis can be transmitted congenitally from an asymptomatic mother to her child.
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PMID:Congenital transmission of visceral leishmaniasis (Kala Azar) from an asymptomatic mother to her child. 1054 91

We report a case of a spleen infarction caused by the vascular pedicle torsion. A 25 year-old-man, heterozygous for HbS, presented with severe abdominal pain especially in the left upper quadrant in front and in the back, fever other symptoms related to acute abdomen. First we excluded most common disease (occlusive one and hematologic one) through conform investigation, then we suspected a spleen problem. So we did further investigation with ultrasonography which showed splenomegaly and the spleen looked twisted with its hilum in contact with previous abdominal wall, moreover (here were are as of decreased signal intensity characteristic of splenic infarction under the capsule and some blood in the Douglas pouch. The patient underwent splenectomy urgently. During the intervention we saw a splenomegaly like the ultrasonography showed, moreover there were a long twisted vascular pedicle and many areas of infarctions, some of which had ruptured causing emoperitoneum. The surgical intervention was successful and the clinical spectrum was solved. The splenic infarction might be clinically silent or to represent a surgical emergency. In front a case of acute abdomen, after exclusion of most common etiology, we underline the importance to suspect a spleen suffering, especially vascular one, when (here was no history of trauma. Considering this fact, a simple not invasive examination like ultrasonography is able to confirm this kind of hypothesis and to give soon information to make the surgical choose.
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PMID:[Splenic infarction caused by vascular pedicle torsion]. 1069 97

In a 45-year-old man who from early childhood had been suffering of periodic fever, which did not respond to any therapy attempted, the ultimate diagnosis was hyperimmunoglobulinaemia D syndrome (HIDS). HIDS attacks typically occur every 4-6 weeks and last 3-7 days. The most frequent symptoms are fever, diarrhoea, arthralgias, cold shivers, abdominal pain, vomiting and headache. Physical examination often reveals lymphadenopathy, skin lesions, arthritides, splenomegaly and serositis. Laboratory investigation includes an acute-phase response with granulocytosis and enhanced erythrocyte sedimentation rate. The serum concentration of IgD is increased as is the concentration of IgA. There is no causal therapy. A causative gene mutation was recently identified.
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PMID:[Periodic fever due to hyper-IgD syndrome]. 1080 May 45


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