Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0034065 (pulmonary embolism)
 14,979 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Among 2175 patients seen over the last three years in a non-specialized department of internal medicine with no intensive care unit, 100 had supranormal serum lactic dehydrogenase activities. These patients' case-reports have been analyzed. Nearly half the patients (47/100) had a malignant disease (cancer or hemopathy). Among the remaining patients, 19 had a hepatic disorder (alcohol hepatitis in 10, viral hepatitis in 8, and isoniazide hepatitis in 1), 7 had a heart disease (heart failure with hepatomegaly in 5, myocardial infarction in 2), and 27 had various other conditions (including hemolysis in 6 and polymyositis en 3). The value of serum LDH assay is obvious in situations other than acute conditions such as myocardial infarction of pulmonary embolism; these are better known and have not been studied here as their prevalence was low among the patients enlisted in our study. In comparison to other enzymes (alkaline phosphatase (AP), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), transaminases (GOT, GPT) that were also routinely assayed in our patients, abnormal serum LDH activities are much less common and their significance is quite different. An increase in serum and their significance is quite different. An increase in serum LDH activity indicates a serious condition, often with a fatal outcome. The "various other conditions" group includes patients with hemolysis, hepatitis and myositis; the other patients in this group either had severe infectious diseases or died suddenly in the first few days of their hospitalization before diagnosis had been established. Each etiologic group has been analyzed to asses the characteristics of patients with increased LDH activity according to each etiology. Analysis of coincident abnormalities of the other enzymes listed above shows marked differences between etiologic groups; diagnostic accuracy can thus be enhanced in certain conditions. Most patients with malignancies had poorly differentiated tumors, with metastases: 28 had an epithelial tumor, with hepatic and/or bone metastases in 23 cases, 5 had cancer of the liver, 10 had a malignant hemopathy (2 lymphomas, 5 myeloproliferative syndromes, 3 acute leukemias), and 4 had a sarcoma. Cancer of the lung is the most common malignancy (10 cases) and may be responsible for increased serum LDH activity even in patients without metastases. Serum LDH assay is of value for monitoring the course in patients with initially increased activities as it falls under effective therapy and rises during exacerbations.
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PMID:[Value and diagnostic significance of serum lactic dehydrogenase in internal medicine (author's transl)]. 628 24

We report a 61-year-old Japanese man who died of complications of esophagus cancer surgery. He was well until his 55 years of the age, when he had an onset of speech disturbance and hand writing. He was seen by a neurologist who prescribed Menesit 600 mg/day. His symptoms improved with this medication. In 1993, three years after the onset, he started to show gait disturbance and easy to fall. In 1995, he noted difficulty in eye opening. He visited our clinic on October 26, 1996. On examination, he showed vertical gaze paresis, masked face, nuchal rigidity, small step gait, freezing phenomena, and festination. His mental status was normal. He was treated with 800 mg/day of Menesit, 800 mg/day of L-dops, and 10 mg/day of bromocriptine with little improvement in his symptoms. Cranial CT scan revealed some dilatation of the third ventricle. Subsequent clinical course was one of the slow progression of his parkinsonism. In September of 1997, he noted difficulty in swallowing. He was admitted to the gastrointestinal service of our hospital on October 14, 1997. On admission, neurologic status was essentially similar to the previous one, but he showed more advanced state of his parkinsonism. Upper gastrointestinal series revealed a mass lesion of about 11.5 cm in length protruding into the lower esophagus lumen. Subtotal esophagus resection including the mass was performed on December 2, 1997. The stomach was elevated for anastomosis with the upper esophagus. No metastases were found in the mediastinum except for two lymph nodes in the para-esophageal region. The subsequent course was complicated by marked elevation of GOT, GPT, LDH, total bilirubin as well as direct bilirubin, alkaliphosphatase, and amylase starting in the evening of the surgery. On December 7, leukocytosis and pneumonic shadow were seen involving his right lung. On December 10, he developed cardiopulmonary arrest. He was once resuscitated; however, he developed cardiac arrest again seven hours later and pronounced dead. He was discussed in a neurologic CPC. The chief discussant arrived at the conclusion that the patient had PSP and the cause of the death was ascribed to circulatory disturbance to the liver. The discussant also thought that the terminal course was complicated by cholangitis or cholecystitis, sepsis, and pulmonary embolism. Surgical specimen of the esophagus tumor revealed carcinosarcoma. Postmortem examination revealed yellowish discoloration of the peritoneum and mesenterium, and accumulation of clouded ascites indicating the presence of peritonitis. Inflammatory change extended to the mediastinum. On microscopic examination, various kinds of bacilli and candida spores were seen. The liver was enlarged and a perforation was noted in the gallbladder causing biliary necrosis in the adjacent liver. An extensive infarct was seen in the left lobe of the liver; this was found to be due to obstruction of the hepatic artery at the site of the duodenohepatic mesenterium and obstruction of intrahepatic portal vein secondary to retrograde intrahepatic cholangitis in the left lobe. A piece of surgical threads was seen adjacent to the hepatic artery; foreign body granulomatous reaction was seen surrounding the surgical thread. The rupture of the gallbladder appeared to be due to the obstruction of the left branch of the hepatic artery. Neuropathologic examination revealed extensive degeneration of the pallidum, the substantia nigra, and the subthalamic nucleus and presence of neurofibrillary tangles in the remaining neurons. The neuropathologic findings were consistent with progressive supranuclear palsy, although the pathologic changes in the midbrain tegmentum was only mild gliosis.
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PMID:[A 61-year-old man with progressive gait disturbance, freezing, and vertical gaze paresis who developed esophagus cancer]. 986 33