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Query: UMLS:C0034065 (pulmonary embolism)
 14,979 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Pulmonary embolism is commonly misdiagnosed as lung cancer, since sputum cytological tests often show atypical or malignant cells. We report three operated cases of pulmonary embolism incorrectly diagnosed as lung cancer. The first patient is a 39-year-old male with chest pain an bloody sputum. Chest x-ray revealed abnormal shadows and subsequent sputum cytological tests identified malignant cells. The second patient is a 63-year-old male with the same diagnostic pattern as the first case. The third patient is a 72-year-old male whose routine chest x-ray showed an abnormal shadow; malignant cells were identified by cytological tests on transbronchial fiberscope brushings. These three patients were histopathologically diagnosed as suffering pulmonary embolism by wedge resection under thoracotomy. When a patient has chest pain or bloody sputum with showing temporarily malignant cells on cytology, the possibility of pulmonary embolism should be taken into consideration.
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PMID:[Three cases of pulmonary embolism incorrectly diagnosed as lung cancer]. 988 65

To evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of a brief, intensive cisplatin-based outpatient chemotherapy regimen with filgrastim and megestrol acetate support for patients with stage IIIB and IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and a favorable performance status. Thirty patients with no prior chemotherapy were enrolled in this phase II protocol. Patients received cisplatin 50 mg/m2, ifosfamide 2 g/m2, mesna, and a 7-day course of oral etoposide beginning on days 1, 15, 29, 43. and 57 for a total treatment duration of 10 weeks. Filgrastim was administered for 7 days after each course of oral etoposide. Megestrol acetate 250 mg PO was administered throughout the duration of chemotherapy. Thirty patients were evaluable for toxicity and 27 for response. Among those evaluable for response, partial remission occurred in 11 (41%) patients, and median survival was 10.5 months. Nadir neutrophil count of < 500/mm3 occurred in 19 (63%) patients. Weight loss occurred in only nine patients (median 3.4 kg, range 1.6-7.3). There was no difference between pre- and post-treatment weights (P=0.35). Two patients developed pulmonary embolism. Grade 3 or 4 non-hematologic toxicity occurred infrequently. This regimen appears to be similar in efficacy to the most active regimens reported by other investigators. Innovative features of the regimen include the brief treatment duration, the use of serial 7-day courses of filgrastim to facilitate weekly chemotherapy treatments, and the use of megestrol acetate to minimize constitutional symptoms. However the use of megestrol acetate in this setting may be associated with an increased risk of thromboembolic complications. This may provide a model for other palliative regimens specifically designed for patients with a favorable performance status and advanced NSCLC.
Lung Cancer 1998 Dec
PMID:A brief intensive cisplatin-based outpatient chemotherapy regimen with filgrastim and megestrol acetate support for advanced non-small cell lung cancer: results of a phase II trial. 1004 75

The assessment of regional ventilation in human lungs is important for the diagnosis and evaluation of a variety of pulmonary disorders, including pulmonary emphysema, diffuse lung disease (e.g., sarcoidosis, and pulmonary fibrosis), lung cancer, and pulmonary embolism. This article introduces new MR imaging techniques of pulmonary ventilation and perfusion that will provide a framework for assessing regional pulmonary functions of the lung.
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PMID:Ventilation-perfusion MR imaging of the lung. 1038 68

On returning from a medical meeting, we learned that sadly a patient, "Mr. B.," had passed away. His death was a completely unexpected surprise. He had been doing well nine months after a course of intensive radiotherapy for a locally advanced head and neck cancer; in his most recent follow-up notes, he was described as a "complete remission." Nonetheless, he apparently died peacefully in his sleep from a cardiac arrest one night and was found the next day by a concerned neighbor. In our absence, after Mr. B. expired, his death certificate was filled out by a physician who didn't know him in detail, but did know why he recently was treated in our department. The cause of death was listed as head and neck cancer. It wasn't long after his death before we began to receive those notorious "requests for additional information," letters from the statistical office of a well-known cooperative group. Mr. B., as it turns out, was on a clinical trial, and it was "vital" to know further details of the circumstances of his passing. Perhaps this very large cancer had been controlled and Mr. B. succumbed to old age (helped along by the tobacco industry). On the other hand, maybe the residual "fibrosis" in his neck was actually packed with active tumor and his left carotid artery was finally 100% pinched off, or maybe he suffered a massive pulmonary embolism from cancer-related hypercoagulability. The forms and requests were completed with a succinct "cause of death uncertain," adding, "please have the Study Chairs call to discuss this difficult case." Often clinical reports of outcomes utilize and emphasize the endpoint "disease specific survival" (DSS). Like overall survival (OS), the DSS can be calculated by actuarial methods, with patients who have incomplete follow-up "censored" at the time of last follow-up pending further information. In the DSS, however, deaths unrelated to the index cancer of interest are censored at the time of death; thus, a death from intercurrent disease is considered a "success" (to the investigator, that is; obviously, not to the patient and his or her family). The DSS rate will always be superior to the OS rate. Obviously, for any OS curve, if one waits long enough it will ultimately come to zero. There is thus a very logical rationale for reporting the DSS separately, particularly in diseases where death from intercurrent disease is expected to be common. Analyzing the DSS allows researchers to better compare the biologic efficacy of two or more cancer treatments, since it does not necessarily come to zero. Unlike some other endpoints, including local-regional control or freedom from progression, it takes into account the possibility of salvage therapy. DSS also focuses on an endpoint of interest to the public-death from cancer. In a recent popular media survey in which people were asked how they would choose to die if they could, 0% selected cancer. However, there are two serious potential problems with heavy dependence on the DSS. First, since patients who die from intercurrent disease are considered "cured," it seriously inflates the apparent effectiveness of a cancer treatment. Given the same biologic disease and the same treatment, the DSS as calculated in an old, sick population at high risk of intercurrent death will be better than the DSS in a younger, healthier population whose major risk is from their cancer. This problem has been discussed with respect to early stage prostate cancer, in which the conservative approach of observation has been criticized. The studies at issue rely heavily on the DSS, suggesting a comparable DSS (90% at 10 years) with "watchful waiting" to other researchers' results with aggressive therapy. The problem is that these series of conservative management focus on a patient population (as opposed to individuals) with a high risk of competing causes of mortality, which is very different from the population of patients generally treated with aggressive therapy (in which some have shown overall survivals superior to age-matched controls). It is fallacious and illogical to compare nonrandomized series of observation to those of aggressive therapy. In addition to the above problem, the use of DSS introduces another potential issue which we will call the bias of cause-of-death-interpretation. All statistical endpoints (e.g., response rates, local-regional control, freedom from brain metastases), except OS, are known to depend heavily on the methods used to define the endpoint and are often subject to significant interobserver variability. There is no reason to believe that this problem does not occasionally occur with respect to defining a death as due to the index cancer or to intercurrent disease, even though this issue has been poorly studied. In many oncologic situations-for example, metastatic lung cancer-this form of bias does not exist. In some situations, such as head and neck cancer, this could be an intermediate problem (Was that lethal chest tumor a second primary or a metastasis?.Would the fatal aspiration pneumonia have occurred if he still had a tongue?.And what about Mr. B. described above?). In some situations, particularly relatively "good prognosis" neoplasms, this could be a substantial problem, particularly if the adjudication of whether or not a death is cancer-related is performed solely by researchers who have an "interest" in demonstrating a good DSS. What we are most concerned about with this form of bias relates to recent series on observation, such as in early prostate cancer. It is interesting to note that although only 10% of the "observed" patients die from prostate cancer, many develop distant metastases by 10 years (approximately 40% among patients with intermediate grade tumors). Thus, it is implied that many prostate cancer metastases are usually not of themselves lethal, which is a misconception to anyone experienced in taking care of prostate cancer patients. This is inconsistent with U.S. studies of metastatic prostate cancer in which the median survival is two to three years. It is possible that many deaths attributed to intercurrent disease in "watchful waiting" series were in fact prostate cancer-related, perhaps related to failure to thrive, urosepsis, or pulmonary emboli. We will not know without an independent review of the medical records of individual patients; in some cases, even the most detailed review, sometimes even an autopsy, will not be conclusive. There are only a few data available describing the problems created by cause-of-death-interpretation bias. One small study, presented only in abstract form, assessed the cause of death in 50 randomly selected prostate cancer patients who died. Five experts in prostate cancer were asked to assign the cause of death as due to or not due to prostate cancer. The DSS varied from 21% to 35% among the five reviewers, a relative difference of 66%. Studies of autopsies, which are now rarely done in the U.S., have shown that fatal malignant tumors were occasionally missed by clinicians and-even more sobering-an occasional patient thought to have died from metastatic cancer is found to have no tumor but to have died from a "benign" cause such as TB. One study suggested an error rate of approximately 8%. Clearly the use of DSS is here to stay and is a useful adjunct to OS in analyzing randomized trials. There needs to be more research on the validity and interobserver reproducibility of the DSS. In the meantime, researchers should not report DSS without reporting OS and the reasons for intercurrent deaths should be described-peer reviewers should enforce this. As with so many other problems with statistics in the medical literature, it is the job of the reader to remain skeptical. The rate of intercurrent deaths in a study should reflect the age and demographics of the study population. If the DSS is far superior to the OS, the population being studied may be unusually sick (and thus unrealistic), or there may be a bias in classifying the causes of death. Similarly, if the DSS and OS are identical (unless a highly virulent malignancy is being studied), it may suggest the researchers have only included an unusually healthy (and thus unrealistic) patient population. Finally, we would also be a bit suspicious of a sizeable series that did not have any deaths that were considered of "uncertain" cause, unless the researchers specifically included them as being due to the cancer. We honestly think that everybody has a few patients like Mr. B.
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PMID:"Just Another Statistic" 1038 5

In recent years there have been major advances in chest imaging. These include significant refinements in previously available techniques such as computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and the introduction of new techniques into the clinical armamentarium, particularly positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. These advances have led to changes in the diagnostic approach to a number of conditions, particularly pulmonary embolism, lung cancer, diseases of the large and small airways, and diffuse lung disease. They have also brought new insights into the pathophysiology of lung disease. State of the art CT and MR imaging now allow objective quantification of lung disease and assessment of regional changes in ventilation and perfusion caused by airway and parenchymal abnormalities. The aim of this article is to summarize the most important clinical applications of the recent advances in imaging and to emphasize the topics of imaging research likely to attract particular attention from radiologists and clinicians in the near future.
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PMID:Advances in imaging. 1175 38

Postpneumonectomy syndrome is a rare complication of pneumonectomy that develops as a result of excessive displacement of mediastinal structures into the empty cavity. We report the case of a 72-year-old man who developed dysphagia and progressive weakness, along with signs of hypotension due to low cardiac output, following removal of the left lung for lung cancer. Intubation and transfer to the intensive care unit was necessary. When such causes as pulmonary embolism, pneumonia and COPD exacerbation had been ruled out, postpneumonectomy syndrome was diagnosed. Two tissue expansion prostheses (100 mL and 400 mL) were implanted surgically to keep the mediastinum in position and reverse symptoms immediately. We conclude that postpneumonectomy syndrome after left pneumonectomy is a rare complication that may be more frequent than the literature suggests, given that signs may be masked by a diagnosis of cardiogenic shock that leads to death. Surgical repair is simple, reversing symptoms immediately.
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PMID:[Surgical repair of postpneumonectomy syndrome with vascular compromise]. 1180 38

A retrospective analysis of 108 patients admitted to the hospital for hemoptysis in the year 2000 was performed. The aim of the study was to clarify the etiologic distribution of hemoptysis and the relation of etiology to the severity and recurrence of it. Of the cases, 79 were men and 29 were women, and the mean age was 51.74 +/- 17.51. In 77 of the cases it was the first attack, while in 31 it was recurrent. According to the severity of hemoptysis, it was classified as "mild" (<30 cm3), "moderate" (30-100 cm3), "severe" (100-600 cm3) and "massive" (>600 cm3). Lung cancer was the leading cause of hemoptysis (34.3%) followed by bronchiectasis (25.0%), tuberculosis (17.6%), pneumonia (10.2%) and pulmonary embolism (4.6%). Statistical analysis by chi-square test revealed that most of the lung cancer patients had mild hemoptysis (odds ratio 3.5; P<0.05), and the most frequent etiology in recurrent hemoptysis was bronchiectasis (odds ratio 3.25; P=0.01). Most of the lung cancer patients were male (P=0.002). The two leading causes of hemoptysis in our study are similar to many previous reports. The high rate of tuberculosis in our study is probably due to the high prevalence of tuberculosis in our country.
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PMID:Hemoptysis: a retrospective analysis of 108 cases. 1224 12

Primary leiomyosarcoma of the pulmonary artery is a rare malignancy arising from the multipotential mesenchymal cell of the intima of the pulmonary artery. Due to its rarity and nonspecific clinical symptoms, the correct diagnosis and proper management are often delayed. Furthermore, it is frequently misdiagnosed as pulmonary embolism, mediastinal mass, pulmonary stenosis and lung cancer. Therefore, it is important to consider primary leiomyosarcoma of the pulmonary artery a possibility when a persistent filling defect is present in the pulmonary artery and there is no response to optimal anticoagulation treatment. Radiologic findings such as a unilateral mass continuously filling the pulmonary artery, inhomogenous enhancement, vascular distension, extravascular invasion into adjacent structure or uptake in the area of tumor on the FDG-PET can be helpful when differentiating pulmonary artery sarcoma (PAS) from chronic thromboembolism.
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PMID:Primary leiomyosarcoma of the pulmonary artery: a diagnostic dilemma. 1272 62

We have experienced a case of acute pulmonary embolism after lung cancer operation. The case was a 74-year-old male. He underwent left upper lobectomy due to squamous cell carcinoma. He fell into shock state suddenly on the 6th day postoperatively. We diagnosted acute pulmonary embolism, performed urgent embolectomy under percutaneous cardiopulmonary support (PCPS). Postoperative course was smooth, and he has returned to normal daily life. Urgent diagnosis and management are indispensable for acute pulmonary embolism after lung cancer operation from the aspect of residual among of pulmonary vascular bed.
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PMID:[Acute pulmonary embolism performed embolectomy under percutaneous cardiopulmonary support successfully after lung cancer operation]. 1293 88

Deep vein thrombosis is a common disease among Caucasians but is rare in Asia. Venous thrombosis may be fatal, for example by a pulmonary embolism and right or left atrial thrombosis. Alternatively, deep vein thrombosis may follow a benign pattern such as femoral and popliteal vein thrombosis. Theories abound regarding the causes of deep vein thrombosis, with the most common theories being long-term stasis and lack of exercise. Internal jugular vein thrombosis is a rare but potentially fatal disease with various causes. In the pre-antibiotics era, this disease was frequently associated with deep neck infection. Recently however, local trauma, central catheterization, and repeated intravenous injections with drugs have become the leading causes of thrombosis. Spontaneous internal jugular vein thrombosis may occur in connection with a neoplasm, termed Trousseau's syndrome. This investigation reports a case of lung cancer associated with internal jugular vein thrombosis.
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PMID:Left internal jugular vein thrombosis due to a lung tumor. 1295 95


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