Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0392680 (shortness of breath)
 5,217 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

An 18-year-old woman with stage IIIB Hodgkin's disease presented with minimal shortness of breath and progressed to fatal pulmonary insufficiency in five days. Biopsy and necropsy lung tissue specimens established the diagnosis of acute radiation pneumonitis. The diagnosis of radiation pneumonitis should be considered in the presence of a nonproductive cough, dyspnea, mixed interstitial and alveolar infiltrates on chest roentgenogram, negative cultures, and the characteristic findings on lung biopsy of macrophage accumulation and alveolar fibrin deposition in the face of minimal cellular infiltrate. A trial of steroid treatment may be warranted.
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PMID:Acute febrile illness associated with bilateral pulmonary infiltrates after irradiation in a patient with Hodgkin's disease. 84 87

Malignant mesothelioma has been rare in the general population. In recent decades its incidence has risen dramatically, parallel to the increasing use of asbestos in industry since 1930. Altogether 17,800 asbestos insulation workers, members of the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers (AFL-CIO-CLC) in the United States and Canada, were enrolled for prospective study on 1 January 1967 and followed up to the present. Every death that occurs is investigated by our laboratory. One hundred and seventy five deaths from mesothelioma occurred among the 2221 men who died in 1967-76 and 181 more such deaths in the next eight years. Altogether, 356 workers had died of malignant mesothelioma (pleural or peritoneal) by 1984. Diagnosis of mesothelioma was accepted only after all available clinical, radiological, and pathological material was reviewed by our laboratory and histopathological confirmation by the pathology unit made in each case. One hundred and thirty four workers died of pleural and 222 of peritoneal mesothelioma. Age at onset of exposure, age at onset of the disease, and age at death were similar in both groups of patients. Significant difference was noted only in the time elapsed from onset of exposure to the development of first symptoms, which was longer in the group with peritoneal mesothelioma. Shortness of breath, either new or recently increased, and chest pain were the most frequent presenting symptoms in the group with pleural mesothelioma; abdominal pain and distension were frequent in the patients with peritoneal mesothelioma. Pleural effusion or ascites were found in most patients. The most effective approach to the diagnosis of malignant pleural mesothelioma in these cases was by open lung biopsy; exploratory laparotomy was best for diagnosing peritoneal mesothelioma. Patients with pleural mesothelioma died principally from pulmonary insufficiency whereas those with peritoneal mesothelioma succumbed after a period of pronounced wasting.
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PMID:Malignant mesothelioma in a cohort of asbestos insulation workers: clinical presentation, diagnosis, and causes of death. 334 94

A 66-year-old man was admitted for shortness of breath and showed fever, abdominal fullness and paraplegia. Monocytosis amounting to 25% and an elevation of serum LDH (4,281 mIu), were remarkable in the laboratory findings. He died of pulmonary insufficiency about a month after admission. On autopsy hepatomegaly (1950 g), splenomegaly (780 g), but no lymphadenopathy and small infarction in the thoracic spinal cord causing paraplegia was noted. Histopathologically, the invasion of the tumor cells into the liver, spleen, lymph nodes, bone marrow and other organs was observed. Malignant histiocytosis was diagnosed by histologic and immunohistochemical studies (lysozyme positive, S-100 protein negative).
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PMID:[A case of malignant histiocytosis with paraplegia]. 362 41

We report the incidence, clinical features, and course of acute dyspnea following combination chemotherapy using mitomycin and vindesine or vinblastine. The courses of 387 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer receiving combined mitomycin and vinca alkaloid chemotherapy were analyzed. Of these patients, 25 experienced acute respiratory distress. Factors contributing to the dyspnea are reported. The syndrome is characterized by the sudden onset of dyspnea without other respiratory symptoms. Acute shortness of breath always occurred on a day when a vinca alkaloid was administered. The median number of previous doses of vinca alkaloid at the time of the event was 10 and the median number of prior mitomycin doses was 3. Rechallenge with the drug in two cases led to recurrence. The incidence was 4% in a group of 378 patients on four protocols for non-small cell lung cancer. Radiographs of 87% of patients showed new focal or diffuse interstitial infiltrates. Arterial blood gases demonstrated low PO2 and increase in A-a gradient. Pulmonary function tests revealed severely impaired diffusing capacity. Substantial improvement occurred over 24 hours. Approximately 60% of the patients experienced chronic respiratory impairment that only partially responded to corticosteroid therapy. No other causes for this syndrome were identified. A syndrome of acute dyspnea occurred in 4% of patients treated with mitomycin and vinca alkaloid therapy. The syndrome has a distinctive presentation, which can lead to chronic pulmonary insufficiency. Clinicians caring for patients receiving combined therapy with mitomycin and a vinca alkaloid should be aware of this type of acute pulmonary toxicity. Further studies are necessary to clarify its etiology.
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PMID:Syndrome of acute dyspnea related to combined mitomycin plus vinca alkaloid chemotherapy. 774 13

We report a case of a woman who presented with worsening shortness of breath due to a migrated ventriculoatrial shunt catheter into the pulmonary artery causing severe pulmonary insufficiency. She underwent surgical catheter removal. The majority of the catheter was easily retrieved; however, there were areas where the catheter was embedded into the myocardium, which would have posed a challenge with an endovascular approach.
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PMID:Successful Retrieval of a Migrated Shunt Catheter Causing Severe Pulmonary Insufficiency. 2991 Oct 11