Portosystemic Encephalopathy without Liver Disease Masquerading as Dementia

An 84-year-old woman was hospitalized due to consciousness disorder as hyperammonemia. She had no etiology of liver disease. Twelve months before the current admission, she had been diagnosed with dementia based on her low level of daily perception and physical activity. Abdominal computed tomography revealed a large portosystemic shunt between the medial branch of the portal vein and middle hepatic vein. After the improvement of her consciousness disturbance by medical treatment, percutaneous shunt embolization was electively performed. The patient showed a remarkable clinical improvement. Consciousness disturbance caused by hyper-ammonemia might be underlying in dementia patients. Increase of hepatopetal portal blood flow might have contributed to the improvement of her consciousness disturbance. Embolization of the portosystemic shunt might be more effective for patients without liver disease as in the present case

Familial Occurrence of a Congenital Portosystemic Shunt of the Portal Vein

A congenital portosystemic shunt of the portal vein is a very rare vascular anomaly associated with the liver. We report the case of a 5-year-old girl with a patent ductus venosus and her 31-year-old mother with a congenital portosystemic shunt. The child presented with a history of an extremely low birth weight in addition to an atrial septal defect and a patent ductus venosus. At the age of 2, she underwent ligation of the ductus venosus. Her mother was also diagnosed with a congenital vascular anomaly at the age of 16. We have followed up and evaluated her asymptomatic mother for 15 years. To our knowledge, this is the first report describing the occurrence of a congenital portosystemic shunt in both a mother and her child

Recanalization after Successful Occlusion by Transcatheter Arterial Embolization with N-Butyl Cyanoacrylate for Traumatic Splenic Artery Injury

A 70-year-old male with advanced pancreatic cancer went into shock after sustaining a traumatic abdominal injury. Computed tomography (CT) showed a hematoma with extravasation around the pancreas and hemorrhagic ascites. After direct catheterization failed due to angiospasm, the ruptured splenic artery was successfully occluded by transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) using an N-butyl cyanoacrylate (NBCA)-lipiodol mixture and the patient recovered from shock without complications. A follow-up CT obtained 20 days later showed a recurrent splenic artery pseudoaneurysm without extravasation. A repeat angiogram demonstrated recanalization of the splenic artery and pseudoaneurysm via antegrade. We embolized the recanalized pseudoaneurysm using metallic coils for isolation. Our experience indicates that adequate concentration and volume of the NBCA-lipiodol mixture should be considered depending on the vascular spasm in a patient with hypovolemic shock

Risk Factors for Severity of Pneumothorax after CT-Guided Percutaneous Lung Biopsy using the Single-Needle Method

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the risk factors for the severity of pneumothorax after computed tomography (CT)-guided percutaneous lung biopsy using the single-needle method. We reviewed 91 biopsy procedures for 90 intrapulmonary lesions in 89 patients. Patient factors were age, sex, history of ipsilateral lung surgery and grade of emphysema. Lesion factors were size, location and pleural contact. Procedure factors were position, needle type, needle size, number of pleural punctures, pleural angle, length of needle passes in the aerated lung and number of harvesting samples. The severity of pneumothorax after biopsy was classified into 4 groups: "none", "mild", "moderate" and "severe". The risk factors for the severity of pneumothorax were determined by multivariate analyzing of the factors derived from univariate analysis. Pneumothorax occurred in 39 (43%) of the 91 procedures. Mild, moderate, and severe pneumothorax occurred in 24 (26%), 8 (9%) and 7 (8%) of all procedures, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that location, pleural contact, number of pleural punctures and number of harvesting samples were significantly associated with the severity of pneumothorax (p<0.05). In conclusion, lower locations and non-pleural contact lesions, increased number of pleural punctures and increased number of harvesting samples presented a higher severity of pneumothorax

Long-Term Outcomes of Hepatic Arterial Port Implantation using a Coaxial Microcatheter System in 176 Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of hepatic arterial port implantation using a 2.9-Fr coaxial microcatheter for hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in the long-term follow-up period. Our study subjects were 176 patients with unresectable HCC who underwent hepatic arterial port implantation using a 2.9-Fr coaxial microcatheter via the femoral approach. A 2.9-Fr microcatheter with a side hole was introduced into the hepatic artery through a 5-Fr catheter. We determined the possible length of HAIC, starting with hepatic arterial port implantation and ending with the manifestation of technical difficulties or patient death. We also recorded the technical success rate, the time required for the procedure, and the complications encountered. The median duration of HAIC was 4.3 months (range 0.4-51.6 months) and the predictable cumulative rate of hepatic arterial port functioning at 6-, 12-, and 24 months was 75.1%, 60.9%, and 44.6%, respectively. Our technical success rate was 99.4% (175/176), and the mean time required for the procedure was 121 min. Complications were migration of the infusion hole (8.6%, 15/175), hepatic artery damage (5.7%, 10/175), port-catheter system occlusion (5.7%, 10/175), and problems involving the port or the puncture site (8.0%, 14/175). Our study demonstrates that the technical success rate of hepatic arterial port implantation using a coaxial microcatheter was high but that the incidence of port-catheter system occlusion and catheter dislocation was higher than in conventional methods. Our technique is another option to treat patients with HCC for whom conventional techniques cannot be used

The impact of motion artifacts on the reproducibility of repeated coronary artery calcium measurements

The purpose of this study is, using a 16-section multidetector-row helical computed tomography (MDCT) scanner with retrospective reconstruction, to compare variability in repeated coronary calcium scoring and qualitative scores of the motion artifacts. One hundred forty-four patients underwent two subsequent scans using MDCT. According to Agatston and volume algorithms, the coronary calcium scores during mid-diastole (the center corresponding to 700f the R-R cycle) were calculated and the inter-scan variability was obtained. Motion artifacts from coronary artery calcium were subjectively evaluated and classified using a 5-point scale: 1, excellent; no motion artifacts; 2, fine, minor motion artifacts; 3, moderate, mild motion artifacts; 4, bad, severe motion artifacts; 5, poor, doubling or discontinuity. Each reading was done by vessels (left main, left descending, left circumflex and right coronary arteries) and the motion artifact score (mean of the scales) was determined per patient. The variability in the low (1.2±0.2) and high (2.4±0.6) motion artifact score groups was 7±6 (median, 6)-0x1.4aa00bfffbf7p-149nd 19±15 (16)26651131640n the Agatston score (P<0.01) and 7±7 (6)-0x1.f9a280852f11p+0nd 16±13 (14)26646061170n the volume score (P<0.01), respectively. In conclusion, motion has a significant impact on the reproducibility of coronary calcium scoring