Progressive dyspnea and a right atrial mass in an 80-year-old man

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is among the five most frequent causes of cancer death worldwide, according to the WHO. The disease is related to alcohol abuse, viral infections, and other causes of cirrhosis, and unfortunately, in some developed countries, the incidence shows an increasing trend. Although the diagnosis of the HCC often relies upon the context of a chronic hepatopathy, some cases may present a silent course, and the initial symptoms ensue when the disease is in an advanced stage with no chance for any therapeutic attempt. The clinical picture of the HCC is varied, and unexpected forms may surprise the clinician. One of the unusual presentations of the HCC is shock by the blockage of the venous return to the right atrium by the inferior vena cava infiltration. Herein we present a case of an old patient who sought medical care complaining of dyspnea. The clinical workup disclosed a right thorax pleural effusion and imaging exams depicted a mass in the right hepatic lobe, invasion of the inferior vena cava (IVC) and the right atrium (RA). During the attempts of clinical investigation, the patient passed away. The autopsy disclosed an HCC involving the right hepatic lobe, with the invasion of the IVC and the RA. The authors highlight the importance of recognizing the bizarre presentation of not so rare diseases

CT-based diagnosis of bronchial stenosis after lung transplantation

Introduction: Among all types of transplant complications, that related to airway anastomosis, such as stenosis is still uncertain¹². Starting by the difficulty in diagnosis, such as the low precision of bronchoscopy, high cost and invasive test. This article purpose a precise and non-invasive diagnostic method of bronchial stenosis after lung transplantation based on three measures got from a reconstruction of thorax computerized tomography (CT) using a software called TeraRecon. Objective: The anastomosis index (AI), ratio of the area of the bronchial cross-section at the site of the anastomosis to the arithmetic mean of the cross-sectional areas 5 mm upstream and 5 mm downstream, obtained from reconstruction of a thorax CT has direct correlation with the bronchoscopic and clinical diagnosis of bronchial stenosis. Methods: Were obtained all cases of clinical and bronchoscopic diagnosed bronchial stenosis after lung  transplantation at Heart Institute of University of São Paulo, between 2003 and 2016 (n=8). Another 8 patients, without any signs of stenosis, were selected to the control group. After that, the closest CT from the diagnostic was obtained and reconstructed using the software Terarecon, which is capable to find the exact area of any point of a cylindrical structure chosen by the operator. Then, three areas were obtained: 5mm before, at the anastomosis and 5mm after. Were calculated the Anastomosis Index (AI), which is the ratio between the area of anastomosis, and the arithmetic average of the areas 5mm before and 5mm after the anastomosis. After that, the data was confronted to variation of best FEV1 from transplantation to chosen CT and the FEV1 closest to the chosen CT. Results: As expected, in patients without bronchial stenosis, the area of the bronchi cross- section decreases linearly as it moves from proximal to distal in the bronchial tree, the AI in these cases tends to 1. Whereas, when there is no decay linear, that is, there is bronchial stenosis at the anastomosis, the AI was less than 1. There was a significant difference between AI in stenosis group (n=8, M = 0.387, SD = 0.151) and control group (n=8, M = 0.850, SD = 0.091). t(16)= -7.893 p < 0.001. This findings were supported by mean reduction of FEV1 in 17.71% and median 19.81% on stenosis group and mean reduction of 5.45%, and median 5.35% on control group. Besides that, the values undergone in a t-test, which returned a t-value = 2.879 with a p-value = 0.0129. The result is significant at p < 0.05. Conclusion: The Anastomosis Index can be useful in diagnosis of bronchial stenosis after lung transplantation, it is harmless and subsequently may help as a basis for new studies involving treatments. It is worth mentioning that is also a rational use of resources, since lower costs are generated by the CT analysis than performing a bronchoscopy, besides not requiring hospitalization and sedation, taking into account that these patients presents greater risks by the immunosuppression and other comorbidities.Supplemental Material Figure 1. Shown in red, the three points of measure used to calculate the Anastomosis index Figure 2: Boxplot showing distribuition of Anastomosis Index in control and stenosis group Figure 3: Boxplot showing the diferences in percentages between FEV1 in stenosis and control group References Margreiter R. History of lung and heart-lung transplantation, with special emphasis on German-speaking countries. Transplant Proc. 2016;48(8):2779-81. Hardy The first lung transplant in man (1963) and the first heart transplant in man (1964). Transplant Proc. 1999;31:25-9. Derom F, Barbier F, Ringoir S, Versieck J, Rolly G, Berzsenyi G, Vermeire P, Vrints L.Ten-month survival after lung homotransplantation in man. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 1971;61(6):835-46. Awori Hayanga JW, Aboagye JK, Shigemura N, Hayanga HK, Murphy E, Khaghani A,D;Cunha J. Airway complications after lung transplantation: Contemporary survival and outcomes. J Heart Lung Transplant. 2016;35(10):1206-11. Fonseca HV, Iuamoto LR, Minamoto H, Abdalla LG, Fernandes LM, Camargo PC, Samano MN, Pêgo-Fernandes PM. Stents for bronchial stenosis after lung transplantation: should they be removed? Transplant Proc. 2015;47(4):1029-32. Kraft BD, Suliman HB, Colman EC, Mahmood K, Hartwig MG, Piantadosi CA, Shofer SL. Hypoxic gene expression of donor bronchi linked to airway complications after lung transplantation. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2016;193(5):552-60

A comparison of two bronchial anastomotic techniques in lung transplantation by means of tridimensional tomographic analysis:: the bronchial anastomotic index

Background: The objective of this study was to compare two different techniques of bronchial anastomosis in lungtransplant, assessing differences in bronchial narrowing post-surgery.Methods: The surgical team at our center switched between simple stitches to continuous suture to anastomose the anterior bronchial wall in lung transplant procedures. CT scans of the patients obtained three months after the surgery were subject to analysis. The cross section area of the airway at the point of anastomosis was compared with an average of the cross sections of the bronchus 5mm proximal and distal to the point of anastomosis, determining the anastomotic index (AI). Data of 32 bronchi anastomosed with continuous suture from 19 patients were compared to data of 37 bronchi anastomosedwith interrupted suture from 20 patients.Results: Multivariate analysis showed significant difference in bronchial diameter reduction between patients subjected to the two techniques, with no difference between the two sides in any of the groups. The bronchi anastomosed with simple stitches had a significantly larger AI than those anastomosed with running suture (mean AI 0.98 vs 0.82, p < 0.001). A significantly larger number of bronchi subjected to this method had their AI greater than 1 comparing to bronchi anastomosed with a running suture (13 vs 1, p < 0.001).Discussion: The use of simple stitches to join the anterior bronchial wall surpasses a running suture in terms of bronchial narrowing. The interrupted suture technique seems to result in a mechanical widening at the point of anastomosis

Imaging findings in COVID-19 pneumonia

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2), emerged in Wuhan city and was declared a pandemic in March 2020. Although the virus is not restricted to the lung parenchyma, the use of chest imaging in COVID-19 can be especially useful for patients with moderate to severe symptoms or comorbidities. This article aimed to demonstrate the chest imaging findings of COVID-19 on different modalities: chest radiography, computed tomography, and ultrasonography. In addition, it intended to review recommendations on imaging assessment of COVID-19 and to discuss the use of a structured chest computed tomography report. Chest radiography, despite being a low-cost and easily available method, has low sensitivity for screening patients. It can be useful in monitoring hospitalized patients, especially for the evaluation of complications such as pneumothorax and pleural effusion. Chest computed tomography, despite being highly sensitive, has a low specificity, and hence cannot replace the reference diagnostic test (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction). To facilitate the confection and reduce the variability of radiological reports, some standardizations with structured reports have been proposed. Among the available classifications, it is possible to divide the radiological findings into typical, indeterminate, atypical, and negative findings. The structured report can also contain an estimate of the extent of lung involvement (e.g., more or less than 50% of the lung parenchyma). Pulmonary ultrasonography can also be an auxiliary method, especially for monitoring hospitalized patients in intensive care units, where transfer to a tomography scanner is difficult

COVID-19 pneumonia assessed at a private hospital, a field hospital, and a public-referral hospital: population analysis, chest computed tomography findings, and outcomes

ObjectiveTo compare a private quaternary referral hospital, a public tertiary hospital, and a field hospital dedicated to patients with COVID-19, regarding patients’ characteristics, clinical parameters, laboratory, imaging findings, and outcomes of patients with confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19.MethodsRetrospective multicenter observational study that assessed the association of clinical, laboratory and CT data of 453 patients with COVID-19, and also their outcomes (hospital discharge or admission, intensive care unit admission, need for mechanical ventilation, and mortality caused by COVID-19).ResultsThe mean age of patients was 55 years (±16 years), 58.1% of them were male, and 41.9% were female. Considering stratification by the hospital of care, significant differences were observed in the dyspnea, fever, cough, hypertension, diabetes mellitus parameters, and CT score (p < 0.05). Significant differences were observed in ward admission rates, with a lower rate in the private hospital (40.0%), followed by the public hospital (74.1%), and a higher rate in the field hospital (89.4%). Regarding intensive care unit admission, there was a higher rate in the public hospital (25.2%), followed by the private hospital (15.5%), and a lower rate in the field hospital (9.9%). In the analysis of the discharge and death outcomes, it was found that there was a higher number of patients discharged from the private hospital (94.2%), compared to the field hospital (90.1%) and public hospital (82.3%) and a higher number of deaths in the public hospital (17.7%) compared to the private hospital and field hospital (5.8 and 0% respectively).ConclusionThe analysis of the data regarding the population treated with COVID-19 during the first wave in different levels of care in the public and private health systems in the city of São Paulo revealed statistically significant differences between the populations, reflecting distinct outcomes

Lung Lesion Burden found on Chest CT as a Prognostic Marker in Hospitalized Patients with High Clinical Suspicion of COVID-19 Pneumonia: a Brazilian experience

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between lung lesion burden (LLB) found on chest computed tomography (CT) and 30-day mortality in hospitalized patients with high clinical suspicion of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), accounting for tomographic dynamic changes. METHODS: Patients hospitalized with high clinical suspicion of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in a dedicated and reference hospital for COVID-19, having undergone at least one RT-PCR test, regardless of the result, and with one CT compatible with COVID-19, were retrospectively studied. Clinical and laboratory data upon admission were assessed, and LLB found on CT was semi-quantitatively evaluated through visual analysis. The primary outcome was 30-day mortality after admission. Secondary outcomes, including the intensive care unit (ICU) admission, mechanical ventilation used, and length of stay (LOS), were assessed. RESULTS: A total of 457 patients with a mean age of 57±15 years were included. Among these, 58% presented with positive RT-PCR result for COVID-19. The median time from symptom onset to RT-PCR was 8 days [interquartile range 6-11 days]. An initial LLB of ≥50% using CT was found in 201 patients (44%), which was associated with an increased crude at 30-day mortality (31% vs. 15% in patients with LLB of <50%, p<0.001). An LLB of ≥50% was also associated with an increase in the ICU admission, the need for mechanical ventilation, and a prolonged LOS after adjusting for baseline covariates and accounting for the CT findings as a time-varying covariate; hence, patients with an LLB of ≥50% remained at a higher risk at 30-day mortality (adjusted hazard ratio 2.17, 95% confidence interval 1.47-3.18, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Even after accounting for dynamic CT changes in patients with both clinical and imaging findings consistent with COVID-19, an LLB of ≥50% might be associated with a higher risk of mortality