An unusual case of metastasis to the left side of the heart: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Cardiac metastases are found in six to 20% of autopsies of patients with malignant neoplasm. The most common neoplasms that metastasize to the heart are malignant melanoma, lymphoma, and leukemia, but the relative numbers are greater with breast and lung cancers, reflecting the most common incidence of these cancers.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 60-year-old Hispanic man presented to our hospital after being transferred from an outside hospital for workup and evaluation of an adrenal mass of the abdomen and pelvis, found on computed tomography. His chief complaint upon admission was altered mental status. Physical examination was unremarkable. He was alert and oriented and had a dry and non-erythematous oropharynx, and bilateral diffuse wheezing on lung examination. Computed tomography of the chest showed multiple hypodense lesions in the left ventricular myocardium, suggestive of metastases. There were also tiny sub-centimeter nodular densities in the right upper and lower lobes. Adrenal glands contained hypodense lesions, which showed characteristic adenocarcinomatous malignant cells.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Cancers which have metastasized to the heart are found in six to 20% of patients with malignant neoplasms. The right side of the heart is more commonly involved in metastasis. This study is unusual in that a tumor of an unknown primary origin had metastasized to the left side of the heart.</p

A Right Atrial Hemangioma Mimicking Thrombus In A Patient With Atrial Arrhythmias

Cardiac hemangiomas are rare tumors, accounting for only 2.8% of all benign primary cardiac tumors and occur at any age. Clinical presentations vary depending on the tumor location (myocardial, endocardial or pericardial). In many cases, this may be an incidental finding. We report the case of a patient with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation who had a right atrial hemangioma detected with transesophageal echocardiography prior to having percutaneous pulmonary vein isolation performe

A cross-cultural study: Effect of robot appearance and task

This study investigates the effects of culture, robot appearance and task on human-robot interaction. We propose a model with culture (Chinese, Korean and German), robot appearance (anthropomorphic, zoomorphic and machinelike) and task (teaching, guide, entertainment and security guard) as factors, and analyze these factors’ effects on the robot’s likeability, and people’s active response to, engagement with, trust in and satisfaction with the robot. We conducted a laboratory experiment with 108 participants to test the model and performed Repeated ANOVA and Kruskal Wallis Test on the data. The results show that cultural differences exist in participants’ perception of likeability, engagement, trust and satisfaction; a robot’s appearance affects its likeability, while the task affects participants’ active response and engagement. We found the participants expected the robot appearance to match its task only in the interview but not in the subjective ratings. Interaction between culture and task indicates that participants from low-context cultures may have significantly decreased engagement when the sociability of a task is lowered. We found strong and positive correlations between interaction performance (active response and engagement) and preference (likeability, trust and satisfaction) in the human-robot interaction

Separating a mixture of two normals with proportional covariances

Clustering analysis, Linear classification, Multivariate outlier detection, Normal mixture, Proportional covariance matrices,

Comparative effectiveness of post-discharge interventions for hospitalized smokers: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A hospital admission offers smokers an opportunity to quit. Smoking cessation counseling provided in the hospital is effective, but only if it continues for more than one month after discharge. Providing smoking cessation medication at discharge may add benefit to counseling. A major barrier to translating this research into clinical practice is sustaining treatment during the transition to outpatient care. An evidence-based, practical, cost-effective model that facilitates the continuation of tobacco treatment after discharge is needed. This paper describes the design of a comparative effectiveness trial testing a hospital-initiated intervention against standard care.</p> <p>Methods/design</p> <p>A two-arm randomized controlled trial compares the effectiveness of standard post-discharge care with a multi-component smoking cessation intervention provided for three months after discharge. Current smokers admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital who receive bedside smoking cessation counseling, intend to quit after discharge and are willing to consider smoking cessation medication are eligible. Study participants are recruited following the hospital counseling visit and randomly assigned to receive Standard Care or Extended Care after hospital discharge. Standard Care includes a recommendation for a smoking cessation medication and information about community resources. Extended Care includes up to three months of free FDA-approved smoking cessation medication and five proactive computerized telephone calls that use interactive voice response technology to provide tailored motivational messages, offer additional live telephone counseling calls from a smoking cessation counselor, and facilitate medication refills. Outcomes are assessed at one, three, and six months after hospital discharge. The primary outcomes are self-reported and validated seven-day point prevalence tobacco abstinence at six months. Other outcomes include short-term and sustained smoking cessation, post-discharge utilization of smoking cessation treatment, hospital readmissions and emergency room visits, and program cost per quit.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>This study tests a disseminable smoking intervention model for hospitalized smokers. If effective and widely adopted, it could help to reduce population smoking rates and thereby reduce tobacco-related mortality, morbidity, and health care costs.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>United States Clinical Trials Registry NCT01177176.</p

Common ABO variants evaluated and phenotype and related information.

<p>Common ABO variants evaluated and phenotype and related information.</p