Internal medicine
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Primary cardiac angiosarcoma is a rare and highly malignant condition. Besides performing complete surgical excision, it remains controversial as to whether survival can be improved with additional treatment. We herein describe a 30-year-old man with a right atrial angiosarcoma. ⋯ With chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and molecular targeted therapy, he survived for 33 months. The literature describing adjuvant therapy for cardiac angiosarcoma, which is mostly case reports, is also reviewed. In conclusion, the limited evidence suggests that multimodality treatment for cardiac angiosarcoma is a beacon of hope to improve the survival of such patients.
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Our previous study reported that categorizing diabetes patients according to the serum triglycerides-to-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (TG-HDL) ratio is useful for estimating the risk of atherosclerosis, as a high TG-HDL ratio in patients with diabetes constitutes risk factors for atherosclerosis. Another study showed that a high hemoglobin level is associated with the risk of atherosclerosis. However, no previous studies have examined the association between the hemoglobin level and diabetes categorized by the TG-HDL ratio. In order to investigate these associations, we conducted a cross-sectional study of 3,733 (1,299 men and 2,434 women) Japanese participants 30-89 years of age undergoing a general health checkup. ⋯ The hemoglobin level is positively associated with high TG-HDL diabetes and inversely associated with low TG-HDL diabetes. These findings suggest that measuring the hemoglobin level is clinically relevant for estimating the risk of atherosclerosis in patients with diabetes categorized according to the TG-HDL ratio.
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A 57-year-old Japanese man was admitted to our hospital with diarrhea, weight loss and malabsorption. Due to a high serum IgA level, we suspected α-heavy chain disease (α-HCD). ⋯ Most α-HCD patients exhibit M-proteins in the serum on electrophoresis or immunoelectrophoresis; however, some patients lack detectable M-proteins, similar to our patient. Therefore, when α-HCD is suspected based on the clinical features, immunohistochemistry is required to make a diagnosis.
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The clinical features of bacteremia due to Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni) have yet to be fully elucidated. ⋯ These results suggest that C. jejuni bacteremia could occur primarily or secondarily to gastroenteritis with a seasonal peak and that prognosis would be favorable regardless of the underlying diseases.
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Case Reports
Molecular response to nilotinib in a patient with imatinib-intolerant e19a2-positive chronic myeloid leukemia.
The BCR-ABL1 fusion gene is the molecular marker of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). The e19a2 transcript is a rare variant associated with various clinical presentations and courses of CML. ⋯ According to the literature, achieved molecular response by imatinib monotherapy has not yet been reported in e19a2-positive CML patients. Second generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors may therefore be a more effective treatment for e19a2-positive CML patients.