Internal medicine
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A 75-year-old man with a fever, shoulder pain, and lower leg edema was diagnosed with polymyalgia rheumatica and started on glucocorticoid therapy. Eighteen months later, he was admitted with rapidly progressive renal failure. Glucocorticoid therapy had been discontinued one month prior to admission. ⋯ Polyarteritis nodosa was diagnosed based on the presence of fibrinoid necrosis in the medium-sized renal arteries. Glucocorticoid pulse therapy and plasmapheresis were initiated, but the patient died of alveolar hemorrhaging. This was a rare case of Goodpasture syndrome with polyarteritis nodosa.
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Objective Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) has only recently been proposed; therefore, the characteristics of patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and MAFLD remain unclear. This study evaluated the effect of MAFLD on AIH patients with AIH. Methods We reevaluated the Japanese Nationwide Survey of AIH in 2018, which involved a survey of patients diagnosed with AIH between 2014 and 2017. ⋯ However, the levels of hepatobiliary enzymes and total bilirubin after treatment were significantly higher in AIH patients with MAFLD than in those without MAFLD. Conclusion AIH patients with MAFLD had characteristics different from those of AIH patients without MAFLD. These findings could help increase our understanding of patients with AIH with MAFLD.
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Objective Although the management of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has improved, chemoprevention remains a challenge. We recently identified that ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) is associated with subclinical infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, implying a reduction in the severity of COVID-19. We analyzed a large medical database to assess the utility of UDCA in the reduction of COVID-19 severity. ⋯ The UDCA group had significantly more complications with liver cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension. The UDCA group had a higher in-hospital mortality rate than the non-UDCA group, even after propensity score matching (7.4% vs. 4.3%, p =0.03), whereas there was no difference in the risks of hospitalization, oxygen therapy, or ventilation. Conclusions Although the observed increase in mortality among UDCA users could have been due to unmeasured confounding factors, UDCA did not reduce the severity of COVID-19 in viral hepatitis patients.
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Primary cutaneous CD8-positive aggressive epidermotropic cytotoxic T-cell lymphoma (PCAE-CTL) is a rare subtype of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma with a poor prognosis. We herein report a case of PCAE-CTL accompanied by anti-Ma2 antibody-positive paraneoplastic encephalitis. ⋯ She was diagnosed with concurrent anti-Ma2 antibody-positive paraneoplastic encephalitis. In cases of lymphoma with brain lesions, invasion of the central nervous system by lymphoma and paraneoplastic encephalitis should be considered.
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The patient was a 36-year-old woman in the 34th week of pregnancy who presented with headache. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed bilateral internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis and inflammatory changes in the sphenoid sinus. No cerebral infarction was detected on diffusion-weighted magnetic MRI. ⋯ Her headache improved, and MRI showed remarkable improvement in bilateral ICA stenosis and no cerebral infarction. Severe sinusitis can also cause ICA stenoses. An early diagnosis and appropriate treatment of causative sinusitis can improve ICA stenosis and prevent stroke.