Internal medicine
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We reported a notable case of inflammatory hepatocellular adenoma that grew during pregnancy, consequently changing its appearance on magnetic resonance imaging remarkably. A 5-months-pregnant 35-year-old woman presented with a 37-mm liver nodule that had been diagnosed as focal nodular hyperplasia 3 years earlier. She had never used oral contraceptives. ⋯ The patient delivered a full-term infant without complications. Gadolinium-ethoxybenzyl-diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging performed after delivery revealed markedly different findings compared with the first images. A liver biopsy was performed, and the tumor was diagnosed as inflammatory hepatocellular adenoma.
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Objective Cardiac involvement defines the prognosis for patients with systemic sarcoidosis. Despite advancements in techniques for diagnosing cardiac lesions, there remains significant room for improvement in cardiac screening and prognostic prediction. The present study therefore assessed the prognostic factors associated with cardiovascular events in patients with sarcoidosis. ⋯ These trends were observed even if the patients were not diagnosed with cardiac involvement at the time of enrollment. A multivariate analysis revealed that hs-cTnT was an independent biomarker for the prediction of cardiac events (hs-cTnT >0.014 ng/mL: HR: 7.31, 95% confidence interval: 2.20 to 24.28, p<0.001). Conclusion Hs-cTnT is a useful biomarker for predicting cardiovascular events in patients with sarcoidosis, even if cardiac involvement is not detected at the initial evaluation.
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Amplification of the mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) gene plays an important role in anticancer drug resistance to anaplastic lymphoma kinase-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (ALK-TKIs) in echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4-anaplastic lymphoma kinase (EML4-ALK)-rearranged lung cancer cells. We encountered an ALK-rearranged lung cancer patient who developed MET amplification after alectinib treatment and showed an effective response to fifth-line crizotinib. ⋯ Switching to the MET inhibitor crizotinib improved liver metastases. Crizotinib may be effective in ALK-positive patients with MET amplification.
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A woman in her 70s presented with gallbladder carcinoma with liver metastases and peritoneal dissemination. After standard chemotherapy failed, a liver biopsy was performed. ⋯ According to recently published reports, the frequency of TMB-high biliary tract cancer (BTC) is 3.4-4%, which makes it extremely rare. In conclusion, ICIs may be effective in patients with TMB-high BTC.