Tuberculosis is a nimble chameleon. It can manifest itself in various ways with atypical clinical and radiographic findings. In this report we discuss the importance of radiographic findings (nodular or mass-like forms) requiring a correlation with microbiological and histopathological results to differentiate lung cancer from TB.
Pleuroscopy using a flexi-rigid tube was introduced in Malaysia in late 2004 as part of the investigation for unexplained pleural effusion. Sabah, an East Malaysian state situated in Borneo, has the highest prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) in Malaysia. Therefore, exudative pleural effusion in Sabah was presumed to be predominantly because of TB.
We report a case of a young man who presented with a left-sided pneumothorax after suffering an accidental penetrating injury by a sewing needle to the anterior chest wall. Chest radiograph and the computed tomography of the thorax revealed that the needle was in the pleural cavity and there was an associated pneumothorax. An attempt at retrieval by direct incision failed. The sewing needle was successfully retrieved by a medical pleuroscopy. The patient recovered without any consequences and was discharged home after 24 hours of observation.
Recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP) is a benign disease caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV), characterized by the formation of recurrent, epithelial neoplastic lesions in the airways. While benign, they can cause significant airway obstruction in some cases. Difficulties in treatment arise from the recurrent nature of the lesions despite repeated procedures. Other known procedures that result in deep tissue damage also cause unacceptable collateral damage to the underlying airway mucosa. We describe a case of recurrent papillomatosis that was successfully treated with argon plasma coagulation ( APC) when laser and electrocautery ablation had failed in the past. After the papillomatasis was treated with APC, there is no recurrence on repeat scope at 4 months and 9 months after the initial procedure. The procedure was done as a day case and there is no complication from the procedure. The property of the APC that allows it to cause only superficial thermal damage to the tissue makes it a suitable adjunct therapy to the treatment of papillomas, which are usually superficial lesions.
Spermine (SPM) is considered a biomarker for prostate cancer and detecting it becomes highly challenging due to its electro- and optical-inactive nature. SPM has a tendency to interact with groups such as phosphates and sulfides to form macrocyclic arrangements known as nuclear aggregates of polyamines. Using this tendency, an electrochemical sensor has been developed using a polysulfide (PS) modified Au electrode (PS@Au electrode). PS has been synthesized from elemental sulfur by hydrothermal method and characterized using UV-Vis, fluorescence, FTIR, SEM, and XPS analyses. The PS@Au electrode was employed for electrochemical sensing of SPM. In the presence of SPM, a decrease in gold oxide reduction current was noted which is proportional to the concentration of SPM. The decrease in gold oxide reduction (0.5 V) current was attributed to the complexing nature of SPM-PS at the electrode interface. The reason for the decrease in current has been substantiated using XRF, XPS, and spectroelectrochemical studies. Under the optimized conditions, the PS@Au electrode exhibited a linear range of 1.55-250 µM with LOD of 0.511 ± 0.02 µM (3σ). The electrochemical strategy for SPM sensing exhibited better selectivity even in the presence of possible interferents. The selectivity stems from the selective interaction of SPM with PS on the Au electrode surface; the tested amino acids, and other molecules do not complex with PS and hence they could not interfere. The PS@Au electrode has been subjected to the determination of SPM in artificial urine samples and exhibited outstanding performance in the synthetic sample.