CASE REPORT: He presented with worsening headache that was associated with fatigue, nausea and vomiting. Radiologic examination revealed a multilobular mass in the pineal region with internal calcifications. Biopsy showed a pure germinoma with unusually extensive calcification.
DISCUSSION: Although a diagnosis may be suggested with a careful evaluation of imaging, there is no pathognomonic pattern. Thus, histologic verification is necessary for most pineal region masses.
OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence, potential causes and management of hyponatraemia and to identify factors associated with severity of hyponatraemia among older persons in a primary care setting.
METHODS: Electronic records were searched to identify all cases aged ≥60 years with a serum sodium <135mmol/l, attending outpatient clinic in 2014. Patients' medical records with the available blood test results of glucose, potassium, urea and creatinine were reviewed.
RESULTS: Of the 21,544 elderly, 5873 patients (27.3%) had electrolyte profile tests. 403 (6.9%) had hyponatraemia in at least one blood test. Medical records were available for 253, mean age 72.9±7.3 years, 178 (70.4%) had mild hyponatraemia, 75 (29.6%) had moderate to severe hyponatraemia. Potential causes were documented in 101 (40%). Patients with moderate to severe hyponatraemia were five times more likely to have a cause of hyponatraemia documented (p<0.01). Medications were the commonest documented cause of hyponatraemia (31.7%). Hydrochlorothiazide use was attributed in 25 (78.1%) of 32 with medication-associated hyponatraemia. Repeat renal profile (89%) was the commonest management of hypotonic hyponatraemia.
CONCLUSION: Whilst hyponatraemia was common in the clinic setting, many cases were not acknowledged and had no clear management strategies. In view of mild hyponatraemia has deleterious consequences, future studies should determine whether appropriate management of mild hyponatraemia will lead to clinical improvement.
METHODS: A retrospective analysis has been performed on patients with dento-skeletal class III deformity who had undergone orthognathic 2-jaw surgery with segmentations, presenting both pre- and post-surgical cone-beam computed tomographys. Three-dimensional skeletal movements, pharyngeal airway changes and hyoid bone position were measured and correlated.
RESULTS: The mean short term postsurgical review period for all included 47 patients was 5.8 ± 2.2 months. Thirteen patients among them provided a mean long term period of 26.4 ± 3.4 months. The mean postsurgical maxillary movement was 2.29 ± 2.49 mm in vertical, 2.02 ± 3.45 mm in horizontal direction, respectively, while the mandibular movement was 6.49 ± 4.58 mm in vertical, and -5.85 ± 6.13 mm in horizontal direction. In short-term, the vertical length of nasopharynx was found to be reduced (P = 0.005) but increased for the oropharynx (P 0.05) detected between patients with and without genioplasty advancement.
CONCLUSION: Two-jaw orthognathic surgery in dento-skeletal class III patients led to a statistically non-significant reduction of the post-surgical airway volume in both short- and long-term. Although the post-surgical oropharyneal minimum cross-sectional area was decreased significantly in the short term, this finding did not persist in the long term.
METHODS: C. elegans was aliquoted onto the center of assay plates and allowed to migrate towards sepsis (T) or control (C) urine samples spotted on the same plate. The number of worms found in either (T) or (C) was scored at 10-minute intervals over a 60-minute period.
RESULTS: The worms were able to identify the urine (<48 hours) of sepsis patients rapidly within 20 minutes (AUROC=0.67, p=0.012) and infection within 40 minutes (AUROC=0.80, p=0.016).
CONCLUSIONS: CESDA could be further explored for sepsis diagnosis.
Methods: A cross-sectional study of government officers and their family members attending a health screening at a public healthcare facility was conducted. All subjects underwent clinical evaluation, biochemical testing, anthropometry, ultrasound carotid Doppler, and Fibroscan examination.
Results: Data for 251 subjects were analyzed (mean age 47.1 ± 12.4 years, 74.1% male). Prevalence of NAFLD and advanced fibrosis were 57.4 and 17.5%, respectively. Independent factors associated with NAFLD were waist circumference (odds ratio [OR] = 1.077, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.038-1.118, P < 0.001) and serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (OR = 1.039, 95% CI 1.005-1.074, P = 0.024). Independent factors associated with advanced fibrosis were male gender (OR = 4.847, 95% CI 1.369-17.155, P = 0.014) and serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (OR = 1.057, 95% CI 1.003-1.113, P = 0.036). Prevalence of increased CIMT was 29.0%. Independent factor associated with increased CIMT was older age (OR = 1.146, 95% CI 1.067-1.231, P < 0.001). Of the subjects, 34.5% with NAFLD had increased CIMT compared to 19.1% of the subjects without NAFLD (P = 0.063). Advanced fibrosis was not associated with increased CIMT.
Conclusions: Prevalence of NAFLD, advanced liver fibrosis, and increased CIMT were high. NAFLD and advanced liver fibrosis appeared not to be associated with increased CIMT. However, a larger sample size is needed to demonstrate whether there is any association.