Rejected

Not available.

A 50-year-old male patient, without a previous medical history, presented sudden severe abdominal pain with no alterations in the blood analysis. A CT-Angiography (CTA) was performed that showed a wall thickening of the celiac trunk extended to the hepatic artery with a filiform lumen and no involvement of the splenic artery (Figure 1). There were no signs of intestinal or liver ischemia, therefore no further radiological tests were performed. The proteinogram and serology were normal, with no immunological and acute phase reactant markers, excluding vasculitis. It appeared as an isolated lesion with no signs of arterial dissection or pseudoaneurysms of the remaining abdominal vessels or the aorta. Therefore, it was considered as a Segmental Arterial Mediolisis (SAM). A conservative treatment was performed with analgesics, blood pressure control and simple antiplatelet treatment with low-dose aspirin (100mg). The patient presented a complete resolution of the abdominal pain. The follow-up CTA performed showed a significant improvement of the hepatic artery stenosis at 7-days (Figure 2) and complete resolution and minimal wall thickening of the celiac trunk at 30-days (Figure 3). DISCUSSION SAM is a rare, underestimated, non-arteriosclerotic and non-inflammatory disease. The most commonly affected vessels are the visceral trunks1. The differential diagnosis includes systemic inflammatory vasculitis, collagenopathies or fibromuscular dysplasia2. Corticosteroids and immunosuppressive treatments used in other vasculitis do not add any benefits. Conservative treatment with antiplatelet therapy is the first-line option, which lead to a complete remission in some cases. Surgical treatment is reserved for progressive lesions and/or acute complications3.

In this manuscript we aim to describe a particular case of a 63 years-old man who developed three different malignancies (one was a rare case of breast cancer) among nearly five years. In particular, for the diagnosis of melanoma, he was treated with pembrolizumab, a PD-1 inhibitor. After few months of treatment with pembrolizumab, the patient reported the onset of musculoskeletal symptoms such as inflammatory pain at the shoulders and morning stiffness, with raised CRP and ESR and imaging evidence of bursitis and tenosynovitis. A polymyalgia-like syndrome was diagnosed. Understanding if these manifestations are linked to the use of pembrolizumab or to a paraneoplastic syndrome, and how to manage the patient, was the real challenge.

Eosinophilic enterocolitis is a rare entity included in the group of primary eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders. It is characterized by eosinophilic infiltrate in the absence of other causes of enterocolonic eosinophilia (infection, allergic or drug reaction, inflammatory disease, etc). The most common gastrointestinal manifestations are abdominal pain, diarrhea or malabsorption. The lack of well-defined diagnostic criteria and patchy microscopic involvement make diagnosis difficult. We report the case of a 44-year-old male with chronic diarrhea. After performing multiple studies, he was diagnosed of eosinophilic enterocolitis, with a suitable response to corticosteroids.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of an oral preparation containing a naturally occurring matrix of hydrolyzed collagen type II, chondroitin sulfate (CS), and hyaluronic acid (HA), and bioactive oligopeptides of natural hydrolyzed keratin (K) in patients affected by knee OA through the evaluation of synovial fluid (SF) and clinical changes before and after treatment. Thirty patients with knee OA and swollen joint were included in the study and submitted to arthrocentesis. Patients were randomized in two groups: 1) the treatment group (N.15) took a dietary supplement containing 120 mg HA, 240 mg CS and 300 mg K once a day for 4 weeks; 2) the control group (N.15) was only submitted to arthrocentesis. Patient symptoms were evaluated at the beginning and at the end of the study by the WOMAC self-assessment questionnaire, the Lequesne algofunctional index, and the VAS forms. SF changes were evaluated by measuring local inflammatory indices, cytokines IL-1β, IL-8, IL-6, IL-10 and GM-CSF. The group of patients treated with the oral supplement showed an improvement in the clinical indices WOMAC (p<0.01), Lequesne (p=0.014) and VAS pain (p<0.01). On the contrary, no significant changes were found in the control group. The SF collected from the treated group showed a reduction of IL-8 (p=0.015), IL-6 and IL-10 levels, while no changes in cytokines were observed in the control group. This pilot study suggests that an oral administration of a preparation containing a combination of HA, CS and K can improve some clinical parameters and affect cytokine concentrations in SF in patients with knee OA.

SARS-CoV-2 infection among People Living With HIV (PLWH) is not well-described.

Knowledge of predictors for shoulder pain in swimmers can assist professionals working with the athlete in developing optimal prevention strategies. However, study methodology and limited available data have constrained a comprehensive understanding of which factors cause shoulder pain.

Skin barrier is often compromised following ablative fractional carbon dioxide laser (AFCO ) therapy for acne scarring. The resultant downtime, even of a few days' duration, can be of significant concern to patients. We evaluated the efficacy and safety of topical 0.5% timolol maleate (TM) for its role in short-term restoration of the skin's biophysical properties after laser treatments.