Rejected

Eosinophilic colitis is a rare inflammatory disorder of the digestive tract with chronic evolution and unknown pathophysiological mechanisms. The article describes the case of a 64-year old woman with a history of asthma and hypereosinophilia, who presented to a surgical department for persistent abdominal pain in the past 4 months, weight loss and malabsorption. She was diagnosed with eosinophilic colitis based on the colonoscopic result indicating extensive eosinophilic infiltration of the colonic mucosa correlated with the laboratory data and abdominal CT scan results. Following the colonoscopy, the patient developed fever, hypotension and diarrhea and was transferred to an Infectious Diseases Department with a presumptive diagnosis of abdominal sepsis. Treatment with ertapenem was immediately started. Metronidazole was also added due to a PCR positive stool test for toxins encoding-genes. The patient displayed a rapid remission of the fever and of the intestinal complaints following antibiotic therapy and was discharged after 14 days. During a 3 months follow-up, the patient remained asymptomatic with normal values of laboratory parameters except for a persistent hypereosinophilia. The case outlines two distinguishing features: a histopathologic diagnosis of eosinophilic colitis, a rare diagnosis of a patient with chronic abdominal pain and an unexpected and rapid remission of the eosinophilic colitis following the antibiotic treatment and the restoration of the intestinal eubiosis.

Severe, often sudden-onset headache is the principal presenting symptoms of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). We hypothesized that gabapentin would be safe and tolerable for aSAH-induced headaches and would reduce concurrent opioid use. We performed a single-center, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial (registered at ClinicalTrials.gov; NCT02330094) from November 24, 2014, to June 24, 2017, where aSAH patients received either dose-escalating gabapentin or oral placebo, both alongside a standard of care pain regimen. After 7 days, patients had the option to continue in an open-label period until 14 days after enrollment or until discharge from the intensive care unit. Our primary endpoint was the efficacy of gabapentin in reducing headache numeric pain scores and opioid usage in patients with aSAH compared to the placebo group. We identified 63 potential patients with aSAH for the study. After applying stringent exclusion criteria, 16 eligible patients were enrolled into one of two arms. The study ended prematurely after reaching a pre-specified funding period and an unexpected drop in aSAH cases. There was a trend toward lower headache numeric pain scores and opioid use in the gabapentin treated arm; however this was not significantly different. Gabapentin was well tolerated by participants and no adverse effects were reported. While there was a trend toward lower pain scores and opioid requirement in the gabapentin group, the study was underpowered to detect a difference. Larger multicenter trials are required to evaluate the efficacy of gabapentin to reduce opioid requirements after aSAH.

According to present guidelines, active exercise is one key component in the comprehensive treatment of nonspecific chronic back pain (NSCBP). Whole body electromyostimulation (WB-EMS) is a safe, and time-effective training method, that may be effective in NSCBP-patients.

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a common condition usually treated with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). No reports have linked it to an acute subdural haematoma. A 54-year-old white man who had hypertension well controlled with an angiotensin II receptor blocker, presented with a 2-week history of occipital headache with no other focal neurological symptoms. The headache began 12 days after he had started using CPAP for OSA. A brain MRI performed 2 weeks later showed bilateral subdural haematomas which were chronic on the left and sub-acute/acute on the right. Since the patient was clinically stable with no focal neurological deficits, he received prednisone for 3 weeks and was followed up with consecutive CT scans demonstrating gradual regression of the haematomas. This is the first report showing that subdural haematomas could be linked to CPAP use.

No final conclusion has yet been reached on characteristics of postoperative pain and pain-related factors after video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). This study was designed to explore features of acute severe pain and chronic post-surgical pain (CPSP), and the pain-related factors of VATS.

Pituitary carcinomas are rare diseases defined as pituitary tumors with metastases. In this report, we describe a case of malignant prolactinoma with liver metastases masquerading as metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST). A 54-years-old woman received dopamine agonists for macroprolactinoma for 2 years, followed by transsphenoidal surgery due to a poor response to medical therapy. Despite the continuation of dopamine agonist after surgery, serum prolactin level progressively increased to above 8,000 ng/ml in 5 years. There was no evidence of disease recurrence on sella magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). She stopped medical therapy. Meanwhile, she was diagnosed with GIST accompanied by liver and peritoneal metastases. After a 2-months treatment with imatinib, she suddenly presented with headache and visual impairment. Sella MRI showed a 3.3-cm sized pituitary mass, and serum prolactin levels were still high. For the recurred mass, she underwent a second surgery followed by radiation therapy. During the imatinib treatment for GIST, main mass and peritoneal metastases were dramatically decreased, but liver metastases were markedly aggravated. Liver masses were eventually confirmed as metastases from prolactin-producing pituitary carcinoma and not from GIST by percutaneous biopsy. Unfortunately, she died 6 months after the second surgery due to acute renal failure and sepsis. This case suggests that highly sustained serum prolactin levels during the dopamine agonist may indicate prolactin-producing pituitary carcinomas with hidden metastases.

Eosinophils are major effector cells against parasites, fungi, bacteria, and viruses. However, these cells also take part in local and systemic inflammation, which are central to eczema, atopy, rhinitis, asthma, and autoimmune diseases. A role for eosinophils has been also shown in vascular thrombotic disorders and in cancer. Many, if not all, above-mentioned conditions involve the release of intracellular nucleotides (ATP, ADP, UTP, etc.) and nucleosides (adenosine) in the extracellular environment. Simultaneously, eosinophils further release ATP, which in autocrine and paracrine manners, stimulates P2 receptors. Purinergic signaling in eosinophils mediates a variety of responses including CD11b induction, ROI production, release of granule contents and enzymes, as well as cytokines. Exposure to extracellular ATP also modulates the expression of endothelial adhesion molecules, thereby favoring eosinophil extravasation and accumulation. In addition, eosinophils express the immunosuppressive adenosine P1 receptors, which regulate degranulation and migration. However, pro-inflammatory responses induced by extracellular ATP predominate. Due to their important role in innate immunity and tissue damage, pharmacological targeting of nucleotide- and nucleoside-mediated signaling in eosinophils could represent a novel approach to alleviate eosinophilic acute and chronic inflammatory diseases. These innovative approaches might also have salutary effects, particularly in host defense against parasites and in cancer.

Thalassemia remains a challenging chronic disease in Thailand, but national prenatal screening, along with better treatment and management, may have improved health-related quality of life HRQoL for pediatric patients. We aimed to measure the HRQoL of transfusion-dependent TDT and non-transfusion dependent NTDT of these pediatric patients at our institute.

Brachial plexus block is the most effective analgesia and anesthesia procedure for the upper extremity surgeries in pediatric patients. In recent years, ultrasound guidance for this procedure has reduced the fail and complications like pneumothorax, intravascular injection and nerve damage. However, the number of studies about brachial plexus block is not enough, particularly in pediatric patients, which remained under-researched. In our study, we aimed to discuss the efficacy and safety of the ultrasound-guided brachial plexus block in pediatric patients by retrospectively examining their data.

To investigate the co-occurrence of tinnitus-related distress and pain experiences alongside psychological factors that may underlie their association.