Coeliac plexus block has been described more than seventy years ago and is widely used for chronic pain management in upper visceral malignancies. The technique described here is a posterior approach using CT scan guidance with absolute ethyl alcohol. A case illustration of a patient with carcinoma of pancreas managed with coeliac plexus block for pain control is presented.
Orbital pseudotumour is a non-specific inflammatory disease. Its highly variable clinical and radiographic presentation makes specific diagnosis difficult. This study on 31 proven cases of pseudotumour shows that unilateral involvement, retroorbital fat infiltration and enlargement of multiple extraocular muscles with involvement of the tendinous insertions are key computed tomography CT features which help to establish the diagnosis of orbital pseudotumour.
The sonographic and CT appearances of 9 large cavernous hemangiomas of the liver were studied. On sonography, 6 masses (67%) exhibit heterogenous echo pattern; where in 2 patients the echotexture was a mixture of hypoechoic and isoechoic areas and in 4 patients there are varying amounts of bright hyperreflective areas similar to the texture typical of small hemangiomas. The masses were predominantly hypoechoic in the remaining 3 patients (33%). Incremental bolus or bolus-infusion dynamic CT showed peripheral contrast enhancement of varying intensities and thickness in all patients. The lesions were incorrectly diagnosed as hepatomas in 4 patients, suspected as hemangiomas with a differential diagnosis of hepatomas in 4 patients and an early liver abscess in 1 patient. It is concluded that large cavernous hemangiomas of the liver do not exhibit the typical homogenous hyperreflective echotexture as exhibited by small lesions and they mimic primary and secondary hepatic neoplasms. However, the diagnosis of hemangioma should be entertained when such a mass contains bright hyperechoic areas within its heterogenous echo pattern and exhibit peripheral enhancement on contrast enhanced CT. In addition to correlation with appropriate clinical information, confirmation of diagnosis include delayed scanning during a routine incremental bolus dynamic CT, single-slice dynamic contrast enhanced CT, angiography or isotope scintigraphy and magnetic resonance imaging depending on the availability of facility.
The purpose of this study was to retrospectively detect Aspergillus antigens in sera obtained from immunocompromised host using an in-house modified double antibody sandwich ELISA.
This paper presents a novel secure and robust steganographic technique in the compressed video domain namely embedding-based byte differencing (EBBD). Unlike most of the current video steganographic techniques which take into account only the intra frames for data embedding, the proposed EBBD technique aims to hide information in both intra and inter frames. The information is embedded into a compressed video by simultaneously manipulating the quantized AC coefficients (AC-QTCs) of luminance components of the frames during MPEG-2 encoding process. Later, during the decoding process, the embedded information can be detected and extracted completely. Furthermore, the EBBD basically deals with two security concepts: data encryption and data concealing. Hence, during the embedding process, secret data is encrypted using the simplified data encryption standard (S-DES) algorithm to provide better security to the implemented system. The security of the method lies in selecting candidate AC-QTCs within each non-overlapping 8 × 8 sub-block using a pseudo random key. Basic performance of this steganographic technique verified through experiments on various existing MPEG-2 encoded videos over a wide range of embedded payload rates. Overall, the experimental results verify the excellent performance of the proposed EBBD with a better trade-off in terms of imperceptibility and payload, as compared with previous techniques while at the same time ensuring minimal bitrate increase and negligible degradation of PSNR values.
This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the prevalence and the factors associated with sexual initiation among the late adolescents in 6 institutions of higher learning in Malaysia. A total of 1572 students completed self-administered questionnaires between April and September 2013. Hierarchical multivariate logistic regression analyses stratified by gender were employed to identify the correlates of sexual initiation. The analyses were further adjusted by sampling weights. The overall prevalence of sexual initiation was 9.8% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 8.3-11.6), 18.1% (95% CI = 15.1-21.5) among males, and 4.1% (95% CI = 2.9-5.9) among females. The risk factors identified in this study supported the influence of the individual, family, and peer factors in the social-ecological model on adolescents' behaviors. The findings suggest the need for risk-reduction strategies aimed at the individual, family, and peer levels as well as the importance of gender-specific focus in assuring better outcomes.
A biotin-avidin-linked immunosorbent assay was developed to detect Aspergillus antigens in sera of immunocompromised patients. The assay was based on a double antibody sandwich ELISA using polyclonal antibodies raised against water-soluble antigens of Aspergillus fumigatus. Aspergillus antigens were positive in sera of 9 of 16 (56%) patients who were studied prospectively and in 13 of 73 (19%) patients studied retrospectively. The 9 prospectively studied patients who were antigen positive were febrile neutropenic hematological malignancy patients who exhibited a high risk of acquiring invasive aspergillosis.
The intraoperative localisation of small intestinal bleeding lesions identified at pre-operative angiography has always been difficult, resulting in extensive resections in doubtful cases. We report two patients in whom, at angiography, a small intestinal lesion was noted to be the cause of gastrointestinal haemorrhage. They then underwent superselective mesenteric arterial cannulation at a second angiographic procedure and were operated upon with the angiographic catheter left within the branch responsible for the bleeding. This superselective catheter placement facilitates precise localisation of the bleeding site intraoperatively, enabling limited segmental resection of bowel. Both patients have had no recurrent bleeding episodes.
An invasive aspergillosis model in rabbits was attempted using 3 concentrations of A. fumigatus conidia. Conidia concentrations of 1 x 10(6), 1 x 10(7) and 1 x 10(8) were inoculated intravenously into rabbits. The severity of infection was directly proportional to the inoculum size of the conidia. Aspergillus fumigatus was isolated from livers, kidneys, spleens, hearts and lungs of infected rabbits at a rate of 82%, 75%, 57%, 54% and 32% respectively. Cultures of urine specimens taken by bladder tap were positive for A. fumigatus in 30% of the rabbits tested. Blood cultures using the Bactec Fungal System (Becton Dickinson Corp., USA) failed to isolate A. fumigatus in 20 rabbits with biopsy-proven invasive apergillosis. Active infection with high fungal tissue burden occurred between 2-4 days after infection in rabbits inoculated with 1 x 10(7) conidia.
Single gas-containing pyogenic liver abscesses in 11 patients were studied by ultrasound and computed tomography (CT). On ultrasound, all abscesses were predominantly echogenic compared to the normal liver parenchyma. The gas collections appeared as hyperreflective areas arranged in clusters associated with acoustic shadowing and ring-down artifacts. Ten abscesses (90%) had ill-defined margins on ultrasound, causing underestimation of their sizes in these patients. All abscesses were shown to be multiloculated and had clearly defined borders on CT, not appreciated or mistaken for multiplicity of abscesses on ultrasound. Ultrasound may be inadequate in the evaluation of gas-containing liver abscesses, as they have complex echotexture in addition to ring-down artifacts, acoustic shadows and poorly-defined margins; leading to underestimation of abscess size, difficulty in identifying loculations and erroneous interpretation of multiplicity of abscess cavities.
Computed tomography (CT) and ultrasonography (US) were performed in 40 patients who had consumed excessive quantities of analgesics (> 1 kg) to compare their value in the diagnosis of analgesic nephropathy (AN). The computed tomography and sonographic features were renal papillary calcifications. Renal papillary necrosis (RPN) was documented in 20 of 40 patients by US and in 14 of 40 patients by CT. In 11 patients, both US and CT were positive. In 9 patients, US was positive whilst CT was negative. In 3 patients, CT was positive whilst US was negative. Prevalence of RPN was 50% using US and 35% using CT. Using US as a gold standard, sensitivity of CT was 55%, specificity 85%, positive predictive value 78.6% and negative predictive value 34.6%. Percent agreement with CT and US was 70%. Cohen's kappa statistic adjusting for chance agreement was 40%. Based on these results, it is found that US yielded a higher percentage of positive cases of RPN.
The pattern of analgesic use, abuse and incidence of analgesic-associated nephropathy in 79 patients with chronic headache was studied. Sixty-eight of these patients had migraine. Most patients had consumed a combination of analgesics (81%) while 19% had taken single analgesics for their headache. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were the most commonly used analgesics (96.2%) followed by paracetamol (70.9%) and aspirin, phenacetin and caffeine compounds (5.1%). Mefenamic acid was the commonest nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug consumed (97.4%). Analgesic abuse which was defined as a minimum total of 1 kg of analgesics such as paracetamol or aspirin, phenacetin and caffeine compounds or 400 capsules/tablets of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs was noted in 65 patients. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were the most commonly abused analgesics (89.2%) followed by paracetamol (38.5%). Forty-five of the 65 analgesic abusers had an intravenous urogram or ultrasound performed and renal papillary necrosis was documented in one patient. Three (4.6%) of the analgesic abusers had mildly raised serum creatinine levels. Mild proteinuria of less than 1 gm/litre was present in 27.7% of abusers. In conclusion, although analgesic use and abuse is common in patients with chronic headache, the short term incidence of analgesic-associated nephropathy (2.2%) and renal impairment (4.6%) was low. Prolonged observations will be necessary to ascertain the safety of these drugs for long term use.
Spinal vascular malformation is an uncommon but potentially treatable cause of myelopathy. We describe two cases of angiographically proven spinal vascular malformation in Malaysia. The first case is a 47-year-old man who had a progressive myelopathy and the second a 60-year-old man with intermittent attacks of transient paraparesis leading to paraplegia. As the clinical presentation of spinal vascular malformation is variable, it should be considered as a cause of patients with myelopathy.
A case of symptomatic polycystic liver disease treated by fenestration and segmental liver resection is reported. The intraoperative use of ultrasound to define the plane of liver resection is emphasised. No significant post-operative complication was encountered. The clinical presentation, management and treatment are discussed.
The risk of renal papillary necrosis and renal dysfunction due to the chronic use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) is unknown. In a prospective study of 259 heavy analgesic users seen in a general medical hospital over an 11-year-period beginning in January 1982, 69 new cases of analgesic nephropathy with renal papillary necrosis were confirmed by intravenous urogram (26.6%), ultrasonography (30.4%), and/or computed tomography (43%). Twenty-nine of these patients (42%) had consumed excessive quantities of NSAIDs alone; an additional nine patients (13%) had consumed NSAIDs predominantly in combinations with paracetamol, aspirin, phenacetin, caffeine, and/or traditional herbal medications. Of those patients who consumed NSAIDs alone, 17 had consumed only a single type of NSAID and the remaining 12 had consumed multiple types of NSAIDs. The amount of NSAIDs administered ranged from 1,000 to 26,600 capsules or tablets over a 2- to 25-year period. Renal impairment (serum creatinine, 126 to 778 mumol/L) was noted in 26 of these 38 patients (64.8%). The reasons given for consuming NSAIDs include gouty arthritis (18 patients), osteoarthritis (seven patients), rheumatoid arthritis (six patients), chronic headache (three patients), gouty arthritis plus chronic headache (three patients), and chronic backache (one patient). All patients were prescribed these drugs and were followed medically. The occurrence of analgesic nephropathy was predominantly in males (male to female ratio, 1.9:1). Most of the patients did not have the characteristic psychological profile attributed previously to analgesic abuse nephropathy. Associated addictive habits, such as the use of psychotropic drugs and sleeping tablets, purgative abuse, and alcoholism, were absent.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Adrenal tumours are either functioning or non-functioning. Non-functioning adrenal tumours are generally asymptomatic and usually of enormous proportions at the time of presentation. A case is presented here of a patient with a huge right adrenal haemangioma which was successfully treated surgically. This unusual tumour was 25 cm in diameter, was well encapsulated and weighed 4 kg. The literature pertaining to this interesting case is reviewed.
One of the babies in a pair of xiphaomphalopagus conjoined twins developed oliguria, transient rise in serum creatinine and persistent nephrogram on the sixth day of life following injection of radiocontrast medium for computerised axial tomography scanning of the urinary system. The other twin was spared but developed hypertension and "dialysed" the oliguric twin. The renal profiles of both neonates subsequently remained normal until they reached adequate weight for surgical separation at a later date.
Three children aged 3-11 years had ultrasonography of the urinary tract for the investigation of dysuria and haematuria. A bladder mass was seen in these 3 children. One child had computed tomography scan, cystoscopy and bladder biopsy because rhabdomyosarcoma was considered. The biopsy revealed an inflammatory process. The urine culture of the other 2 children revealed E. coli. On ultrasonography, the inflammatory mass may appear homogeneously hypoechoic or may contain moderate level echoes. The mucosal surface of the mass may be smooth or lobulated. It is important to consider an infective cause for a bladder mass in children because computed tomography, cystoscopy and biopsy may be avoided.
This is a case report of a pseudoaneurysm due to Salmonella aortitis in a 52 year old man. The condition is rare and represents one of the few cases reported in Malaysia. The diagnosis was made preoperatively by ultrasonography and computed tomography. This was confirmed at surgery where there was a 3 cm defect at the posterior wall of the aorta at L2/3 level. The aneurysmal sac extended to the retrocrural space at the 12th vertebra level cranially on the right side to the lower border of the 3rd lumbar vertebra caudally. It had a smooth fibrous wall and contained a mixture of organised haematoma and pus. At operation the aneurysm was excised, the affected region was carefully debrided and the aorta grafted with an in-situ in-lay graft. Antibiotic therapy was instituted until clinical response was evident, leukocytosis was reduced and blood culture was negative. However 4 months after surgery, the patient returned in irreversible shock and succumbed to disseminated intravascular coagulation secondary to massive upper gastrointestinal haemorrhage from an aortoduodenal fistula.
We determined the consumption of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and the prevalence of chronic renal impairment and renal papillary necrosis (RPN) in patients with various types of arthritis. Ninety-four patients with chronic arthritis who had consumed more than 1000 capsules and/or tablets of NSAIDs were studied. Renal profiles and radiological investigations such as intravenous urogram (IVU), ultrasonography (US) and computed tomography (CT) were performed to look for evidence of RPN. Twelve patients did not complete the study. Ten of the 82 patients who had completed the study (12.2%) had radiologic evidence of RPN. Five out of 53 patients (9.4%) with rheumatoid arthritis, three out of 11 patients (27.3%) with gouty arthritis and two out of seven patients (28.6%) with osteoarthritis had RPN. Renal impairment (serum creatinine levels of 125-451 mumol/l) was found in 20 patients (24.4%). The patients had consumed 1000-26,300 capsules and/or tablets over a period ranging from 1 yr to more than 30 yr. Patients with chronic arthritis who consume excessive amount of NSAIDs are at risk of developing RPN and chronic renal impairment.