Case of uterine leiomyoma showing fludeoxyglucose uptake on F-18 fludeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography.

In order not to over treat uterine leiomyoma and to avoid overlooking uterine leiomyosarcoma, a highly reliable diagnostic method has been thought. Occasionally, it is difficult to discriminate uterine leiomyoma from uterine leiomyosarcoma. Recently positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) has been proved useful in assessing pelvic malignancies. We experienced a case of uterine leiomyoma showing increased F-18 fludeoxyglucose uptake on PET/CT in a postmenopausal woman. However, histological analysis demonstrated benign leiomyoma by the hysterectomy. Immunohistochemical analysis of glucose transporter-1 showed negative in leiomyoma. Our case indicates that uterine leiomyoma in a postmenopausal woman may show false positive result of PET/CT.

Retinal hemorrhage in Plasmodium vivax malaria.

Retinal hemorrhage is a frequently observed sign in Plasmodium falciparum infection. In Plasmodium vivax infection, however, retinal hemorrhage is very rare; only five cases have been reported in the literature. In this case report, we review the literature and the case of 52-year-old man who had retinal hemorrhages in P. vivax infection. We analyzed the structural characteristics of the lesions using fluorescein angiography and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. Physicians should be aware of the possibility of retinal hemorrhage in malaria patients, even those with P. vivax infection, and should consider a diagnosis of malaria in a patient with unexplained retinal hemorrhage and fever.

[Allergen specific IgE measurement with Polycheck Allergy: comparison of three multiple allergen simultaneous tests].

BACKGROUND: The in vivo skin prick test (SPT) or in vitro detection of allergen specific IgE in serum is commonly used for the diagnosis of allergic disease. In this study, we evaluated the usefulness of a new multiple allergen simultaneous test (MAST) immunoblot assay, Polycheck Allergy (Biocheck GmbH, Germany). METHODS: A total of 100 patients with clinical findings of allergic diseases were tested by SPT and three different MAST assays: Polycheck Allergy (Biocheck GmbH, Germany), MAST CLA allergy system (Hitachi Chemical Diagnostics, USA) and Allergy Screen (R-biopharm, Germany). The results of MAST assays were compared with those of SPT. RESULTS: Concordance rates of MAST assays with SPT were 79-100% for Polycheck Allergy, 88.9-100% for MAST CLA and 72.7-98.3% for Allergy Screen. In ROC curve analysis, significant differences were observed in four of 25 allergens analysed: Alternaria, Birch, Hazelnut and D. farinae. For Alternaria and Birch, Polycheck Allergy (P<0.001) and Allergy Screen (P=0.0075) showed significantly larger AUC (area under the curve) than MAST CLA. For Hazelnut, Polycheck Allergy (P=0.0021), and for D. farinae, MAST CLA (P=0.015) showed significantly larger AUCs than the other two tests. The ROC analysis for overall 16 food allergens showed better results in Polycheck Allergy (P<0.001), and that for overall 21 inhalants did not show significant differences among three MAST assays (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Since Polycheck Allergy showed similar or superior result to the others, it can be used for the detection of allergen specific IgE antibodies.

Decreased protein S activity is related to the disease activity of Behcet's disease.

We wanted to see whether the active inflammation in Behcet's disease (BD) can cause a thrombotic disorder by decreasing the protein S (PS) activity, and we evaluated the relationship between the decreased PS activity and the disease activity of BD. We included 122 patients with BD whose PS activity levels were measured. In 51 patients, the PS activity was measured again when there were changes in the number of items of "The Behcet's Disease Current Activity Form (BDCAF)". The thrombosis rate was 2.5% (3/122), and the PS activity was low in all three of the patients with thrombosis. The incidence of low PS activity in the total 122 BD patients was 27% (33/122). The incidence of the low PS activity in the active BD patients was 33.7% (31/92), and this was significantly more frequent than in the inactive BD patients, (6.7%, 2/30) (chi(2)-test, P value = 0.0038). The decrease of PS activity had good correlation with the increase of the number of BDCAF items (r = -0.351, P value = 0.012). The PS activity decrease is related to the BD activity. The low PS activity can be the risk factor for thrombotic disorder and also the activity marker for BD and other inflammatory diseases.