Expert assessment of ChatGPT's ability to generate illness scripts: an evaluative study.

BACKGROUND: An illness script is a specific script format geared to represent patient-oriented clinical knowledge organized around enabling conditions, faults (i.e., pathophysiological process), and consequences. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) stands out as an educational aid in continuing medical education. The effortless creation of a typical illness script by generative AI could help the comprehension of key features of diseases and increase diagnostic accuracy. No systematic summary of specific examples of illness scripts has been reported since illness scripts are unique to each physician. OBJECTIVE: This study investigated whether generative AI can generate illness scripts. METHODS: We utilized ChatGPT-4, a generative AI, to create illness scripts for 184 diseases based on the diseases and conditions integral to the National Model Core Curriculum in Japan for undergraduate medical education (2022 revised edition) and primary care specialist training in Japan. Three physicians applied a three-tier grading scale: "A" denotes that the content of each disease's illness script proves sufficient for training medical students, "B" denotes that it is partially lacking but acceptable, and "C" denotes that it is deficient in multiple respects. RESULTS: By leveraging ChatGPT-4, we successfully generated each component of the illness script for 184 diseases without any omission. The illness scripts received "A," "B," and "C" ratings of 56.0% (103/184), 28.3% (52/184), and 15.8% (29/184), respectively. CONCLUSION: Useful illness scripts were seamlessly and instantaneously created using ChatGPT-4 by employing prompts appropriate for medical students. The technology-driven illness script is a valuable tool for introducing medical students to key features of diseases.

Association Between Physician Empathy and Difficult Patient Encounters: a Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Physicians frequently experience patients as difficult. Our study explores whether more empathetic physicians experience fewer patient encounters as difficult. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between physician empathy and difficult patient encounters (DPEs). DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS: Participants were 18 generalist physicians with 3-8 years of experience. The investigation was conducted from August-September 2018 and April-May 2019 at six healthcare facilities. MAIN MEASURES: Based on the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) scores, we classified physicians into low and high empathy groups. The physicians completed the Difficult Doctor-Patient Relationship Questionnaire-10 (DDPRQ-10) after each patient visit. Scores ≥ 31 on the DDPRQ-10 indicated DPEs. We implemented multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression models to examine the association between physicians' empathy and DPE, adjusting for patient-level covariates (age, sex, history of mental disorders) and with physician-level clustering. KEY RESULTS: The median JSE score was 114 (range: 96-126), and physicians with JSE scores 96-113 and 114-126 were assigned to low and high empathy groups, respectively (n = 8 and 10 each); 240 and 344 patients were examined by physicians in the low and high empathy groups, respectively. Among low empathy physicians, 23% of encounters were considered difficulty, compared to 11% among high empathy groups (OR: 0.37; 95% CI = 0.19-0.72, p = 0.004). JSE scores and DDPRQ-10 scores were negatively correlated (r = -0.22, p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Empathetic physicians were less likely to experience encounters as difficult. Empathy appears to be an important component of physician perception of encounter difficulty.

Do clinical interview transcripts generated by speech recognition software improve clinical reasoning performance in mock patient encounters? A prospective observational study.

BACKGROUND: To investigate whether speech recognition software for generating interview transcripts can provide more specific and precise feedback for evaluating medical interviews. METHODS: The effects of the two feedback methods on student performance in medical interviews were compared using a prospective observational trial. Seventy-nine medical students in a clinical clerkship were assigned to receive either speech-recognition feedback (n = 39; SRS feedback group) or voice-recording feedback (n = 40; IC recorder feedback group). All students' medical interviewing skills during mock patient encounters were assessed twice, first using a mini-clinical evaluation exercise (mini-CEX) and then a checklist. Medical students then made the most appropriate diagnoses based on medical interviews. The diagnostic accuracy, mini-CEX, and checklist scores of the two groups were compared. RESULTS: According to the study results, the mean diagnostic accuracy rate (SRS feedback group:1st mock 51.3%, 2nd mock 89.7%; IC recorder feedback group, 57.5%-67.5%; F(1, 77) = 4.0; p = 0.049), mini-CEX scores for overall clinical competence (SRS feedback group: 1st mock 5.2 ± 1.1, 2nd mock 7.4 ± 0.9; IC recorder feedback group: 1st mock 5.6 ± 1.4, 2nd mock 6.1 ± 1.2; F(1, 77) = 35.7; p < 0.001), and checklist scores for clinical performance (SRS feedback group: 1st mock 12.2 ± 2.4, 2nd mock 16.1 ± 1.7; IC recorder feedback group: 1st mock 13.1 ± 2.5, 2nd mock 13.8 ± 2.6; F(1, 77) = 26.1; p < 0.001) were higher with speech recognition-based feedback. CONCLUSIONS: Speech-recognition-based feedback leads to higher diagnostic accuracy rates and higher mini-CEX and checklist scores. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was registered in the Japan Registry of Clinical Trials on June 14, 2022. Due to our misunderstanding of the trial registration requirements, we registered the trial retrospectively. This study was registered in the Japan Registry of Clinical Trials on 7/7/2022 (Clinical trial registration number: jRCT1030220188).

Improving decision accuracy using a clinical decision support system for medical students during history-taking: a randomized clinical trial.

BACKGROUND: A clinical diagnostic support system (CDSS) can support medical students and physicians in providing evidence-based care. In this study, we investigate diagnostic accuracy based on the history of present illness between groups of medical students using a CDSS, Google, and neither (control). Further, the degree of diagnostic accuracy of medical students using a CDSS is compared with that of residents using neither a CDSS nor Google. METHODS: This study is a randomized educational trial. The participants comprised 64 medical students and 13 residents who rotated in the Department of General Medicine at Chiba University Hospital from May to December 2020. The medical students were randomly divided into the CDSS group (n = 22), Google group (n = 22), and control group (n = 20). Participants were asked to provide the three most likely diagnoses for 20 cases, mainly a history of a present illness (10 common and 10 emergent diseases). Each correct diagnosis was awarded 1 point (maximum 20 points). The mean scores of the three medical student groups were compared using a one-way analysis of variance. Furthermore, the mean scores of the CDSS, Google, and residents' (without CDSS or Google) groups were compared. RESULTS: The mean scores of the CDSS (12.0 ± 1.3) and Google (11.9 ± 1.1) groups were significantly higher than those of the control group (9.5 ± 1.7; p = 0.02 and p = 0.03, respectively). The residents' group's mean score (14.7 ± 1.4) was higher than the mean scores of the CDSS and Google groups (p = 0.01). Regarding common disease cases, the mean scores were 7.4 ± 0.7, 7.1 ± 0.7, and 8.2 ± 0.7 for the CDSS, Google, and residents' groups, respectively. There were no significant differences in mean scores (p = 0.1). CONCLUSIONS: Medical students who used the CDSS and Google were able to list differential diagnoses more accurately than those using neither. Furthermore, they could make the same level of differential diagnoses as residents in the context of common diseases. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was retrospectively registered with the University Hospital Medical Information Network Clinical Trials Registry on 24/12/2020 (unique trial number: UMIN000042831).

Validating the representation of distance between infarct diseases using word embedding.

BACKGROUND: The pivot and cluster strategy (PCS) is a diagnostic reasoning strategy that automatically elicits disease clusters similar to a differential diagnosis in a batch. Although physicians know empirically which disease clusters are similar, there has been no quantitative evaluation. This study aimed to determine whether inter-disease distances between word embedding vectors using the PCS are a valid quantitative representation of similar disease groups in a limited domain. METHODS: Abstracts were extracted from the Ichushi Web database and subjected to morphological analysis and training using Word2Vec, FastText, and GloVe. Consequently, word embedding vectors were obtained. For words including "infarction," we calculated the cophenetic correlation coefficient (CCC) as an internal validity measure and the adjusted rand index (ARI), normalized mutual information (NMI), and adjusted mutual information (AMI) with ICD-10 codes as the external validity measures. This was performed for each combination of metric and hierarchical clustering method. RESULTS: Seventy-one words included "infarction," of which 38 diseases matched the ICD-10 standard with the appearance of 21 unique ICD-10 codes. When using Word2Vec, the CCC was most significant at 0.8690 (metric and method: euclidean and centroid), whereas the AMI was maximal at 0.4109 (metric and method: cosine and correlation, and average and weighted). The NMI and ARI were maximal at 0.8463 and 0.3593, respectively (metric and method: cosine and complete). FastText and GloVe generally resulted in the same trend as Word2Vec, and the metric and method that maximized CCC differed from the ones that maximized the external validity measures. CONCLUSIONS: The metric and method that maximized the internal validity measure differed from those that maximized the external validity measures; both produced different results. The cosine distance should be used when considering ICD-10, and the Euclidean distance when considering the frequency of word occurrence. The distributed representation, when trained by Word2Vec on the "infarction" domain from a Japanese academic corpus, provides an objective inter-disease distance used in PCS.

Feedback of patient survey on medication improves the management of polypharmacy: a pilot trial.

BACKGROUND: Patient awareness surveys on polypharmacy have been reported previously, but no previous study has examined the effects of sending feedback to health professionals on reducing medication use. Our study aimed to conduct a patient survey to examine factors contributing to polypharmacy, feedback the results to health professionals, and analyze the resulting changes in the number of polypharmacy patients and prescribed medications. METHODS: After conducting a questionnaire survey of patients in Study 1, we provided its results to the healthcare professionals, and then surveyed the number of polypharmacy patients and oral medications using a before-after comparative study design in Study 2. In Study 1, we examined polypharmacy and its contributing factors by performing logistic regression analysis. In Study 2, we performed a t-test and a chi-square test. RESULTS: In the questionnaire survey, significant differences were found in the following 3 items: age (odds ratio (OR) = 3.14; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.01-4.91), number of medical institutions (OR = 2.34; 95%CI = 1.50-3.64), and patients' difficulty with asking their doctors to deprescribe their medications (OR = 2.21; 95%CI = 1.25-3.90). After the feedback, the number of polypharmacy patients decreased from 175 to 159 individuals and the mean number of prescribed medications per patient decreased from 8.2 to 7.7 (p < 0.001, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Providing feedback to health professionals on polypharmacy survey results may lead to a decrease in the number of polypharmacy patients. Factors contributing to polypharmacy included age (75 years or older), the number of medical institutions (2 or more institutions), and patients' difficulty with asking their physicians to deprescribe their medications. Feedback to health professionals reduced the percentage of polypharmacy patients and the number of prescribed medications. TRIAL REGISTRATION: UMIN. Registered 21 June 2020 - Retrospectively registered, https://www.umin.ac.jp/ctr/index-j.htm.

One novel and two uncommon MEFV mutations in Japanese patients with familial Mediterranean fever: a clinicogenetic study.

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autoinflammatory disease caused by mutations in the MEFV gene and characterized by recurrent episodes of fever and polyserositis. To date, over 317 MEFV mutations have been reported, only nine of which account for almost all Japanese patients with FMF. Therefore, the prevalence of rare MEFV variants and their clinical characteristics remains unclear. This study identified MEFV mutations previously unreported in the Japanese population and described their clinical features. We performed MEFV genetic testing in 488 Japanese patients with clinically suspected FMF. Of these patients, we retrospectively analyzed three patients with novel or very uncommon MEFV mutations. In all patients, the clinical diagnosis of FMF was made according to Tel-Hashomer's criteria. One novel missense mutation (N679H) and two rare mutations (T681I and R410H) were identified in the MEFV gene. These mutations were found in compound heterozygous or complex genotypes with other known mutations in exons 1 or 2. According to clinical images, all three patients exhibited typical FMF symptoms. A number of patients with FMF caused by novel or uncommon MEFV variants might exist in the Japanese population; therefore, careful genetic testing is required for accurate diagnosis of this curable genetic disorder.

How Accurate Are First Visit Diagnoses Using Synchronous Video Visits with Physicians?

BACKGROUND: Telediagnosis (TD), which uses information and communications technology, has recently undergone rapid development. Since no studies have compared the diagnostic precision of TD to that of face-to-face diagnosis (FD), we examined and compared the diagnostic accuracy of these diagnostic approaches among general medicine outpatients. METHODS: Data of 97 patients (45 men and 52 women with a mean age of 52 years) who underwent initial examinations at a regional hospital were analyzed. Two fully trained general medicine physicians were selected from a group of three physicians to perform FD and TD. Levels of agreement (as κ coefficients) were determined between TD and FD diagnoses as well as between final diagnoses and TD and FD diagnoses. RESULTS: The κ coefficients were 0.75 for TD and FD and 0.81 for both, the final diagnoses and the TD and FD diagnoses, revealing a sufficiently high level of diagnostic agreement. CONCLUSIONS: TD can provide the same level of diagnostic accuracy as FD among general medicine outpatients for adults. The help of medical assistants and the utilization of physical examination devices might enable medical staff to provide TD care similar in quality to FD. TD could be a useful diagnostic tool when medical work force is limited (e.g., in remote areas, during natural disasters, and in at-home care).

Narcolepsy with Cataplexy in an Elderly Woman.

A 72-year-old woman was referred for a 15-year history of brief attacks of generalized weakness that occurred when she was tense or startled. During these episodes, she squatted, closed her eyes, and had difficulty speaking, but there was no disturbance of consciousness. The cerebrospinal fluid level of orexin/hypocretin was low (92 ng/L), leading to a diagnosis of narcolepsy with cataplexy according to the International Classification of Sleep Disorders (ICSD)-2 criteria. Cataplexy should be considered for sudden attacks of weakness lasting less than 2 minutes and with no alteration of consciousness. Measurement of cerebrospinal fluid levels of orexin/hypocretin is recommended when the diagnosis is uncertain.

A Cross-Sectional Study on Whether Comprehensively Gathering Information From Medical Records Is Useful for the Collection of Operational Characteristics.

This study tests whether comprehensively gathering information from medical records is useful for developing clinical decision support systems using Bayes' theorem. Using a single-center cross-sectional study, we retrospectively extracted medical records of 270 patients aged ≥16 years who visited the emergency room at the Tokyo Metropolitan Tama Medical Center with a chief complaint of experiencing headaches. The medical records of cases were analyzed in this study. We manually extracted diagnoses, unique keywords, and annotated keywords, classifying them as either positive or negative. Cross tables were created, and the proportion of combinations for which the likelihood ratios could be calculated was evaluated. Probability functions for the appearance of new unique keywords were modeled, and theoretical values were calculated. We extracted 623 unique keywords, 26 diagnoses, and 6,904 annotated keywords. Likelihood ratios could be calculated only for 276 combinations (1.70%), of which 24 (0.15%) exhibited significant differences. The power function+constant was the best fit for new unique keywords. The increase in the number of combinations after increasing the number of cases indicated that while it is theoretically possible to comprehensively gather information from medical records in this way, doing so presents difficulties related to human costs. It also does not necessarily solve the fundamental issues with medical informatics or with developing clinical decision support systems. Therefore, we recommend using methods other than comprehensive information gathering with Bayes' theorem as the classifier to develop such systems.

Importance of Patient History in Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Medical Diagnosis: Comparison Study.

Background: Medical history contributes approximately 80% to a diagnosis, although physical examinations and laboratory investigations increase a physician's confidence in the medical diagnosis. The concept of artificial intelligence (AI) was first proposed more than 70 years ago. Recently, its role in various fields of medicine has grown remarkably. However, no studies have evaluated the importance of patient history in AI-assisted medical diagnosis. Objective: This study explored the contribution of patient history to AI-assisted medical diagnoses and assessed the accuracy of ChatGPT in reaching a clinical diagnosis based on the medical history provided. Methods: Using clinical vignettes of 30 cases identified in The BMJ, we evaluated the accuracy of diagnoses generated by ChatGPT. We compared the diagnoses made by ChatGPT based solely on medical history with the correct diagnoses. We also compared the diagnoses made by ChatGPT after incorporating additional physical examination findings and laboratory data alongside history with the correct diagnoses. Results: ChatGPT accurately diagnosed 76.6% (23/30) of the cases with only the medical history, consistent with previous research targeting physicians. We also found that this rate was 93.3% (28/30) when additional information was included. Conclusions: Although adding additional information improves diagnostic accuracy, patient history remains a significant factor in AI-assisted medical diagnosis. Thus, when using AI in medical diagnosis, it is crucial to include pertinent and correct patient histories for an accurate diagnosis. Our findings emphasize the continued significance of patient history in clinical diagnoses in this age and highlight the need for its integration into AI-assisted medical diagnosis systems.

The differential diagnosis of medical and psychogenic disease in primary care.

Diagnosis and management of psychogenic diseases such as conversion disorder, somatic symptom disorder (SSD), illness anxiety disorder, falsehood disorder, and psychotic disorder require an elaborate biopsychosocial approach and are often challenging. Herein, we propose the following points to differentiate medical diseases from these psychogenic diseases: correspondence between symptoms and objective findings or activities of daily living (ADL) impairment; placebo effect; clear provocative or palliative factors; progressive time course; paroxysmal or intermittent symptoms; unfamiliar but not strange expressions; symptoms worsen during sleep or rest.

Do Japanese word-embedded representations obtained in the academic corpus retain the medical concepts of "infarction"?

OBJECTIVE: The pathophysiological concepts of diseases are encapsulated in patients' medical histories. Whether information on the pathophysiology or anatomy of "infarction" can be preserved and objectively expressed in the distributed representation obtained from a corpus of scientific Japanese medical texts in the "infarction" domain is currently unknown. Word2Vec was used to obtain distributed representations, meanings, and word analogies of word vectors, and this process was verified mathematically. MATERIALS & METHODS: The texts were abstracts that were obtained by searching for "infarction," "abstract," and "case report" in the Japan Medical Journal Association's Ichushi Data Base. The abstracted text was morphologically analyzed to produce word sequences converted into their standard form. MeCab was used for morphological analysis and mecab-ipadic-NEologd and ComeJisyo were used as dictionaries. The accuracy of the known tasks for medical terms was evaluated using a word analogy task specific to the "infarction" domain. RESULTS: Only 33 % of the word analogy tasks for medical terminology were correct. However, 52 % of the new original tasks, which were specific to the "infarction" domain, were correct, especially those regarding anatomical differences. DISCUSSION: Documents related to "infarction" were collected from a corpus of Japanese medical documents and word-embedded expressions were obtained using Word2Vec. Terminology that had similar meanings to "infarction" included words such as "cavity" and "ischemia," which suggest the pathology of an infarction. CONCLUSION: The pathophysiological and anatomical features of an "infarction" may be retained in a distributed representation.

A Stepwise Progression of Acute Bilateral Visual Loss Due to Onodi Cell Sinusitis.

Acute visual loss in an immunocompromised patient may be caused by acute invasive fungal sinusitis (AIFS), even if symptoms include only mild headache and computed tomography (CT) shows only mild sinusitis, especially of the Onodi cell. Herein, we report a case of a 71-year-old man with a medical history of dermatomyositis and type 2 diabetes mellitus who presented with a stepwise progression of acute bilateral visual loss, mild headache, and altered consciousness. Initially, as the plain cranial CT showed only mild fluid retention in the posterior ethmoid sinus without bone destruction, the sinusitis was considered unrelated to the visual loss. Afterward, however, contrast-enhanced cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed mucosal thickening, fluid retention in the posterior ethmoid sinus, and spread of the contrast medium over the dura around the right posterior ethmoid sinus and bilateral optic nerve tracts. Aspergillus fumigatus was identified from endoscopic drainage of the sinus. The patient was diagnosed with AIFS and treated with amphotericin B 350 mg/day. The altered sensorium and headache rapidly improved, and his left visual acuity improved to counting fingers. Although AIFS is rare, it can cause severe sequela or death due to vascular or direct intracranial invasion. Therefore, immediate drainage of the sinus and intravenous antifungal therapy are essential for AIFS. Our findings will help physicians make accurate and rapid diagnoses of AIFS in future cases.

Hybrid PBL and Pure PBL: Which one is more effective in developing clinical reasoning skills for general medicine clerkship?-A mixed-method study.

This study aims to compare the effectiveness of Hybrid and Pure problem-based learning (PBL) in teaching clinical reasoning skills to medical students. The study sample consisted of 99 medical students participating in a clerkship rotation at the Department of General Medicine, Chiba University Hospital. They were randomly assigned to Hybrid PBL (intervention group, n = 52) or Pure PBL group (control group, n = 47). The quantitative outcomes were measured with the students' perceived competence in PBL, satisfaction with sessions, and self-evaluation of competency in clinical reasoning. The qualitative component consisted of a content analysis on the benefits of learning clinical reasoning using Hybrid PBL. There was no significant difference between intervention and control groups in the five students' perceived competence and satisfaction with sessions. In two-way repeated measure analysis of variance, self-evaluation of competency in clinical reasoning was significantly improved in the intervention group in "recalling appropriate differential diagnosis from patient's chief complaint" (F(1,97) = 5.295, p = 0.024) and "practicing the appropriate clinical reasoning process" (F(1,97) = 4.016, p = 0.038). According to multiple comparisons, the scores of "recalling appropriate history, physical examination, and tests on clinical hypothesis generation" (F(1,97) = 6.796, p = 0.011), "verbalizing and reflecting appropriately on own mistakes," (F(1,97) = 4.352, p = 0.040) "selecting keywords from the whole aspect of the patient," (F(1,97) = 5.607, p = 0.020) and "examining the patient while visualizing his/her daily life" (F(1,97) = 7.120, p = 0.009) were significantly higher in the control group. In the content analysis, 13 advantage categories of Hybrid PBL were extracted. In the subcategories, "acquisition of knowledge" was the most frequent subcategory, followed by "leading the discussion," "smooth discussion," "getting feedback," "timely feedback," and "supporting the clinical reasoning process." Hybrid PBL can help acquire practical knowledge and deepen understanding of clinical reasoning, whereas Pure PBL can improve several important skills such as verbalizing and reflecting on one's own errors and selecting appropriate keywords from the whole aspect of the patient.

Frequency of Difficult Patient Encounters in a Japanese University Hospital and Community Hospitals: A Cross-sectional Study.

Objective Difficult patient encounters (DPEs) are defined as encounters with patients causing strong negative feelings in physicians. In primary care settings, DPEs account for approximately 15% of visits among outpatients. To our knowledge, this is the first epidemiological study of DPEs in Japan. Methods We conducted a survey of 8 physicians (5.0±2 years of clinical experience) who examined first-visit patients ≥15 years old with clinical symptoms at the Department of General Medicine in Chiba University Hospital and 4 community hospitals over a 2-month period since December 2015. Materials We evaluated 10-Item Difficult Doctor-Patient Relationship Questionnaire (DDPRQ-10) scores (DPE ≥31 points; non-DPE ≤30 points) and patient age, sex, and presence of psychological or social problems. Results The valid response rate was 98.9% (94/95) and 98.4% (189/192) in the university and community hospitals, respectively. The percentage of DPEs was 39.8% (37/93) and 15.0% (26/173) in the university and community hospitals, respectively; the percentage of DPEs was significantly higher at the university hospital than at the community hospitals (p<0.001). The proportion of patients with psychosocial problems was significantly higher in the DPE group than in the non-DPE group (93.7% vs. 40.4%, p<0.001). Conclusion Our findings were similar to those reported in primary care settings in other countries in community hospital outpatient and general internal medicine departments, where patients are mostly non-referrals, although the values were higher in university hospital general medicine departments, where patients were mostly referrals. Patients involved in DPEs have a high rate of psychological and social problems.

Group B Streptococcus Bacteremia Mimicking Synovitis, Acne, Pustulosis, Hyperostosis, and Osteitis (SAPHO) Syndrome.

Group B Streptococcus (GBS) causes septic arthritis in healthy adults, and a significant number of GBS septic arthritis cases involve multiple joints. Nevertheless, septic arthritis is commonly monoarticular. Here, we report a case of a 45-year-old man who complained of subacute fever and right shoulder and right buttock pain for three weeks despite undergoing garenoxacin treatment for one week. Although synovitis, acne, pustulosis, hyperostosis, and osteitis (SAPHO) syndrome could be a possible differential diagnosis for this patient, the fever and subacute clinical course could not be explained. Blood cultures revealed the presence of GBS; therefore, he was diagnosed with septic arthritis. After antibiotic treatment for six weeks, his symptoms resolved.

Linear Neck Pain and Prolonged Cough Caused by Takayasu Arteritis.

The clinical manifestations of Takayasu arteritis (TA) greatly vary, and this ultimately leads to a delay in diagnosis. We describe a case of TA presenting with two coexisting rare symptoms of linear neck pain and prolonged cough. A 28-year-old Japanese female with a six-month history of ulcerative colitis presented with recurrent left neck pain, cough, and fever. The neck pain and fever started five months ago. Her symptoms briefly improved with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug therapy, but eventually recurred one month prior to her latest presentation to the hospital, which was accompanied by a dry cough. Physical examination revealed a blood pressure discrepancy, with systolic blood pressure being >10 mmHg lower in her left arm than in her right arm, a bilateral carotid bruit, a weak left radial pulse and radio-radial delay without coolness in the upper extremities, and linear pulsatile tenderness in her left neck along the common carotid artery. No supraclavicular or infraclavicular bruit was noted. The erythrocyte sedimentation rate was elevated at 66 mm/hour. After obtaining the images from a contrast-enhanced computed tomography, she was diagnosed with TA. All her symptoms improved with prednisone therapy. Notably, neck pain and cough are both late-stage symptoms of TA, which are seen in 9.7% and 1.5% of patients, respectively. Although her unspecific symptoms could have been easily misdiagnosed, the recurring exacerbation of symptoms warranted careful attention to a focused physical examination. In conclusion, neck pain and cough are both uncommon presentations of TA, which may lead to physicians underdiagnosing it. It is important to recognize neck pain and cough as presenting complaints in patients with TA.

Medical-type peritoneal mesothelioma leading to death two months after onset of fever of unknown origin.

In malignant mesotheliomas, cases involving the peritoneum as the primary site are rare, accounting for approximately 10% of all mesothelioma cases. We report a case of medical-type peritoneal mesothelioma leading to death 2 months after the onset of fever of unknown origin, along with a review of the literature. A 76-year-old man presented with a fever of unknown origin over 4 weeks. Thoracoabdominal computed tomography (CT) scan showed increased mesenteric adipose tissue density. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) scan showed diffuse hyperaccumulation in the mesentery and hyperaccumulation in the intraperitoneal and parasternal lymph nodes. A thoracoscopic biopsy of the parasternal lymph nodes revealed metastatic peritoneal mesothelioma. The treatment plan was discussed with him and his family, and the best supportive care was provided. 2 months later, he died from multiple organ failure. Underlying malignant tumors cause 38% of mesenteric panniculitis cases. Symptoms accompanied by lymphadenopathy within the area of mesenteric panniculitis are highly suggestive of malignancy. Peritoneal mesothelioma can be classified as (1) classical, which is accompanied by abdominal pain, ascites, and abdominal masses; (2) surgical, which is accompanied by hernia incarceration and intestinal occlusion; and (3) medical, wherein systemic symptoms, such as fever and weight loss, are primarily observed. The medical-type peritoneal mesothelioma, wherein systemic symptoms are primarily observed, has a poorer prognosis than the other types. FDG-PET/CT is an effective diagnostic modality for peritoneal mesothelioma and typically shows diffuse hyperaccumulation along the peritoneal surface.