Clinical Characteristics and Prognosis of Acute Pulmonary Embolism with Hemoptysis in Autoimmune Disease Patients.

Background: Hemoptysis is prevalent in acute pulmonary embolism (PE) and significantly influences clinical decision-making. Despite the increasing reports of PE in patients with autoimmune diseases, limited studies have investigated the association between acute PE with hemoptysis and autoimmune disease. Methods: The retrospective study aimed to investigate patients with autoimmune disease who presented with acute PE and hemoptysis at Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) between January 2012 and October 2020. A comparative analysis was conducted between patients with and without hemoptysis, as well as between those with autoimmune diseases and those without. Clinical characteristics, PE severity stratification, the amount of hemoptysis, initial anticoagulation management, and prognosis were analyzed descriptively. Results: The study analyzed 896 patients diagnosed with acute PE, of whom 105 (11.7%) presented with hemoptysis. Hemoptysis in PE patients was frequently associated with autoimmune diseases (39%, 41/105), a younger patient population (42.0 vs. 52.7 years old, P =0.002), and a higher prevalence of low-risk PE (53.7 vs. 28.1, P=0.008) compared with non-autoimmune disease patients. Multivariate logistic analysis showed PE patients with primary or metastatic lung cancer, chest pain, age < 48 years old, chronic heart failure, autoimmune disease, pulmonary infection and male were more likely to develop hemoptysis. Patients were grouped based on maximum daily sputum blood volume and PE risk stratification. Most patients (73.2%) received therapeutic-dose anticoagulation. Poor prognosis is observed in patients with moderate to massive hemoptysis and intermediate-high-risk or high-risk PE. Conclusions: Hemoptysis is a relatively common manifestation in patients with PE, and its presence during the diagnostic workup of acute PE necessitates careful analysis of underlying comorbidities. In cases where hemoptysis occurs in individuals with autoimmune diseases in the context of PE, proactive management strategies targeting the primary disease are crucial. Therapeutic decisions should consider both PE severity stratification and the volume of hemoptysis.

Clinical characteristics and mortality predictors among very old patients with pulmonary thromboembolism: a multicenter study report.

BACKGROUND: Clinical characteristics of patients with pulmonary thromboembolism have been described in previous studies. Although very old patients with pulmonary thromboembolism are a special group based on comorbidities and age, they do not receive special attention. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore the clinical characteristics and mortality predictors among very old patients with pulmonary thromboembolism in a relatively large population. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: The study included a total of 7438 patients from a national, multicenter, registry study, the China pUlmonary thromboembolism REgistry Study (CURES). Consecutive patients with acute pulmonary thromboembolism were enrolled and were divided into three groups. Comparisons were performed between these three groups in terms of clinical characteristics, comorbidities and in-hospital prognosis. Mortality predictors were analyzed in very old patients with pulmonary embolism. KEY RESULTS: In 7,438 patients with acute pulmonary thromboembolism, 609 patients aged equal to or greater than 80 years (male 354 (58.1%)). There were 2743 patients aged between 65 and 79 years (male 1313 (48%)) and 4095 patients aged younger than 65 years (male 2272 (55.5%)). Patients with advanced age had significantly more comorbidities and worse condition, however, some predisposing factors were more obvious in younger patients with pulmonary thromboembolism. PaO2 < 60 mmHg, eGFR < 60 mL/min/1.73m2, malignancy, anticoagulation as first therapy were mortality predictors for all-cause death in very old patients with pulmonary thromboembolism. The analysis found that younger patients were more likely to have chest pain, hemoptysis (the difference was statistically significant) and dyspnea triad. CONCLUSION: In very old population diagnosed with pulmonary thromboembolism, worse laboratory results, atypical symptoms and physical signs were common. Mortality was very high and comorbid conditions were their features compared to younger patients. PaO2 < 60 mmHg, eGFR < 60 mL/min/1.73m2 and malignancy were positive mortality predictors for all-cause death in very old patients with pulmonary thromboembolism while anticoagulation as first therapy was negative mortality predictors.

Federated-learning-based prognosis assessment model for acute pulmonary thromboembolism.

BACKGROUND: Acute pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) is a common cardiovascular disease and recognizing low prognosis risk patients with PTE accurately is significant for clinical treatment. This study evaluated the value of federated learning (FL) technology in PTE prognosis risk assessment while ensuring the security of clinical data. METHODS: A retrospective dataset consisted of PTE patients from 12 hospitals were collected, and 19 physical indicators of patients were included to train the FL-based prognosis assessment model to predict the 30-day death event. Firstly, multiple machine learning methods based on FL were compared to choose the superior model. And then performance of models trained on the independent (IID) and non-independent identical distributed(Non-IID) datasets was calculated and they were tested further on Real-world data. Besides, the optimal model was compared with pulmonary embolism severity index (PESI), simplified PESI (sPESI), Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH). RESULTS: The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of logistic regression(0.842) outperformed convolutional neural network (0.819) and multi layer perceptron (0.784). Under IID, AUC of model trained using FL(Fed) on the training, validation and test sets was 0.852 ± 0.002, 0.867 ± 0.012 and 0.829 ± 0.004. Under Real-world, AUC of Fed was 0.855 ± 0.005, 0.882 ± 0.003 and 0.835 ± 0.005. Under IID and Real-world, AUC of Fed surpassed centralization model(NonFed) (0.847 ± 0.001, 0.841 ± 0.001 and 0.811 ± 0.001). Under Non-IID, although AUC of Fed (0.846 ± 0.047) outperformed NonFed (0.841 ± 0.001) on validation set, it (0.821 ± 0.016 and 0.799 ± 0.031) slightly lagged behind NonFed (0.847 ± 0.001 and 0.811 ± 0.001) on the training and test sets. In practice, AUC of Fed (0.853, 0.884 and 0.842) outshone PESI (0.812, 0.789 and 0.791), sPESI (0.817, 0.770 and 0.786) and PUMCH(0.848, 0.814 and 0.832) on the training, validation and test sets. Additionally, Fed (0.842) exhibited higher AUC values across test sets compared to those trained directly on the clients (0.758, 0.801, 0.783, 0.741, 0.788). CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the FL based machine learning model demonstrated commendable efficacy on PTE prognostic risk prediction, rendering it well-suited for deployment in hospitals.

LMWHs dosage and outcomes in acute pulmonary embolism with renal insufficiency, an analysis from a large real-world study.

BACKGROUND: Renal function is associated with prognoses for acute pulmonary embolism (PE). OBJECTIVE: To investigate the application of anticoagulants and dosage of LMWH among patients with renal insufficiency (RI), and the association between LWMH dosage and the patients' in-hospital outcomes. METHODS: Adult patients diagnosed with non-high risk acute PE from 2009 to 2015, with available data of creatinine clearance (CCr) were enrolled from a multicenter registry in China. Renal insufficiency (RI) was defined as CCr < 60 ml/min. LMWH dosage was converted into IU/kg daily dose and presented as adjusted dose (≤ 100 IU/kg/day) and conventional dose (> 100 IU/kg/day). All-cause death, PE-related death and bleeding events during hospitalization were analyzed as endpoints. RESULTS: Among the enrolled 5870 patients, RI occurred in 1311 (22.3%). 30 ≤ CCr < 60 ml/min was associated with higher rate of bleeding events and CCr < 30 ml/min was associated with all-cause death, PE-related death and major bleeding. Adjusted-dose LMWH was applied in 26.1% of patients with 30 ≤ CCr < 60 ml/min and in 26.2% of CCr < 30 ml/min patients. Among patients with RI, in-hospital bleeding occurred more frequently in those who were administered conventional dose of LMWH, compared with adjusted dose (9.2% vs 5.0%, p = 0.047). Adjusted dose of LMWH presented as protective factor for in-hospital bleeding (OR 0.62, 95%CI 0.27-1.00, p = 0.0496) and the risk of bleeding increased as length of hospital stay prolonged (OR 1.03, 95%CI 1.01-1.06, p = 0.0014). CONCLUSIONS: The proportion of adjusted usage of LMWH was low. The application of adjusted-dose LMWH was associated with lower risk of in-hospital bleeding for RI patients, in real-world setting of PE treatment. Anticoagulation strategy for RI patients should be paid more attention and requires evidence of high quality. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The CURES was registered in ClinicalTrias.gov, identifier number: NCT02943343 .

Association between exposure to air pollutants and the risk of hospitalization for pulmonary embolism in Beijing, China: A case-crossover design using a distributed lag nonlinear model.

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a life-threatening condition. Few studies have evaluated the relationship between air pollution and PE, and these results have been inconsistent. Therefore, our study aimed to investigate the association between air pollutant exposure and the risk of hospitalization due to PE. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Daily PE admissions, meteorological data, and ambient pollution data from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2018, were collected in Beijing. A quasi-Poisson regression model combined with time-stratified case-crossover design and a distributed lag nonlinear model was used to determine the effect of air pollutant exposure on PE admission. To examine the stability of air pollutants' effects, multi-pollutant analyses were performed. Stratified analyses by age and sex were further conducted. RESULTS: There were 5060 PE admissions during the study period, with an estimated incidence of 6.5 per 100,000. PM2.5, PM10, SO2, O3 and CO exposures were significantly associated with elevated risk of PE hospitalization. The highest cumulative risks were observed at a lag of 0-28 days for PM2.5 (relative risk [RR] = 1.056, 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 1.015-1.098), PM10 (RR = 1.042, 95%CI: 1.010-1.075), and CO (RR = 1.466, 95%CI: 1.127-1.906), at a lag of 0-27 days for SO2 (RR = 1.674, 95%CI: 1.200-2.335), and at a lag of 0-4 days for O3 (RR = 1.019, 95%CI: 1.001-1.038). All associations mentioned above except O3 remained significant in multi-pollutant models. Stratified analyses showed that women and those aged ≥65 years people were more sensitive to PM10 and CO exposure than men and those aged <65 years. The effect of PM2.5 exposure was statistically significant in all subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to PM2.5, PM10, SO2, and CO showed a positive association with PE hospitalization. High-risk PE groups should take special precautions on days with poor air quality.

Prognosis assessment model based on low serum calcium in patients with acute pulmonary thromboembolism.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The pulmonary embolism severity index (PESI) and simplified PESI (sPESI) are recommended to recognize patients with acute pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) with low prognosis risk, which is of great significance for treatment. This study aims to verify the influence of hypocalcaemia on the prognosis of patients with PTE and to establish a new prognosis assessment model. METHODS: This is an observational, multicentre study enrolling patients with PTE from February 2010 to June 2020 across 12 Chinese hospitals. Variables in PESI, serum calcium levels and patient survival status as of 5 July 2020 were collected. The area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic curve, sensitivity, specificity and Youden index were used to evaluate model performance. RESULTS: In the cohort of 4196 patients with PTE, independent associations existed between hypocalcaemia and mid- and long-term mortalities (p <0.05). By including hypocalcaemia, the new 30-day death risk prediction rule, Peking Union Medical College Hospital rule (PUMCH rule), showed significantly higher specificity (0.622 [0.582, 0.661]; p <0.001) than the PESI (0.514 [0.473, 0.554]) and sPESI (0.484 [0.444, 0.525]) and similar sensitivity (0.963 [0.810, 0.999]; p = 0.161) with PESI (0.889 [0.708, 0.976]) and sPESI (0.963 [0.810, 0.999]) in the internal validation cohort. Well-performing predictive validity was also verified on a constructed external validation cohort. CONCLUSION: Hypocalcaemia is independently associated with mid- and long-term PTE mortalities. The PUMCH rule showed significantly higher specificity than the PESI and sPESI and similar sensitivity, which may be used as a prognostic assessment tool for patients with acute PTE.

Developing LC-MS/MS methods to quantify rivaroxabanin human plasma and urine: Application to therapeutic drug monitoring.

Rivaroxaban is an oral anticoagulant directly inhibiting the activity of Factor Xa, which is widely used for the prophylaxis of thromboembolic disorders. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is required during therapy for individual dosage adjustment. This study aimed at developing a liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry method that was suitable for rivaroxaban TDM in human plasma and urine and exploring the feasibility of urine drug monitoring in medical care. A 3 min run time of the LC-MS/MS methods was established by employing an Acquity UPLC BEH C18 (2.1 × 50 mm, 1.7 µm) column using gradient elution of 10 mmol/L ammonium acetate containing 0.1% formic acid-0.1% formic acid acetonitrile as a mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.4 ml/min with calibration ranges of 0.5-400 and 10-10,000 ng/ml for human plasma and urine, respectively. Rivaroxaban was detected on a triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer with an electrospray ionization source in positive ion mode. The methods showed good linearity within the calibration range. The precision and accuracy, matrix effect, extraction recovery and stability in both human matrices were all validated and meet the international guideline requirements. These validated methods were successfully applied to support the TDM of an aged patient receiving rivaroxaban for therapy.

Characteristics and Prognosis of Microscopic Polyangiitis Patients with Diffuse Alveolar Hemorrhage and Interstitial Lung Disease.

Objective To evaluate the clinical characteristics and prognostic predictors of patients with diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH) and/or interstitial lung disease (ILD) secondary to microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) in a Chinese general hospital. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of MPA patients admitted to internal medicine departments between the year 2002 and 2012. The patients were divided into the ILD, DAH, DAH combined with ILD (DAHILD), and no pulmonary involvement (NPI) groups according to pulmonary involvement patterns. The clinical characteristics at diagnosis were analyzed. The risk factors associated with short-term death and long-term death were identified with Logistic regression and Cox analysis.Results Of 193 newly diagnosed MPA patients, 181 patients were enrolled in the research, of which 19 had DAH alone, 96 had ILD alone, 18 had DAH and DAH concurrently, and 48 had NPI. The median of serum creatine level in the DAH group was 449 µmol/L, significantly higher than that in the ILD group (123 µmol/L, Nemenyi = -35.215, P = 0.045) and DAHILD group (359 µmol/L, Nemenyi = -43.609, P = 0.007). The median follow-up time was 67 (range: 1-199) months. Patients in the ILD group were older than those in the DAH group (median: 69 years vs. 57 years, Nemenyi = 43.853, P= 0.005). The patients with both DAH and ILD had combined features of the two subtypes, and the highest mortality (72.2% at the end of follow-up). The elevated white blood cell count was a risk factor for short-term death (OR = 1.103, 95%CI: 1.008-1.207, P = 0.032 for one month; OR = 1.103, 95%CI: 1.026-1.186, P = 0.008 for one year). Old age (HR= 1.044, 95%CI: 1.023-1.066, P < 0.001), cardiovascular system involvement (HR = 2.093, 95%CI: 1.195-3.665, P = 0.010), poor renal function (HR = 1.001, 95%CI: 1.000-1.002, P = 0.032) were risk factors for long-term death. Pulmonary infections (38/54) were the leading causes of death, especially for the patients with ILD. Besides, 49 patients suffered from pulmonary infections in the first year after diagnosis. Conclusions MPA patients who presented with different pulmonary involvement patterns have completely different clinical features. These subtypes probably have different pathogenesis and should be studied separately.

[Bloody sputum with cavitary lesions on chest computed tomography scans: a case report].

This article reported a case of a middle-aged man with a 1-year history of intermittent cough and production of bloody sputum. Serum autoantibodies of the patient were negative. Early in the course of the disease, chest computed tomography (CT) scans showed a nodule in the right middle lung lobe with cavity formation. Surgical resection of the lesion was done with a postoperative pathological diagnosis of inflammatory pseudotumor. No treatment was given and his symptoms recurred with new patches in the right upper lobe. Pathology consultation from another hospital found vasculitis under the microscope and a diagnosis of granulomatosis with polyangiitis was made. His symptoms still worsened after glucocorticoid therapy. Final pathological consultation from Peking Union Medical College Hospital reached a diagnosis of pulmonary actinomycosis. Pulmonary lesions were absorbed after anti-infection treatment. The diagnosis and treatment of this patient provided more data for understanding of the relationship between infection and vasculitis among clinicians and pathologists.

Trends in risk stratification, in-hospital management and mortality of patients with acute pulmonary embolism: an analysis from the China pUlmonary thromboembolism REgistry Study (CURES).

Similar trends of management and in-hospital mortality of acute pulmonary embolism (PE) have been reported in European and American populations. However, these tendencies are not clear in Asian countries. We retrospectively analysed the trends of risk stratification, management and in-hospital mortality for patients with acute PE through a multicentre registry in China (CURES).Adult patients with acute symptomatic PE were included between 2009 and 2015. Trends in disease diagnosis, treatment and death in hospital were fully analysed. Risk stratification was retrospectively classified by haemodynamic status and the simplified Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index (sPESI) score according to the 2014 European Society of Cardiology/European Respiratory Society guidelines.Among 7438 patients, the proportions with high (haemodynamic instability), intermediate (sPESI≥1) and low (sPESI=0) risk were 4.2%, 67.1% and 28.7%, respectively. Computed tomographic pulmonary angiography was the most widely used diagnostic approach (87.6%) and anticoagulation was the most frequently adopted initial therapy (83.7%). Between 2009 and 2015, a significant decline was observed for all-cause mortality (from 3.1% to 1.3%, adjusted pfor trend=0.0003), with a concomitant reduction in the use of initial systemic thrombolysis (from 14.8% to 5.0%, pfor trend<0.0001). The common predictors for all-cause mortality shared by haemodynamically stable and unstable patients were co-existing cancer, older age and impaired renal function.The considerable reduction of mortality over the years was accompanied by changes in initial treatment. These findings highlight the importance of risk stratification-guided management throughout the nation.

Clinical features and long-term outcomes of interstitial lung disease with anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody.

BACKGROUND: Patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) are occasionally positive for anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCAs). Differences between ILDs secondary to microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) and isolated ANCA-positive idiopathic interstitial pneumonia (IIP) remain unclear. The aim of this study was to explore the differences in clinical features and outcomes between MPA-associated ILDs and isolated ANCA-positive IIPs. METHODS: We reviewed 1338 ILDs patients with available ANCA results and retrospectively analysed 80 patients who were ANCA-positive. MPA-associated ILDs (MPA-ILDs group) and isolated ANCA-positive IIPs (ANCA-IIPs group) were compared. RESULTS: Among 80 patients with ANCA-positive ILDs, 31 (38.75%) had MPA-ILDs, and 49 (61.25%) had isolated ANCA-positive IIPs. Compared with ANCA-IIPs group, patients in MPA-ILDs group had a higher proportion of fever (p = 0.006) and higher neutrophil count (p = 0.011), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) (p < 0.001) and C-reactive protein (CRP) (p = 0.005). Multivariable analysis showed that ESR level was an independent risk factor for mortality in all 80 ANCA-positive ILDs patients (HR 1.028, p = 0.001). Survival in MPA-ILDs group was lower than that in ANCA-IIPs group, and further stratified analysis revealed that ANCA-IIPs patients with elevated ESR or CRP had a worse prognosis than those with normal inflammation markers, with 5-year cumulative survival rates of 60.00%, 86.90% and 100.00% in MPA-ILDs and ANCA-IIPs with and without elevated inflammation markers, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with ANCA-positive ILDs, the prognoses of ANCA-IIPs with normal inflammation markers, ANCA-IIPs with elevated inflammation markers and MPA-ILDs were sequentially poorer. Therefore, stratified treatment should be considered in the management of ILDs patients positive for ANCAs.

Association between serum calcium and prognosis in patients with acute pulmonary embolism and the optimization of pulmonary embolism severity index.

INTRODUCTION: Calcium is an important coagulation factor and hypocalcemia is related to progression and poor prognosis of many cardiopulmonary diseases. However, influence of hypocalcemia on pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) prognosis has never been reported. This study aimed to explore its prognostic value and optimize the pulmonary embolism severity index (PESI), the widely used prognosis assessment model, based on the value. METHODS: PTE patients' variables in PESI and other related clinical characteristics including admission serum calcium were collected. Associations between these variables and PTE mortality were assessed by logistic regression and cox analysis. Variables significantly associated with 30-day PTE mortality were included to develop a new prognosis prediction rule and then its validity was compared with PESI and simplified PESI (sPESI). RESULTS: 496 PTE patients were included and 49.48% patients had hypocalcemia (serum calcium ≤ 2.13 mmol/L) in admission, showing higher 7-day (P = 0.021), 14-day (P = 0.002), 30-day (13.03% vs 4.98%, P = 0.002) mortalities than patients without hypocalcemia. Adjusting for variables in PESI, hypocalcemia was further revealed to be an independent predictor of 30-day mortality (P = 0.014). The optimal prediction rule contained hypocalcemia and 5 variables in PESI and sPESI, showing higher predictive validity [sensitivity (Sen): 0.930, specificity (Spec): 0.390, area under curve (AUC): 0.800] than PESI (Sen: 0.814, Spec: 0.367, AUC: 0.716) and sPESI (Sen: 0.907, Spec: 0.216, AUC: 0.703). CONCLUSIONS: Hypocalcemia is an independent predictor of the mortality following acute PTE. Based on hypocalcemia, the optimal prediction rule showed higher validity than PESI and sPESI.

Pituitary involvement in patients with granulomatosis with polyangiitis: case series and literature review.

GPA with pituitary involvement is a rare condition which is prone to be misdiagnosed. The aim of this study was to summarize clinical features of pituitary involvement in GPA and facilitate early diagnosis. Twelve GPA patients were retrospectively analyzed at a single hospital between 2000 and 2017. A literature review was conducted to compare previous findings with our clinical results. The incidence rate of pituitary involvement in GPA was 3.9% (12/304) without sexual predilection. Other impairments included ear, nose and throat (n = 12), oculi (n = 10), lung (n = 6), meninges (n = 4), kidney (n = 3), and skin (n = 2). Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) were positive in all patients with lung or kidney involvement (n = 6/6), while ANCA were negative in almost all patients without lung or kidney involvement (n = 5/6). Endocrine abnormalities included central diabetes insipidus (CDI, n = 11/12) hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (n = 6/11), adrenocorticotropic hormone deficiency (n = 4/7), thyroid-stimulating hormone deficiency (n = 5/11), and growth hormone deficiency (n = 3/9). Enlarged pituitary gland (n = 6), absence of posterior hyperintense signal on T1-weighed images (n = 11) and hypertrophic cranial pachymeningitis (n = 4) were common radiological manifestations. After treatment, nine patients experienced remission but one died. Pituitary images of 3/4 patients showed size of pituitary lesions decreased. CDI was not alleviated and hypopituitarism remained in two patients. Pituitary involvement in GPA can occur at any time throughout the course of disease, including at the initial presentation. GPA could not be excluded based on negative-ANCA in patients with pituitary abnormality alone. CDI and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism are dominant endocrine abnormalities. Systemic diseases may alleviate and pituitary images may improve after treatment, though the recovery of pituitary function is rare.

Pulmonary artery involvement in Takayasu's arteritis: diagnosis before pulmonary hypertension.

BACKGROUND: This study was performed to analyze the clinical manifestations, imaging features, and prognosis of Takayasu's arteritis (TA) with pulmonary arteritis (PA). METHODS: In total, 51 of 815 patients with TA were diagnosed with PA at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital from 1986 to 2015. The patients' medical records and radiographic data were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: The patients comprised 39 women and 12 men with a median age of 33 years (range, 14-67 years). The most common symptoms were dyspnea (70.6%), cough (66.7%), hemoptysis (47.1%), and chest pain (45.1%). Computed tomography (CT) pulmonary angiography, pulmonary arteriography, and pulmonary perfusion imaging showed pulmonary artery stenosis or occlusion in 44 patients. A total of 82.4% of patients had lung parenchyma lesions on CT scans, indirectly indicating pulmonary artery involvement. Additionally, 58.8% of patients had pulmonary hypertension (PH) by echocardiography. Compared with the PH group, the non-PH group was characterized by a shorter disease duration; more symptoms such as fever, chest pain, and hemoptysis; an increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate; and a higher incidence of subpleural wedge-shaped shadows on chest CT (P < 0.05). The median follow-up period was 48 months (range, 1-212 months), and all three deaths occurred in the PH group. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical manifestations of TA with PA are nonspecific. PH often complicates PA and is associated with a poor prognosis. Early clinical manifestations such as repeated fever, chest pain, hemoptysis, and recurrence of subpleural wedge-shaped shadows on chest CT should arouse suspicion of PA in patients with TA and prompt further investigations. This may allow PA to be diagnosed before the occurrence of PH. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials, NCT03189602. Date of registration: June 16, 2017. Retrospectively registered.

IgG4-related disease can present as recurrent spontaneous hemothorax: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Immunoglobulin G4-related disease (IgG4-RD) encompasses a group of immune-mediated disorders that are gaining increasing recognition. Pulmonary presentations are common, with four types of patterns been described on radiography, including solid nodular, bronchovascular, ground glass opacities, and alveolar interstitial. Pleural thickening and pleural effusion have also been reported. However, there have been no reports of IgG4-RD that presents as spontaneous hemothorax. CASE PRESENTATION: A 61-year-old Chinese woman experienced recurrent right-sided chest pain and transient syncope. A significant decrease in her hemoglobin level and thick bloody pleural fluid demonstrated spontaneous hemothorax. The elevated serum IgG4 and histopathological analysis of the right pleura and intercostal lymph node specimens all supported the diagnosis of IgG4-RD in this patient. Further diagnostic evaluation did not reveal other causes for spontaneous hemothorax. She received steroids and no recurrent bleeding event occurred during a follow-up period of more than 1 year. CONCLUSION: Recurrent spontaneous hemothorax can be a rare manifestation of IgG4-RD, with pleural involvement as the most probable mechanism.

Ontology-based venous thromboembolism risk assessment model developing from medical records.

BACKGROUND: Padua linear model is widely used for the risk assessment of venous thromboembolism (VTE), a common but preventable complication for inpatients. However, genetic and environmental differences between Western and Chinese population limit the validity of Padua model in Chinese patients. Medical records which contain rich information about disease progression, are useful in mining new risk factors related to Chinese VTE patients. Furthermore, machine learning (ML) methods provide new opportunities to build precise risk prediction model by automatic selection of risk factors based on original medical records. METHODS: Medical records of 3,106 inpatients including 224 VTE patients were collected and various types of ontologies were integrated to parse unstructured text. A workflow of ontology-based VTE risk prediction model, that combines natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) technologies, was proposed. Firstly ontology terms were extracted from medical records, then sorted according to their calculated weights. Next importance of each term in the unit of section was evaluated and finally a ML model was built based on a subset of terms. Four ML methods were tested, and the best model was decided by comparing area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC). RESULTS: Medical records were first split into different sections and subsequently, terms from each section were sorted by their weights calculated by multiple types of information. Greedy selection algorithm was used to obtain significant sections and terms. Top terms in each section were selected to construct patients' distributed representations by word embedding technique. Using top 300 terms of two important sections, namely the 'Progress Note' section and 'Admitting Diagnosis' section, the model showed relatively better predictive performance. Then ML model which utilizes a subset of terms from two sections, about 110 terms, achieved the best AUC score, of 0.973 ± 0.006, which was significantly better compared to the Padua's performance of 0.791 ± 0.022. Terms found by the model showed their potential to help clinicians explore new risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, a new VTE risk assessment model based on ontologies extraction from raw medical records is developed and its performance is verified on real clinical dataset. Results of selected terms can help clinicians to discover meaningful risk factors.

Organizing pneumonia components in non-specific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP): a clinicopathological study of 33 NSIP cases.

AIMS: To review the clinical, radiological and pathological features of non-specific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP), mainly to characterize organizing pneumonia (OP) components in NSIP. METHODS AND RESULTS: Lung biopsy samples from 33 NSIP patients were collected over a period of 10 years. Microscopic analysis revealed that 13 cases showed a cellular pattern and 20 showed a mixed/fibrosing pattern. OP components were detected in 26 cases (13 with a cellular pattern; 13 with a mixed/fibrosing pattern), and were found to constitute a median proportion of 9% (range, 1-40%) of the affected tissues. In nine cellular and four mixed/fibrosing NSIP cases, the OP components accounted for ≥10%. A proportion of ≥20% was found in only five cellular pattern cases. Twenty-nine patients were followed up: 17 showed improvements, five were stabilized, and seven showed progression. CONCLUSIONS: OP components are common basic lesions in NSIP cases, although their proportion in cellular and mixed/fibrosing pattern cases varies substantially between patients. OP components do not impact on prognosis, even when they constitute ≥20% of the affected tissue. Thus, a high level of OP components does not exclude a diagnosis of NSIP in cases that otherwise show pathological and radiological findings characteristic of NSIP.