Gastrointestinal Basidiobolomycosis: A Case Series.

Gastrointestinal basidiobolomycosis (GIB) is a rare fungal infection caused by Basidiobolus ranarum, a saprophytic fungus that belongs to the class of Basidiobolomycetes. It mainly infects immunocompetent individuals and is mainly found in arid tropical and subtropical regions, including Southwestern America, Saudi Arabia, Africa, and Asia. Not surprisingly, a great number of human infections have been reported from these warm, humid climate regions that are felicitous for the growth of this fungus, especially from the southern region of Saudi Arabia and Arizona in the United States of America. GIB is easily misdiagnosed as malignancy, inflammatory bowel disease, diverticulitis, lymphoma, and chronic intestinal infections due to its rarity. In this case series, we summarize the clinical features, imaging, histopathological features, and treatment of patients diagnosed with GIB in our institution.

Basidiobolomycosis Mimicking Fistulizing Crohn's Disease: A Case Report From Saudi Arabia.

Gastrointestinal basidiobolomycosis (GIB) is a rare, emerging fungal infection caused by Basidiobolus ranarum, which requires a high index of clinical suspicion for early diagnosis and management. It is prevalent in hot and humid regions, and its clinical manifestations may mimic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), malignancy, and tuberculosis (TB). This often results in the disease being missed or incorrectly diagnosed. We present the case of a 58-year-old female patient from the southern region of Saudi Arabia who presented with persistent non-bloody diarrhea for four weeks and was found to have GIB. This condition is associated with significant morbidity and mortality if not diagnosed and treated in a timely manner. The optimal therapeutic strategy for managing this rare infection has not yet been established. Most patients described in the literature have received a combination of pharmaceutical and surgical therapy. Including GIB in the differential diagnosis of gastrointestinal disorders that do not fit the diagnosis may help with its early diagnosis and management.

Use heat with caution! Pleurobiliary fistula after hepatocellular carcinoma microwave ablation in lymphoma patient: A case study.

Thermal ablation by microwave ablation (MWA) or radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a frequently used technique for hepatic lesion treatment due to its low rate of complications. Surgery, transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), and yttrium-90 (Y-90) transarterial radioembolization (TARE) are other ways to treat hepatic lesions. Thoracobiliary fistula (TBF) is a rare side effect of thermal ablation. Other side effects include vascular injury, damage to the biliary system, and infection. We present the case of a 62-year-old male patient who has a history of lymphoma and was diagnosed with a hepaticellular carcinoma lesion on follow-up CT in segment VII, which appeared in close relation to the right diaphragm. The patient had been through several interventional procedures, including Y-90 therapy, TACE, and MWA with thermal impact, which resulted in a biloma forming and ramping up the progression of pleurobiliary fistula, which is confirmed by HIDA scan, this case highlights the significance of monitoring patients after thermal ablation, particularly in cases of large justa-diaphragmatic tumors, to detect any diaphragmatic or biliary tree injuries.

Post COVID-19 Chronic Parenchymal Lung Changes.

INTRODUCTION: Persistent parenchymal lung changes are an important long-term sequela of COVID-19. There are limited data on this COVID-19 infection sequela characteristics and trajectories. This study aims to evaluate persistent COVID-19-related parenchymal lung changes 10 weeks after acute viral pneumonia and to identify associated risk factors. METHODS: This is a retrospective case-control observational study involving 38 COVID-19 confirmed cases using nasopharyngeal swab reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) at King Abdullah Medical City (KAMC) Hospital, Makkah. Patients were recruited from the post-COVID-19 interstitial lung disease (ILD) clinic. Referral to this clinic was based on the pulmonology consultant's assessment of hospitalized patients suspected of developing COVID-19-related ILD changes during hospitalization. RESULTS: Thirty-eight patients with parenchymal lung changes were evaluated at the ILD clinic. Nineteen patients who had persistent parenchymal changes 10 weeks after the acute illness (group 1) were compared with 19 control patients who had accelerated clinical and/or radiological improvement (group 2). Group 1 was found to have the more severe clinical and radiological disease, with a higher peak value of inflammatory biomarkers. Two risk factors were identified, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) > 3.13 at admission increases the odds ratio (OR) of chronic parenchymal changes by 6.42 and 5.92 in the univariate and multivariate analyses, respectively. Invasive mechanical ventilation had a more profound effect with ORs of 13.09 and 44.5 in the univariate and multivariate analyses, respectively. CONCLUSION: Herein, we found that only receiving invasive mechanical ventilation and having NLR >3.13 at admission were strong risk factors for persistent parenchymal lung changes. Neither the clinical severity of the acute illness nor the radiological one is found to predict this outcome. None of the medications received during the acute illness were found to alter the risk for this post-COVID-19 infection sequelae.

Pneumocephalus resulting from chest infection complicated by pleural-subarachnoid fistula.

Pleural-subarachnoid fistula is a rare type of Cerebrospinal fluid fistula with less than 60 cases reported in the literature. Here we present a case of 55-year-old female patient, known case of acute myeloid leukemia on chemotherapy, who developed pleural-subarachnoid fistula due to invasive atypical apical lung fungal infection. All of the reported cases in the literature were secondary to trauma or post-surgery. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of pleural-subarachnoid fistula developed as sequela of fungal infection.

Mediastinal epithelioid hemangioendothelioma-Mimicker of mature teratoma.

We report a case of an adult man who underwent surgical resection of a presumed anterior mediastinal teratoma, which upon histopathologic assessment was diagnosed as an epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (EHE). EHE is a rare vascular tumor of variable, but usually low malignant potential. Its occurrence in mediastinum is estimated at 1 in a million. As EHE often contains macroscopic fat and bone, it can be indistinguishable on imaging from mediastinal mature teratoma. Therefore, EHE should be included in differential diagnosis of fat and bone-containing mediastinal masses.